10 Fantasy Books We SUPER Hate ;)

​Happy April, and happy April Fools’ Day! Today we bring you a list of fantasy books that we (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) extremely dislike. These books are SO bad, we decided we just had to warn you away from them. So, whatever you do, do NOT read the books in the list below!*

​(The first five come from Deborah, and the last five from Sarah.)
 
1. The Bog Standard Isekai series by Miles English: This series is very little more than a standard RPG-style power build and only has a measly 2300 or so pages pubished. How annoying. I hate it when books have sequels that haven’t come out yet. And it’s so basic! Things that are this generic have no excuse being good!
 
2. The Dungeon Crawler Carl books by Matt Dinniman: These books are just so unbelievably stupid. And the cat is mean about Cocker Spaniels and I had a beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. If only the books weren’t so funny and engaging with such creative action sequences. Argh!
 
3. The Irregular at Magic High School series by Tsutomu Sato: Not only does the style of fan service squick me out, but Tatsuya is aiming straight for induction into Mary Suedom. It should never have been written like that. It totally almost ruins the fact that the story and universe are so good that I can’t help but love it. It treats magic like hard sci-fi while still making it feel like magic. I can’t put it down. (Well, not the first ~10 books, anyway.)
 
4. The Mother of Learning books by Domagoj Kurmaic: I’m not big on time-loop stories or time travel, and these books are literally nothing but 2500 pages of doing the same month again and again, because repetition is the mother of . . . anyway. Who could enjoy a highly varied and creative time loop with mind magic, blood magic, and soul magic?
 
5. The Star Wars Episode III novelization by Matthew Stover: I mean, it’s a novelization. Novelizations are meh. Basically always. And I’m not particularly into Star Wars. There is exactly zero reason for me to like this book, aside from the fact that it’s extremely well-written and interesting.
 
6. By These Ten Bones by Clare B. Dunkle: I hate this book so much, I’ve read it a dozen times just to remind myself of how awful it is. How dare this book be so atmospheric and inspiring, with such extremely well-drawn characters, a super-sweet romance, and a really interesting take on werewolves. Not to mention having the nerve to transport me to Medieval Scotland, where there aren’t even any proper toilets. Harrumph!
 
7. The Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle: Don’t get me started on these books. The level of creative imagination is just ridiculous! Why would anybody want to read about such unusual and fascinating adventures, anyway? What kind of weirdo wants to time travel with unicorns, visit different planets via tesseract, or save handsome bad-boys?
 
8. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I just can’t with this book. There are too many complex characters to keep track of, too much genius heist-planning, too much badassery in general . . . it’s exhausting! All the excitement made me stay up way too late to find out what was going to happen, and then I was absolutely knackered the next day—and yet the book had the gall to entice me to do the same thing all over again the next several nights!
 
9. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones: This book is way too cute and sweet for its own good. I mean, as if a charismatic, charming wizard whose house walks around wasn’t enough, Jones had to go and add in a snarky fire-demon? What’s next, a romance with an ordinary girl many of us can relate to, who ends up saving and winning his heart—not to mention an awesome movie adaptation by the one-and-only Hayao Miyazaki?? Staaahp it already!
 
10. The Books of Bayern series by Shannon Hale: I don’t know about you, but I hate reading about elemental powers, and especially when an interesting twist and fairy-tale elements are added in. Strong heroines and inspiring stories—who needs ’em? Like, who wants to speak the language of trees or birds or fire, anyway?
 
 
What’s your “least favorite” fantasy book? Tell us in the comments!
 
P.S. – ​If you loved these book recommendations, why not sign up for our newsletter? Twice a month, we’ll send you a themed list of fantasy and/or sci-fi book recommendations, and sometimes music, movies, or manga too. (Not to mention jokes, games, puzzles, memes, and the occasional recipe!)
 
 
*Just in case we haven’t made it super obvious, this is satire, and we actually LOVE these books. We hope you enjoyed this very silly April Fool’s Day post!

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