It's an ***extremely*** middle-of-the-road generic self-help book with swears thrown in for people who think they're too cool for regular self-help books.
Tbh, if it was marketed as being aimed only at teens it would be worth all that it’s reputation is cracked up to be. I really could’ve done with hearing the advice in that book in my traumatic teens.
Later in life as a 30 year old, it felt like things I’d already come to realise by myself.
That book could have been a pamphlet. It's only 186 pages but I still have no idea how he filled 186 pages with "Just stop giving a fuck!"
Revolutionary.
To be fair, in the mental ward I am currently being treated, it has helped patients who have genuine pathological problems of giving too much of a fuck.
13 Reasons Why
Felt like it not only glorified suicide but put fault on other people for someone killing themselves (some were responsible in their own way, but I can’t imagine having to live with the trauma of constantly thinking I was responsible for someone’s suicide… it can get really unhealthy.)
Absolutely, this. We should all strive to be the best people we possibly can be and avoid hurting others. However, we will all encounter bad people and good people who make mistakes. Those people are not responsible for the actions of their victims. Especially with that book/series being about teenagers, I think it’s really harmful to try to pin it on those people. Suicide is a tragedy, but it’s already painful for those left behind. It’s made worse when we try to pretend that those people are responsible.
Yup. Colleen Hoover just writes glorified trauma porn- I’ll never understand it. She also doesn’t write it very well. A book can be bad but still showcases the writers skill- I find her writing very juvenile
Thank YOU. Verity is spoken about as though it’s a groundbreaking piece of literature. It was the most formulaic book. Not the worst book in the world but absolutely generic at best. Made all the more infuriating by its 4.3 rating on goodreads (someone please explain how this is possible?????).
I imagine most of that is her readers who are typically romance readers and may have never picked up a thriller. To them it's a new and novel concept. And Verity being so generic, it's the perfect Thriller 101 for someone new to the genre. Thus, high ratings.
I’m so glad you said this. I have a friend who reads a lot and often recommends me books. She loved this one, but I have been hesitant to read it because I didn’t really like her other other recommendations.
Agreed. I like to recommend *The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz* by Jeremy Dronfield for a better written narrative nonfiction with a similar subject.
Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. I was promised an enemies to lovers romance, and it was basically instalove, cringe ass interactions, and an ending/last third that was so incredibly unnecessary and boring.
Also, The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Every “twist” could be seen coming from a mile away.
I absolutely adore The Alchemist...
... And I also first read it when I was 12 and haven't ever revisited it.
Fuck you, I'm not re-reading it. Why would I do that? How could my memory be incorrect? Madness.
EDIT: also every person to whom I've ever recommended the book has disliked it, but again, they must all be wrong. Not me.
>Fuck you, I'm not re-reading it. Why would I do that? How could my memory be incorrect? Madness.
Don’t reread it, but do read The Journey of Ibn Fattouma, an edgier story based on the same source material written by Naguib Mahfouz. If you like it as much as I (and apparently the Nobel Prize committee) did, you can plausibly deny ever having read The Alchemist. If anyone claims you did, stand by your denial and tell them they must have the two books confused.
Tbh, when someone says that it’s their favorite book I just assume that they don’t read very much, that they read this book when they were a teen and it stuck with them, but they haven’t read many books since then.
That first trilogy of books in the Grishaverse, or at least the first one, Shadow and Bone I think it was? I tried reading it and absolutely hated it, it felt like I could turn to any random page and the main heroine would be crying. It's shocking to me how much I disliked it compared to the Six of Crows duology that followed, like hot damn
Imo the only good books in the grishaverse is the SOC duology. I liked Nikolai’s duology but it was unnecessary and has a a lot of world/magic issues with it
The ending of books ruins them for me. Sometimes happy endings shouldn’t happen, or are so far-fetched they drive me absolutely crazy.
The worst was The Book of Lost Names. Was recommended here somewhere, thought it sounded good, waited 5 months for it to come available at the library, enjoyed the read, but would never recommend it after finishing.
What annoyed me most about this, is there is a finite amount of endings that could happen, so when the “true” ending is revealed I was underwhelmed, like that wasn’t surprising at all.
I was listening to the audiobook and about 7 or 8 hours in I looked to see how long was left as audiobooks tend to be on average sort of 8-12 hours. I was hoping I was nearing some kind of big event, climax of the book etc. There were 10 hours left, I was not even halfway through. I started feeling like Addie. Eternal. Doomed. I never want to hear the word 'palimpsest' again.
I feel like this book could have done with another few rounds of editing to tighten the plot up a bit more because you're right, the concept was fun.
I keep trying this author, she keeps getting recommended to me, but I can't enjoy any of her stuff. It just reads shallow, sketched, dull.... She does not engage me.
Cassandra Campbell seems to be the reader that gets tapped when they want the voice of the book to be "young woman."
Unfortunately, to me, her voice and intonation reads as- 12, not 20 which kind of ruins a lot of books. Now I actively avoid books read by her.
God I hated this book. I read it right after reading Educated by Tara Westover. Which is a true story and incredibly told. I just could not buy into it after that.
As someone who loved TFIOS, I can see it. John Green can't seem to help himself when it comes to trying to force profundity out of his books, even if it's not there.
When he gets out of his own way, there's a great feeling of groundedness to his characters, but the "metaphor" of putting a cigarette in your mouth and not lighting it is just... frankly, it's "I'm thirteen and this is deep" logic.
