my Worst Books of 2021

dear reader,
i thought these books sucked. here is me getting progressively annoyed at books as the video goes on - today's video is a stormy night chat about my least favourite books of the year xx

In this video...

*if you'd like to use my book depository affiliate link to check out any of the books mentioned and support my channel it's below!

🏺I also exist in these places 🏺

[penultimateh]

I like Mean Emma because she has the same intelligence, incisiveness, soft voice, and cute haircut as Nice Emma.

[Melpomium]

I'm cryyyying with laughter over how you described the Alchemist as "live, laugh, love"

[safe-keeper]

0:00 preface
1:37 tea
1:42 #10: Resurrection by Tolstoy
4:16 #9: A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab
6:08 #8: a hilarious summary of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelcho
9:07 #7: Music of the Night by Angela J. Ford
13:00 spooky sounds
13:23 #6 Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco #pancakes
15:55 #5 The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
18:57 #4 The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
22:01 #3 The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson
23:57 #2 The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
25:47 #1 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

[gabrielavillaboim]

The way you described the alchemist, i laughed out loud

[andrea-lalectoraviajera]

I absolutely loved “The Alchemist” but I do see why many people don’t like it, in my case I enjoyed it because of what was going on in my life when I read it, it was the perfect book for that moment. I find it funny to know that so many people said you are wrong for not enjoying the book 😅 it makes no sense to me because that’s actually part of the magic of reading, there are books for everyone! Love your honest opinions 🙌🏼

[GlaauAguiar]

Brazilian here to say we pretend Paulo Coelho doesn’t exist. He is terrible 😂 only ones who like him are foreigners and as a translator I think it must be his translators are writers and elevate his work when translating it, that is the only explanation. Stick to names like Clarice Lispector, Lygia Fagundes Telles, Carlos Drummond de Andrade for Brazilian writers 🥰

[Brutishandshort]

I found the whole of the Alchemist strange and cringe and awful, but the supposed ‘love story’ with the girl in the oasis made me want to throw it out of the window. ‘Your destiny is to wait patiently for your man and support him’… honestly Paulo get te feck

[lilianasloan]

I personally LOVED the goldfinch and found myself completely absorbed throughout the entirety of the book except at the very very end where I thought Tartt could have wrapped it up a little faster and made the action scenes less... boring? I have found after reading online reviews that people either love it or hate it which is interesting. I agree that it was frustrating to watch Theo repeatedly make bad decisions and disregard opportunities at bettering his circumstances. I think what I loved about it was it's prose and rich imagery.

[hikomoron]

Hi, Emma! I also just finished The Goldfinch this year and I absolutely adored it. Although, yes, I do agree that the writing itself dragged on for way too long, I think Donna's prose was the one thing that kept me going, craving for more. I even felt the suffocating despairs of Theo's on a personal level. Maybe this is a completely biased opinion because I chose this book as my very first read after years of not reading anything, but it was very enjoyable and emotional for me!

[thJune-zedn]

You're right about The Alchemist, that's a very good way to put it. I've unfortunately never understood how some people fail to be insulted by Paulo Coelho's asinine disrespect for his readership's intelligence. At least we got an emmie review out of it.

[CaptivateCatherine]

I feel so validated about the Alchemist!! I thought I was alone in my distaste and always felt bad about it, but I thought it was annoyingly cliche and the lessons/analogies/whatever were inconsistent.

[jdschannel]

I love that you disliked "The Alchemist." That "motivational plaques and crochet set" analogy was perfection.

[adyaaa]

FINALLY someone else who dislikes The Alchemist, like it's literally a basic self-help book full of platitudes marketed as life-changing "literature". It was a really disappointing snoozefest, and I find it very hard to find people who agree with me 😭

[Oaxara]

So happy to find someone who feels the same way as I do about The Alchemist! I was excited to read it because of all the hype around it, but then when the book was such an unsatisfying meh of a book. You're not alone in thinking the book was three bad cliches in a trench-coat.

[mumuberry]

honestly, that’s what paulo coelho’s work is. in latin america he got very famous, naturally, but i’ve always thought his work is not great. furthermore, the alchemist has been accused several times of being a bad copy of a short story by borges.

[athenageislinger]

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of my favourite books of all time, so it was interesting to hear a different opinion about it!

[BooksandSympathy]

I loved an ocean at the end of the lane, I’m sorry the audio book was such an awful experience! It sounds pretty insufferable so I’m not surprised you didn’t enjoy it.
I think this book worked for me because it’s an honest depiction of the way that trauma and early childhood experiences can shape us even when we don’t fully remember them. I also really felt the books depiction of yearning for a time when things were different and where the narrator felt connected to others. Often trauma fractures the ability to recall things accurately, and leaves people feeling like they were robbed of a childhood. It’s definitely a very on the nose reading for a book where the protagonist is literally robbed of his childhood, and of the people who made him feel the magic of childhood, but it worked for me nonetheless.

[itsi]

I was feeling my depression creeping back again and was watching one of your older videos to cheer myself up. And this popped up 🥺♥️ Thank you so much Emmie for making me so happy 🥺♥️

[hfollman]

I really liked the Unhoneymooners...up until the third act 🤦I hated that no one believed Olive, esp the main love interest. It turned me off of their relationship; I thought she forgave him way too easily.

[sarahferguson]

Omg I absolutely despise The Alchemist. I was expecting so much more from such a highly praised book. Your description is spot on. For such a short book, I could barely make it half way.