QotW #74: Worst book you read in 2023?

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

One of the other mods already started a topic thread about the best books you read this year, but what about the worst? Please share the book(s) you read this year that didn’t measure up (SF/F/any genre)—the ones that would be candidates for the worst book you read this year.

[Shel, Moderator]

Hah, sorry I stole your thunder! :)

I rated two books 2 stars in the last year (I never have one star ratings, because if I'm disliking a book that much I just don't finish it). A 2 star rating to me means that I got sucked in to the point that I wanted to know what happened next so I finished it, but upon finishing didn't think it was especially good.

Neither of my worst reads were SF/F.
The first is Advika and the Hollywood Wives, which I heard discussed on a podcast and it sounded mildly interesting. But the situation was improbable, Advika was an unlikeable protagonist, and the ending was completely anticlimactic. It wanted to be The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (which was EXCELLENT, one of my best of the year) and failed.

The second was Fortune by Ellen Won Steil. It was a free kindle first download. This was one where I just could NOT suspend disbelief at the ridiculousness of the situation. I like a good thriller every once in a while, but I was meh on this one.

[Random]

I only had 1 book I would call bad. That was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Won't get into details here, I've expressed my opinions before and even wrote a review if anyone is curious.

I am thankful that I tend to enjoy the vast percentage of books I read on one level or another.

[Dawn]

I have a few on my worst books of the year list, I usually do as I often try books based on recommendations or from lists that I wouldn't normally pick, just to keep me from getting stuck in a reading rut:

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe  was not really about the Irish and it was more supposition than history.

Really Good, Actually was more annoying than disappointing. Billed as hilarious, I just found the main character pathetic.

Wait Softly Brother had another pathetic main character. There was a bit of a mystery that was supposed to explain her, but it did not work for me.

He Who Drowned the World has the same kind of theme. The main character just annoyed me so much I couldn't get past it. Which is too bad, this one had very interesting premise.

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution was too heavy on the Jurassic evolution descriptions.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I read 2 books in 2023 that I rated as 5 or lower on my 10 point scale. The first was Flyer by Gail Kimberly, a simple SF fable, quite predictable, and a fast read. I read it for a challenge and needed a book published in the 1970s. The second was A Survivor's Lens: A Metastatic Breast Cancer Survivor’s Focus on Faith and God’s Word by Sheila Marie Johnson. Ms. Johnson is an amazing advocate for women with metastatic breast cancer and for Black women especially. I am inspired by her journey and proud to know her. However, this book is less about those aspects of her life and more about her faith. She is obviously sincere but it does come off as preachy. For women facing cancer who are atheist, not particularly religious, or of a different faith tradition, this book would not be helpful. I applaud the author for following the path that is right for her, but I see a limited audience for her book.