The Worst Books of 2024

[@the_almightyone]

The Lidl jumper is such a vibe, and "two squabbling children in front of a green screen" is such a funny image

[@eha440]

Writing a novel and being a woman =/= telling a feminist story or writing a feminist character. But nowadays this seems too hard to understand for most people, hence Lady Macbeth

[@Rxiepndhst]

Yup best they can do is identity politics, no further analysis or substantive engagement.

[@onemouthymerc]

OMG yes! I'm so sick of the virgin trope, which is extremely patriarchal and still perpetuates this industry far more than it should. I immediately DNF a book if she's a shy virgin with no regrets. I'll have to look into Lady Macbeth just to see what people are talking about.

[@sylviel5359]

Oscar Wilde's evil twin 😄 you've brightened my day, thank you 💕

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Haha thank you so much!

[@danielaweberdani]

hoping you still have books to insult you in 2025, your rant videos are brilliant! 💡

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Thank you so much, I love doing it 🥹

[@susan_brehm_art]

I really hate the romantasy genre, but will reconsider if you find some that you love. Faebound is on my list for January. 😊

[@onemouthymerc]

What do you dislike about the genre? I was very much into YA fantasy that sometimes had a relationship storyline as a kid and have finally found a similar niche of stories I love in romantasy.

[@susan_brehm_art]

@ the romantasies that I've tried have had a lot of smut which I don't care to read, and often border on rape which I really dispise. Also there is always (at least in the books I've read) a lot of what I consider gratuitous violence. I can't handle it. To be fair, I don't care for romance novels either. They just feel inane to me, the same scene over and over. But my willingness to try Faebound means I haven't given up completely. 😊

[@onemouthymerc]

@@susan_brehm_art That's understandable. I don't mind smut, but it definitely doesn't make up for a terrible story if that's the situation I find myself in. I too pretty much gave up on the romance genre because I was so sick of shy virgin MCs who wouldn't know a backbone or a personality if it smacked them in the face. I also absolutely detest realistic fiction. No idea why. A story about a woman set in today's world in rural Virginia who meets a dark and brooding man in her town? No thank you. Make him a vampire? Yes please! Idk what it is lol. Case in point - I just finished My Roommate is a Vampire and it's set in Chicago, which is close to where I grew up. It was a surprisingly enjoyable read. One smut scene and only a little mention of blood for obvious reasons. It was overall very sweet and low stakes. I'm sure you'll find books you like if you keep digging! It may just take a while since writing and publishing is so much easier nowadays.😆

[@katesherrod3498]

Best retelling of Macbeth = Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter, which not only does right by Lady M but even gives us Lady Godiva being something besides nekkid.

[@carlacannizzaro1643]

The rants are quickly becoming my fave episodes on this channel. Keep up the good work & Happy Bitchmas to one and all 🙂

[@kusumitasonwani7749]

Love your rants. Hoping to get your review for 'The Serpent and the Wings of Night', I recently started reading it and it's enjoyable enough.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

It’s very high on my TBR! I’ll be doing a video in Jan for sure :)

[@indiancarateume9980]

I'm waiting for his review too! I bought it but didn't start reading it yet .

[@robirb_]

As a fellow adoptee of Scotland I'm really curious to know if you've read other stuff by Ava Reid because I just finished reading A Study In Drowning and I wish I didn't lmao. Granted it's set in a secondary fantasy world but one of the two countries involved is set in the north, its people are stereotyped (but never disproven) to be colonizing brutes, harsh and cold and working in mines and the pretty dainty Southern protagonist hates them with a passion. If that were not enough the audiobook narrator does a pretty decent Scottish accent for the one character from that country so. Yeah. What's with the anti-Scottish sentiment ms. Reid

[@heatherbocks]

Oof I was so disappointed when I read that book. Don’t think I’ll ever touch another Ava Reid

[@robinpenn7167]

For the Quicksilver book, so many people have said the exact same thing and... That HAS to have been either a publisher's demand or a desperate cash grab, right? ...

[@badfaith4u]

I tried reading The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid, but I had to put it down. I didn't like it, so I am now avoiding this author.

[@indiancarateume9980]

Thank you so much! You just saved my money from buying when the moon hatched . I really enjoy good fantasy reading but i cant read something empty and shallow just because it has smut . Your review always helped me , saved me. Amazing job as always.

