@@BookswithEmilyFox we all know "most disappointing" is just Salty Emily warming up, stretching, preparing to roast in "worst book". gotta ease into the high sodium levels! ;)
Sofiya Tolstaya was a great lady and suffered a lot of crap from her weirdo husband, she had a lot to say about him but sadly her works were only postmortem (some like 100 years after she wrote them).
Standard joke about Anna Karenina in Russian is that she was the inventor of ‘platform shoes’. Pretty much nobody read it when I was in school, just a summary.
Oh, I did😄 I’ve read everything in full, including War and Peace (which I surprisingly liked). I just didn’t trust the shortened retellings. I remember being really annoyed with Anna, though, and I’ve probably skimmed more than a few pages of Levin’s bs😅
The response to Happy Place on booktube has been so weird to me because most of my real life friends who read her books think it’s her best and while Book Lovers is still my favorite, Happy Place is such a close second. But across the board on booktube people seem to think it’s her worst. Totally agree about People We Meet on Vacation though, that one didn’t work for me.
I loved Happy Place so much, almost the same as Book Lovers, but I loved so much that I bought almost all the books that Emily Henry published, because if I liked even the one that everyone was "meh", at least I'll have a good time with the others. I'm planning on reading one Emily Henry every year.
I kept scratching my head confused about the hype for Notes on an Execution. I read it before the hype with no expectations and was seriously disappointed. That first chapter was good but it was downhill from thereafter.
Hi Emily, I too struggle with mystery and thrillers. I think it's because a lot of the actions and decisions made by characters are so convoluted. I expect a logical plot going in, I want a good mystery to solve. It's not like a fantasy where going in, I know things will be outlandish.
This! Sometimes it’s like the authors are trying to always one-up each other on how “twisty” and unpredictable they can be, and it gets ridiculous at some point
Just to balance the scale a bit, Anna Karenina is one of my favourites that I have re-read a couple of times. Sorry you were disappointed in such a great book.
If you are looking for more books about knowing how you die, there are two great short story collections on that concept. The first is called Machine of Death and the sequel is This is How You Die. Each story is based on a writing prompt that humans have invented a machine that tells people how they die. Each author did their own take with that. I highly recommend it.
I also hated "The Last Party" but I put it down in Chapter 3 instead of suffering through like you. 😂 I didn't find the main character's love life issues very believable, so I'm not surprised the ending wasn't believable.
Omg yes I've also had to accept this year that mystery thrillers might just not be for me. I've read like 20 of them this year and only a few have stuck with me. I'm hoping next year to read less of them and focus more on fantasy and literary fiction since those are the two genres I often end up liking the most
I really liked Notes on an Execution but would also say it’s not thrilling - I wouldn’t come at it with expectations of it being mystery/thriller. More literary fiction. I liked how it quietly posed the question of how much killers are born vs made in particular, and alittle exploration on the death penalty.
I definitely agree with you about Lone Women! It started off so well, then it was like reading a train crash. I should've dnf'd it, I'm still trying to get better about that, but I, too, finished it out of stubbornness 😅
The Push is one of my fave books of all time... but the whispers was sooo lack luster. I was so bored. It felt so long and drawn out for that random ass ending.
I really liked The Golem and the Jinni because of the philosophical questions it raises about free-will, ethics, and what it means to be human through the characters’ unique circumstances.
Yeah, the murder series set in small towns…this is how ghost towns happen. 😆 Half the town is murdered, half the town moves to more fortunate climes. Sometimes I keep reading a bad book just to see how bad it can get. It’s like a slow motion car wreck…
I really liked the Golem and the Jinni but was kind of disappointed in the end, however sequel is better in every sense IMO. This series holds very special in my heart. But I get why you don’t like it.
I think the main reason Richard Osman is popular is because he's a TV celebrity in the UK. He already had a fan base that would read his books; making them instantly bestsellers. I wonder if they would have been as popular if he wasn't famous.
