The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake: This was simply a case of overhype, I think. I still plan to read more of her work, though, because I feel like this one may have just been a random miss. I loved Starling's The Luminous Dead, but I guess this one just didn't work for me. There were so many random plot points that seemed to be cast aside when they were no longer useful or contradicted with no real explanation, and the characters went from interesting and compelling to absolutely confusing. This had such an amazing premise and beginning, but it pretty soon just completely fell off the wagon for me and was unable to upright itself again. The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling: Oof, I'm not sure where to start with this one. It was mainly the characters, I think, that felt rather lacking and had so many weird conflicts among them that I felt really took away from what the plot could have been.

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten: This is a case where I didn't hate the book, but it simply felt disappointing in comparison to what it was hyped up to be. I've considered trying it again on audio at some point to see if perhaps that method of storytelling may work better for me, but until them, I'm just a bit bummed that this one didn't work out. The writing style felt very impersonal and made it hard for me to really follow along or connect with the characters.

and unfortunately I struggled to get through it. I had heard so many great things about this book/series and was so excited to check it out. The Black Company by Glen Cook: The Black Company is considered a 'classic' in the grimdark genre and is widely considered to be one of the early books of the subgenre.

I hated the characters (and not in a good way, if that makes sense) and felt that their infighting took away from the story rather than contributed, the plotting was confusing, and I felt the pacing was completely off. I know some people loved that, and I'm thrilled for those that did, but sadly this just didn't work for me. This had so many elements that made it feel nearly tailor-made for me, and yet the execution was just–in my opinion–extremely, desperately lacking.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw: This was, by far, probably one of my biggest disappointments this year because I was just so shocked by how much I actively disliked this book.

Nothing but blackened teeth plot