Least Favorite Books Of 2016

Here comes a bit of a controversial post to celebrate the new year, 2017. I've read many books in 2016, and while I have loved majority of them, it is no lie that there have been a few that I disliked. Greatly.
I mean no offense to the writers, or to the people who love these books. It's great that you enjoy them, and by all means continue doing so. This is just my opinion. I hope you will respect that.
In no order whatsoever:


1. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
I have talked about this book and why I didn't like it before on this blog right here.

2. Stardust, Neil Gaiman
No, I do not have anything against Neil. I absolutely loved some of his books, which I will be mentioning in my next post. He is a wonderful writer.

Stardust is about a boy who travels from one world to another to find a star that his beloved asks him to get. He goes from the world of humans to the world of faeries. That's really the main plot, faeries. 
I do agree that the writing is beautiful. Neil portrays the world and the people in an exquisite way. It's just that I'm not a huge fantasy fan. I don't really like reading sci-fi books. I can count on one hand the amount of books in those genres that I actually enjoyed. 
Well, okay. Maybe that was an exaggeration. 
Otherwise, I really think this would have been a fantastic read. Just not for me.

3. Painting Death, Tim Parks

While I do admit that I sometimes pick books because of their covers, the main reason for me to pick up a book I've never heard of is almost always the name. The same thing happened in this case. The name 'painting death' just appealed to me greatly. I absolutely loved it. I am a painter, an artist, so the name inspired me a lot. 

However, I was bored before the first chapter could end. 

It's about a man named Morris Duckworth who has killed his way into a wealthy Italian family. Much of the plot is unknown to me. I did struggle my way through the book one night, but I just ended up confused. To be frank, the writing, the plot, and the characters were boring. I didn't enjoy this at all. 

4. Everyday, David Levithan 

I truly, honestly believe this book had so much potential to be in my most favorite list. 

Its about this person, who wakes up each day in a different body, living a different life. This person (let's call him Bob for the sake of this review) falls in love with a girl. Even though he wakes up as a different human every day, he still remains in love with this same girl. 

I think the plot is incredible. This is an amazing story line. However, lots of strings remained untied by the end of this novel. Why does Bob have this ability? Is it an ability? How did this originate? Is Bob even human? Many questions remained unanswered even as the story ended. It left me feeling very frustrated and angry. Also, I absolutely hated the love interest. She was just obnoxious and judgmental. There was some fat-shaming going on from her, and I can't stand that kind of stuff.

5. The Daughters Of Mars, Thomas Keneally 

This is another case of 'pretty name so I'm gonna buy it'. 

This is a novel about two sisters, both nurses, who find themselves on an army ship. This is as far as I have read into it, and I could NOT go any further. The first chapter is titled Murdering Mrs. Durance, and it is about the sisters basically putting their mother to rest. This doesn't count as a spoiler, because it's the very first chapter, and I think it's the main source of everything that happens. 

There's very little plot as far as I know, and the story line is just not interesting. I just saw the title, and instantly thought it would be some beautiful, intriguing story, but it wasn't. I was very disappointed. Not gonna be reading this one to the end. 

So there you have it! 5 least favorites of 2016. There were much more than 5, but I decided we should limit the negative as much as possible. Have a great new year!