I am realizing that I am extremely picky about mystery/thrillers and romance. I really really really want to like thrillers but I always find them threeish stars. I will probably still try a couple each year, but I recently took down all my holds on mystery thrillers on libby. I just had to be honest with myself. I kept a few romances for palate cleansers ❤
I feel like our taste is similar with the thrillers you dont like. So I am a bit sad about the Thursday Murders Club because it sounds so fun! I am a bit stuborn too so I will get it from my library to see if I like them or not. 🤞Also still need to try the thrillers you did like to see if we really have the same taste. We do like the same cozy witchy books apparently because In the Company of Witches and Nettle and Bones were so fun to read!😍
The most disappointing book for me was Babel. It started really strong but then went in a way that wasn't interesting at all. Another one is The twisted one by T. Kingfisher. The worst heroine in the world, annoying, doing stupid things, always whining.
I think i enjoyed The Golem and the Djinni, but also I remember almost nothing about it so who knows! My most disappointing book of the year was Frankenstein in Baghdad, it just didn't work for me at all. Also, I think you meant the border between England and Wales - they are both part of the UK ❤
i feel like notes on an execution was so uncomfortable to read. Ansel's point of view helps put the book into perspective, how he thinks of himself as somehow "smarter" or more "intellectual" than most people, but is, in reality, PAINFULLY average and just angsty. his pov honestly made me laugh, and i loved to see the dichotomy of how the women thought of him and how he thought of himself, so interesting. the sole reason i gave the book a five stars for sure
My gripe with The Measure was ****SPOILERS**** that they said anyone who had a birthday and turned 22 would receive a box on their birthday. Then it was also said that people tried to see where the boxes came from on the first night they came, but security cameras didn't work, etc. What I don't get is why no one turning 22 decided to just spy on their own front porch all night on their birthday to see who brought the box. I was way more interested in the mystery of where the boxes came from than the character-driven stuff that ended up happening. I'm also in agreement with you on mystery/thrillers. Most of them are 3 stars for me. It's been forever since one actually impressed me.
I was also very disappointed in Lone Women. I don't normally read a lot of horror, but I wanted to branch out and the premise sounded really interesting - but I just found it really underwhelming. An actually good (and legitimately creepy) horror that I read that year is Red X by David Demchuk. I actually didn't even realize it was a horror when I started reading it - so I wasn't expecting the horror, but it was really good.
Haha I can’t wait to see the stats of the books you read. You should split them up so you can see the genres/authors specifically for the books you DNFed or rated lowly. Maybe it will reveal a pattern of what not to read 😅
Well at least you try mistery thriller as you think you might find ones you like. I in the other hand know that l can't stand romance and still went to read Book lovers and ofc didn't like it as l don't like romance and few months later l don't remember anything from that book. But why the hell did l buy into hype😂😂😂. Have to trust my nature more in future.
If you're looking for murder in space books, The Moon Is Not Haunted is a kind of futuristic psychological mystery/suspense that takes place on a moon base. I haven't finished it yet, but have enjoyed it so far.
Notes on an Execution and The Whispers should not have been marketed as thrillers. they’re more literary suspense in my opinion. i loved Notes but DNF’d The Whispers despite loving The Push. i also DNF’d The Measure. it was so boring for such a great concept.
I’ve found that I don’t like thrillers, I like mysteries. Thrillers often feel so convoluted in order to keep the twists secret. Books that are marketed as mystery before thriller don’t have as many of the things that annoy me about thrillers
I mentioned it before but if you’re not into mystery/thrillers but liked Company of Witches, you might like cozy mysteries. The older books in that genre can be a bit conservative but there are some great new series by people who are deliberately more progressive. (Vinyl Resting Place, Smile Beach Murder, and Pride Prejudice and Peril are good modern books/series) Cozy mysteries are great for reading about characters in their 30s and older. I was glad to read Notes on an Execution but also glad it was a library book. My opinion of a book is affected by whether I spent money on it. 🤷♀️ Lone Women is just a preachy book by a man who’s telling us a bunch of stuff we already know.
As soon as you mentioned notes on a execution I knew you would not like it😂 I think the book was mismarketed and the main female character being indian and her name is saffron…. Get the fuck out of here Ms Kukafka🤣🤣
I DNF'd The Man Who Died Twice. The first book wasn't bad, and usually books improve in series, but I just could not get interested in the second book.
I read Anna Karenina 2 years ago. My main complain was where the hell is Anna? My expectations were really high so I felt personally ofended to the point I thought I will never give Tolstoi a chance. Then I read Ivan Illich's death or wherever it's translated into English. My favorite Tolstoi is White Nights. I have some of his work on my shelves I'd like to try. But, again, It was supposed to be about Anna!! 😧
