The WORST books I read (and finished) from 2016 to 2024

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Years ago, I used to feel compelled to finish reading any book I started, no matter how much I hated it or didn't want to finish it. Over the years, I've eased up, but occasionally I still find myself finishing a book I can't stand for one reason or another. 

These are the four worst books I've finished from 2016 to 2024:

• A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Beauty, Adventure, and Success by Maye Musk 
• The Crooked Staircase by Dean Koontz
• Open Grave by Kjell Eriksson
• The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

A Woman Makes a Plan by Maye Musk

I didn't realize when I picked up this memoir that it was written by Elon Musk's mother. Had I noticed before leaving the library, I would have not checked the book out. 

The book started out somewhat relatable as I was a single mother and so was Maye Musk. I faced challenges and overcame them, and so did she. Yet, the further I read, the less and less I related. Musk's advice was flippant and extremely surface level--there was no substance. She glossed over the extreme amount of privilige she and her children have had--that's not to say they didn't have challenges, but her single motherhood and mine were vastly different--and her motto throughout the book seemed to simply be along the lines of "You just have to think positive."

Ultimately, I kept hoping for some redeeming quality and got so far into the book that I decided I might as well finish it. I wish I had that time back!

I rated A Woman Makes a Plan as 2 out of 5 stars when I initially read it, but it's more like a 1 out of 5 stars in my memory.

The Crooked Staircase by Dean Koontz

I have loved every Dean Koontz novel that I've come across until The Crooked Staircase. I wanted to love this one, but it just fell flat. It didn't have the usual tension or plot twists of most of Koontz's other work. I think I only kept reading it in the hopes that it would somehow get better as the story plodded along. 

It did not.

I was initially drawn to this novel because it seemed to promise a strong, badass female heroine. Ugh, she was not likeable at all. I didn't find myself cheering for her. I didn't find myself all that interested in any aspect of this novel. It didn't have the tightly wound up thriller aspects of other novels by Koontz and the story, at points, was just absurd. 

This is another one that I rated 2 of 5 stars, but on reflection, it feels more like a 1 of 5.

My favorite Koontz novel of all time is Intensity. I've read it several times and it creeps me out every time! It's thrilling and, as the title implies, INTENSE! I love it so much that I often gift it to friends who enjoy reading thrillers. Pick up a copy HERE.

Open Grave by Kjell Larsson

Open Grave by Kjell Larsson falls into one of my favorite novel (and movie) genres: Nordic Noir. I expected to love this book, but it was awful. There were too many overlapping stories, too many disconnected plot lines, and just not enough substance. I kept reading in the hopes that it would get better, and it sort of did in the last 50 pages...but not enough.

You can read my original review HERE. The end of the book fell flat and did nothing to make me want to pick up anything else by this author.

I initially rated this one a 1 star out of 5 and I stand by that to this day.

And, lastly, the book that made me angry that I'd wasted my time reading it:

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

I am a huge Lisbeth Salander fan and the first three books about her, written by Stieg Larsson, are among my favorite novels of all time. When Larsson passed away, he left behind unfinished manuscripts and a little bit of a legal mess about who had the rights to his characters and his unfinished work. 

David Lagercrantz ended up picking up the character of Lisbeth Salander and totally missed the mark with The Girl in the Spider's Web. I remember being so upset by some of the changes he made to the character and her values that I threw the book across the room at one point and commented regularly, out loud, about how ridiculous the protrayal was. Lagercrantz might as well have given her a new name and made her into a totally unrelated character from Larsson's original protagonist. Lagercrantz made her unrecognizable and changed key elements of who Lisbeth is at her core. I feel so invested in Larsson's original character that I found Lagercrantz's work to be infuriating and a disservice to Larsson's work.

Weirdly, I was able to later separate the Stieg Larsson's version of Lisbeth from David Lagercrantz's version and ended up enjoying his subsequent novel featuring the character. 

I ended up trying to re-read The Girl in the Spider's Web to see if maybe I just wasn't giving it a fair chance, but it was awful. I rated it at 1 out of 5 stars, but it's really 0 out of 5. You can read my original review HERE.

