Have you ever picked up a book and thought “Yeah I’m never reading this”? Or a friend has tried to push you to read a book that you know you won’t like? Or heard about issues with an author or book and thought, “Good thing I found out so I can never read their stuff again”?

Well, same. And here’s that list of books I refuse to read!

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Published: September 14, 2008
Genre: YA Dystopian

This was a book that became hyped up while I was in middle school. At the time, I was in my total vampire phase and was reading books daily. I didn’t care about some dystopian book where people battled to the death – it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Eventually though, several years later in high school, I sat down to give it a try. I bought a $5 paperback, cracked open the book, read 5 chapters, and put the book down to never open again. It wasn’t much of a loss for me.

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Divergent by Veronica Roth
Published: February 28, 2012
Genre: YA Dystopian

Like The Hunger Games, this book was one that released at a time in my life where I wasn’t interested in dystopians. While this one came out my freshman year of high school, none of my friends at the time were readers to push me to pick up this book. I continued on with my favorite genres (which thankfully had expanded past just vampires and werewolves) into other YA fantasy. But, this one didn’t make the cut. And by the time I even heard about this book, I just wasn’t interested in the premise.

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Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Published: February 26, 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary

I have never read a book from Rainbow Rowell and I don’t plan on it. But this book takes the cake for being problematic. Not only does it contain fat shaming, but it’s also racist as hell. While I’m sure there are some people who can excuse those kinds of things in books, I am not one of them. And once I know that there is racist or any kind of problematic content in a book, it’s off my list.

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Written in Starlight by Isabel Ibañez
Published: January 26, 2021
Genre: YA Fantasy

I read Woven in Moonlight unaware of the problematic and twisted version of history Ibañez uses that she calls “Bolivian History”. Thankfully, after Goodreads posted that I was starting this book, a friend reached out to me and let me know the problems with this book and this author. The main characters are white sympathetic versions of Colonizers and the rhetoric they have against the Indigenous based characters in this book is awful. I could go on about all the things I missed in the first book and so glad I don’t have to deal with in this book, but the gist is that this is trash and I’m not reading it.

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The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee
Release date: November 16, 2021
Genre: YA Historical Fiction

I loved the first book in this series, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, but what I didn’t love was Mackenzi’s book signing scandal. Without diving into all the details, Mackenzi, as a bookstore employee, would sign other authors books before shipping out to people. While often times it was requested, it seems sometimes, it was not. And people were not happy. I haven’t read the second book in this series, while I own it, and I’m not sure if I’ll read that either, but I definitely won’t be picking up this one.

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Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
Published: August 4, 2020
Genre: YA Fantasy

When I heard Midnight Sun was going to be a thing, I lost it, as I’m sure everyone else did. But I decided to wait to hear reviews from people who braved to read this book and was so glad I didn’t buy a copy. I put my Twilight phase in the box and I’m glad I never opened it back up, though I did decide to watch the first movie again. I have no desire to read this book and based on other peoples reviews, I’m glad I didn’t! It just seems bad.

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For me to refuse to read a book, it has to be bad. And there are some pretty bad titles on this page if you ask me. But, I’m also curious what are some other titles I should avoid at all costs? What are some books you refuse to read? Any ones that are popular favorites?