THE WORST BOOKS I READ IN 2020 💥 Big Tiddy Liddy, Horse Girl Drama, Edgy Teenagers, and... Polygamy?

  If there was a book that could gaslight me, it would be this book. [music] Today I'm gonna be talking aboutthe worst books I read this year. And when I say that I don't mean that these were objectively the worst books thatwere published in 2020, I just mean that these were booksthat I happen to have picked up this year, and they didn't turn outthat good in my opinion. I don't really mind whenever I pick upa book that turns out to be bad though, because I don't feellike I'm wasting anything. Like it's not wasted time becauseit's still reading and I enjoy reading. And it's not wasted money,because as most of you know, I get all my books from the library. Even the libraries are closedthis year because of quarantine. I've been getting all of my books fromLibby, which is a sponsor of this video. Libby is a free readingapp created by overdrive, that lets you borrow ebooksand audio books from your library, as long as you connect it to your phone,your laptop, your computer, whatever. All you really need is your library card, you punch in the numbers and itautomatically connects it through the app. I literally use this app every single day. Most libraries will let youget a library card online now. And if you don't have one, there'sa large number of library cards that would actually give you a digitalcard using just your phone number. Even if you don't havea library card currently, you could still sample the booksto see if you're into them or not. And if you're like me, and youhave multiple cards at libraries, you can get the hookupat every single library that you have a card for on one app. About 90% of libraries use Libbyfor their ebooks and audiobooks, and Libby is also availablein 78 countries worldwide. It works basically like a physical library, you just borrow an available book and then it automatically gets returned in two to three weeksunless you renew that. It's completely free but if youwant to support Libby anyway, because they're an amazing app, they have a shop whereyou can buy like sweaters, hoodies, masks, t-shirts, and 100%of their proceeds go to library charities. It works 24/7 and as longas you have a library card, you can use it anywhere in the world. I cannot recommend this app anymorefor saving me during this pandemic. So huge thank you to Libbyfor sponsoring this video and for just being the appthat I use every single day. Every single waking day because Icannot be alone with my thoughts. So I always have to havean audio book turned up. Okay, now let's talk about thefive worst books I read this year. I decided to rank them from one beinglike the worst book ever to number five, which like is bad but like not asbad like I was so read the sequel to it. So for number five atthe bottom of the list, we are gonna go with "Serpent & Dove." This is a young adult fantasy book,that has primarily focus on romance. It got a lot of buzzwhen it first came out, and I noticed that peopleeither loved it or hated it. And it made me super curious whenever I see totallydifferent perceptions of a book because I want to knowwhat side I will fall on. And so this takes place in France and it follows a main character whois a witch who has fled from her coven and is now hiding in a city. She has forsaken all of her magic, and now she has just resorted to stealing. It's dangerous to use hermagic because in this city, which is like her are being hunted. So they find out that she's a witchshe's gonna get burned like a Hot Cheeto, so no more magic for her. Plus, she can't even disguise her magicbecause every time a witch uses magic, they emanate a smell, which Ithink it's different for each witch. But what I found super funnywas that throughout the entire book, every time she had to use magic, the characters around herincluding her love inches, it was like, Oh, what's that smell? Hmm. But the thought thatthe smell could be coming from the girl standing right next tohim, never crosses his mind. Ever. Speaking of a love interesthe is a chasseur - I think it's how you pronounce it. I'm not quite sure. That's basically codeword forhim being super loyal to the church, kind of being like a soldier to thechurch but he's also like a virgin. He's a witch hunter, not a pussyhunter, is basically what I'm saying. The way that the plot is setup is that these two characters who are on opposing sides andhate each other are forced to marry. I was intrigued when Ifirst picked up this book, because I was justinterested in finding out how can two people whohave totally opposite values and are taught andraised to hate each other, how are they going to intersect andlearn from one another and fall in love. And also how are they forcedinto marriage in the first place. I really want to see whathappened, and then it happened. And I was like, oh, oh, sowe're going down this route. Basically, the dude doesn'tknow that she's a witch. He just knows that she's a thief, because he caught her inthe beginning of the book when she was disguised as a man. And by that I mean she wasjust wearing like a fake mustache because obviously you know, those are like the two genders -mustache and no mustache. Later on when he's in atheater he sees her again, and so he tries tocapture her but the thing is, when he sees her again, some shit went down like in a priorscene where she got beaten the shit out of, by like the other witches.So her face is really bruised. And