14 books because that is the exact number of times I've rated them 2 stars this year.
My opinion of them all, go!:
14. The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
I was bored with this, mostly, even though it isn't difficult to read in the slightest in its simple writing style. I didn't particularly care about any of the characters, or what was happening. It is very well received on Goodreads. Indeed the subject matter and themes (cults, abuse in the name of religion, patriarchal norms, etc) are important to discuss. And it is the only book I've ever read with a handless protagonist. I just... didn't care. Especially not for the romance. Too many plot contrivances. The ending is far too on-the-nose, thematic and silly. And the only LBGTQ character shows up twice, and is a sexual predator. Maybe I was having bad reading days, which happened often in 2018.
13. Lily Alone by Jacqueline Wilson
Jacqueline Wilson is back with her atrociously neglectful parents and overburdened child protagonists! Lily's mum, a single parent, literally leaves her four little kids for a man she only met twice to be abroad with him, right at the spur of the moment. I don't care if it is for a week (she admits she's uncertain and that it could be longer) and that she thought her ex will be looking after the kids while she's gone (she doesn't bother to see if he would or could), Lily's mum should be in prison. And she was a teenage mum, how typical. Lily still loves her, for some ungodly reason. Again, how typical, like everything else in this book. Poor Lily, left to look after her three younger siblings by herself. She isn't much better at parenting than her mum when she decides to leave home with them to live in the woods, inside a tree, for under a week. But she has the excuse that she is only eleven. The kids are lucky to be alive! Lily Alone is just uncomfortable to read about - not a good start for my Wilson marathon - and it seems to sympathise with the terrible terrible mum, wanting a happy ending for her together with this poor, abused family. The ending is ambiguous, but I can tell that mum will be let off the hook, eventually. Child neglect is not something to be made light of. It is a crime, and everybody, adults especially, should be made accountable for their actions.
12. The Butterfly Club by Jacqueline Wilson
One more Jacqueline Wilson book, and at this point I'm thinking, "Maybe I'm too old for this crap." The Butterfly Club is very babyish, even though it is marketed as middle grade. The main children are seven years old, and I was so bored and tired of its inanity and cliches that I couldn't wait to finish it, which didn't take long. I'm sure actual seven year olds can relate to it, and learn to read on a year two level from it, but that is all the praise I can give it. Add on a ridiculous ending (televised! Of course!), plus completely unnoticed racism on a micro level from the little girl's granddad towards her only POC school friend, and I was done. It isn't very challenging, is what I'm saying. The cameos of the twins from Wilson's classic book, Double Act, who are now adults, is a nice touch, though.
11. Franklin's Flying Bookshop by Jen Campbell
Maybe I should give this another look. The premise is great for a kid's picture book: a bookworm dragon flying around with a bookshop on its back. Goodreads loves it. But I found too many typos and moments of characters being poorly introduced to give it high praise. It needs a good editor. Still, I thought it interesting enough to buy it for my four year old nephew, if not for the pictures alone. And his name is Franklin; that might have been a contributing factor.
10. Will & Whit by Laura Lee Gulledge
The author's other graphic novel, Page by Paige, is a favourite of mine, so I decided to give this a go, as it had been in my library for ages. Good artwork, interesting premise and thematic decisions, but man is it dull! It does not convey grief and anxiety well at all, in my opinion. The whole comic seems rushed and underdeveloped. I barely remember the scenes in it. Some character relationships are developed decently, however.
9. Zatanna by Paul Dini
Why? Why do you keep doing this to me, Paul Dini? Zatanna isn't too bad; some of the issues are interesting. But I'm not that interested in Zatanna herself. She just seems like yet another superheroine who keeps being manipulated and hamstrung by the men in her life. She has backbone only when the plot requires it. Her obnoxious cousin can go to hell, as well. And I don't need to look at artwork that reminds me of Brian Azzarello's New 52 Wonder Woman monstrosity (seriously, Zatanna looks exactly like Diana - are women really that hard to draw differently for men artists?). A little meanspiritedness all around, and I don't care for this piece.
8. Wonder Woman, Vol. 4: Ends of the Earth (Wonder Woman (2006) #4) by Gail Simone (Writer), Aaron Lopresti (Artist), Matt Ryan (Artist)
The sequel to the fantastic Wonder Woman comic, The Circle. It has nothing to do with that. Or it barely does. Wonder Woman is at the beck and call and mercy of men. *sigh*. And why the fuck is Steve Trevor or Thomas Tresser or whoever (they are alike) suddenly called an Amazon by the Amazons of Themyscira?! Did I miss something important in another comic? I didn't even know that Diana and her boy-toy were officially together. Why is Queen Hippolyta going on about them having children? Why does she keep repeating "Babies. Babies. Babies." in one panel? Is she teasing the man, or having a stroke? Judging by her expressionless face, it could be interpreted as anything. Did Gail Simone really write this? Screw this, I'm out of here.
