The Worst Books of the Decade

The 2010s were undoubtedly a great decade for books (click here for a list of the top 10!). However, as always, with the highs come the lows...here's a list of the top 10 worst books published over the last 10 years. 

Disclaimer: this post is obviously largely based on personal opinions - please don't be offended if one of your favourite books is listed below!

Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur 

Starting off with a controversial pick, we have the book which defines the Tumblr era.

Another quick disclaimer - I'm generally not a huge fan of poetry, but I can appreciate it when it's done well. 

Unfortunately for this book though, I don't think that writing a list of words in a random formation necessarily constitutes poetry...

Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James

Let's be honest, this one hardly warrants any commentary, although it did manage to outsell Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so it clearly hit the spot for some people...

Matched - Ally Condie

I've seen this book popping up on quite a few of these lists, and I couldn't agree more - it's actually the worst dystopian YA novel I've ever read (or half-read, because I had to DNF it after around 100 pages).

Allegiant - Veronica Roth 

I can remember being absolutely obsessed with Divergent when I read it (many years ago now), and even more so with Insurgent. So imagine my disappointment when this horrific excuse for a conclusion to the trilogy was released.

I honestly think Veronica Roth had come up with the start of her story and found herself writing this book with absolutely no clue where it was going to end.

It felt like she was making it up as she went along, with many plot holes and illogical, flawed explanations for what had been set up in the first two books. A total shame!

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins 

What is it with the final books in YA dystopian trilogies? Again, it seemed like Suzanne Collins had no idea what she was doing with this third book, and it completely ruined the trilogy for me.

The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater 

I'm cringing as I write this because I know how many people love this book, and the whole series, but I personally just could not stand how boring and whimsical and overwritten this was.

Caraval - Stephanie Garber 

I loved The Night Circus, so I was really excited to read another book set around a circus. Unfortunately though, this is one of the worst written books I have ever read - I was literally cringing at the sentence formation and unrealistic dialogue throughout. I'm not sure how I finished it!

We Were Liars - E. Lockhart 

Although I loved this book right up until the end, it ended up being one of the most disappointing reads of the decade. Let this be a lesson to authors everywhere that you can't write a thoroughly contemporary thriller and then introduce supernatural explanations right at the end...

I've since read more E. Lockhart and have come to the sad conclusion that her stories all start with gusto, and then end in a disappointing muddle - again, as if the ending has been undetermined until the moment it's written.

A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab 

I've covered this many, many times on my blog by now (click here and here to read), but ADSOM was my first V.E. Schwab book, and I was just left feeling unimpressed and underwhelmed, especially because of the amount of hype this series gets.

Turtles All the Way Down - John Green 

I've tried with John Green - I really have. And I just don' get it. I've never related to or felt attached to one of his characters, and all of his books are just endlessly boring - I can never wait to put them down.

And with that, we come to the end of the worst 10 books of the decade. Have you read any of these? What did you think? Let me know by adding me on Goodreads or Instagram - and remember, it's all a matter of personal opinion. That's the real beauty of books!