so while he's trying to capture her, they end up falling on the stagein the middle of the public eye. Everyone is aghastbecause he's on top of her, and now it looks like he wasthis chasseur dude holy virgin, I don't know, beating theshit out of this random girl. He's like, Oh my God, like what do Ido because my reputation as a chausseur who upholds all thesevirtues is being ruined because people think that I beat up women. And obviously in the year 2020that's the worst thing a man can be. Like, yeah, women doget beaten up every day, but you know what's worse, whena man gets accused of being that. So obviously he's in a littlepickle, and there's this dude there, I forgot what his role was, but he was like the priest or like thehead of the church or something like that. He's there and he's like,Okay, I got a solution. What we're gonna do toclear up this misunderstanding is we're going to haveyou two marry each other. And the reason for why that worksis because if they were married, then it would make more sensefor him to beat the shit out of her because she wasn't being an obedient wife. That way the crowd can be like, Oh my God, he's a lady beater, orwait, he's just a wife beater. All right, carry on then. This was the part where itreally went all downhill for me. I get that people didn't care aboutwomen being in shitty marriages, and they probably wouldn't care ifwomen were beaten by their husbands because they considered womento be property by their husbands. But there really was no other way? There really was no other solutionto clear up this misunderstanding? Okay. There's so muchmore that happens in the book but if I go on and on about it,this video will be way too long. So I actually have a separatevideo where I talk in detail about things that happen in the book,because a lot happens a lot happens. She propositions a minor, she's able to break freefrom imprisonment by singing a song called Big Titty Liddy. I swear to God, I'mnot making this shit up. Big Titty Liddy is like this song that isso monumental to this story all the way to the very climax, like the mostaction high intense scene of the book gets sidetracked bythe Big Titty Liddy song. And it was at that point where I was like, I can't rate this book any higherthan two stars. I'm sorry. It's just not... But I'm still ranking itas number five in this list, because even though I found the wholestory to be totally absurd and ridiculous, I still want to give props to the author. I was reminded a lot of Sarah J.Maas while I was reading this book, because the writing style and someof the way that the plot is fabricated a little bit reminds me of Sarah J Maas. And I didn't realize untilhalfway through the book that Sarah is actually thisauthor's favorite author, and "A Court of Mist and Fury"is this author's favorite book. And then when I found that out, after being in dismay, therewas also some part of me that kind of felt proud of this author, because I was able to makethe connection of this book to the "A Court of Thorns and Roses Series," which regardless of my feelingsfor that book series is something that this author really loves. So I think that's kind of likean amazing accomplishment. So I actually feel like in a way,she did a great job in that aspect. The kind of people who love"A Court of Thorns and Roses" would love, "Serpent & Dove." That's the kind of audience anddemographic that she wants to go for, and I think she has succeeded inthat. So was the book ridiculous? Yes. But I still want to give props to her forthat, because it's like, own your truth, you know? I think this is a debutnovel and she already hit the mark right. Good for her, get your coin, andkeep on singing Big Titty Liddy. I may not have rated your bookhighly, but I support you, regardless. At number four, I amgonna put "The Couple Next Door" which is a domestic thriller about a couplewho went over to their neighbor's house, and they left their baby athome because they were like, well, I mean, we're just rightnext door, we have a baby monitor. So if anything happens, we could just pop on by tomake sure that the baby is okay. Except after their dinner party is overand they go back home, their baby is gone. And they're like, Oh my God, my baby. What happened to my baby, who could have knownthat leaving a baby alone for several hours unsupervisedwould result into this? Who would have thought? It's very similar to this truestory that happened to a child that I think was named Madeleine. So I guess the author took that storyas inspiration for the setup of the plot, but the rest of the story and theexecution just really fell flat for me. The truth of what happensis much more complicated, hopefully not as complicatedas the actual story because the truth is actually very stupid, and I can't really elaboratefurther on that without spoilers. There was a detective thathas to figure out what is going on and everyone involved is suspicious. The neighbors are suspiciousthey're very sketchy. The neighbors are basically this one lady whose only personalitytrait is being a slut. And then the other guy is likeher husband, but he's just there. So I'm guessing he's just like a cuck. What I've noticed in thriller books is that every time there's acharacter who acts like a skank, she's automaticallyvery suspicious because, you know, we can't betrusting these hoes out here. But I would argue that the maincouple is even more annoying because the mom is justhysterically crying the whole