The Most Infamous Celeb Books That Have Been Plagued By Bad Reviews

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Any time a famous face teases a new book, fans perk up immediately. Whether it's a celebrity memoir that would make a great book club pick for your next meet-up, or the best fiction books by celebs (because stars can have more than one talent), we're pre-ordering our TBRs as soon as the news hits. Many personalities have had great success, such as Lauren Graham and Michelle Obama. With multiple memoirs each, it's amazing how many stories they can share without readers getting bored. And then, on the flip side, several big names attempt a spot on the best-sellers list and fail dismally.

When it comes to writing, you have to have a certain knack for weaving words and ideas together, which doesn't come easily. It's no secret that many use a ghost writer, but that just makes the bad reviews even more embarrassing. Once the book is published, there's no going back, and based on reviews, we bet these celebs wish they'd hit pause on production.

When you're a nepo baby, you have the time and funds to explore passion projects, such as cooking and photography, which is what Brooklyn Beckham did in his spare time. In 2017, he decided to monetize on his hobby with a very large book of photography, which also curiously had many pics of himself shot by others. Although the oldest child of David and Victoria Beckham has a large following, that wasn't enough to boost his book's public reception. Photographer Jessica Kobeissi criticized Brooklyn's blurry and uninspired photos, saying, "These are just pictures you take when you're bored. There's no point to these pictures. There's no effort — it's just laziness."

"What I See" got a meager 2.5 stars on Goodreads, with one reviewer writing, "The fact that Penguin — a well-respected publishing company — would attach itself to such a diabolical collection of pictures is a disgrace to literature itself." Another who acknowledged that Brooklyn's book deal was obviously because of his parents shared, "Beckham isn't without talent, but right now he stands out more from what he can offer because of his connections than his skill or eye as a photographer."

Before Kendall Jenner had her most iconic hair moments and Kylie Jenner created her infamous lip kit, they were two teens who decided to add "Author" to their resumés. This was how "Rebels: City of Indra: The Story of Lex and Livia" came to be, but unlike their careers, it was a big flop. The young adult dystopian novel centers around two sisters who were separated at birth and live in a city called Indra, where certain beauty standards are celebrated. Sounds a lot like Kendall and Kylie's real lives, doesn't it?

Despite Kendall and Kylie using ghostwriter Maya Sloan, "City of Indra" was harshly reviewed, with many slamming the lack of plot, obvious grammar mistakes, and unlikable main characters. "Mind numbing. Trite. Uninspired. No redeeming qualities. I'm not sure anyone involved in this actually cared about making a story, they just wanted to make a book. Any book. It shows," one reviewer shared on Goodreads. Another wrote, "It is as awful as you'd expect it to be — the prose is stiff and dry. The characters aren't fleshed out, and trying to get inside their minds is impossible." The 2.8-star Goodreads rating obviously didn't deter the sisters from coming out with their sequel, "Time of the Twins," which also didn't fare well. It just goes to show that money can buy two ghost-written books, but not very good ones.

Once upon a time, Tyra Banks wanted to be America's Next Top Author and penned a bizarre book called "Modelland." The premise was simple enough: a young teen with a big forehead gets sent to an elite modeling school. However, somewhere along the way, Banks' imagination took a turn, and she decided to name her main character, Tookie De La Crème, with a mom named Creamy De La Crème. Then, once Tookie got to Modelland, she was met with a teacher with a hand for a head and doctors with roller skates for feet. The story gets even weirder, with one Goodreads member describing, "There is a part where the chosen models go on a 'catwalk,' which, in Modelland, means they walk down a hallway full of cats, which are possessed by the spirits of other models, and get clawed by the model/cats."

Fans took to Reddit to describe just how unhinged "Modelland" was, with the original poster writing, "As a book, there are MANY issues. It's incredibly long (565 pages........) and every PAGE has new bits of worldbuilding. A new acronym. A new magical room. A new character. A new land she invented." A Redditor replied, "I read it when it came out. It was awful. I was so embarrassed for her ... It was a mess." At the time of writing, "Modelland" holds just 2.89 stars on Goodreads.

If Lance Armstrong was trying to win back fans after his 1999 doping allegations, he didn't do so with his memoir, "It's Not About the Bike." Although a good chunk of it details his cancer diagnosis, many readers couldn't get over the cyclist's tone, with one Goodreads reviewer stating, "This guy is full of himself, does not have any respect for others, he is a narcissistic arse. This is one angry man with one of the biggest egos I ever experienced in my life!" Another frank reviewer wrote, "There are 324 pages in this book. That's 324 pages of pure, unadulterated [bulls***] from a man with his head so far up his own [a**] that he can lick his tonsils." One thought Armstrong's stories were padded with fiction and shared, "I don't think Lance is telling any big whoppers, but you do get the sense that some (many) of his anecdotes are embellished, crafted, varnished, just a little."

It turns out Armstrong did lie in "It's Not About the Bike" when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs, which unfortunately caused backlash to his ghostwriter, Sally Jenkins. "I think people wanted me to be really, really angry at him and turn on him and do some kind of full-throated attack in print. I mean, I had some complicated feelings, but I was more frustrated with him than angry," she told The Times. Read this memoir with a grain of salt.