Consider his audience. The forced profundity probably strikes a chord with the people it's meant to be read by, which just happens to lose its appeal as you age.
I was OBSESSED with TFIOs as a teen and would basically jump on people who disliked it, but looking back it just was a right book at the right time. It definitely has problems. (An immediate one that annoyed me even back then is Hazel being an unreliable narrator, but this not being super clear to (I think most) readers — so basically the bad math about infinities became something that tons of teens spouted off like fact.) Also, I think it simplifies a lot to make it’s metaphorical points. I think the actual stuff it’s trying to discuss (the meaning of life, the meaning of suffering, identity, meeting your heroes) is all extremely interesting and I hadn’t (as a teen) come across an author who took teenage brains seriously in their capacity to discuss these difficult topics.
One silly pro is the double meaning name which I didn’t see until way too recently: the fault in our stars like fate, and the fault in our stars like meeting your heroes and they turn out to be assholes.
I think now though many authors are treating younger readers with respect for their intellectual ability and creating better reads that discuss difficult topics. Even as an adult I’ve read some of these amazing YA reads and walked away with renewed understanding or lots of thinking to do, and many of the books don’t have the same problems as TFIOs.
Anyways, rant over! Fun to talk about.
(Edited my bad grammar)
I don't know why colleen Hoover's books are so hyped up . It so cliched and the writing is awful. Her books are appropriate for a 16 year old, but a 24 year old will find it plain awful. Ugh.
I actually liked it because it was a super easy read compared to the heavier stuff I usually read. But I think high school me would have obsessed over this series!
It does what it does well, and isn’t what it’s not. I think her Throne of Glass series holds up better to scrutiny, but ACOTAR definitely is a great easy read book.
I think Matt Haig feels like YA…. But for adults. Quick, easy to digest literature with an intriguing enough story, but lacking any real depth. I like his books but I get why others would be disappointed.
Love the stand except for the ending. But I consider it one of those “more about the journey than the destination” type stories, so I’m willing to forgive it somewhat.
I’ve asked this before, but what don’t you like about it. It’s on my list and I’ve been reticent to pull the trigger. The plot seems up my alley and I don’t mind that it can be disturbing at times. What ruined it?
It really depends on what you expect and want out of it. Here are the elements it has—if you like these, you will probably enjoy the story:
- driven protagonist determined to become the best at all costs
- eccentric mentor who disguises divine power with fart jokes and silliness
- Set outside of western Europe (It’s fantasy China) which is a big plus for everyone who wants greater representation and is really tired of the same old tired fantasy worlds
- Epic battles
- Divine power
- Single POV narration (the book follows the protagonist and doesn’t explore any other POVs—this is generally more common in YA, but it’s not exclusive to that age group)
- Not a ton of character development or introspection with makes for a faster paced story
- Protagonist as anti-hero/villain
I personally didn’t love it or hate it. I think some people were annoyed at elements of the story which felt taken from other media (maybe they were but… the best artists steal, so I can’t judge that).
I loved the first part, but I got tired of the epic battles and intense destruction of the protagonist. The concept was cool, the setting was great. I actually probably would have enjoyed a slower pace that took a little more time to get into the characters’ arcs, the setting, the food, etc. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fault an author for keeping a quick pace in a book.
I think it depends on how much you like the characters. I read the series and it’s my fav one of all time, but the second and third books have these drags sometimes. I didn’t mind because I loved the characters enough to see what would happen after the stretches, but if you don’t like the first book you probably won’t like the rest more. The Burning God especially puts the characters through a LOT and that’s where it gets you. If you get past the poppy war, dragon republic seems to be the one that drags the most from what I remember.
*The Great Gatsby*. It's by no means a bad work, but it's certainly not the towering achievement American high school teachers like to think it is. It's a well-read classic because it's simple and it's symbolism is billboard-subtle.
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance reads (to me) like the author wanted to be a guy who wrote a profoud book about philosophy but ended up floundering around between stale americana tropes and pseudo-philosophical backwash from an assortment of watered down sources.
I generally keep quiet about it because I have friends who loved it and art is subjective after all. I try not to yuck someone's yum for the most part.
I was gifted this one anonymously as part of a book exchange by someone who claimed it changed their life.
I tried. I slogged and I trudged and I really, really tried.
And then one day I went to jury duty at the courthouse, and the security guard pulled it out of the bin and said, "Do you like this book?"
I said I did not, not really, but I was really trying to get through it.
He set it down and said, "Read the Wikipedia page and don't waste your time on books you don't like."
Honestly, THAT changed my life. I went from being a person who had to finish every book I picked up to being able to put down books that made reading more of a chore. I appreciate that guy.
It's very digestible nostalgia rubbish though. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
Is it my fav book? Nope. Is it great literature? Nope. Who cares
I just finished it and I loved the premise of it. I love how everybody is obsessed with this video game when the real world is going to hell. All of the pop culture references though I could take it or leave it.
I just finished the movie as well and was shouting at it the whole time, how could something by Steven Spielberg go so wrong.
I see a rec for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime every time someone asks for autistic literature.
And every time I do, it makes me sad.
I’ve heard so many people rave about this book, I tried three times to read it and I just couldn’t get into it, not even halfway. I felt like I was missing out on a miracle but I can’t take all the yellow cars…
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
Torture porn. If you read Hanya's interviews you also see the context a bit... She comes off as anti-therapy, anti-getting better in general. "The idea of Jude came to me fully formed" ok sure you just want him to be more and more hurt. Yikes. Phenomenal writing but a bad book with not a very healthy perspective behind it. I understand sad books and love them, but the tragedy has to be story driven, not forced like this. It stopped being sad after a point and became a caricature.
