The Chocolate Lady’s Worst Books of 2022!
It wasn’t that long ago that I shied away from quitting a book. But I’m getting older, and since I retired, I refuse to deprive myself. That means I will no longer suffer through a book I’m not enjoying. I should have done this sooner, I know. In fact, my fellow blogger Aryssa @ Aryssa Reads posted something on December 29th which struck a chord with me, and prompted me to write this post. She declared that in 2023 she “… will DNF a book if it takes me more than 2 days to read 50 pages.” Since I’ve been told you all about my favorite books of 2022, and since I’m owning up to DNFing books (I’ve done 13 DNF Friday posts so far), I might as well tell you about the five 2022 books I DNF this year (and since this is the first Friday the 13th of 2023, well… bad luck for these authors, I’m afraid)!
I’m going to count down from least bad to most horrible here so, without any further ado…
The 5th Worst Book
A Lady Newspaperman’s Dilema by Eileen Joyce Donovan.
This was actually just a shame, and very unfortunate. I did like the premise here, and it seemed like it might have been a good story, but the file I got from the publisher was totally unreadable. They even sent me a different version, and that was worse. I’m not talking about just suddently seeing strange fonts, or uneven formatting; I’m talking about whole swaths of text seeming to be missing in one place and showing up somewhere else! Yeah, that bad. I know, I probably should take this one out of my DNF pile and put it on my NRN (Not Right Now) pile, but… the writing wasn’t all that great, either.
The 4th Worst Book
Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini
I had such high hopes for this one, and I was sure I wouldn’t get approved for this one. I mean… Chiaverini isn’t an unknown author, and I liked her “Enchantress of Numbers.” With the subject matter reminding me of Runyan’s “Girls on the Line” I had very high hopes. That’s why I was shocked when I just barely scraped through the first sections introducing our main protagonists here. Okay, so Enchantress wasn’t a WOW book for me, but it wasn’t so heavy-handed with the background details. Perhaps Chiaverini bit off more than she could chew with having to profile three women instead of just one. Sorry, but I didn’t care about any of them after that, so I dropped the book altogether.
The 3rd Worst Book
The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon.
The link in the title here is not to Goodreads, it is actually to my “non-review” of this novel that I put up as a #DNF Friday post. In case you don’t want to click on that link, let me just say that this was supposed to be a comedy, but I found it to be just sad! Furthermore, it made me think about those bad sit-com TV shows where it is all about the slapstick, physical humor and everything is over the top and stereotyped to extreme. You know, the kind where they don’t have a studio audience, and instead put in a laugh track behind the dialogue so that the viewers will know what’s supposed to be funny. Well, they were wrong; I DNF this one because I didn’t laugh even once.
The 2nd Worst Book
Chaos at Carnegie Hall by Kelly Oliver
Um… I really liked the writing here – very snappy and alive. However, if these are the type of people who the British Home Office sent abroad on espionage missions during the Great War, it is a wonder that the allies ever won. They’re all so preoccupied with everything else around them (romance, their dogs, flirting with women), that I can’t see them solving any kind of mystery or catching even a fly! And they all seem so… well… stupid (even having a photographic memory doesn’t mean you can figure out the meaning behind what you’re brain has photographed). In addition, everyone was far too talkative for people wandering around under cover. Plus, all the “famous” people here – Dorothy Parker, Margaret Sanger, Thomas Edison, J. Edgar Hoover – just felt all too convenient and inserted just to drop their names. Sorry!
The Absolute #1 WORST Book of 2022!
Hotel Portofino by P.J. O’Connor
Again, I did a DNF Friday for this one already, which you’ll find in the link above. The thing is, this is the real reason I wrote this post – because this book and its subsequent TV series pissed me off. I’m totally certain that someone was trying to pull a fast one over on us with this book – tossing out a novel for the sole purposes of promoting an upcoming TV series. Sadly, this is one of those cases where the book and the filmed version are exact matches – they’re both terrible! Both are a jumble of inconsistencies and confusion, with unlikely characters doing absurd and/or stupid things, and expecting us to allow them their follies because they’re all rich and/or upper class! Plus, they want us to feel sorry for them that their wealth has made them the target of the local “authorities” who are nothing but everyday thugs acting as puppets for Mussolini.