You can pick up the original Stieg Larsson trilogy of Lisbeth Salander books HERE as an e-book or pick up physical copies HERE (book 1), HERE (book 2), and HERE (book 3).

I think I was hopeful that each of these four books would get better and surprise me--Open Grave almost did in the last 50 pages, but it was too little too late and the end was absolutely flat. If you review the list of books that I've read from 2016 to 2024, you'll notice that these are the only four books I've rated as less than 3 out of 5 reads; I no longer force myself to try to finish something if I'm really hating it. 

Have you read any of these? If you don't force yourself to finish novels you've started, what would make you continue to a read a book you aren't enjoying? 

QUESTION: How do you decide when to quit a book?

Are you a hardcore "If I start the book, I have to finish it" type of reader or do you allow yourself to quit as soon as you decide you don't want to go on? 

I participate in an online book club with members from around the world, and every now and then the idea of either quitting a book or reading to the end NO. MATTER. WHAT. comes up in discussion. 

I used to be firm about finishing every book NO. MATTER. WHAT.

Now, I shake my head when I think of how much time I wasted forcing myself through books that I truly did not enjoy -- and a couple that I truly hated. 

WHY?

I think part of my obsession with finishing books I started had its roots in a sense of needing to be a "good girl" and "perfect." I felt a false sense of obligation to each book -- the book didn't care if I finished it. The author and publisher wouldn't ever know. The librarian or book shop owner would never know. No one would know unless I told them.

It is possible that someone said something along the way that supported this false sense of commitment and responsibility -- after all, my mom was a kindergarten teacher (with forays into grades up to third), her parents and her brother were teachers, various aunts and uncles were in or peripheral to education, and my grandmother was a librarian. 

Reading was basically in my skin, my blood, my bones. I identified myself as a reader from an incredibly young age, and I probably absorbed many false beliefs about what that means as well.

My friends, if you too feel compelled to finish every single book NO. MATTER. WHAT. -- free yourself! You don't need to waste your time and energy on books you truly don't like, don't connect to, or just want to put down for any number of other reasons. 

Right here, right now, I give you permisison to put down the book you don't want to finish and find something else to read. No one will know unless you tell them and most of them won't care anyhow.

Please note, friend, I am not talking about assigned reading for school -- those books should probably be read all the way through, even the ones you can't stand.

When I became a mom at 24, I found myself with a lot less time and energy for reading due to the obvious newborn in my arms, but also due to an unsupportive and abusive partner, needing to work too, and trying to finish my undergraduate degree despite my partner's multiple attempts to stop me. I was still committed to reading every book to the very last page. As a result, I read a lot less which wasn't great for my mental health.  

A few years later, I became a single mom and had even less time to read.

I can't pinpoint the moment or experience that changed my attitude, but somewhere in my late 20s or early 30s, I gave myself permission to quit a book after 20 if I just hated it or 40 pages if I sort of liked it but not enough to keep going if I wasn't hooked by that point. And, more recently, I've given myself to quit a book even when I'm almost finished -- I just set down a memoir that was OK and easy to read, but with less than 20 pages to the end, I was bored and fed up with what started to read like a flippant, unrealistic attitude on the part of the author. All I could think as I got further and further into the book was, "Why didn't the editor step in? Maybe this was the author's experience, but do most real women feel this way about life?" Ugh...I put it down, walked away, and feel no guilt!

If you aren't enjoying what you are reading, PUT THE BOOK DOWN!

Leave a comment and let me know how YOU decide to quit a book! OR if you are committed to finishing, even if you hate the book, let me know why!

BOOK REVIEW: Open Grave by Kjell Eriksson

Book: Open Grave
Author: Kjell Eriksson (Translated from Swedish by Paul Norlen)
Publisher: Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group
Year First Published: 2009 as Öppen grav by Ordfront Förlag

ISBN: 978-1-250-02549-4
Genre: fiction, Scandivian fiction, Nordic noir, mystery, suspense

I had such high hopes for Open Grave by Kjell Eriksson -- the book is one of my favorite genres: Scandinavian (or Nordic) noir. It could have been so great if it hadn't been so slow. Please note: Open Grave appears to be the sixth novel in a series by Eriksson -- have not read the first five.