time, and does nothing tocontribute to the actual story. Like what was her role in the story besides giving birth to thischild who is now missing? She didn't do anything! And the dad isliterally the stupidest human being alive. His logic was non-existent. That part in his brain, whatever part that focuses on like thelogic and reasoning and common sense, it does not fucking exist. And then the detectivesthemselves are also very aggressive to the point where I waslike, Yo, this is unprofessional. Like, right away, they barge in andthey're like, you did it, didn't you? Hey, we know that your child is missing and we're supposed tohelp you find your baby but we're gonna go ahead and straight up accuse you ofhaving something to do with it. And it's like, dude, regardless of whetheryou think this couple actually did or not, why are you going all out guns blazing, accusing them of somethingand obviously that's gonna make them shut down and nottry to give you any more info. Like damn, for detectives youcan't just be subtle about this? Plus, the writing often reliedon one of my pet peeves, which is telling instead of showing. It was straight up tell you whatthe character's motivations were, and what their personality traits were without actually describing it foryou to figure it out on your own. And I feel like that's even more importantto make sure not to do in the thriller, because the whole point ofreading a thriller or a mystery or a suspenseful story is to guess whatthe motivations of the characters could be. So if you just straight upsay what the motivations are, like why am I even reading this book then? Now I'm just reading about a bunch ofidiots who couldn't take care of a baby. Basically the "The Couple Next Door" madeit on my Top Worst books of the year because all thecharacters were just stupid. I'm convinced that the mostintelligent character of this whole story was the baby herself. For number three, I'mgonna put "Nevernight" which is an adult fantasy book thatwas so edgy it nearly even cut me. From the moment that youread it you feel like you're in a My Chemical Romance music video. The story follows a 16 year oldgirl who joins a school of assassins so that she can seekvengeance on her family. This 16 year old girl is thebaddest bitch to rule the world. She's not like other 16 yearold girls, she has flat titties. She has uneven bangs that she cuts herself. She kills people andshe doesn't care about it. And she's described as ugly because she has sharp prominentcheekbones from being skinny, I guess... What I found the mostabsurd about this book was that she joined the school of assassins and part of the lessons that she has tolearn on how to be the next best assassin is to be super sexy, becausesexiness is power I guess. Like her teacher, who basicallyis the instructor for sexiness 101 has this whole monologue about whybeing sexy is useful to your advantage. And it's just this typical femme fatalebullshit that a lot of male writers rely on because then it's like, oh, now we can make surethat this female character is sexy so that the guy could be into it, but the girls can still thinkthat this is somehow feminism. What the teacher doesis give the main character, a 16 year old girl a boob job andplastic surgery to rearrange her face, because she's too pale, hercheekbones are too prominent, you know, it's just reallyhard to be a skinny girl. So she gets a boob job in order tohelp her be a better assassin I guess, but if you were gonna be an assassin, wouldn't it be better foryou to have flat titties, because aren't assassinssupposed to be like behind the scenes, not noticeable to other people? Assassins are supposedto be in the shadows right? Like you're not supposed to rememberthem as this sexy big titty lady girl. They have to be good atsleuthing and sneaking around. So how are they gonnasneak around if their big titties are getting in the way from themcrawling through a vent, or, I don't know. I don't know what assassins do. Clearly I didn't learn enoughfrom that assassin school. But that was just one of themost ridiculous things I read. I did an entire video about this book because there were just somany lines where I was like, what the fuck am I reading? Like literally what thefuck am I reading right now? I can understand the appeal forwhy people might like this book because you can tell that theauthor has a lot of fun writing it. Like you can tell he really lovesto write like he really loves it. Like he loves his own writing. He'll go on and on and on aboutit in several page long monologues and you're like, Please stop. No more monologues. But he doesn't care. He's gonna keep on doing it. I could not get into it.It was too edgy for me. Maybe I'm too vanilla but Ican't deal with a 16 year old girl trying to be assassins with all theseother prepubescent bitches out here. Just to give you an idea of howedgy it is there is this one comparison about how her beauty is likethe beauty of a fresh suicide. Like what the fuck is thateven supposed to mean? It's like the author just picksthe edgiest thing he could think of so that he could compare it tosomething that's not even related to it. So much of the writing is purpleprose that should have been cut out, but it didn't. It's like the authorbinge watched Monty Python, took Adderall and thenwrote this whole novel as a stream ofconsciousness in one sitting. At number two, I have placed "TrueColors" by Kristin Hannah for that spot. Ironically, I have