As controversial as it might seem, I need to give you this honest 2023 book review. Why? So you don’t make the same mistakes I made and add these books to your TBR.
I’m lucky that, out of this year’s 37 reads, my must-not read recommendations only total 6 books. I think I’m following the right recommendations and finding books in my genre with a certain ease.
Continue to scroll to find which were the deceptions, their promises, and my expectations versus what I was delivered.
Just a quick note: I tried my best not to include any spoilers. If you’re planning to read any of these, skip my 2023 book review so I don’t ruin your experience.
“Lessons in Chemistry”, by Bonnie Garmus
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Can’t believe I wrote about this book recently here in the most anticipated books of 2024 and now I’m going to trash-talk about it.
“Lessons in Chemistry” tells the story of a disruptive woman in the 60s. Elizabeth is the only woman in her team in a research institute and ends up falling in love with a Nobel-prize nominated who works with her at the said institute.
A few unfortunate events later, Elizabeth finds herself as a single mother. After an episode at her daughter’s school, she is offered a position in a culinary program with a scientific and educational approach. As she starts to gain traction with her audience, becoming a TV star, trouble arises as she is challenging women to change the status quo (in the 60s, may I remind you).
Reading this summary, you might feel excited to start this one, especially if you’re a feminist, as I am.
However, there are a couple of topics that put this book right into my must-not reads for 2023.
Starting with the fact that her baby is supposed to be four from half the book; and reading these dialogues, what a gifted child she had! This is the most eloquent and intelligent 4-year-old you’ll ever read about in fiction. I know it is fiction, but come on… No child of 4 years old speaks like this.
The second point that got on my nerves, and I’m going to admit I’m not the biggest physician or scientist, but the amount of incorrect, incoherent scientific details… From instruments to procedures… It upsets me to see lazy authors who don’t do enough good research.
The last topic for this 2023 book review is that Elizabeth had all the potential to be what Bonnie aimed for her to be: a strong independent female character who survives a lot of bad things that happened slash are done to her. But, most times, Elizabeth comes off as obnoxious and “you’re either with me or against me” kind of co-worker, which, in my opinion, is a shame.
“The School for Good Mothers”, by Jessamine Chan
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
“The School for Good Mothers” starts right after Frida, our main character, had been a mother and left by her husband. Alone with a small baby, Frida is led to exhaustion raising the baby Harriet by herself. In a moment of need and a really bad day, Frida sees herself obligated to leave Harriet alone for a few minutes – where everything goes wrong.
In a not-that-distant world, where the Government has mothers under supervision to protect children from being neglected; Harriet is taken away from her mother and Frida is put into a rehabilitation centre for bad mothers.
This futuristic dystopian novel follows Frida’s daily life in the institution where a lot of dynamics and exercises happen to rehabilitate these mothers and help them be reinserted into society and parenthood.
One thing I must give you: the female sorority in between the mothers that live in this centre is what I expected to be. Of course, there is a bit of segregation and rivalry, but the sorority is still there.
Despite that, I found this book super repetitive in a cyclic way: someone does something bad and is punished. There is no character development, and the storyline develops very slowly, making it so hard to evolve. Additionally, under the conditions these women are put through, I would expect them to rebel, to dare; as a lioness would for her cubs.
These characters, especially, the main one, are so accommodated and conformed with everything that the reading experience ends up a suffer.
Another book I had so many expectations of and turned out to be a must-not read of 2023.
“La Cuenta Atrás Para el Verano”, by La Vecina Rubia
(Goodreads | not currently available on Storygraph)
I feel like half of the millennials in Spain will come after me for this 2023 book review. Let me tell you from the beginning: I am sorry.
Before telling about the book, it is important to tell you about “La Vecina Rubia” – who is she?
La Vecina Rubia is a Spanish anonymous social media influencer who got traction on platforms like Instagram due to her relatable posts on self-love/esteem, relationships, and general Spanish millennial content. She is super famous within this specific generation, and I believe it might be one of the reasons for my misalignment with her content (myself being more of a Gen Z kind of gal).
The format of the book is interesting as each chapter is dedicated to someone in her life: a friend, a lover, her father, etc. She takes this format to remember a lot of her past experiences and the learnings she got from them.
I’m not going to lie and say it’s not promising, because it is and all the good feedback I had led me to read it.
I do believe there is such a gap between my generation and hers that I simply couldn’t relate to what she was writing about.
Besides that, the storyline isn’t chronological and the way it’s written led to confusion with all the throwbacks/come forwards she makes with little connection and sense.
