**The Power of Character Development: A Look at Books that Didn't Quite Hit the Mark**

As an avid reader, I've always believed that character development is key to creating a compelling story. However, there are times when even the most well-crafted plots and writing styles can be let down by poorly developed characters. In this article, I'll be sharing some of my least favorite books from 2018, and why they didn't quite make it for me.

**A Hunger Games Paradox: Why "The Women in the Window" Failed to Impress**

One book that really stood out to me as a disappointment was Paula Hawkins' "The Woman in the Window". This thriller had been making waves in the literary world, with many readers and critics praising its unique blend of psychological suspense and domestic drama. However, for me, the book's confusing plot twists and jarring transitions between reality and fiction were major turn-offs. The main character, Anna Fox, was also a bit too self-centered for my taste - her constant navel-gazing and inability to connect with those around her made it difficult for me to become invested in her story. Overall, I just didn't love this book, and its poor writing style made it hard to follow.

**The Lyrical Failure of "Hazelwood"**

Another book that left a bad taste in my mouth was Jessica Spotswood's "Hazelwood". This novel had all the makings of a great story - creepy atmosphere, fantastical world-building, and a unique premise. However, for me, the execution fell flat. The writing style was overly lyrical, which I know some readers love, but for me it just felt like pretentious nonsense. But what really got to me was the character development - or rather, the lack thereof. The characters in this book were all self-centered and horrible, making it difficult for me to become invested in their stories. Despite its promising premise, "Hazelwood" ultimately failed to deliver.

**A Thriller that Lost Me: Why "Seven Days of Us" Didn't Work**

I also didn't enjoy Sharon Bolton's "Seven Days of Us". This thriller had a lot going for it - it was well-written, suspenseful, and featured a unique premise. However, for me, the characters were just too annoying to deal with. The main character, Liz, was particularly frustrating - her constant needling and manipulation of those around her made it difficult for me to sympathize with her. Overall, I just didn't love this book, and its poor writing style made it hard to follow.

**A Book that Failed to Deliver: "Something in the Water"**

Another thriller that left a bad taste in my mouth was Kathryn Stedman's "Something in the Water". This book had a lot of hype surrounding it - many readers and critics praised its unique blend of suspense and intrigue. However, for me, the main character was just too stupid to like. Her constant poor decision-making and inability to think critically made it difficult for me to become invested in her story. Overall, I just didn't love this book, and its poor writing style made it hard to follow.

**A Particular Distraction: "The Hazel Violence of Albert"**

Finally, there was Emily A. Duncan's "The Hazel Violence of Albert". This book had a lot going for it - its unique premise and lyrical writing style were definite highlights. However, for me, the execution fell flat. The main character, Albert, was particularly frustrating to read about - her constant self-centeredness and inability to connect with those around her made it difficult for me to sympathize with her. Overall, I just didn't love this book, and its poor writing style made it hard to follow.

**A Lesson Learned: Why Character Development Matters**

As I looked back on these books that didn't quite hit the mark, I realized that character development is a crucial element of any good story. When characters are poorly written or developed, it's hard for readers to become invested in their stories - and that's when the problems start to show. As a reader, I know what makes me love a book - it's not just the writing style or plot twists, but the characters themselves. And when those characters fail to deliver, it can be a major disappointment.