[@bobkeane7966]

I haven't read these but you sound brutally honest in your evaluation. Well Done

[@readingwarlock]

1:38 “Well, it turns out, what I could’ve asked for was a good fucking book.” Felt that! Also me to the books that pissed me off this year 🥲

[@Rxiepndhst]

This made me curious so I looked at the sample of When the Moon Hatched on Libby -- LMAO the secondhand embarrassment is too much. Who edited this? My sixth grade writing teacher would have torn this apart 😭 I got very little information about the plot or the world, and too much information about the author's ego which bears an inverse relationship to her skill. "Rayne fell upon the ground in a billion yearning teardrops of unrequited love, puddling in Bulder's dips, filling his gorges with her gushing affections. Upon the shaded side, she descended in a patter of heavy flakes, dusting the sharp mountain ranges in a frosty hug." She really thought she ate 😭😭😭Was the snowfall heavy, dusty, or frosty??? Those are all different kinds of snow 🤔

[@indiancarateume9980]

Waiting for your review on good fantasy/romantacy books.

[@Nixx0912]

Thanks for warning about "Lady Macbeth", I might have been tempted to try to read it and would probably get very annoyed and possibly angry if it wasn't for your first video about it.

[@margeriteb]

I've watched the video twice now, and somehow I still feel like reading a book or two from that list just to see if it's really that bad.

[@max-reads]

I also DNFed A Dark and Drowning Tide (at 25%). It made me apprehensive to read Saft’s other books. I have Lady Macbeth on my physical tbr because I’ve loved Reid’s previous novels. I’m scared now /hj I sampled a chapter of When the Moon Hatched and hated the writing. Definitely won’t be continuing

[@angelaholmes8888]

Here's my picks Same time next summer by annabel Monaghan Memnoch the devil by Anne rice book 5 in the vampire chronicles this book had too much religion and a pale shade from the previous books It happened one summer by tessa bailey Some desperate glory by Emily tesh Flying solo by linda Holmes Steelstriker by marie lu this second book was a big letdown from the previous book Sex lies and sensibility by nikki Payne it's a modern take on sense and sensibility

[@heatherbocks]

I definitely didn’t HATE Some Desperate Glory, but I was very disappointed with it too

[@PetiteCauchemar]

My worst of the year (not all came out this year, but i read them for the first time): Also a dark and drowning tide, I wanted to love it but it was so disappointing 1983 by Tom Cox (feel bad because he's a small author but it was AWFUL) Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux (sorry, Louis Theroux's brother 😭)

[@angelaholmes8888]

@@PetiteCauchemar totally understand about practical magic

[@PetiteCauchemar]

@angelaholmes8888 I was hoping for fun witchy sisterhood and instead got lots of internalized misogyny and toxic relationships 😭

[@1book1review]

Let's hope next year your romantasy choices will be better :D

[@kiczcock]

My favorite list is here!

[@lock67ca]

I guess it's nothing new. Same thing happened when Twilight and Hunger Games came out. Just got a bunch of blatant copycats riding that cash cow until it played itself out. Hell, Fifty Shades was nothing more than a rewrite of a terrible Twilight fanfic and made its writer a multimillionaire.

[@Ms.HGL.]

My tbr just got lighter.. 🚮

[@heatherbocks]

An Academy for Liars is one of the worst books of the year for me. It was just a sloppy mess. A Dark and Drowning Tide is on my TBR and while I’m pretty sure I won’t like it after hearing your thoughts, I kind of still want to try it because your review made me laugh so much. Two squabbling children standing in front of a green screen? 😂

[@PetiteCauchemar]

Also I'm super looking forward to your romantasy journey! I really want to find more good (especially queer) romantasies

[@bentheoverlord]

Lady Macbeth is genuinely one of the worst books I've ever read, and that comes from someone who really likes some of Reids other work. ALso the anti scottish rhetoric was horrific, I was genuinely shocked (also glad you are loving living in Scotland). I really wanna try Allison Saft's work but every book Ive seen from them has a review that makes me go "oh no, Im really not gonna like this"

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

Haven’t read any of them but will take your word for how bad they are ⚛❤

[@stargazerbird]

I see a Willow rant I click fast.

[@nbarnha2]

Did you actually read them?

[@WillowTalksBooks]

No, I actually read The Count of Monte Cristo eighteen times, bought four random hardcovers for £20 apiece, and set them on fire after filming this video 🙄

[@nbarnha2]

@ for someone with a proven history of reviewing books you don’t read, you certainly are upset.

[@danieljette8007]

Stop reading Fantasy. There was a time when this genre was very literary. Now it's a big industrial multiple books series complex.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

I actually don’t need to do that because you’re wrong and I don’t love being told what to do by strangers.

[@danieljette8007]

@WillowTalksBooks In fact you're right, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that that way.