Most Disappointing Books of 2019

I may or may not have been very much looking forward to writing this post. As much as I love to rave about the books I love, my family can testify to how much I like to complain/rant about the books I've hated.
What can I say? I have strong opinions.
That being said, I have nine books that made this list, books that looked interesting or that I was excited to read, that turned out not to live up to my expectations in the least. Alright. Here we go.
Disclaimer: If I mention a book that you love, please don't take it personally. I'm not attacking you. One great thing about reading is that everyone has different opinions! I'm also not trying to mean when I say a book bored me or was awful or anything. The worst I'm trying to be is funny. Which granted, I'm not very good at. XP 
But if you want to talk to me about something I said in this wrap-up, please leave a (polite) comment below. I'm more than happy to discuss! :)

Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash

8. Mitosis by Brandon Sanderson

So... I don't really have very strong opinions about this one. I just didn't see the point of it? And it just didn't live up to any of my expectations. You all know that I love Brandon Sanderson's books. But Mitosis just didn't do it for me. 

It didn't really add anything to my understanding to the Reckoners universe or the storyline, and honestly, the way it was written made it way less dark than the main trilogy and more laughable than anything else.  

But this book makes the list because it was written by Brandon Sanderson, and I expected more from him than this.

7. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I watched the movie first. It wasn't amazing. But I heard that the book was so much better than the movie, and decided to give it a go. After all, The Maze Runner has an intriguing premise. 

Let me tell you guys. It wasn't good. It really wasn't. I don't know where the hype for this book came from. It has a decent plot (excepting the last chapters, which had so many leaps of logic and plot holes that it was cringe worthy) but that's about it. The characterization? Nonexistent. The writing? Juvenile, at best. 

I do know that this book is hugely popular, and I'm really sorry I didn't like it. If you did: good for you! I'm not trying to put down anyone who genuinely enjoyed this book. It just didn't do it for me. 

6. Splintered by A.G. Howard

This book looked super interesting! A dark, Tim Burton-esque retelling of Alice in Wonderland sounded right up my alley. But it didn't really live up to that description at all. The first portion of the book, set in the main character's hometown, did seem to be setting up a creepy, interesting middle. But once Alyssa stepped into Wonderland, everything went downhill -- the characterization, the plot, the worldbuilding, and most of all, the romance. 

The plot made zero to no sense for most of the book. Alyssa had no reason to actually trust Morpheus, but did so anyway, and it made me question her intelligence. The plot twist at the end kind of reveals why the author chose to do this, but Alyssa's stupid decisions up to that point stretched my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. 

And the romance was horrible! It's a love triangle, and it's done really poorly, plus a few elements of the romance that were really toxic and disgusting that were portrayed as romantic. 

Overall, not my kind of book, and I will not be continuing with the series. 

5. Carve the Mark and The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth 

I will be really honest here: I didn't enjoy the Divergent series very much. I still read all three books (mostly to see the plot to its conclusion), but I didn't find them as phenomenal as people are always saying they are. However, they are about 300 times better than Veronica Roth's new series, Carve the Mark. These books were really, really hard to like.
At first, I thought that book one was actually going to be decent. The opening chapters were interesting and engaging, and both of the major POV characters were fairly likeable. But then everything just went downhill. Every time I thought the plot had finally started, it turned out to be another random event that added little to the story and just made me angry. There were so many characters that it was hard to keep track of them all, and only a few had actual plot relevance. It ended up really boring me, which makes me sad, because I did genuinely want to love this book. And when the plot actually got started a few chapters from the end, I decided to give the second book a shot.
The second book was even worse. I DNFed after about a hundred pages of absolute boredom. *SPOILERS AHEAD* Literal intergalactic war being declared, and here I am falling asleep. *END OF SPOILERS* At least with Divergent, the plot was enough to keep me awake.
Overall, I think that maybe Veronica Roth just isn't an author that I can really appreciate. I'm glad that so many people enjoy her books, but I for one just... don't.

4. The Final Six by Alexandra Monir

The Final Six in a nutshell: Not what I signed up for.  I was hoping for a really cool science fiction about space travel and the colonization of Europa. What I got was space camp and some weird bacteria. 

The characterization in this book was patchy and even problematic at times, and the beginning really bothered me because of how a certain issue was portrayed. I don't feel like it was done well, and it felt more like a plot device than anything else. I'm not sure if it's counted as a spoiler or not, so I won't go into it here, but feel free to talk to me more about it in the comments!
There were several cases of deus ex machina that definitely took away from my enjoyment of the story. Overall, I just didn't enjoy this book, despite the fascinating premise and beautiful cover. 

3. Evermore by Sara Holland

As some of you may know, I really enjoyed Everless. But Evermore, the sequel, was just disappointing. Jules, the protagonist, seemed to lose most of her intelligence between books one and two, making some really dumb decisions that Everless Jules would never have done. The romance bothered me so much. There was so much insta-love, it was cringey. For more of my thoughts, check out my Goodreads review, which goes into all the spoilers and why this book just didn't do it for me.

2. Storm Siren by Mary Weber

Storm Siren was not a very highly anticipated book for me. In fact, it was a super spur-of-the-moment borrow for me (fortunately, this was a library e-book, and I didn't buy this!) But it looked interesting, and I was excited to read it once I got it. The first few chapters were fine. I didn't hate them, but they weren't amazing. And then the love interest made his appearance. And everything went downhill from there. The plotline was full of forbidden romance, insta-love, one-dimensional characters, shaky worldbuilding, and no stakes. There was a full blown war going on, but I never felt any urgency. The villains were tacked on and cheesy. (My favorite example: one of the villains hisses wordsss like thisss. Because villains can't talk like normal human beings?) I hate to be so negative about a book, but I literally can't find one positive thing to say about it. Except that it ended. 

I do intend to read another book by Mary Weber in the future, so that I can decide if I like her as an author or not (like I did with Veronica Roth's books) and I can only hope that it will be better than this one. 

1. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

And now, for (arguably) the worst book I read this year: The Cruel Prince. I have linked my review for it above. However, my opinions about the book have sunk considerably since I wrote the review, so what I say here may be slightly different than what I say there. This book was awful. The plot was slow, the characters (every last one of them) were horrible people, and the writing didn't really appeal to me. (Note about my "horrible people" comment: I know that this may have been intentional, but when I can't empathize or sympathize with any of the characters, there's a problem.) I believe I mentioned all of this in my review. But one thing I didn't mention was the romance! The major romance of the series (I won't say who the love interest is to prevent spoiling for anyone who wants to read this book), a romance that is super popular with the fans of the books, is toxic. Really, really toxic. It's gross, and I feel that this relationship was glorified in the novel (and definitely has been glorified by fans of the series.) 

So my original rating of two stars dropped to one for that, and I likely won't be finishing the series. 

So there you have it! Nine of the most disappointing books I've read this year. Have you read any of the books I mentioned here? If so, what did you think of them? Do you agree with any of my opinions? Or do you disagree? Let me know in the comments!