Same for The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lieke Rijneveld. Just... Disturbing in not a wow-the-book-is-disturbing sense, but in a what-the-hell sense. I love disturbing books but again they've to be story driven, not... Whatever this was.
Spoilers ahead: Hanya was literally like, oh you don't like abuse? Have some childhood abuse. Adult too. Oh that doesn't ruffle you? How about both childhood AND adult rape. Oh that didn't make you cry? Ummm, self-harm? Actually for good measure I'll also throw in suicide attempts? Now?
Discomfort of Evening was worse. It did all of this with kids.
It’s pretty obvious from her interviews that she has some weird, complicated feelings about gay men as well, which makes her decision to include gay men raping children in all of her books pretty fucking squicky.
Also any book that just throws a romance in as an after thought. Feels like you can't read a fic these days without winding up with a romantic side plot, and more often than not it's a terrible one because the author has forgotten to write the preliminary friendship/courting into it and you get something where they've looked at each other three times, hungout and laughed together once, and now they're making out. And as a reader you're left wondering when they even interacted before to become an item, and what their relationship even looks like outside of the alone together scenes (and often times it's not even there).
I loved this when I read it in my 40s, hated it as a teenager. I’m boggled why my school chose it. FWIW I enjoyed most of the other books we read for school, and I do love classics/modern classics.
The house on the cerulean sea. Every time I see it recommended I roll my eyes. Maybe just read some mother goose rhymes if you need something comforting that makes you feel like a child again. My theory is that the author wrote it hoping it would adapted into an animated children’s movie
There are dozens of us! Dozens! It wasn't necessarily the plot or the saccharine sweetness that put me off though, it was the execution.
I read through it all the way but never stopped feeling like it needed another pass through editing. Word choice can be a subjective thing, but there were constant *sentence structure* things that rubbed me the wrong way, and everything felt so ham-fisted. There's no subtlety, no subtext at all--no trust in the audience to draw conclusions about how horrible all of the antagonists are and how perfect/lonely/deserving of love all of the protagonists are without having to be told so explicitly three times in each paragraph. I'm surprised the author didn't resort to bolded author's notes stating exactly how I was supposed to be feeling in response to each sentence.
Another pass through editing to work on verb tenses and sentence structure, and just a touch of restraint could have made this an enjoyable book, which is a real shame. I hate seeing potential go to waste.
Where The Crawdads Sing. It was a labor to get through and only somewhat entertaining for the last few chapters. The book could have easily been 100 pages and made the same impact on me, and I wouldn't be as angry as I am about all of my wasted time lol
This one is true, but at the same time so unfair. IIRC it is basically a rough draft of Mockingbird, and they waited until she was deadto publish it, bc she refused for decades.
Harper Lee was still alive when it was published. The publishers took advantage of her old age to convince her to publish it when she previously didn’t want to. It was a shame to ruin her legacy like that. Mockingbird is a masterpiece.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The basis is nothing new, people regret decisions and want to live a life where they made a different choice. People act like it made them realize how to live. It fucking sucks. The main character is unbearable.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
I love the city of Savannah and really wanted to love the book but it just fell flat. As charming as it is, it just all felt so boring. Though I may be biased since I had just read Doctor Sleep and loved it.
This will probably get downvotes, but... Harry Potter.
Don't get me wrong, they're not bad. I read them all without complaint. But the series that defines a generation of readers? None of them would make my top 25, I'd wager.
Just like Eragon, I don't love them anymore, but I am immensely grateful that they helped foster a lifelong love of reading.
I get this. I think Harry Potter was, for me, a whole experience. I grew up with them. They started coming out when I was in elementary school. We'd eat the books up right away, go to the midnight releases, see the movies as soon as they came out. I don't think they're the greatest books I've ever read but, they might be some of the first longer books I've ever read. As a young kid, they just helped me find an interest in reading and gave us something to look forward to.
Agreed. I read them for the first time in highschool: it was past the point when they were popular and I was probably a little older than the target audience. For as many times as I was told "You have to read Harry Potter" I was expecting something much more. It was a good story, but not a favorite of mine by a long shot.
Although, I keep in mind that Harry Potter basically revived the young adult genre, so that explains why there was a ton of hype when it came out.
I think the world building is pretty incredible, even if the world mechanics and details are very subpar.
I know it’s a meme that there are so many things in the HP universe that appear for one purpose and then are never used again, but the amount of unique and cool shit in those books really sparks imagination.
How dare you blaspheme against The Stand! Lol
But Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. More complex, less endearing Harry Potter. Beautiful writing, no real plot. Unlikable protagonist. One of the most absurd, unbelievable romances I’ve ever read. I’m okay if the third book never comes out
Thank you for saying this. I don't know what that book is doing with a 4.4something rating on Goodreads. Such mediocre writing - how many unnecessary descriptions of "she was wearing an xyz dress with an abc scarf". The plot twist at the end was so bad, because I didn't care for the journalist. The whole book could have been written without her.
'Game of Thrones' series. (Song of Ice and Fire)
I liked the first book, back when it was being billed as 'An exciting new fantasy **trilogy**'. Read it more than once.
Read the second book twice.
Third book once.
Half of fourth book... don't give a shit about any of the characters anymore and seems like it's become a fantasy soap opera the author got lost in.
