best and worst reads of 2022 || welcome to the annual ranting and raving session!

2022 is almost over. Isn’t that so insane?

I mean it feels like I was writing my “best and worst reads of 2021” just a few days ago?? BUT IT’S BEEN A WHOLE YEAR?

Surprisingly though this was a great reading year for me. I managed to surpass my reading goal of a 100 books even after multiple breakdowns over it, and actually managed to get through 115 books?? WHAT HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??

*flashbacks to me being over 10 books behind my reading goal in March*

I read a wide assortment of books this year, including a wide assortment of fanfiction which I’d prefer not to mention on here because yikes was that a scary era. But I did manage to diversify my reading taste a lot more this year- not necessarily genre wise but still a lot better than what it was last year. I also may or may not have gotten into a bit of classics rush in the latter half of the year, picking up a LOT of Shakespeare ( Naemi, I did this for you )

Of course with all good there must come some terrible intrusions barging in the way, and there were a LOT of bad reads this year, for it was the year I also got into my first Colleen Hoover book! THAT is not something I would ever like to do again.

Anyways without further ado THE BOOKS !! –

the best of the year

1. The Wicked King

Ah of course The Wicked King, would this really be a Random Reader’s Rambles post without Suhani mentioning this book at least once?? I’ve spoken about why I love this book so much COUNTLESS times (sorry y’all gotta keep up with my brand image)

The immaculate romance, writing, and characters seal the deal for me and I think I’ve grown to have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with it. However, I did reread it recently and actually lowered a star because it wasn’t as good as the first time (this is a sign not to reread all of your favourites)

2. A Conjuring of Light

Listen, I love V.E Schwab. I’ve devoured her books since I first got into the YA genre, and I can’t believe it took me so long to pick up her most popular series. But it definitely did not disappoint.

The writing, characters, and plot make the shades of magic series so enjoyable to read, and god was it a rollercoaster of emotions. I adore Kell and Lila, and Holland too?? His character arc was one of my favorites from the series, honestly probably one of my favorites of all time.

The finale had me on my toes for the entire time and I finished this massive book in A DAY?? If that doesn’t convince you to read this I don’t know what will.

but basically go READ IT!!!

3. The Burning God

Ah the poppy war trilogy, the cause of so much trauma yet the cause of so much joy as well. I think I’ve well established the fact that this series means so much to me and even it took me almost a month to pick up the finale because of it’s daunting size and because I’m frankly speaking not well prepared for this kind of pain, it was completely worth it.

Obviously I was a broken screaming crying mess by the end of this but hey what else did we expect 🤗

It was perfect and so extremely painful in every possible way, RF Kuang is such a masterful genius when it comes to writing fantasy, every moment is perfectly crafted to build up to the final showdown at the end IT’S SPECTACULAR

also i had a library copy of this and forgot about it until the day it was due so i read the entire book in 5 hours. not fun!!!

4. If We Were Villains

THE book that got me out my year long book-reviewing slump. THE book that made me get obsessed with dark academia. I even got through all the random Shakespeare references!!! C’mon if a book made me get through all of that, it HAS to be good.

The phenomenal and lucid prose is an absolute joy to read and I’m simply in love with the way ML Rio conveys the characters’ thoughts and motives. It’s dramatic, but moreover it’s theatric – and that’s exactly what I adore about it. The pretentious characters manage to not be completely despicable and the relationship between James and Oliver was one of the best I’ve ever read about – those final chapters delivered ALL the heartbreak indeed.

I actually have written a full review for this right over here!

5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Here’s the thing, I completely devoured this book the first time I read it, I loved every aspect of it. I enjoyed it SO MUCH that I just had to go and reread it again the second time around. Like only a month after I read it?? I find myself constantly thinking back on this and randomly getting the urge to pick this up and dive into the TJR world all over again .