The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog 
“… will DNF a book if it takes me more than 2 days to read 50 pages.” — oh, that is an interesting idea. Meaning that I would have DNFd my current read a few days ago. However, I stuck with it, I am finally halfway and it is starting to develop some very good ideas. Yes, it drags…
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Yes, I thought so too. Mind you, if it is a print book, I’d have to give it three days at least, because I only read print books in bed and I usually read about 20 pages a night, so… I think that blogger was a bit harsher than I am, to be honest.
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Well, it‘s about personal goals as well. And personal speed and real life. I have been sick and did not feel well, so my reading went down. And some books are just slower than others. So rigid rules can be helpful, but don‘t always fit the actual situation.
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That said… there are some books where you know within the first few pages that it is just not working for you, and you have to give up.
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True as well. I tend to put those to the side to try again later. They end up clogging my TBR for years. Maybe here it would be good if I could be crueler to those books and get rid of them once and for all.
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Learning to be ruthless is an art!
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I started keeping track of my DNFs this year. A couple I didn’t finish were Finlay Donovan Is Killing It — it was supposed to be funny but i just found it depressing — and The House at Tyneford — the main character annoyed me too much.
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I haven’t heard of either of these, so… I’m not in any danger! Thanks!
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I’d have to go back and count, but I DNFd at least three books last year (not counting a couple where I read only a couple of pages and realized that they were not books for me). One of my DNFs — sci fi by an author I’ve really liked in the past — was a big disappoinment, and I tried so hard to convince myself to stick with it. Just couldn’t do it. I’ve already had my first DNF for 2023 too! The book was fine, but it was a non-fiction science book, and although interesting, I just couldn’t see finishing it.
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I’m almost finished with a book that I almost DNF, but I decided to continue since I did care for the characters. Not badly written, but a bit too much telling and not enough showing for my taste.
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Thank you for this. I haven’t read any of these books and now I don’t need to. Between you and me, a secret. I think it is a wonder that the allies won the war:)
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I usually persevere if it’s a short book, but I’ve DNFd some longer ones which I just couldn’t get into.
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I didn’t do this one for books I read in previous years, but I think it was either 2021 or 2020 that I started reading a novella and I gave up at about 10%.
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On the bright side, Hotel Portofino has a fabulous cover!
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Oh, yes… that it does! And the cinematography for the TV series is stunningly beautiful. With many really excellent actors, as well. Sadly, both were all pretty form and no substance.
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I’m still at the stage when I try to read through my review copies even when they aren’t that great. But that said, the last few months at least haven’t thrown up any that have been unbearable. Carnegie Hall was very silly I agree but I assumed they were such idiots since it was meant to be a spoof.
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Was it supposed to be a parody? If so, it fell short at that as well. Or at least the blurb could have said “pokes fun at all the wartime spy novels” or something. I might have kept reading, if I had known that.
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It doesn’t specifically say so but I assumed from the level of silliness (as well as the exaggerated characters) that it was meant to be that.
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For the first time I wrote a DNF post this year because there were so many! I DNFed one at 7% yesterday! With age, I’m growing more impatient! Luckily I haven’t attempted any of yours in this post. The only Jennifer C book I’ve read is Resistance Women and it was very detailed and maybe not for everyone but I found the history interesting.
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Only 7% and you knew? Good for you! Also, with age, I have less patience for badly written books.
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I have heard of Hotel Portofino but I can’t remember what if anything, I meant to do about it. It’s not listed in any of my notebooks want to read; oh well, thank you for the warning, I will stave off that one.
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I DNF’d six books last year, mostly because of tone. If the author feels like they are talking down to me, or bad-mouthing their opposition, I’m just not interested in spending that much time with them. Fiction is different for me. It’s rare that I don’t finish them. But last year, I didn’t finish Bonfire of the Vanities. I’ve seen the movie and the plot was followed pretty closely… and that’s all that was making the story interesting to me. The style was just not something I loved so I walked away from it. Probably would have finished it if I hadn’t seen the movie.
Brilliant idea to revisit the DNF’s!
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Bonfire, if I recall correctly, was NOT an easy book to read. I think I finished it, but I’m not sure. It was SO long ago. Never saw the movie, though.
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War & Peace was an easier read. 😉
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