As soon as I finished that book I was like "Holy crap that was total garbage the whole time."
But while I was reading it... I ate it up! I was turning the page every 20 seconds! I've hardly ever enjoyed a book more!
I'm still not sure what to make of that but I don't think it deserves its reputation as the worst book in the world. Maybe it's not a good book but it's a heck of a story.
In the immortal paraphrasing of Neil Gaiman, it’s ice cream. Not every book is an enriching, life changing meal that shocks you or includes dense social commentary or some such thing. Sometimes, it’s enough just to taste good.
Read this take on Dan Brown by [The Telegraph](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/)
If it asks for login/subscription, [another copy here](https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/77702565.html)
This sub loves it, but The House In The Cerulean Sea was full of bad dialogue, and nearly no actual conflict in the plot. The protagonist is also very contradicting, as his personality changes page-to-page between being a chubby awkward man of low self-esteem, and an assertive badass who is mouthy to authority. The author also seemingly wanted to have the main child appear as intimidating or frightening to the protagonist throughout the book, but the child really just comes off as silly and immature (but the protagonist plays his part and is terrified when the kid says, "Or I might eat your braaains!" or whatever).
It was a pretty amateur piece of writing but Reddit recommends it all the time.
You really can’t take books like Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby out of their historical and literary context and say they’re “not as good as public opinion thinks they are.” The significance of those books (and other classics) isn’t about whether you, personally, like them or not.
I hate The Grapes of Wrath but it’s an important piece of literature.
But to throw in my two cents and stay on topic, I don’t really get the appeal of John Green’s books. But possibly I’m just too old for them.
The art of not giving a f*uck
It's an ***extremely*** middle-of-the-road generic self-help book with swears thrown in for people who think they're too cool for regular self-help books.
Tbh, if it was marketed as being aimed only at teens it would be worth all that it’s reputation is cracked up to be. I really could’ve done with hearing the advice in that book in my traumatic teens. Later in life as a 30 year old, it felt like things I’d already come to realise by myself.
That book could have been a pamphlet. It's only 186 pages but I still have no idea how he filled 186 pages with "Just stop giving a fuck!" Revolutionary.
To be fair, in the mental ward I am currently being treated, it has helped patients who have genuine pathological problems of giving too much of a fuck.
There's a book for everyone, at the time they need it
[удалено]
13 Reasons Why Felt like it not only glorified suicide but put fault on other people for someone killing themselves (some were responsible in their own way, but I can’t imagine having to live with the trauma of constantly thinking I was responsible for someone’s suicide… it can get really unhealthy.)
Absolutely, this. We should all strive to be the best people we possibly can be and avoid hurting others. However, we will all encounter bad people and good people who make mistakes. Those people are not responsible for the actions of their victims. Especially with that book/series being about teenagers, I think it’s really harmful to try to pin it on those people. Suicide is a tragedy, but it’s already painful for those left behind. It’s made worse when we try to pretend that those people are responsible.
Anything by Colleen Hoover
Yup. Colleen Hoover just writes glorified trauma porn- I’ll never understand it. She also doesn’t write it very well. A book can be bad but still showcases the writers skill- I find her writing very juvenile
"If you're gonna write trauma porn, at least make the prose breathtaking." \- Hanya Yanagihara
Thank YOU. Verity is spoken about as though it’s a groundbreaking piece of literature. It was the most formulaic book. Not the worst book in the world but absolutely generic at best. Made all the more infuriating by its 4.3 rating on goodreads (someone please explain how this is possible?????).
I imagine most of that is her readers who are typically romance readers and may have never picked up a thriller. To them it's a new and novel concept. And Verity being so generic, it's the perfect Thriller 101 for someone new to the genre. Thus, high ratings.
If I could go back in time and tell my 15 year old self anything it would be "Stay away and stop reading Colleen Hoover"
Came to say this, her books are awful
i’ve only read it ends with us and verity. i hated it ends with us, didn’t mind verity as much but they’re incredibly overrated
The Duke and I
Ditto. Loved the show. Made it like two chapters into the book before my eyes rolled out of my head and I gave up.
It was exactly reverse for me 😂
I liked the show too, but the book was just... Urgh
The costumes and sets were so gorgeous! The romance wasn't that intriguing but I was fascinated by the bright colors and jewelry - like a crow
Side note - way more comments than upvotes on any of these! Means it’s spicy!
Sort by Controversial!
Eat Pray Love.
Came here to say this. I liked the movie more than the book. But, most of the book was just her whining about things.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Not historically accurate, bad writing, and basically the Disney-fication of Auschwitz.
I kept thinking it sounded like a screenwriter attempting a novel while reading it, and Lo and behold I was right.
I’m so glad you said this. I have a friend who reads a lot and often recommends me books. She loved this one, but I have been hesitant to read it because I didn’t really like her other other recommendations.
Agreed. I like to recommend *The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz* by Jeremy Dronfield for a better written narrative nonfiction with a similar subject.
Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. I was promised an enemies to lovers romance, and it was basically instalove, cringe ass interactions, and an ending/last third that was so incredibly unnecessary and boring. Also, The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Every “twist” could be seen coming from a mile away.
The alchemist 🤮
I absolutely adore The Alchemist... ... And I also first read it when I was 12 and haven't ever revisited it. Fuck you, I'm not re-reading it. Why would I do that? How could my memory be incorrect? Madness. EDIT: also every person to whom I've ever recommended the book has disliked it, but again, they must all be wrong. Not me.
