April 2024

April is the month for fools, and we were fools for thinking these books and movies would be good! Take a look at our Staff Anti-Picks. These were so bad that we just had to complain about them. We didn’t enjoy them, but maybe you will!

*

*

*

*

Paula – Circulation

It Ends With Us, by Colleen Hoover, Fiction Hoover

I was so disappointed with this book. It’s probably one of the most hyped books I’ve heard of, but it was so bad. First of all, I was told it was spicy. It is not. It’s mild spice at best. Second, Ryle is probably one of the worst characters I’ve ever read about. Even if he wasn’t an abusive jerk, there were so many red flags in the beginning that anyone in real life would’ve picked up on. Begging someone for sex because they can’t do their job? Bragging about being so good that their partner doesn’t have to do any work? I’m sorry, but if someone ever says that to you, they are not worth your time. I know the purpose of this book was to delve into how hard it can be to be in an abusive relationship, especially when you still love the abuser. But Colleen Hoover missed the mark. It’s being marketed as a romance book, which is just wrong. IT IS NOT A ROMANCE BOOK. It’s about domestic abuse! At times it almost seems like Ryle’s actions are acceptable, but they are not. At all. Why doesn’t Ryle go get actual help?? How can Lily feel comfortable maintaining a relationship with him? Also, a lot of the book was just plain boring. The first half of the book just dragged. I don’t know how I managed to get through it. The writing was just so bad. The whole relationship with Atlas started to feel irrelevant after a certain point. He’s pretty much just a plot point to fuel Ryle’s rage. If you’re looking for a good romance book that this was supposedly promised to be, you’re out of luck.

*

From Blood and Ash series, by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Fiction Armentrout

This romantasy series was recommended to me because I absolutely loved the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I’m so mad I wasted my time reading this. I somehow got through the first three books, and each book kept getting worse and worse. It’s a cheap knock-off of ACOTAR with horrible writing and even worse characters. The main characters are just plain annoying. Poppy is a “special girl who isn’t like other girls” and is as dumb as a rock. Casteel is a bad-boy frat bro who clearly doesn’t know what consent means. He ignores what Poppy actually wants and tries to make her believe that she likes what he is doing. He’s also hundreds of years old and acts like a teenager. He’s creepy and gross and probably the worst love interest I’ve ever read about. Poppy and Casteel know each other for a handful of months but are hopelessly iN lOvE wItH eAcH oThEr, but that’s a problem because it’s “forbidden and not meant to be.” Haven’t heard that one before. Also, the world building is just terrible. There are different categories of vampires and gods but they honestly all sound the same and I couldn’t tell you the difference between them because the author barely explains what the difference is. There are whole chapters dedicated to boring info dumps that I started skipping because they really weren’t relevant to the story. The plot twists are so predictable that anyone could’ve seen them coming from a mile away. I just don’t have it in me to read any more of this series. If I do, it’s because I just want to see how badly it ends. Don’t be like me, avoid this series at all costs.

*

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, Fiction Coelho

If there’s one thing I hate in books and movies, it’s a pointless journey. And that’s what this whole book is. A pointless journey. The main character, whose name I can’t even remember, basically goes on a treasure hunt and tries to find himself or something. Along the way, he gets beaten up, taken advantage of, and gets his money stolen multiple times. He makes it to the end just to be told the treasure is actually in the place he first started in. SO HE WENT ALL THAT WAY FOR NOTHING. People say it’s aBoUt tHe jOuRnEy, nOt tHe dEsTiNaTiOn. Nah man, if I journeyed all that way for nothing I would be extremely mad. During the journey, he also tells a girl he’s known for thirty seconds that he loves her and wants to marry her, and she’s like “sure ok I love you too you weird creepy dude I’ve only just met.” Boooo, boo the fast, ridiculous romance that has no development. I also couldn’t get into the whole “soul of the world” thing and him talking to his heart and the wind and the trees and the sky and all that. It was just too much. Overall, if someone is going on a treasure hunt, there better be treasure at the end.

