I read 42 books in 2017. Wish I could have read more, but life has been crazy busy. Out of those 42, which books have been disappointing? Which would I highly recommend?
To start with, there were a few books that were...uh...not what I had hoped. The most disappointing book of all I didn't even finish, Scott Westerfield's AFTERWORLDS. It started off great, describing a terrorist attack at an airport, but then it drifted into an odd between life and death sort of thing. But that wasn't what I hated. It was the parallel story about a young adult author about to publish her first novel. She and her fellow YA authors are all women, and they are all two-dimensional caricatures of what female authors might be. Coming from a male YA author, I was both offended and bored beyond tears. I couldn't help but feel like Westerfield had run out of good ideas, so why not write about writing? Blech.
Another book that was beyond terrible, but passable enough for me
to at least finish was MICRO by Michael Crichton. What can I say about it except that this was nothing more than HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS with a little more violence and gore.
Third on my disappointing book list was THE TIME KEEPER by Mitch Albom. I normally love Album's books, but this tale about how the lives of a suicidal teenage girl, a filthy rich man dying of cancer, and a prehistoric man who becomes Father Time intersect was tedious and full of NOT surprises. I found myself wishing the story would hurry up and be over. I think Albom just tried too hard with this one and flopped.
Fourth, I expected good things from CATACOMB by Madeleine Roux, the third book in her Asylum series. I loved the first two books and the collection of short stories, but this volume fell flat. I didn't hate it, like I did the previous books on this list, but it really didn't do much for me. It did have it's moments, but overall I could take it or leave it.
Finally, the last book I read in 2017 was AND THE TREES CREPT IN by Dawn Kurtagich. Honestly, I absolutely loved this book...until the the last chapter...and especially the very last paragraph. This creepy, nightmarish tale hooked me by the first sentence and kept me turning pages. I kept telling my family what a great book this is! Then the story came to its conclusion. There is nothing worse that getting hooked into a great book or movie only for the ending to betray and disappoint. I won't give any spoilers her, but the ending completely sucked. Not only did the author way over-explain everything, but then, let's just say, it all turned out to be completely pointless. I wanted to burn the stupid thing after investing so much time, money and attention into it for nothing.
Sorry for such harsh, bummer complaints. But tomorrow I'll post about my favorite books of the year. See you then!
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