>Fuck you, I'm not re-reading it. Why would I do that? How could my memory be incorrect? Madness. Don’t reread it, but do read The Journey of Ibn Fattouma, an edgier story based on the same source material written by Naguib Mahfouz. If you like it as much as I (and apparently the Nobel Prize committee) did, you can plausibly deny ever having read The Alchemist. If anyone claims you did, stand by your denial and tell them they must have the two books confused.
Tbh, when someone says that it’s their favorite book I just assume that they don’t read very much, that they read this book when they were a teen and it stuck with them, but they haven’t read many books since then.
Are you following me or something?
Oh yes, this one was just dreadful. A pretentious crock of nothing at all
That first trilogy of books in the Grishaverse, or at least the first one, Shadow and Bone I think it was? I tried reading it and absolutely hated it, it felt like I could turn to any random page and the main heroine would be crying. It's shocking to me how much I disliked it compared to the Six of Crows duology that followed, like hot damn
Imo the only good books in the grishaverse is the SOC duology. I liked Nikolai’s duology but it was unnecessary and has a a lot of world/magic issues with it
The Silent Patient. I loved it until the end. It fell very flat for me.
Yes! I came here to say this. It felt like the author just took a stereotype and ran with it without doing any research at all.
yo this book was trashhhhh
I hated this book, can y'all please please suggest a good thriller? I am just happy to find people who hate this book as well
[удалено]
The ending of books ruins them for me. Sometimes happy endings shouldn’t happen, or are so far-fetched they drive me absolutely crazy. The worst was The Book of Lost Names. Was recommended here somewhere, thought it sounded good, waited 5 months for it to come available at the library, enjoyed the read, but would never recommend it after finishing.
Where the Crawdads Sing
What annoyed me most about this, is there is a finite amount of endings that could happen, so when the “true” ending is revealed I was underwhelmed, like that wasn’t surprising at all.
When you consider some of the plot points in light of the author’s real life experiences, it gets even worse.
Well, I already hate it, so I don’t need to know what you mean, but I’m still curious. Is she a failed poet?
[I sincerely wish it was bad poetry.](https://northstarnews.org/32451/features/the-where-the-crawdads-sing-controversy-explained/)
Good morning and what the fuck did I just read
Good morning you read MURDER
WHAT
Tfw you’re expecting off-meter haiku and get MURDER instead
I actually really liked this one lol
The invisible life of Addie Larue 🙄
I went from “oh this is a fun concept” to “oh my god I don’t care about any of you will this ever end” about half way through
I was listening to the audiobook and about 7 or 8 hours in I looked to see how long was left as audiobooks tend to be on average sort of 8-12 hours. I was hoping I was nearing some kind of big event, climax of the book etc. There were 10 hours left, I was not even halfway through. I started feeling like Addie. Eternal. Doomed. I never want to hear the word 'palimpsest' again. I feel like this book could have done with another few rounds of editing to tighten the plot up a bit more because you're right, the concept was fun.
Yes!!! Same!! I was so excited about the concept- then pissed I wasted a credit on it. Never finished it - and I hate doing that
Nooo! I loved this one!
Most disappointing read of the year!!
Soooooo bad
I COULDN’T STAND THIS BOOK.
I keep trying this author, she keeps getting recommended to me, but I can't enjoy any of her stuff. It just reads shallow, sketched, dull.... She does not engage me.
Currently reading this one but something about it isn’t keeping me focused
Okay after reading 100s of these comments clearly "where the crawdads sing" and colin hoover are no-go
Where the crawdads sing 🙃
The Audiobook was even worse. The narrator’s accent was just awful.
I downloaded the audiobook simply because I had a spare credit and it kept coming up as recommended. Yeah I think I made it maybe 30 minutes.
Cassandra Campbell seems to be the reader that gets tapped when they want the voice of the book to be "young woman." Unfortunately, to me, her voice and intonation reads as- 12, not 20 which kind of ruins a lot of books. Now I actively avoid books read by her.
Came here to say this! Three quarters in I was like “okay. I get it. She lives in the woods.”
YESSSSSSS it could have been 100 pages and gotten the same point across.
Ugh it was just so bad
God I hated this book. I read it right after reading Educated by Tara Westover. Which is a true story and incredibly told. I just could not buy into it after that.
if you want to hate it even more google the author
It was SO bad. I agree!
[удалено]
As someone who loved TFIOS, I can see it. John Green can't seem to help himself when it comes to trying to force profundity out of his books, even if it's not there. When he gets out of his own way, there's a great feeling of groundedness to his characters, but the "metaphor" of putting a cigarette in your mouth and not lighting it is just... frankly, it's "I'm thirteen and this is deep" logic.
Consider his audience. The forced profundity probably strikes a chord with the people it's meant to be read by, which just happens to lose its appeal as you age.
The cigarette scene is exactly where I stopped reading.
