It is time… for the post you have all been waiting for. Today, we are talking about the worst books I read in 2022. Which is honestly one of my most popular posts every year. And hopefully this year’s isn’t too disappointing, because I didn’t read very many books I didn’t like. But I do have a list of six books that I look back on with regret. (Not really, because sometimes it’s more fun to blog about bad books. But you get what I mean.)

Even though this list isn’t long, it makes up for it by containing some of the worst books I’ve read in quite a while. But enough intro, let’s get right to the (bad) books! Here are the worst books I read in 2022, in order from “not that terrible” to “the thought that this got published still makes me mad”:

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

I already talked about this one in my most disappointing books of the year list because I really thought I’d enjoy it. And while I didn’t hate it, I was really disappointed and kind of sad after I read it. It’s a thriller that sounded a lot like The Stepford Wives, which I am a fan of. It’s about a woman who lives the perfect life with her perfect husband in their perfect little neighborhood. She knows she was made for him. But strange things start happening and she starts to question just how perfect their world really is. If this reminds you a bit of Don’t Worry Darling, it’s kind of like that.

And I really enjoyed the creepy tone and the mystery in the beginning. But then we started to get clues about where it was going. And I was really hoping it wouldn’t go where I thought it would. But then it did. Basically, it’s a really dark biblical allegory. I wasn’t a huge fan of it. The ending ruined the book for me because not only did I not like it, it was really predictable. When I read weird thrillers, I want to be surprised, I want a good twist. Instead, I spent half the book really wishing it wouldn’t go where I thought it was going. Overall, I wasn’t a huge fan of this one.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

I read this book for a post where I read the lowest rated books on my TBR. I ended up scraping the post, but not before getting through this book. To be fair, ti was already on my TBR – I think I just liked the cover. And honestly, I didn’t go into it prepared to not like it just because it has a low rating on Goodreads. I’ve been known to really enjoy some books that other people hate. But this was not one of those books.

I was interested in the idea of a thriller based on Japanese folklore (I’ve been really into Japanese literature for the past couple years). But I think this book tried to fit so much folklore into such a short book that, as someone unfamiliar with the topic, I got kind of lost. I also hated a lot of the characters. Which is fun for a thriller, because then you get to root against them. But this book killed off the least annoying characters. Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed. It also just wasn’t really suspenseful, which is kind of what I look for in horror novels. I did not enjoy it, but it’s definitely not the worst book on this list.

I Love You, But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins

June was a bad reading month. It gets to claim two of the books on this list, and they’re right next to each other. So you know it wasn’t great. I picked up the next book on this list because of its cover. But this one, I grabbed because of its title. I always hope that the books I give a chance despite having heard nothing about them are good. This one was really not.

It’s supposed to be about womanhood and a woman who leaves her family to go find herself or something. But it’s just chaotic and I had no idea what was going on for most of this book. It spends a lot of time talking about how the main character’s dad was in the Manson cult. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a point to that, if I remember correctly. Oh, and the main character has the same name as the author. Which just made this book feel extra weird. I don’t remember too much about this book except that I was thinking “WTF is happening?” the entire time I was reading it.

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

This was my other terrible book of June, and definitely one I very much regret reading. I talked about it a lot already in my last post. But this book deserves to be on this list, too. Because it was really not good. I was excited to read a dystopian novel with some kickass trans protagonists. But I had so many issues with this book. The fact that the writing wasn’t great was the least of them.

Basically, I thought this book was full of unnecessary violence towards women. It was a lot, and it was very graphic and brutal. I do think violence in books can be used to make a point, but I felt like this author used it so much that it went way beyond just making a point. No book – ever – needs as many rape scenes as this book has. Just no.

I thought the premise of this book was so interesting, but the author completely massacred it with gratuitous violence against women. Even as I’m writing this, I can feel my face morphing into a major look of disgust because that’s how I feel about this book. It says a lot that there are still two books to go on this list.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

What do I say about this book? It was probably my most disappointing read of the year because I was really looking forward to this book. I’m a fan of Akwaeke Emezi, and the title of this one definitely drew me in. I wasn’t fully aware that it was a romance book going in, but that’s fine. I like reading romance novels occasionally. But I did not like reading this book.

I really disliked the storyline. There are certain things I hate in romance novels, and this book added to that list. The main character is kind of a terrible person, and the only character development she gets is learning to be okay with being an asshole for the sake of love. I was a little bit let down when her best friend stopped reminding the main character that she was acting like an ass. The sex scenes made me uncomfortable, and I overall kind of hated this book.

But there is one book I hated even more…

Her Heart for a Compass by Sara Ferguson

I do look back on this book with fond memories, so I was a little bit conflicted about where it should go on this list. But any and all enjoyment I derived from reading this book came from writing an entire blog post trashing it. Now, that was fun! This book, though, was just a mess. It’s a five-hundred-plus-page romance novel. Which is not a good start to begin with. Then there’s the fact that Fergie wrote this about her ancestor. And is it just me, or does the idea of that feel a little bit icky?

Not only does Fergie write this about her great-something, but she makes the protagonist an entitled, whiny, helpless, idiot. Like, if you saw an adult acting like this today, you’d wonder how they managed to function before realizing it was because they’re just wealthy and get away with dumb shit. Then there’s the trashing of freaking Queen Victoria, which I am not here for. Lest we forget, this was written by a former member of the royal family. As in, she was married to Queen Victoria’s great-great-great-grandson. Oh, and to make it even worse, the love interest’s name was Donald. I don’t care if it’s historically accurate or whatever, I never again want to read a romance book about a Donald.

Nothing is known about the woman this book is based on except that she existed, got married, had children, and died. So this book is pure speculation. She could have been a secret genius for all we know. I’m just mad this book even got published, and we all know its because they knew a book with a royal’s name on the cover would sell. Which is exactly how I ended up with a signed copy. I’m a sucker.

And we are done with the worst books of the year! Next week, we’ll start getting into all of my favorites, which thankfully outnumber the books on this list. What was the worst book you read this year?

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