the WORST books i read in 2025 (of the 137 i read)

Her other books, like Americana, smashed apart my brain and then put it back together with gold like Kinugi.

I am saying this as someone who has read all of her books, who read Beachread for the first time in 2025 and gave it five stars, would have given it six if I could.

I thought it sounded really, really fascinating, but in the end, this barely scratched the surface. I think it needed to go deeper.

Her newest book, Dream Count, did not tickle my pickle. The overall book for me just didn't flow very well. I found myself not wanting to pick this book back up again.

This book though is about a tumultuous mother son relationship, and to me, I just found it a bit irritating. And it's only 190 pages, but it felt like a slog.

This book did not work. And the trouble for me is this book was very clearly rushed. I don't think it succeeds particularly well at any of the three.

I love Half a Yellow Sun. Banger after banger.

It felt laborious to read. I wasn't a massive fan of Heart Lamp, but I applaud its achievement.

In M Train especially, she does my least favorite thing which is just recounting a bunch of dreams she had. It felt so mundane to me. It felt so self-indulgent perhaps. I feel like this book is so dull.

I would describe this book as being sort of like an episode of The Real Housewives, except nothing happens. There is no discernable story line and they all just become kind of like super woke at the end, but without any real substance, you know?

I love Purple Habiscus.

This feels like a book for the brain rot generation with no attention span who need to be told exactly what is going on and exactly how everyone feels in every single line. It is like the author thinks you're stupid. Everything feels so obvious.

This is the smuttification of dystopia. It's like 50 shades of 1984. This was about as revolutionary as a labu. It's lazy writing.

I didn't like this. I feel like I didn't get a lot from it aside from frustration. Like a stress ball in book form.