**A Final Word: Let's Talk About Books!**

As an avid reader, I know that everyone has their own unique tastes and preferences when it comes to books. What one person loves, another might hate - and that's okay! In fact, it's what makes the world of literature so rich and diverse. So if you've got a least favorite book from this year, please do share in the comments below - I'd love to hear about it, and who knows, maybe we can learn something from each other.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone so you have seen my top 10 favorite books of the year and now you're going to see my least favorite books of the year so I never like filming these videos because everyone has such very different tastes of what they like as a reader and as a person in general I could watch a movie and I hate it but you might love it I can read a book and I love it but you hate it you know things like that everything really is subjective to a person's personal preference and taste and all that's many things so I never really liked so many these videos because I'm like I did not like this book but I know someone out there is like I love that book why are you bashing it everyone is different tastes so that's my disclaimer for this video is that I mentioned one of your favorite books ever that's great keep on loving and adoring that book just because I didn't like it doesn't mean that you cannot love it everyone has such different tastes and with that said there's not a ton of books that I read this year that I like I would say I hate it I don't want to ever hate a book there was some that I really disliked but there's not a ton of them so let's get into this I'll try to dissect of why I didn't like them and all of those many things so the first book I'm going to talk about is three sides of a heart this is a why anthology all about love triangles and I really was expecting to love this book because I really enjoy anthologies online a good love triangle when it's actually up front of it being a love triangle I think that's great this one however I did not like it oh I felt like a lot of the stories were just kind of really poorly written there wasn't a good love triangle thing there wasn't a good love triangle seen a lot of the love triangles I don't think really made sense and just overall it was very dissatisfied with this book I thought it was a really poorly why anthology like nothing not one of the stories I can remember and tell you about there was just none that were just super good in my opinion so if you're a really big fan of mythology that would maybe skip out on this one I just was really hoping to love it and just ended up really liking it speaking of books I don't like the reason for there's no video is beautiful broken hearts by kami Garcia this is a why cuz every book about a girl that not a girl that I can't even remember what it's about a lot because I didn't like it that much I think it was about abusive relationship and she decides to move on and just I just felt like it was poorly written I didn't feel like the characters make much sense I didn't feel like the romance is very plausible disrespect it for the fact of that it talked about abusive relationships and being strong about it and doing the right thing I didn't like it for that but overall it just wasn't good in my it like nothing stood out to me in that book at all like it was just the romance was way overdone very very quickly moved on fast from her previous ones the character the main character was just very she was kind of a jerk honestly she was treated people not that great she was kind of a mean girl I just wasn't a fan of it seven days of us by Francesca warning this isn't a this is a Christmas holiday book and the reason why I did not like this book is the characters the characters alone really drew me to despise this book and that's because it's about this family that's kind of secluded in their house for seven days and each of them have very different things going on their lives but when they talk to the other people about the things going on their lives none of them sympathize or you know care about the other it's all about well if this happens to me if this happens to that person how will it affect me if this happens to that person how will I be affected they were very much selfish and self-centered and did not care about any other person other than themselves and that's for every character in this book other than one now I understand that there are some books where you are met to this dislike the characters but the writing is good if there makes like book makes sense to hate the characters I'm aboard that take for example you by Caroline Katniss I really enjoyed that book every character in that book is written for you to dislike it's a book that will make you think like you're sympathizing with the bad guy in that book and you're like why am i sympathizing with the bad guy because every other character just straight-up horrible that book I enjoyed even though all the characters were horrible but they were meant to be written horribly if that makes any sense seven days of us I just feel like these characters were just self-centered and just all about themselves and I don't know if they were written to be that way or just they were that's just how they were I have a couple of thrillers I didn't like number one the woman in the window this is a very polarizing thriller a lot of people really loved and a lot of people didn't like it I did not like it I did not like the way it was written it was very confusing to me to read I did not like the plot twists in it I just didn't love that book as a whole like I guess where one of the plot twists was I think a lot of us did but the second plot twist was kind of very obscure and did not make much sense to me at all and I just didn't love the way it was written I think what comes down to this book was the way it was written it got confusing because she was also the main character as a fan of watching like old movies and I got confused whether we were watching a movie or we were actually in the book like it was very weird and jarring to me so I did not like that at all another one is something in the water by Kathryn Stedman another book where I just like the main character it's not just goes to show you that characters are really big driving force for me personally if to determine whether I like a book or not if I do not like the main characters there's quite a good chance I'm not gonna like oh these characters were just stupid us I don't want to be like I don't want to glaze over but I don't wanna be super harsh but I guess I'm just gonna go for it um they just made horrible decisions after decision were just horrible ones decisions that I found myself being like why would anyone make this decision and go with it why just baffles me that was my main problem with that book I want to talk about the hazel violence of Albert I did not I wouldn't say like I it's my least fit I just didn't love it I feel like this book was marketed as one thing and I don't think it was it was very supposed to be very creepy and lyrical and lyrical and I don't know fantastical I do feel like it was lyrically written I will say that like I think a lot of people's favorite element in this book is like the short story world that this book is based upon that makes any sense and we all like that much more than the actual like plotline the characters again in this book were just horrible self-centered I guess that's just my main driving force from this whole video this horrible characters I did not expect that but I just thought this book like the beginning part was strong it was good I liked the maybe kind of weaved into this world and then the last and then the middle park out really desi like a few wise I'm like where we going to this plot and the end just kind of exploded like I just was like we just took 50 different turns and I still know where we are this book is just confusing overall I don't know if I would continue off the series I just didn't love it overall so those are all the books that I want to mention to you guys that I just really did not enjoy and sorry if I didn't go did you tell about all of them because it's hard to like really you know I don't like to bash books in general because that's just not who I am I want to be realistic but kind of be optimistic realistic I don't write I did not really love and he's these folks I talked about today mainly for the factor the characters that's big force for me I was a big driving force for me apparently in 2018 was characters and character development so yeah if you have any of your least favorite books that you read this year please in the know in the comments it could be even be one of my favorite books of the year