The Worst Bestsellers

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

Episode 297 – Verity

Lock up your children and manuscripts: we read Verity by Colleen Hoover. We were joined by Renata’s cherished friend Jake to discuss this BookTok sensation. Listen to

Sep 14
1 h 21 min

Episode 296 – Yesteryear

Flashback Summer is over, but we still ended up back in 1855…or did we? By popular request, we read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. We were joined by S. Jae-Jones, autho

Aug 24
1 h 57 min

Episode 295 – Bridge to Terabithia

The Venn diagram between Flashback Summer and Sad Girl Summer is overlapping! We read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. For our discussion we were joined by

Aug 10
1 h 29 min

Episode 294 – Kristy’s Great Idea (Baby-Sitters Club #1)

Can you believe that in all our years of podcasting, we’ve never done the very first Baby-Sitters Club book? Well, now we’re flashing all the way back to 1986, when Krist

Jul 27
1 h 31 min

Episode 293 – Changes for Kirsten

Are you melting in the summer heat wave? Well, why don’t you join us for a Flashback Summer trip back to the winter of 1864? Bundle up in your best furs, because we read

Jul 13
1 h 04 min

Episode 292 – The Celery Stalks at Midnight

Flashback Summer is getting mildly spooky! We read The Celery Stalks at Midnight by James Howe with Sara Farizan, author of several books of varying spookiness levels

Jun 29
1 h 36 min

Episode 291 – Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern)

Flashback Summer continues as we journey 400 Turns into the past with Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. Paul from the That Aged Well podcast joined us to discuss the oft-re

Jun 15
1 h 27 min

Episode 290 – Artemis Fowl

Flashback Summer is kicking off with a Code Green: LEPrecon alert! We read Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer with our returning guest Mackenzi Lee, author of of many books i

Jun 1
1 h 37 min

Episode 289 – Adult Braces

The whole internet has been talking about Adult Braces by Lindy West, so we decided to join the conversation. And who better to join us than Friend of the Show Margare

May 18
1 h 31 min

Episode 288 – Shadows of the Empire

May the 4th be with you! (If you’re listening to this on the day it comes out! If not: may the Force be with you.) In honor of this faux Star Wars holiday, we read Sha

May 4
1 h 26 min

Episode 287 – The Vampire Lestat

We’re crawling out of our coffins and we’re doing just fine. We were joined by Rebecca Mahoney, author of Thrall, to discuss The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. Please do no

Apr 20
1 h 20 min

Episode 286 – Remain

Two of the greatest minds of our generation, Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan, have joined forces to give the world this extremely mid book: Remain. Fortunately,

Apr 6
1 h 24 min

Episode 285 – Heated Rivalry

We conclude our arbitrary celebration of Canada Month with a playoff episode that went into overtime. Yes: we read Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid. We needed two guests

Mar 23
1 h 59 min

Episode 284 – Bear

This March, Worst Bestsellers is celebrating our neighbor to the north with our first ever Canada Month. We’re kicking it off by talking to Canadian treasure Ann Foster (

Mar 9
1 h 23 min

Episode 283 – Lawless

This podcast ain’t big enough for two guests, but we were fortunate enough to squeeze in both Heidi and Emily from Romancing the Shelf for another round of Nora Roberts M

Feb 23
1 h 42 min

Episode 282 – The Collector

If you’ve been watching us with binoculars, waiting for the podcast to return: well, here we are! (But you already knew that, didn’t you? Because you saw it coming with y

Feb 9
1 h 36 min

Episode 281 – Bests of 2025

Another year has come and (almost) gone, and we’ve once again managed to read some good books. Let us tell you about them! Coming up next: A January hiatus. Happy New Ye

Dec 29 2025
1 h 21 min

Episode 280 – The Company of Vengeful Crows

You may be thinking that you haven’t heard of The Company of Vengeful Crows by Lana Pecherczyk, and that’s fair. But perhaps you’ve heard of Plastic Girl vs Dangerous

Dec 15 2025
1 h 36 min

Episode 279 – All The Way To The River

Get in losers, we’re going All The Way to the River. We read Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book with guest Jack Lawler of Work.Retire.Die, The Daily Friday, and The Daily Fr

Dec 1 2025
1 h 24 min

Episode 278 – The Secret of Secrets

Move over, Rhonda Byrne. The Secret is old news. We were joined by Dr. Sarah Bay, a woman in STEM and our Dan Brown correspondent, to read The Secret of Secrets by Dan

Nov 17 2025
1 h 43 min

Chart trend

Position in the Books chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#101#200JunJulAugSep

#23

all-time peak

days in the top 50 since Nov 2024

Chart positions

Where The Worst Bestsellers ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 20, 2026).

#152 ▼ 36 Books US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

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!!

phillip_the_plant · Feb 2026

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.

Rheterika · Dec 2025

Still one of my favorites after years of being a listener. They always seem very genuine, and are often more generous than you’d expect when it comes to some popular titles and authors, while still poking fun or winking at half baked nonsense. I will say they sound less excited by the project in the last couple of years than they used to, which is valid. I still really enjoy the show.

coda_o7 · Sep 2025

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.

coolvibes546 · Nov 2024

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.

carbon neutral boogaloo · Jun 2024

We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.