Some books get five stars. Some books get one star. And some one-star reviews deserve their own damn podcast. 😂

Welcome back to Spill the Book, where books become entertainment, our TBRs make terrible financial decisions, and apparently we are here to read the most absolutely UNHINGED one-star book reviews the internet has to offer.

Today, we're spilling a little bit of everything.

🔥 FIRST: THE ONE-STAR REVIEWS

We’re reading some of the funniest, most savage and completely unhinged one-star reviews we could find.

From Yesteryear to Daggermouth, Dungeon Crawler Carl and Where the Crawdads Sing, these reviewers did NOT come to play.

Some are critiques.

Some are personal attacks.

And some make us question whether the reviewer—or the book—will ever recover. 😂

📚 THEN: BOOKISH GAMES

Because apparently reading books isn't enough chaos, we're playing a couple of bookish games and giving ourselves even more opportunities to embarrass ourselves.

📬 THEN IT'S TIME FOR THE SPILL THE BOOK MAIL & MAYHEM AFTERSPILL

Remember those indie books we unwrapped?

We're finally giving you the afterthoughts, introducing you to the authors, talking about their books and telling you where you can find them.

We’re spilling the bookish tea on indie authors including:

📖 Nomi J. Avery — small-town romance 📖 Rodger E. Carty — science fiction 📖 Ciel Essel — dark fantasy, dark romance & romantasy 📖 Kimberly D. Tait — fantasy & historical magical realism 📖 Stoney Brooks — horror

And then we get to the really good stuff…

❤️ TWO AUGUST INDIE RELEASES WE ACTUALLY READ AND LOVED

We're talking about Tessa Brookfield's Who's Fixing Who, a chaotic rom-com packed with chemistry, mystery and plot twists…

…and The Hundred Lives I Lived Before You, a genre-bending speculative romance about a man who wakes up in different lives, eras and worlds—and finally finds someone worth staying for.

Basically: your TBR is about to get longer.

Again.

You're welcome.

📚 BOOKS & AUTHORS MENTIONED

Before I Deserved You — Nomi J. Avery Small-town romantic suspense | Friends to lovers | He falls first | Hidden love

Falling Up / Zero I — Rodger E. Carty Science fiction | Post-apocalyptic adventure | Gravity powers

Bonds Beyond Blood — Ciel Essel Dark romantasy | Enemies to lovers | Forced proximity | Slow burn

A History of Lightning — Kimberly D. Tait Historical magical realism | 1933 Oklahoma | Dust Bowl | Secret identity

What Digs Itself Free — Stoney Brooks Paranormal horror | Found footage | Media horror | Dark comedy

Who's Fixing Who — Tessa Brookfield Rom-com | Grumpy sunshine | Forced proximity | Partner in crime

The Hundred Lives I Lived Before You Speculative romance | Genre-bending | Slow burn | Friends to lovers

💬 SPILL IT IN THE COMMENTS

What's the funniest or most savage one-star book review you've ever read?

And we need to know:

📚 What's an indie book you think EVERYONE should know about?

⭐ Have you ever given a book one star—and what did it do to deserve it?

❤️ Which of today's indie recommendations are going straight onto your TBR?

❤️ SUPPORT SPILL THE BOOK

If you enjoyed the chaos:

👍 LIKE this episode 🔔 FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss the next spill 📤 SHARE this with your favorite bookish chaos goblin ⭐ LEAVE US A REVIEW wherever you listen to podcasts 💬 COMMENT with your hottest bookish opinion

And if you're an indie author and want us to Spill Your Book Mail…

📬 Send us your book.

We want the cover.

We want the blurb.

We want to make wildly inaccurate guesses.

And then we want to read it and come back with the receipts.

🎙️ Spill the Book — where we read the books, spill the tea and occasionally make questionable decisions about our TBRs.

Keep reading. Keep spilling.

And for the love of books…

STOP ADDING BOOKS TO YOUR TBR.

Actually…

Don't do that.

We would never ask you to do something so unreasonable. 😂