that is okay we all have different opinions and that's what makes this world go around so I hope you enjoyed this video I'm sorry if you did not I'm sure I'll get thumbs down because who likes talking about these I'll see you guys in the next video byehello everyone so you have seen my top 10 favorite books of the year and now you're going to see my least favorite books of the year so I never like filming these videos because everyone has such very different tastes of what they like as a reader and as a person in general I could watch a movie and I hate it but you might love it I can read a book and I love it but you hate it you know things like that everything really is subjective to a person's personal preference and taste and all that's many things so I never really liked so many these videos because I'm like I did not like this book but I know someone out there is like I love that book why are you bashing it everyone is different tastes so that's my disclaimer for this video is that I mentioned one of your favorite books ever that's great keep on loving and adoring that book just because I didn't like it doesn't mean that you cannot love it everyone has such different tastes and with that said there's not a ton of books that I read this year that I like I would say I hate it I don't want to ever hate a book there was some that I really disliked but there's not a ton of them so let's get into this I'll try to dissect of why I didn't like them and all of those many things so the first book I'm going to talk about is three sides of a heart this is a why anthology all about love triangles and I really was expecting to love this book because I really enjoy anthologies online a good love triangle when it's actually up front of it being a love triangle I think that's great this one however I did not like it oh I felt like a lot of the stories were just kind of really poorly written there wasn't a good love triangle thing there wasn't a good love triangle seen a lot of the love triangles I don't think really made sense and just overall it was very dissatisfied with this book I thought it was a really poorly why anthology like nothing not one of the stories I can remember and tell you about there was just none that were just super good in my opinion so if you're a really big fan of mythology that would maybe skip out on this one I just was really hoping to love it and just ended up really liking it speaking of books I don't like the reason for there's no video is beautiful broken hearts by kami Garcia this is a why cuz every book about a girl that not a girl that I can't even remember what it's about a lot because I didn't like it that much I think it was about abusive relationship and she decides to move on and just I just felt like it was poorly written I didn't feel like the characters make much sense I didn't feel like the romance is very plausible disrespect it for the fact of that it talked about abusive relationships and being strong about it and doing the right thing I didn't like it for that but overall it just wasn't good in my it like nothing stood out to me in that book at all like it was just the romance was way overdone very very quickly moved on fast from her previous ones the character the main character was just very she was kind of a jerk honestly she was treated people not that great she was kind of a mean girl I just wasn't a fan of it seven days of us by Francesca warning this isn't a this is a Christmas holiday book and the reason why I did not like this book is the characters the characters alone really drew me to despise this book and that's because it's about this family that's kind of secluded in their house for seven days and each of them have very different things going on their lives but when they talk to the other people about the things going on their lives none of them sympathize or you know care about the other it's all about well if this happens to me if this happens to that person how will it affect me if this happens to that person how will I be affected they were very much selfish and self-centered and did not care about any other person other than themselves and that's for every character in this book other than one now I understand that there are some books where you are met to this dislike the characters but the writing is good if there makes like book makes sense to hate the characters I'm aboard that take for example you by Caroline Katniss I really enjoyed that book every character in that book is written for you to dislike it's a book that will make you think like you're sympathizing with the bad guy in that book and you're like why am i sympathizing with the bad guy because every other character just straight-up horrible that book I enjoyed even though all the characters were horrible but they were meant to be written horribly if that makes any sense seven days of us I just feel like these characters were just self-centered and just all about themselves and I don't know if they were written to be that way or just they were that's just how they were I have a couple of thrillers I didn't like number one the woman in the window this is a very polarizing thriller a lot of people really loved and a lot of people didn't like it I did not like it I did not like the way it was written it was very confusing to me to read I did not like the plot twists in it I just didn't love that book as a whole like I guess where one of the plot twists was I think a lot of us did but the second plot twist was kind of very obscure and did not make much sense to me at all and I just didn't love the way it was written I think what comes down to this book was the way it was written it got confusing because she was also the main character as a fan of watching like old movies and I got confused whether we were watching a movie or we were actually in the book like it was very weird and jarring to me so I did not like that at all another one is something in the water by Kathryn Stedman another book where I just like the main character it's not just goes to show you that characters are really big driving force for me personally if to determine whether I like a book or not if I do not like the main characters there's quite a good chance I'm not gonna like oh these characters were just stupid us I don't want to be like I don't want to glaze over but I don't wanna be super harsh but I guess I'm just gonna go for it um they just made horrible decisions after decision were just horrible ones decisions that I found myself being like why would anyone make this decision and go with it why just baffles me that was my main problem with that book I want to talk about the hazel violence of Albert I did not I wouldn't say like I it's my least fit I just didn't love it I feel like this book was marketed as one thing and I don't think it was it was very supposed to be very creepy and lyrical and lyrical and I don't know fantastical I do feel like it was lyrically written I will say that like I think a lot of people's favorite element in this book is like the short story world that this book is based upon that makes any sense and we all like that much more than the actual like plotline the characters again in this book were just horrible self-centered I guess that's just my main driving force from this whole video this horrible characters I did not expect that but I just thought this book like the beginning part was strong it was good I liked the maybe kind of weaved into this world and then the last and then the middle park out really desi like a few wise I'm like where we going to this plot and the end just kind of exploded like I just was like we just took 50 different turns and I still know where we are this book is just confusing overall I don't know if I would continue off the series I just didn't love it overall so those are all the books that I want to mention to you guys that I just really did not enjoy and sorry if I didn't go did you tell about all of them because it's hard to like really you know I don't like to bash books in general because that's just not who I am I want to be realistic but kind of be optimistic realistic I don't write I did not really love and he's these folks I talked about today mainly for the factor the characters that's big force for me I was a big driving force for me apparently in 2018 was characters and character development so yeah if you have any of your least favorite books that you read this year please in the know in the comments it could be even be one of my favorite books of the year that is okay we all have different opinions and that's what makes this world go around so I hope you enjoyed this video I'm sorry if you did not I'm sure I'll get thumbs down because who likes talking about these I'll see you guys in the next video bye\n"