Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.
Are there certain books that confuse readers more than others? The answer is, unsurprisingly, yes. But what books are the most confusing to the general reader audience? That’s what the book lovers at Aura Print sought to find out in a recent survey.
To start, the team at Aura Print generated a seed list of titles from multiple sources, including the 100 bestselling books, as well as other resources like user-generated lists of “confusing books” and book-to-screen adaptation lists. They also sought titles that appeared among the best selling and highest rated in outlets like The New York Times, Amazon, and Goodreads. The team then searched each of those books on Goodreads and stuck to titles with 50,000 or more reviews. From there, they searched the reviews of each title for the word “confusing.” It’s a pretty straightforward methodology, focusing on reviews that readers write for themselves and for other book lovers on the site, if not all together the most scientific.
So what topped the list of most confusing books?
The most confusing book according to Goodreads users was Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. Over 8,000 of the reviews include the word “confusing” to describe their experience with the book.
Here’s a look at the top 20 most confusing books, according to Goodreads users:
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- 1: Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, with 8,013 “confusing” reviews
- 2: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, with 6,328 “confusing” reviews
- 3: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, with 5,588 “confusing” reviews
- 4: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, with 5,164 “confusing” reviews
- 5: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, with 4,024 “confusing” reviews
- 6: Caraval by Stephanie Garber, with 3,339 “confusing” reviews
- 7: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarrows, with 2,980 “confusing” reviews
- 8: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas, with 2,857 “confusing” reviews
- 9: Normal People by Sally Rooney, with 2,767 “confusing” reviews
- 10: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, with 2,637 “confusing” reviews
- 11: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, with 2,630 “confusing” reviews
- 12: Bunny by Mona Awad, with 2,616 “confusing” reviews
- 13: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, with 2,606 “confusing” reviews
- 14: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, with 2,207 “confusing” reviews
- 15: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, with 2,149 “confusing” reviews
- 16: First Lie Wings by Ashley Elston, with 2,123 “confusing” reviews
- 17: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, with 2,099 “confusing” reviews
- 18: Dune by Frank Herbert, with 2,091 “confusing” reviews
- 19: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, with 2,048 “confusing” reviews
- 20: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, with 2,015 “confusing” reviews
While this data only represents a limited subset of readers–those who’ve used the word “confusing” in a Goodreads review–it is interesting. The vast majority of “confusing” books fall under the genres/subgenres of fantasy or romantasy, and the vast majority are also books written by women. There’s something to be said about women dominating popular books right now and because of how widespread those books are, there’s more opportunity for readers to find parts of them “confusing.”
The books on this list aren’t all new books, though. A number of classics and backlist titles appear here as well. Among them are Dune, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Fahrenheit 451.
There are few books by authors of color included, likely attributed to the array of books included in the research. There are simply fewer books by authors of color appearing on the lists the team assessed and fewer still afterwards with 50,000 or more Goodreads reviews.
Another variable to consider with this list is the experience level of readers as well. Many of the most “confusing” books are also some of the biggest bestsellers of the last several years. Folks who haven’t been long-time readers or who don’t have a strong reading habit may be getting back into the hobby again with some of these blockbuster titles. With the classics on the list, those reviews citing that the book was “confusing” may include a chunk of young readers picking up those books for classroom assignments. One of the flaws of this survey is that “confusing” is pulled out of context of the review itself.
In comparison, what were some of the least “confusing” books in the research? The five titles at the very bottom of the list were:
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, with 117 “confusing” reviews
- Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez, with 116 “confusing” reviews
- The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden, with 104 “confusing” reviews
- Lights Out by Navessa Allen, with 66 “confusing” reviews
- Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez, with 45 “confusing” reviews
By contrast, the least confusing books were those within the romance and thriller genres. Little Women appears here, too. The coming-of-age tale is one that many readers pick up in their youth and that they have likely encountered references to in popular culture at some point.
Aura Print conducted their research on the most confusing books September 24, 2025, so this data is fresh. You can see the full list of books the team assessed for being “confusing” at this link.
English (US) · 