7. Heart in a Box by Kelly Thompson (Writer), Meredith McClaren (Artist)
A disappointing Kelly Thompson comic. Good premise, and I was into it for a while. But then the internalised misogyny and slut shaming happened. I didn't sympathise with the lead at all. She is horrible towards the end - literally beating up her ex-boyfriend's current girlfriend, when she did nothing wrong. She is not sorry for what she did, and is instantly forgiven for it. That poor girlfriend, she only appears in two pages, as well. What bullshit. And this is a 2015 comic - Thompson should have known better. The whole magical heart transplant system isn't well explained, either. Like, how is the lead girl alive? It's not a metaphor: she literally has no heart suddenly upon making a deal with someone in order to be rid of it due to heartbreak. I'm seriously asking how she is still alive. That is underdevelopment. The art is catching, bleak and suitable, though.
6. Reborn: Book One by Mark Millar (Writer), Greg Capullo (Artist), Jonathan Glapion (Artist)
This is rated low on Goodreads for a reason. It is yet another poorly developed and rather simplistic graphic novel, which for a fantastic premise is blasphemous (no pun intended, for a comic exploring religious beliefs). What if the afterlife were a fantasy world? A medieval/cyberpunk hybrid? And the protagonist is an old woman saving this world while at death's door. Mark Millar needed to have taken the time to make Reborn reach its full potential. To make something truly great and existential. Sadly, he chose the safe, typical, comics-for-fratboys route to go with it. The elderly grandmother is young and blonde and sexy in the fantasy world! Why? Not very well explained in-narrative, though we know why on a marketing standpoint. She's a typical chosen one. Yeah, typical describes Reborn to a T. How does this afterlife work, anyhow? How can the dead people grow older and have children in it? How can they still be killed in it? Is there an afterlife after this afterlife? Do people stop aging at random stages? How can the female lead's menstruation cycle still work? Horrendously contrived and amateurish, the only reason Reborn gets two stars and not one is because the artwork isn't bad, and the premise in of itself is gold. It might be called Book One but there is no sequel in sight. You know, maybe there are too many heterosexual men working in the comic book industry today. Their priorities tend to get skewered on certain elements.
5. The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Good grief this is boring! Sorry, I had to get that off my chest (again, pun unintended). Like Heart in a Box, The Hearts We Sold is a sell-your-heart story, and it is at least better developed and thought-out than the comic. But this YA novel is so tedious and lifeless that I have no shame in admitting to skimming the last half of it. I don't understand how it is rated so favourably on Goodreads. The plot, when it bothers to show up, is thin and weak. I couldn't connect to any of the plot device mannequins that the author calls characters. They are either one-note or no notes at all. When one major character dies suddenly in a senseless tragedy, hardly anyone cares. Why are female authority figures always portrayed as incompetent? The ending is at least unexpected, atypical of a YA happy ending between heterosexuals. The one LBGTQ character is the only person in the book that I can call interesting. I'm sure there is more that I could add, but I can't remember them right now. I'm too bored.
4. Jade Street Protection Services by Katy Rex (Writer), Various (Artists)
One of the most poorly planned, poorly developed, disjointed, confusing, clumsy, and clunky wasted potentials for a comic I have ever read. It's a very diverse Magical Girl comic with a crime detective mystery twist and violent adult edge. Pity I can't tell you what happens. Not because of spoilers, but because I don't understand what the hell is going on! Did the writers even know? Who? What? Why? How? Where? HUH? Was this storyboarded properly? How did it get greenlit? It clearly isn't very good. But the diversity is excellent; one magical girl is even openly revealed as autistic. One wears pink Muslim garb (and needs to pee all the time for some reason). Though a queer girl ends up with a boy instead of a girl. That is all the sense I can make of this nonsense. It has more substance to it than Pretty Deadly, at least. Between Jade Street Protection Services and Crystal Cadets, why is the Magical Girl genre being treated so badly by American comic book publishers?
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Review here. Fifteen months of my life I'm never getting back. Moving on.
2. Circe by Madeline Miller
I don't get it. I just don't. One of this year's biggest disappointments for me. And it is a 2018 Goodreads Choice Award winner. I didn't enjoy Circe. I thought the "feminist" leading lady stale, and the plot uneventful for the majority of the book. Circe, the demigod and witch, remains lifeless and at the beck and call of men throughout her whole immortal existence. Motherhood should be a goal of all women, too! I didn't like Madeline Miller's other book pertaining to Greek mythology, The Song of Achilles, either, so perhaps she is an author who's not for me. She doesn't add much of anything new or exciting to these tales, in my opinion. I can't remember a lot about what happens in Circe. It didn't grab me, I'm afraid.
1. The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Review here. When it isn't dull and meandering, it is disgusting and offensive. 800 pages of navel-gazing. I am disturbed by the author's views on women. What a way to end one of my favourite book sagas. I should have stopped at The Shadow of the Wind.
Next, the finale, the finality, of the negative, the Top 9 Worst 1-Star Books of 2018!
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