herother book "Nightingale" as one of the best booksI read in the year 2020. So I really admire howflexible the author is, with creating such a wide range of stories that she was able tomake it on both of my lists. She wrote this book a long time ago though, and I think you can kind of tell because a lot of the stuff that waswritten in true colors was not that PC. I don't know how to describe thisbook other than horse girls soap opera, which is a sprinkle of problematicdepictions of indigenous characters just for a little bit of flavor. The story follows three sisters but in away it basically only follows two sisters, because the middle child is just there and like in the backgroundforgotten about. Which you could argue is accurateportrayals of what middle children are like. The oldest sister is describedas an overweight bookworm. Literally describes that in the synopsis. She's a lawyer and she'ssuper successful in her career, but that doesn't reallymatter because she is single and alone and she is soold, but she's not married. She is very jealous of the youngestsister who is her father's favorite. She is so beautiful. All the boys want her. She is just the gem of the family. The older sister gets even morejealous when one day this guy that she has had a crush on since theywere little falls for the younger sister. And he asked to date her and becausethe younger sister is the kind of girl that kind of just like goes with the flow, and doesn't know what she reallywants she's just like, I mean, I guess. And the older sister's like how dare shetakes my man who isn't actually my man, but I kind of had dibs on him anyway. I mean, I didn't tell anyone I had dibs,but she should have been a mind reader. Throughout the book, themiddle sister keeps on telling her, hey, why don't you just tell herhow you really feel about this guy. Because if you justcommunicate your issues, then the younger sister would have neverwanted to hurt you in the first place. And then the older sister is like Shut up. You're a middle child. Nobodylistens to you or cares about you. And then the middle sister islike, alright, good talk Peace out and then she fadesaway to the background. It escalates to the point where the guyends up proposing to the younger sister. And again, the younger sister isjust like, I mean, all right I guess. So she accepts the proposal. They get engaged, theolder sister is seething and then to add more drama, their father ends up hiring a newman to work at their horse ranch. He is an indigenous manwith a very secretive history. He doesn't like to talk about hispast, but he's kind of like the bad boy. There's like rumors about him beingviolent and having like a criminal record. He ends up seducing the younger sister, even though he knows that she'sengaged because he's just like, I know you're not actuallyinterested in that dude. So how about you go bang me? And she's just like, all right. So they end up having an affairand the older sister finds out about it and she's like, Oh my God, I can't believe I can now usethis tea to fuel my vindication against my own flesh and blood over a man who doesn't even give a shit about me. I have barely scratched thesurface of what happens in this story, but that's basically just the beginning. There are a few reasons why thisbook is on my worst books of 2020 list. The first, it's that the sisters, allof them were such character chairs. This is actually an issue that Inoticed in Kristin Hannah's other book, "The Nightingale," but it wasless of an issue in that other book, because at least in that one, the other sisters you can kindof believe cared about each other, and where it's so bitchytowards one another, whereas in true colors, theolder sister was so fucking awful to the younger one when shedidn't even communicate her issues with her in the first place. Like okay, so you just hateher because she's pretty. Because she's with a guythat you had a crush on, but you'd even tell herthat you had a crush on him. And the older sister constantlytalks about how fat she is and how bad she feels about how fat she is. A lot of women deal with body image issues, so it is kind of realistic for her totalk very poorly about her body, but it felt very weird for meto read that constant belittling of her own body and negative self talk, when Kristin Hannah herselfis a skinny blonde lady. Like she looks morelike the younger sister, but the older sister constantly thinksof herself as ugly and fat and unlovable. It would be one thing if shethought that in the beginning, but then there is character development and she learns to love herself in the end, but that didn't happen eventill the very end of the book, she still constantlysought male validation. I hated how passive aggressive and jealous and vindictive she wastowards her younger sister. And I don't think that shouldbe equated to being fat. Like, just because you're fat doesn't mean you're jealousof every skinny bitch out there. You can be a fat girl andstill be a good fucking person. And the indigenous character in the book, I did like reading aboutcompared to the other characters, but I didn't like how he wasportrayed as like this dangerous and seductive man that literallywill steal your white women away. Like he's definitely sympatheticthroughout the story, and I did care about him,I wanted the best for him. But there's just something weirdabout the only person of color in this entire story is a dudewho is seen as like a bad boy and dangerous