There were laughs along with this book, and it got to my emotions in a few moments. However, I felt like I was reading Instagram captions with the amount of Instagram catchphrases that the book has. It really could’ve been written by a self-esteem guru, which doesn’t fall in my genre.
I wish I could’ve enjoyed this experience more. It was good enough for me to know about growing up in Spain between the eighties and the nineties.
“My Body”, by Emily Ratajkowski
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
An honest memoir by Emily Ratajkowski, the famous Victoria’s Secret model and actress; also known for her engagement in politics, entrepreneurship, and active social media presence.
Through “My Body”, Emily shares her personal experience starting and making a career in the industry. What she went through in several episodes and moments of her journey and how she was sexualized from such an early stage of her life.
It is shocking to read some of the experiences she had to be through, it tells a very inside vision of industries we hear such ugly stories about and, in her case, end up coming true.
I felt impressed by the rawness in which Emily talks about her body as a work tool and you can tell, as you move forward in the essays and her age/experience, that she is regaining power over it.
Nonetheless, I couldn’t help myself but feel like I just wanted the book to end. It talks about important and relevant topics; yet the futility of tells she decides to include and detail (I still remember about those cereals, God knows why) take some of its importance and make the reader wonder if the book went through any revision at all.
I do want to finish this 2023 book review by thanking Emily for exposing what she has been through.
“The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart”, by Holly Ringland
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Oh boy… The road we’re about to walk on…
Three important notes before starting this 2023 book review.
First, somehow, I thought it was related to Alice in Wonderland (maybe the flowers on the cover and the Alice character name?).
Second, this book was offered to me by a Portuguese editor while I was working on the marketing launching campaign in Portugal. Making me have some sort of emotional bond as I was so well treated by the editor.
Third, I read the translation to Portuguese, which I believe was, at some point, faulty, providing me with such experience (both with errors and inconsistencies in the storyline).Given these disclaimers, let’s move into this must-not-read book of 2023.
Based in Australia, Alice is a child who lives with her mom and dad. She doesn’t have the best experience growing up as she is constantly subject and spectator of tremendous violence.As disaster reaches her family, Alice goes to live with her grandmother, whom she didn’t know existed until this precise moment. It is here that she discovers the power and meaning of different flowers, as they sometimes speak for the lost words of one.
Moving forward in time and realizing the betrayal both of her grandmother and a man she ends up meeting, Alice decides to leave to find her place in the world.
My first criticism goes specifically to the translation. I read other reviews of people who also went through the Portuguese edition and felt the same way that I did. Leading me to think that the English edition might have given me a different experience (what a shame…).
There are a lot of characters that seemed interesting and had potential but weren’t explored by the author – why? I was eager to know more of them and their presence ended up not adding to the story.
Again, I found myself with a messy and confusing timeline (starting to wonder if this won’t be an issue of mine…).
Lastly, the author builds a narrative that ends in a time of technology (there is never mention of a year or period, that I can recall). However, in the end, there were transcriptions of emails and text messages, and I was just confused by the gathering of these so different worlds.
I was really sad to have had this experience as this was a book I visually fell in love with at first sight – the edition I had my hands on was just beautiful.
“Un Cuento Perfecto”, by Elísabet Benavent
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
I also told you about this book in my November 2023 Reading Recap.
For the ones who aren’t looking to click the link, I’ll just give you this 2023 book review For the ones who aren’t looking to click the link, I’ll give you this 2023 book review here.
“Un Cuento Perfecto” tells of two main characters and follows both points of view, distinguishing them with different fonts (thank you Elísabet!).
From two very different worlds, they end up having their paths crossed unexpectedly. A friendship surges as both are trying to get their exes back but, most romance readers already know the end to this.
From the start, this book got me super excited as I was realising how the story is told, with the two different points of view and the discrepancies of worlds described.
It quickly got me into the spiral of catchphrases and romance novel clichés – not the one you’d usually be excited about; and it was just too much for me.
I found myself dedicating a Saturday to trying to finish it because I just couldn’t handle another day of reading it. I won’t also forget it took me the entirety of that Saturday to finish because this book has more than six hundred pages. You heard me right: six hundred – and not the six hundred of them were necessary, I’ll give you that!
It was just pure suffering to go through it when you know how it will end (and it ended up surprising me, so points there!). In my case, I was just sick of romantic clichés and catchphrases and just wanted to reach the six hundredth page.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it twice: I’m glad this list only includes 6 books.
What would it be this world without bad experiences and books we’d rather not have read? In the end, we all need this moment of the year to recap some readings and release some anger – mine is all out! Hope you enjoy it.
Now it is your turn. Don’t be shy! Let me know which books you would prefer to not have read this year.