*

Leslie – Circulation

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson, Fiction Stevenson

This book received so many rave reviews but I just could not get into it. I couldn’t tell you a thing about it. I struggled through the whole book.

*

*

*

*

Melissa – Technical Services

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed, Biography 921 Strayed, C.

At 22, Strayed loses her mother and amidst the grief, all of her family falls apart. Siblings drift and her marriage crumbles after she repeatedly cheats on her husband. Then she turns to drugs. So she decides to hike the PCT alone, with no hiking experience, to “find herself.” Ugh. Her experiences should garner empathy, but what readers get is preachy, empty, and repetitive. Her character is unsufferable. Thumbs down.

*

The Cottage on Pumpkin and Vine, by Kate Angell, Fiction Cottage

It’s dubbed a Halloween romance, so definitely for light, cozy reading. A popular decorator has hired a moving team to decorate an old mansion for a Halloween party. On page 2: “They didn’t like being bossed around by a woman, not even an attractive one.” Okay so we’ve got sexism as a tool for friction and tension. So the dude doesn’t like Halloween, and this is supposed to give him some dimension. But when, on page 4, he needs to take a break from the job because he is overwhelmed at the thought of “ghostly boos and cackling witches” and “needed to clear his head”. Just ugh. The author is going for an angsty manly mover-man, but all I see is whiny and pathetic. Page 4, and I’m out.

*

Cathy – Circulation

Radium Girls, starring Joey King, Abby Quinn, and Cara Seymour, DVD Radium Girls

Interesting story but horribly acted and over all a bad movie. However the upside is the book might be good! How many of us think the book is better than the movie! 

*

*

*

I Must Be Dreaming, by Roz Chast, Graphic Novel Chast

I absolutely love her work! This was not a good book! So bad didn’t finish it! Her book titled Can’t We Talk about Something Else is outstanding. She is a cartoonist for the New Yorker and is usually spot on with her observations of everyday life and such. Please choose another book by her and put this one back on the shelf! Eekks!! 

*

*

Katie – Circulation

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, Fiction Bronte

As a teen I reveled in the tragedy and the thwarted love aspects of this book, but on re-reading it as an adult it is just annoying! Each character makes worse and worse decisions, and they make each other’s lives worse for it. The only character in it who is half-way worthwhile bears the brunt of the moody machinations of the main characters! Sorry to anyone who liked it, but it I find it just awful!

*

*

Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff, Fiction Groff

In all honesty, I should have made this an exception to my rule of “read a book through to the end before judging it.” I should have just given up by the second or third time the main characters made me roll my eyes and harrumph. I kept waiting for the trials and tribulations to bring about some character development, some redeeming quality. It never happens. The characters are selfish, flawed, shallow, and honestly not believable either. The author seems to be trying so hard to write the “great American novel,” her prose is expansive and excessive! And don’t even get me started about the dog! Again, apologies if you liked this book, and I totally get that there are many people to whom bad things happen and it doesn’t make them better people, but I’d rather not waste my time reading about them. 

*

Soha – Youth Services

Midsommar, starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, and Will Poulter, DVD Midsommar

I have a background in cultural anthropology, and let me tell you, SPOILER​: they all deserve everything that happens to them (minus Florence Pugh, her poor character). These so called anthropology grad students give the rest of us a really bad name. They teach you universal rules as a cultural anthropologist in ANTH101….. 101 PEOPLE!!! And they broke every single one of them. I can’t speak for the characters who were not portrayed as Anthro students, but for those who knew better, shame on them. I enjoyed watching their demise at the end. Absolutely ridiculous. I watched it when it came out in theaters and I was marinating the entire time. Still marinating about it. Really interesting movie, highly recommend it, but I will never watch it again.

*

Hubbell – Circulation

Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr., New DVD Oppenheimer

Was this a movie about the worst invention of all time? Or about Robert Oppenheimer’s epic sex life? Or his political persecution? Or about those down-home sensibilities of New Mexican ranching? This viewer could not see through all the muck through to the Oscar stage. The acting is fine; I found Florence Pugh’s performance the most engaging. But the film tried to touch on so much that nothing impressed.