The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2023
From Literary Hub
Beware of sharp knives.
While his first book was weird and esoteric enough to have obviously been written by a human,
this one reads like a politician’s memoir churned out by ChatGPT.
It’s not an argument for acknowledging complexity, it’s an argument for not thinking.
It’s an argument for focusing, first and foremost, on our own comfort.
(This book) is so cruelly, brutally misogynistic and brimming with every savage cliche
of crime fiction that it’s barely readable.
The antics of this entitled flibbertigibbet expose the absurdity of a culture in which
the self only exists if it is validated by a selfie.
(The author’s) disregard for details, among them the awkward fact that no one actually
defends the position he attributes to practically everyone, is unfortunately characteristic.
The dialogue frequently reads like someone ran the original English through a
machine translator into a foreign language and back again.
(This book) is a raw deal, a hollow PR exercise filled with precepts and quips
but devoid of self-awareness or humility.
Welcome, fellow haters, to another bilious edition of the Most Scathing Book Reviews of the Year.
As longtime readers of this annual feature will know, each year in the run up to the holidays, we (the normally benevolent stewards of BookMarks.reviews) make a sacrificial offering to the literary criticism gods in the hope of a bountiful review harvest for the coming year.
Among the books being flung into the fiery pit this time around: Walter Isaacson’s “dull, insight-free doorstop” biography of Elon Musk; Paris Hilton’s “vapid and vaporous” memoir; Tom Hanks’ “bland busman’s holiday dressed up as literary fiction”; and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “hollow PR exercise.”
So here they are, in all their gory, gut-punchin’ glory: the most scathing book reviews of 2023.
For more, click here.