I'm actually rather amazed that I finished this novel. I kept hoping for it to speed up or for there to be some interesting turn around the next page. The writing (or at least the translation from Swedish to English) was just good enough and the suspense just slightly strong enough that I kept reading and turning pages. By the time I finally felt like nothing really interesting was going to happen and had resigned myself to a lack of plot twists ahead, I was so close to the end of the book that I decided to go ahead and just finish it. 

Sadly, while there were some great suspenseful chapters and pages, they didn't happen until almost the last 50 pages of this 280+ page novel. I really only enjoyed the last 50 pages or so and felt like the rest was just all warm up. If the first 200 pages had been condensed and the last 50 to 80 expanded, the novel would have been so much better! 

Truly, Open Grave did not really begin until nearly its end. 

The novel centers on an old man who has won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, but the award has not come without controversy. There is a jealous neighbor and former coworker, a mysterious gardener, two police officers, a lesbian daughter and her partner, and a trio of house keepers. This book seems to want to be several stories at once but none of them is carried through thoroughly enough for this novel to really feel like a strong work of fiction. The "open grave" is referred to a few times throughout, but makes no sense until the very end of the novel and then the book just...ends. 

I think I'll go back to Jo Nesbo for my next Scandi noir novel -- read my review of Midnight Sun HERE.

Although the stories aren't at all similar except in that they both involve the Nobel Prize and some suspense and tension, I was reminded of the film The Wife with Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce (with a cameo by Christian Slater) while reading Open Grave. The Wife does include suspense and a lot of marital tension. It was not what I expected, and although it was slow, I was captivated by Close's character and the warped view of himself of Pryce's character. I also enjoyed the acting by Max Irons, the son of one my favorite actors, Jeremy Irons. 

Follow the Amazon links below to check out some of my favorite Scandinavian noir novels -- but if you decide to read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, I suggest you SKIP The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye -- read why HERE.

I was so disappointed by Open Grave that I'm not going to bother sharing an Amazon link with you. If you are curious to read it, see if your local library has it first.

Is there a Nordic noir novel that you just love and think I should read? Drop a comment below!

Please note: This post does contain affiliate links. Shopping through these links is at no additional cost to you, although I may receive a small commission from your purchases. I appreciate every single penny. Thank you!

The Girl in the Spider's Web is a big disappointment

I put off reading The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz for a good long while. I was just so afraid it wouldn't live up to my expectations due to how much I loved the original three books in the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series by Steig Larsson, as well as the movies based on the books.

I am glad I finally read The Girl in the Spider's Web, but it absolutely was nowhere near as good as the original series. In fact, there were parts that I found to be just downright irrelevant and even, dare I say, stupid.

There were also several aspects to the story that simply weren't well developed and others that were so incongruous with the original series that they made it difficult to take much of the novel seriously.

Lisbeth Salander is one of my favorite literary characters, and Lagercrantz dropped some of the tight, focused aspects of her personality while adding in other details that didn't fit with the character all that well. I wondered how much of this was due to Lagercrantz's own spin on the series versus Larsson's original notes for the book versus a lack of attention to detail by Lagercrantz with regard to the original series.

My other issue with this book is the translation. Perhaps it was translated for a British audience? I don't know...there were numerous spots where the translation felt clunky and where terms that were particularly colloquial were used (for example "sticky plaster" instead of "Band-Aid" or "bandage").

In general, I found the discrepancies between this novel and the original series to be quite glaring and I do NOT recommend this book.

In fact, I found the differences to be so huge and the side stories or background details so odd that I actually want to go back through the original three books and this one so I can map out all of the details--every little one!--to see if my impressions of this book are accurate or if I'm forgetting details of the original series. So, you may see some related posts coming out soon!

Although there were a few sections of the book and story that I liked, overall it was a huge disappointment--so much so that I am NOT linking to this book at all. Instead, check out my profile on Bookshop.org for other great books! If you *really* want to buy this one, I do have it linked there...