This is a disappointing list.  Or the idea behind it is disappointing, anyway I don’t know why we need a list of the meanest views of the year. Perhaps that is one sort of list, composed of the sort of pieces, that social media rewards. What I would like is a list of the most thoughful and serious engagements of the year. Almost certainly, most of them would be critical of the works they engaged, as positive reviews typically in my experience mostly make you want to read the book for yourself. Negative reviews, in contrast, are the ones that cause you to think more, as they explore why the book failed in important ways, and what are the real questions that were fumbled in the book or other work. But they also give a great deal more respect to the book, and ironically, less attention to themselves, then these more high sugar, high explosive, scathing book reviews.  

Serious critical reviews are significant works in their own right.  A snarky drive-by is just empty calories for everyone.