Top 10 Worst Books of 2016

Now for my Top 10 Worst Books of 2016: 


10. 'The Untold Tale' (So very, very disappointed. Started off with so much promise, but then literally the last 90 pages ruin everything it was trying to accomplish. Subversive fantasy, I think not. I'm sorry, but this turned out to be an insult. There must be better fantasy books that tackle rape culture and toxic masculinity, surely)

9. 'Star Wars: Princess Leia' (What the hell? This could and should have been so much better. But there were no meat and bones to the story or the characters. So lifeless)

8. 'Lives of Girls and Women' (What happens in this book again?)

7. 'Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light' (One of the most disappointing finales to a book series I've ever read. Valkyrie Cain is one of the most useless, pathetic heroines I've read about. After all this time, she was never meant to be a hero, but just cannon fodder. Also, far too many characters I could not care less about, and why don't people just die and stay dead in this series!? Nine books, and what a careless conclusion)

6. 'The Tale of Kitty In Boots' (Beatrix Potter wrote this. Seriously? The story is like antifeminist propaganda. But at least it's only a short picture book. Keep out of reach of impressionable children)

5. 'Villette' (I read this drab slog-fest to the end, and it wasn't worth it. I suppose 'Jane Eyre' is Charlotte Bronte's only magnum opus, or the novel she made the most effort to write during a happy time in her life)

4. 'The Raven Boys' (I don't understand why this is such a popular YA book. I found it boring, and the characters are stock clichés. Forbidden love at its most needlessly melodramatic, and why include a love triangle at all; it's terribly obvious who will end up with who in later books. Books I certainly will not bother with)

3. 'The Lie Tree' (A book from this year I felt I genuinely hated. A mixture of disappointment, anger, boredom and frustration whilst reading this woefully misguided attempt at feminist historical fiction. I did not care one iota about any of the characters, except for one of the main character's maids. Nearly all the men are portrayed as evil, conniving, bitter arseholes who cheat and murder in order to take credit for women's hard work. Spoiler: The main villain turns out to be a woman. *screams internally*. The female lead's father is a cartoon caricature who denounces his daughter, in the most unbelievably hostile dialogue I've ever read, for her very existence, because she was born with a vagina. He could not die soon enough. Yet the abused lead still loves and supports him even after finding out the horrible things he had done. WTF? Some strong, smart heroine. The mystery is decent, but I'm sorry to say that Frances Hardinge's writing just isn't for me)

2. 'Chime' (It's not that it's weird or hard to understand. I understood this book and could read it fine; the writing is not that special. The main character, however, is a mass of contradictions, and I could not bring myself to care about anyone in the slow, dull story. The romance had no substance whatsoever, there was hardly any emotional investment, and the "twist" ending is trite, predictable and reinforces fairy tale female stereotyping, in a supposedly mature fantasy YA)

1. 'Supergirl Vol. 1: The Girl of Steel' (One of the worst comic books I've ever read, period. What is this mess of non-connected issues pasted into a single volume? I can gather that the people who would want to read this are fans of the new 'Supergirl' TV series; who would want an introduction to the character they grew to love as she was in the original comics. Reading her roots, as it were. Boy will they be in for a shock when they find out how DC had been treating her in the past. Supergirl, in all the issues of this slapped-together volume, is a weak-willed, pathetic, selfish and childish nonentity. Her inner thoughts are generic, and her actions are constantly being monitored and controlled by the men in her life; including Superman, Batman, her dead father, and her arsehole boyfriend. Everyone's an arsehole or an idiot or both here. There's no fun, sense or logic to be had anywhere. Supergirl has no agency - this trash is barely even about her at all - and it is clear the writers see her as nothing more than Superman's distaff counterpart, and therefore she will never be as good and beloved as he is. Oh and let's not forget how she's drawn like a serious anorexic, and at seemingly every opportunity is put in a shower so we can leer at her naked body. She's meant to be sixteen-years-old, for fuck's sake! This comic is full of fail. So yeah, I recommend sticking to the CBS/CW television series, where the Girl of Steel is treated with respect, and is really so much more competently-written)