The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2023

December 20, 2023 11:53 PM

“Yes, it’s her world and after reading her book I just wish I could move off-planet.” Lit Hub's annual best-worst reviews list.
posted by blue shadows (10 comments total)

these are fun! (fairly easy targets most of them, but still).

a-and this gets Richard Ford to a "T": reading these books is the closest you’ll come to being stuck in an actual traffic jam without leaving the comfort of your armchair

my favorites are the regular reviews by "Bookworm" in Private Eye, especially the year-end "logrolling" column that shows how authors engage in shameless favor-trading all year long via reviews and blurbs.
posted by chavenet at 1:46 AM on December 21, 2023 [4 favorites]

I'd only been planning to read one of these (Naomi Alderman's The Future.) We'll see how it goes.

The only other time I read a book that got included in one of these roundups -- David Sedaris' Happy-Go-Lucky -- the review turned out to be sadly accurate. Still, that one seemed more like some missteps (although admittedly major ones) on the part of an author I usually like than a raging trashfire. Three stars and hope he does better next time, not two or one and Let Us Never Speak Of This Book Again.
posted by kyrademon at 2:48 AM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

These are delicious, thank you!
posted by heyitsgogi at 6:06 AM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

Normally I don't like yucking other people's yum, but I'll give this a pass since it takes aim at the pretentious works of Elon Musk, Ron Desantis, and especially, ESPECIALLY Tom Hanks. That man is not to be trusted.
posted by AlSweigart at 6:54 AM on December 21, 2023 [5 favorites]

Isaacson's poor biography of Steve Jobs was expertly dissected in 2011 by John Siracusa on the Hypercritical podcast.
posted by neuron at 9:01 AM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

Honestly, I might pick up that Richard Ford book. I am the reader who loved the boring parts of Knausgaard (the cleaning! How to boil potatoes!) best. I also love the boring bits in most novels. 100 pages on the history of the French sewer system? I’m in. 60 pages on farming theory to motivate a one page scene? That’s my favourite !

The rest? Pretty funny!
posted by Valancy Rachel at 1:48 PM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

Not sure how they decided to pass over Michael Lewis' book on Sam Bankman-Fried, since the book was apparently bad enough to trash Lewis' own reputation. And, although I probably won't ever read Spare, I raised an eyebrow at the description of Harry as "a raging Sloane who must look up the word compere in a dictionary when his brother asks him to be one at his wedding."
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:52 PM on December 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Good grief, I don't care one way or another about Paris Hilton, but I knew right away that review was written by a man. Interesting that he barely mentions that her family had her kidnapped and confined in a facility for troubled teens for two years- just fixates on lurid details in the snobbiest, girl-despising way. Whatever, she's rich &c. and doesn't have to think about bloody Peter Conrad writing a dickish review, but other girls and women reading get to see it.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:39 PM on December 21, 2023 [4 favorites]

I just finished reading the novel Yellowface which is set amid the book publishing industry…and this is a weirdly complementary read, thanks!
posted by childofTethys at 4:07 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I feel so vindicated that I gave up on Tom Hanks's book less than 5% in.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 10:17 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]