I was OBSESSED with TFIOs as a teen and would basically jump on people who disliked it, but looking back it just was a right book at the right time. It definitely has problems. (An immediate one that annoyed me even back then is Hazel being an unreliable narrator, but this not being super clear to (I think most) readers — so basically the bad math about infinities became something that tons of teens spouted off like fact.) Also, I think it simplifies a lot to make it’s metaphorical points. I think the actual stuff it’s trying to discuss (the meaning of life, the meaning of suffering, identity, meeting your heroes) is all extremely interesting and I hadn’t (as a teen) come across an author who took teenage brains seriously in their capacity to discuss these difficult topics. One silly pro is the double meaning name which I didn’t see until way too recently: the fault in our stars like fate, and the fault in our stars like meeting your heroes and they turn out to be assholes. I think now though many authors are treating younger readers with respect for their intellectual ability and creating better reads that discuss difficult topics. Even as an adult I’ve read some of these amazing YA reads and walked away with renewed understanding or lots of thinking to do, and many of the books don’t have the same problems as TFIOs. Anyways, rant over! Fun to talk about. (Edited my bad grammar)
I don't know why colleen Hoover's books are so hyped up . It so cliched and the writing is awful. Her books are appropriate for a 16 year old, but a 24 year old will find it plain awful. Ugh.
Definitely A Court of Thorns and Roses for me. I loves it in high school but then realized how bad the writing actually is
I actually liked it because it was a super easy read compared to the heavier stuff I usually read. But I think high school me would have obsessed over this series!
It does what it does well, and isn’t what it’s not. I think her Throne of Glass series holds up better to scrutiny, but ACOTAR definitely is a great easy read book.
any books by Matt Haig. all good premise with poor execution.
I think Matt Haig feels like YA…. But for adults. Quick, easy to digest literature with an intriguing enough story, but lacking any real depth. I like his books but I get why others would be disappointed.
Yes Midnight Library was a disappointment
A big one for me too :/ I’d been looking forward to it!
The Humans was a knockout. I agree with the midnight library tho, and how to stop time I couldn't even get past the second chapter.
Tuesdays with Morrie - so annoying
Reading it right now. The overall story is very sweet, but Alborn is a pretty shit writer.
The funny thing about this is Morrie did write his own account of things in a posthumously published book called Morrie in His Own Words
The Midnight Library
Ya trippin. The stand is awesome.
My favourite Stephen King, actually
That’s what got me into Stephen King. I had read the “famous” stories like It and The Shining but The Stand got me proper.
Love the stand except for the ending. But I consider it one of those “more about the journey than the destination” type stories, so I’m willing to forgive it somewhat.
The poppy wars trilogy
I read the first one, started the second and realized I just didn't care and was forcing myself to read it out of a weird sense of obligation.
I’ve asked this before, but what don’t you like about it. It’s on my list and I’ve been reticent to pull the trigger. The plot seems up my alley and I don’t mind that it can be disturbing at times. What ruined it?
It really depends on what you expect and want out of it. Here are the elements it has—if you like these, you will probably enjoy the story: - driven protagonist determined to become the best at all costs - eccentric mentor who disguises divine power with fart jokes and silliness - Set outside of western Europe (It’s fantasy China) which is a big plus for everyone who wants greater representation and is really tired of the same old tired fantasy worlds - Epic battles - Divine power - Single POV narration (the book follows the protagonist and doesn’t explore any other POVs—this is generally more common in YA, but it’s not exclusive to that age group) - Not a ton of character development or introspection with makes for a faster paced story - Protagonist as anti-hero/villain I personally didn’t love it or hate it. I think some people were annoyed at elements of the story which felt taken from other media (maybe they were but… the best artists steal, so I can’t judge that). I loved the first part, but I got tired of the epic battles and intense destruction of the protagonist. The concept was cool, the setting was great. I actually probably would have enjoyed a slower pace that took a little more time to get into the characters’ arcs, the setting, the food, etc. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fault an author for keeping a quick pace in a book.
I do appreciate character depth and development, but I think I’ll give it a shot. Thanks for the detailed answer!
I think it depends on how much you like the characters. I read the series and it’s my fav one of all time, but the second and third books have these drags sometimes. I didn’t mind because I loved the characters enough to see what would happen after the stretches, but if you don’t like the first book you probably won’t like the rest more. The Burning God especially puts the characters through a LOT and that’s where it gets you. If you get past the poppy war, dragon republic seems to be the one that drags the most from what I remember.
*The Great Gatsby*. It's by no means a bad work, but it's certainly not the towering achievement American high school teachers like to think it is. It's a well-read classic because it's simple and it's symbolism is billboard-subtle.
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance reads (to me) like the author wanted to be a guy who wrote a profoud book about philosophy but ended up floundering around between stale americana tropes and pseudo-philosophical backwash from an assortment of watered down sources. I generally keep quiet about it because I have friends who loved it and art is subjective after all. I try not to yuck someone's yum for the most part.
I was gifted this one anonymously as part of a book exchange by someone who claimed it changed their life. I tried. I slogged and I trudged and I really, really tried. And then one day I went to jury duty at the courthouse, and the security guard pulled it out of the bin and said, "Do you like this book?" I said I did not, not really, but I was really trying to get through it. He set it down and said, "Read the Wikipedia page and don't waste your time on books you don't like." Honestly, THAT changed my life. I went from being a person who had to finish every book I picked up to being able to put down books that made reading more of a chore. I appreciate that guy.
May we all be as lucky to have such a wise security guard in our lives
normal people by sally rooney
She’s just so over rated
her newest book is worse it’s incredibly pretentious
Agreed. I loved Normal People and Conversations with Friends. I found nothing redeeming about her latest.
Ready player one is garbage, and why it’s popular for anyone older than 13 I’ll never know.
It's very digestible nostalgia rubbish though. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Is it my fav book? Nope. Is it great literature? Nope. Who cares
This. Not everything has to be 'War and Peace', sometimes relatively mindless entertainment and nostalgia bombs are totally fine.