This probably one of the few booktok books I’m not mad about reading, because it actually lived up to the hype??? This book deserves a million stars and more. With a vivid plot starring glamorous characters, and writing that truly engulfs you in the world of fame, fortune and scandals; this book truly astonished me in all the right ways. I don’t think I will EVER be able to properly be able to comprehend my thoughts on this one because it was simply stellar

the worst of the year

now we’ve reached the fun part *evil laugh*

1. Shatter Me

Presenting to you the ‘It’ book of the 2010’s YA Dystopia phase – Shatter Me!!

yea this was absolute trash

I subjected myself to this torture since EVERYONE keeps on talking about Aaron Warner, and well the booktok peer pressure got to me. I didn’t actually expect much going into it anyways but oh boy it was worse than I imagined. Plot? None to be found. Characters? mind numbingly dumb and boring. Writing? STUPID MEANINGLESS METAPHORS SCATTERED EVERYWHERE. Don’t even get me started on the strikethroughs.

Juliette is by far the dumbest MC I’ve met (though she does get slightly better in the other books) and the love interests?? They’re almost like stalkers?? There’s no chemistry present at all?? WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS SO MUCH

2. People We Meet On Vacation

Controversy? You know I love it!!

I ranted about this a while back but I have the sudden urge to create rage amongst the Emily Henry stans once again. Listen, I did enjoy her other two books quite a bit but her most popular one? IT WAS A COMPLETE LET DOWN.

We have our wonderful ‘I’m-not-like-other-girls” female main character Poppy who is the most pick-me girl I’ve ever seen, and our absolutely soulless male main character Alex who I conveniently can’t remember anything about!

Their friends-to-lovers plot line is just a huge mess filled with miscommunication which could have been easily fixed if they had just TALKED IT OUT!!! did i really need to sit through 370 pages of this mess? answer- no i did not

3. It Ends With Us

Can’t wait to make to make all the Coho fans mad again.

This book was bad. Extremely bad. I appreciate the message it tries to send through along with the impact of the author’s note, however the execution was terrible in every possible way.

Firstly why is this marketed as romance? IT IS NOT, please check the trigger warnings before checking this out because I was completely unaware of them before reading this.

Frankly speaking I don’t understand why this is so hyped up. The writing was extremely bland featuring simple sentences even I could have pieced together, characters who cannot make decisions for themselves, and Atlas the most basic boy ever who everyone keeps fawning over! please stop.

I’ve got a lot of other problems with this, and the overall influx of hype for Colleen Hoover in general but to be honest with you I am kinda scared of the Coho stans lol so I’ll keep them with myself for now…

4. The Foxhole Court

To preface this, I actually enjoyed the rest of the series (YOU CAN PUT YOUR KNIVES AWAY)

But this book easily wins the award for the ‘most-fanfiction-like-book-to ever-be-published’

I wasn’t really concentrating when I was reading this so this me be a ‘it’s me not you’ sort of problem anyways but my main gripe is ‘WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CHARACTERS, I DON’T REMEMBER ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS.‘ Also the fact that this revolves around a made up sport which is basically hockey but more aggressive. Here’s the thing- I don’t play hockey, I don’t watch hockey, I don’t know how it works. To add to that fact the rules of this new game are never actually explained?? How could one possibly keep up with this?? And they only ever play one game of said sport??

this book was a full on fever dream.

5. City of Fallen Angels

Well folks, we’ve reached the final one from this list. Maybe the one I’m most excited to rant about as well.

Nothing happens in this book. I stress on the fact *NOTHING*. Except all our characters get alter egos and become more childish than the last time we met them. oh my poor Simon I well never forget how they made you a playboy.

Jace was EXTREMELY annoying (actually when is he not annoying), and so was basically everyone else. Also Jace and Clary are so toxic???? It seems that every time they have a minor inconvenience between them they cannot talk it out and have to hook up to solve it. And Jace’s superiority complex is not cool, it’s just childish ✋🙄 Remind me why everyone likes him so much??

I stopped reading the series after this because I CANNOT handle this anymore also because the next two books are ginormous and I don’t think I can put up with Jace for that long.

What were some of your favourite reads from this year?? And what were the worst?? Do you have any books you need to complete before 2022?

That’s it for this post, I hope you all enjoyed!! Hope you had a very festive holiday season too!!

byEeee