The Worst 5 Books I Read In 2020!

Hello, fellow readers and writers! I hope all of you are well.

Back in August, I asked if there were any specific posts you wanted me to write, in regards to my writing and reading life. If you follow me on Twitter, this Tweet, and the poll attached to it, will be familiar to you:

Hey, #WritingCommunity and #ReadingCommunity: Are there any types of blog posts you’d like to hear my perspective about the #writinglife and #readinglife?

— Mystical Authoress (@MysticalAuthor) August 9, 2020

One of the options I put on that poll was listing the Top 5-10 books that I read. Given that I already wrote a Top 5 Books-related post for this year, I decided I should turn this around and do the opposite: write about the Worst 5 Books I read in 2020!

These are all books I read, reviews, and likely abhorred very much (and warning: There will potentially be spoilers for each of the books listed, though I did my best to minimize it). Also please note: You can click on the links in the book titles to read my full book reviews! Without further ado, here are the Worst 5 Books I Read In 2020:

5. “The Voynich Hotel, Volume 1” by Douman Seiman

First: I want to preface this by saying that this book was the best of the worst. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. There were some really good concepts/ideas presented, and the main two characters were quite entertaining. However, the plotline felt disjointed at times. There were also too many characters to keep track of for an introductory volume in the series, as many felt underdeveloped. I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars. I assume, if I read further in the series, that it might get better from there, but as is it feels a bit…odd, for lack of better words.

4. “Crime And Poetry” by Amanda Flower

I rated this murder mystery book 2 out of 5 stars for two reasons: The incredibly slow pacing of the plot, and the underdeveloped characters. Unfortunately, this lack of development also applies to the main heroine, who doesn’t have much of a change at all. I actually ended up rooting for the police officer trying to thwart her efforts as consequence of this, mainly because she wasn’t being cooperative in the first place with the whole investigation.

3. “Don’t Cosplay With My Heart” by Cecil Castellucci

I highly disliked this book for many reasons. From a lack of worldbuilding and horrendous romantic development to a whiny main heroine who wasn’t much better than the people who treated her badly and had little to no development, I rated this book 1.5 out of 5 stars. To any cosplayers reading this post, do not read this book. If you do, you will be disappointed.

2. “The Wicked King” by Holly Black

I already had mixed feelings about the prequel to this book, but “The Wicked King” made things even worse. From a plotline where barely anything happened until the last part of the book, to underdeveloped characters and worldbuilding, I immediately rated this book an unfortunate 1 out of 5 stars.

1. “The Queen Of Nothing” by Holly Black

I thought that “The Wicked King” was bad, I later found out that “The Queen Of Nothing” was even worse. I also rated this book 1 out of 5 stars. This is due to an even worse development of the plot, characters, and worldbuilding compared to “The Wicked King.” The loose ends tied up in the book’s plot made very little sense. These elements made this book an ultimate letdown, especially since it was the final book in the trilogy. There was a lot of potential with the series it was part of, but it just wasn’t well-executed. I can safely say that this was the worst book I read this year.

Those were the Worst 5 Books I Read In 2020! What were some of the worst books you read this year? Do you have different opinions about the ones I listed? Let me know in the comments!

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