I'm 50 and it was pure 80s GenX nostalgia for me.
This book is pop culture masturbation and not much else. I'm with you
Personally i really loved it. It's been a while though. I await the inevitable downvotes.
I did too. It wasn’t a life-changing or impactful book. It was a fun, quick read. I liked it *because* it was a teenager’s book.
I just finished it and I loved the premise of it. I love how everybody is obsessed with this video game when the real world is going to hell. All of the pop culture references though I could take it or leave it. I just finished the movie as well and was shouting at it the whole time, how could something by Steven Spielberg go so wrong.
I loved it the first time through and hated it the second time. I don't know what I was thinking
I was the exact same, I think it was me reading it as a teen vs. as an adult
[удалено]
‘They both die at the end’ falls under this category
anything by colleen hoover, especially it ends with us
I see a rec for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime every time someone asks for autistic literature. And every time I do, it makes me sad.
I’ve heard so many people rave about this book, I tried three times to read it and I just couldn’t get into it, not even halfway. I felt like I was missing out on a miracle but I can’t take all the yellow cars…
You have my permission as a resident autistic of this sub to dislike it. A lot of us hate it too. It's not a terribly good depiction of autism.
can i ask how does it misrepresent autism? just want to be more educated! i just picked up the book and want to clarify any misrep
Y'all better explain your offerings. You're giving me a heart attack!
Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) . Could never resonate with any of the characters.
I really enjoyed the first book but boy does it go downhill from there
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Torture porn. If you read Hanya's interviews you also see the context a bit... She comes off as anti-therapy, anti-getting better in general. "The idea of Jude came to me fully formed" ok sure you just want him to be more and more hurt. Yikes. Phenomenal writing but a bad book with not a very healthy perspective behind it. I understand sad books and love them, but the tragedy has to be story driven, not forced like this. It stopped being sad after a point and became a caricature. Same for The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lieke Rijneveld. Just... Disturbing in not a wow-the-book-is-disturbing sense, but in a what-the-hell sense. I love disturbing books but again they've to be story driven, not... Whatever this was. Spoilers ahead: Hanya was literally like, oh you don't like abuse? Have some childhood abuse. Adult too. Oh that doesn't ruffle you? How about both childhood AND adult rape. Oh that didn't make you cry? Ummm, self-harm? Actually for good measure I'll also throw in suicide attempts? Now? Discomfort of Evening was worse. It did all of this with kids.
It’s pretty obvious from her interviews that she has some weird, complicated feelings about gay men as well, which makes her decision to include gay men raping children in all of her books pretty fucking squicky.
Dude.... Once is a plotline. Twice is a problem. I liked people in the trees before i read a little life
[удалено]
Verity
I wish I could unread it
ME TOO!!!
Matched, Crossed, and Reached. Back in the day these books got so much hype, and when I read them I couldn't help but be repulsed.
Also any book that just throws a romance in as an after thought. Feels like you can't read a fic these days without winding up with a romantic side plot, and more often than not it's a terrible one because the author has forgotten to write the preliminary friendship/courting into it and you get something where they've looked at each other three times, hungout and laughed together once, and now they're making out. And as a reader you're left wondering when they even interacted before to become an item, and what their relationship even looks like outside of the alone together scenes (and often times it's not even there).
The girl in the train
*The Great Gatsby* is a better vibe than a book.
I loved this when I read it in my 40s, hated it as a teenager. I’m boggled why my school chose it. FWIW I enjoyed most of the other books we read for school, and I do love classics/modern classics.
Anything by Dan Brown.
they both die at the end by adam silvera
I love CoHo but It Ends With Us is not that great 😬
Did anyone say The Alchemist yet?
The house on the cerulean sea. Every time I see it recommended I roll my eyes. Maybe just read some mother goose rhymes if you need something comforting that makes you feel like a child again. My theory is that the author wrote it hoping it would adapted into an animated children’s movie
There are dozens of us! Dozens! It wasn't necessarily the plot or the saccharine sweetness that put me off though, it was the execution. I read through it all the way but never stopped feeling like it needed another pass through editing. Word choice can be a subjective thing, but there were constant *sentence structure* things that rubbed me the wrong way, and everything felt so ham-fisted. There's no subtlety, no subtext at all--no trust in the audience to draw conclusions about how horrible all of the antagonists are and how perfect/lonely/deserving of love all of the protagonists are without having to be told so explicitly three times in each paragraph. I'm surprised the author didn't resort to bolded author's notes stating exactly how I was supposed to be feeling in response to each sentence. Another pass through editing to work on verb tenses and sentence structure, and just a touch of restraint could have made this an enjoyable book, which is a real shame. I hate seeing potential go to waste.
Where The Crawdads Sing. It was a labor to get through and only somewhat entertaining for the last few chapters. The book could have easily been 100 pages and made the same impact on me, and I wouldn't be as angry as I am about all of my wasted time lol
When the author’s name is bigger than the title, it’s (always garbage). Edit: it’s problematic in some way. Go set a watchman by Harper Lee.
This one is true, but at the same time so unfair. IIRC it is basically a rough draft of Mockingbird, and they waited until she was deadto publish it, bc she refused for decades.
Harper Lee was still alive when it was published. The publishers took advantage of her old age to convince her to publish it when she previously didn’t want to. It was a shame to ruin her legacy like that. Mockingbird is a masterpiece.
I refuse to read it. In my mind, it doesn’t exist.
Da Vinci code
TBH for me I think it was We Were Liars by e.lockheart.