and hasa violent criminal past, and will steal your beautiful whitewomen away from her husband, just doesn't sit right with me. There's just like, way too many implicationsthat I don't feel comfortable with, especially considering KristinHannah is a white author. And what was this book evensupposed to be about, like sisterhood? Because if so that was a reallyshitty portrayal of sisterhood. My only hope is that the indigenouscharacter gets the fuck out of that family. And then the last book that I amsaving for the number one spot is "The Wives" by Tarryn Fisher. You have probably already seen myfull video commentary about this book, and I remember when I wasputting together that video, I had to open a Google doc andliterally write down every single thing that happened in the book andlook up quotes and take screenshots, because I knew if I justrecited it from memory, people would not believe methat this actually happened. I need a screenshots of actualquotes of the writing to show that yes, the author literally wrote this line. And yes, this literally happened. To refresh your memory "The Wives" isabout a main character named Thursday, who is married to a husbandwho has two other wives. She's never met them and shedoesn't know anything about them. The only thing that she does know is that he visits them onspecific days of the week. He has his schedule arranged where hedivides his time between the three wives, because all three of themlive separately from each other. So the other ones are calledMonday and Wednesday. She doesn't know whattheir actual names are. She just calls them by that, becausethat's when he visits those two women. It's a very unusual arrangement butthe main character agrees to it anyway, because she's just so crazyabout him, he's such a good catch. Why you ask? I don't fucking know. There was literally nothing good about him. But then the main charactercan no longer stand anymore, and she needs to find outthe truth about the other wives and who they are and what's going on. And while she tries to findout who the other wives are, she begins to uncover secretsthat her husband is possibly hiding. I picked up this book because I feltlike the premise was actually interesting. I wanted to know more about thisweird arrangement that they had, and how she ended up there, and what kind of secretsthat the husband was hiding. Because let's be real, the husband is definitely hidingsomething that's shady as hell. In the beginning of the book, there are so many lines that I wasmaking fun of in my full video review. Where the lines were saying somethingabout how she had no other hobby, other than just being a wife to him. And she spent all this timearranging the table to make sure that it was the bestone suited for his needs. And she got like a flower arrangement that looks like a clitoris just sothat it could entice him to bang her. Literally that's how the writing was like. But I didn't even mind that atfirst. It was there for a reason, right? I was like, okay, maybe this is like a commentaryfor how smitten she is with this dude and how brainwashed she is by this man. Because as much as I make funof him for being this basic bitch who somehow now has several women,a lot of men are like that in real life. There's so many women who joincults from a dude who's so fucking ugly, but apparently he'scharismatic or whatever. There are men who existswho have multiple wives who are super loyal to himeven though he ain't shit. I felt like this could havebeen really good commentary for the kind of genderdynamics that come with that. Why is it that is always onehusband and multiple wives? Throughout the book, the main character is alwaysshit talking about the other wives and comparing herself to them, andjudging them for their own decisions. Like one of the otherwise is a career woman, and she judges her for prioritizing hercareer over bringing kids to the husband. Again, I didn't quite have aproblem with that in the beginning because I was like, thiscould be commentary, because in these types of dynamicswomen are being pitted against each other, and are judging each otherwhen really the common enemy is the man who is manipulatingthem and taking advantage of them. I can't really say how itactually went without spoiling it but you want to know allthe crazy shit that happens. You can click under thevideo that I made about it. What actually happens is such aheavy handed and she plot twist. And the most like unoriginalplots twist you could ever make, this author could haveliterally written anything else, and it would have been better thanwhat actually happens in the book. What I found so stupid was that thebook I think prides itself in being a story that has a lot of twists and turns, like you think one thing butthen another thing happens and you're shocked by that. But that doesn't necessarilymean that's a good book. Because if one thing happens, and then theauthor is like just kidding this happen, but then the author is like, just kidding, that didn't happen, this thing happened and you keep going back and forth and you don't know whatactually happened and what's real. That's not a good story. That's just you being the mostunreliable writer of all time. It was just so convolutedand so melodramatic. Reading the entire bookfelt like a fever dream. If there was a book that couldgaslight me, it would be this book. And so ends my top five list ofworst books that I have read in 2020. What a messy year for messy books.