The Worst Bestsellers - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I came to this podcast after my need for a feminist millennial friends discuss books podcast reached a critical point—and this is just the podcast I needed! Kait and Renata do a great job of breaking down what makes books work and what makes them go horribly wrong, and they have fun while doing it. My favorite thing about the podcast is that the hosts can explain why a book sucks without being snobbish about it—their love of and respect for nerd culture and fan fiction are evident—and they aren’t afraid to say they enjoyed something that is supposedly bad.

This is my go to podcast in that it is my most widely recommended, often quoted and most relistened to show. I love the episodes when everyone hated the book but have also loved the recommendations I’ve found through reader’s advisory and the good book episodes. Highly recommend I always have a good time!!

I love the content of this pod, and I often find the hosts funny. I’d love to be in their book club! But the mics are often completely blown out, among other audio issues. I assume they don’t check/test levels before recording - if they did even the laziest check they’d notice someone is often way too loud and/or close to the mic, it sounds loud and obnoxious.

I’m one of those people with very picky/irritable ears, if I find a voice or speaking style annoying, sometimes I can’t get past it enough to enjoy what I’m listening to. Both hosts drag out the last word to most sentencehhhhhssssss to the most annoying degreeeeeee. Like, do they not hear themselves? They both do it. A LOT. Like *strangely* frequentlyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I can’t.

But if you’re luckier to have less irritable ears, and you enjoy a fun discussion of well-known books, this will prob be a great pod for you! Just turn your volume down; their complete lack of audio editing is more tolerable at the lowest volume you can handle.

I have listened to many episodes of this podcast. I find earlier episodes to be more humorous and balanced. Many of the books they read have positive and negative elements. At some point, it seems the focus became more negative and just to trash the books and the authors. I find more frequently they are talking as if their opinions are facts vs subjective opinions.

Highly recommending "If Books Could Kill" to anyone who, like me, was looking for an interesting book analysis pod. This just seems to be a hunt for the most surface-level reactionary takes possible. Their episode on Nora Sakavic's The Foxhole Court is an awful example on that front - actually the one that made me give up trying it! - with just the most blatantly bad-faith readings of content, out-of-context pulls for shock value, and overall shallow analysis. What's most upsetting is that they're not wrong about some points, there is some interesting stuff to unpack and some real criticism to be made, but what's happening here is not criticism; it's clowning and clickbait. No thanks.