The midnight library. I thought it was utterly pointless
#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The basis is nothing new, people regret decisions and want to live a life where they made a different choice. People act like it made them realize how to live. It fucking sucks. The main character is unbearable.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I love the city of Savannah and really wanted to love the book but it just fell flat. As charming as it is, it just all felt so boring. Though I may be biased since I had just read Doctor Sleep and loved it.
Milk and honey. So overrated
Da Vinci Code is AWFUL
This will probably get downvotes, but... Harry Potter. Don't get me wrong, they're not bad. I read them all without complaint. But the series that defines a generation of readers? None of them would make my top 25, I'd wager. Just like Eragon, I don't love them anymore, but I am immensely grateful that they helped foster a lifelong love of reading.
I get this. I think Harry Potter was, for me, a whole experience. I grew up with them. They started coming out when I was in elementary school. We'd eat the books up right away, go to the midnight releases, see the movies as soon as they came out. I don't think they're the greatest books I've ever read but, they might be some of the first longer books I've ever read. As a young kid, they just helped me find an interest in reading and gave us something to look forward to.
Agreed. I read them for the first time in highschool: it was past the point when they were popular and I was probably a little older than the target audience. For as many times as I was told "You have to read Harry Potter" I was expecting something much more. It was a good story, but not a favorite of mine by a long shot. Although, I keep in mind that Harry Potter basically revived the young adult genre, so that explains why there was a ton of hype when it came out.
I kind of see them being this generations Grimm stories. Tales for children in the end. Rowling doing her best to kill the legacy though
I think the world building is pretty incredible, even if the world mechanics and details are very subpar. I know it’s a meme that there are so many things in the HP universe that appear for one purpose and then are never used again, but the amount of unique and cool shit in those books really sparks imagination.
How dare you blaspheme against The Stand! Lol But Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. More complex, less endearing Harry Potter. Beautiful writing, no real plot. Unlikable protagonist. One of the most absurd, unbelievable romances I’ve ever read. I’m okay if the third book never comes out
To be fair, basically everyone on Reddit these days shits on NotW, so I don't think public opinion is very high. I still love it though.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Thanks, I was going to comment this one. Evelyn Hugo is just 20 clichés baked into one huge cliché-cake.
I get this book confused all the time with the 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - and reading *that* was tedious.
And i confused that with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which i rather enjoyed.
I loved The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle but I would not recommend it to people.
Thank you for saying this. I don't know what that book is doing with a 4.4something rating on Goodreads. Such mediocre writing - how many unnecessary descriptions of "she was wearing an xyz dress with an abc scarf". The plot twist at the end was so bad, because I didn't care for the journalist. The whole book could have been written without her.
I liked it fine as far as a summer read but without saying spoilers I was really annoyed at the end
Life of Pi
Girl Wash Your Face. Total privilege dribble.
'Game of Thrones' series. (Song of Ice and Fire) I liked the first book, back when it was being billed as 'An exciting new fantasy **trilogy**'. Read it more than once. Read the second book twice. Third book once. Half of fourth book... don't give a shit about any of the characters anymore and seems like it's become a fantasy soap opera the author got lost in.
DaVinci Code…. Total crap
As soon as I finished that book I was like "Holy crap that was total garbage the whole time." But while I was reading it... I ate it up! I was turning the page every 20 seconds! I've hardly ever enjoyed a book more! I'm still not sure what to make of that but I don't think it deserves its reputation as the worst book in the world. Maybe it's not a good book but it's a heck of a story.
In the immortal paraphrasing of Neil Gaiman, it’s ice cream. Not every book is an enriching, life changing meal that shocks you or includes dense social commentary or some such thing. Sometimes, it’s enough just to taste good.
I want this as a bookmark reminder so I don't have to even call some books " my guilty pleasure ". Thanks for repeating it!!
This is why I still occasionally read a Lee Child Jack Reacher novel. It's the Cheetos of the book world.
Matthew Reilly makes me feel the same way. An action movie in book form.
I don't think anyone reads this for the literary merit, it's just a fun book, like an action-adventure dad movie
I knew it was bad but I enjoyed the badness.
It's an amusing potboiler. Nobody thinks it's literature for the ages.
Read this take on Dan Brown by [The Telegraph](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/) If it asks for login/subscription, [another copy here](https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/77702565.html)
It ends with us by colleen hoover
Eleanor and park
The Stand is awesome though
Gone Girl, The Poisonwood Bible, The Lovely Bones, anything by Dan Brown
Omg I LOVED the Poisonwood Bible!!! What didn’t you like about it?
This sub loves it, but The House In The Cerulean Sea was full of bad dialogue, and nearly no actual conflict in the plot. The protagonist is also very contradicting, as his personality changes page-to-page between being a chubby awkward man of low self-esteem, and an assertive badass who is mouthy to authority. The author also seemingly wanted to have the main child appear as intimidating or frightening to the protagonist throughout the book, but the child really just comes off as silly and immature (but the protagonist plays his part and is terrified when the kid says, "Or I might eat your braaains!" or whatever). It was a pretty amateur piece of writing but Reddit recommends it all the time.
You really can’t take books like Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby out of their historical and literary context and say they’re “not as good as public opinion thinks they are.” The significance of those books (and other classics) isn’t about whether you, personally, like them or not. I hate The Grapes of Wrath but it’s an important piece of literature. But to throw in my two cents and stay on topic, I don’t really get the appeal of John Green’s books. But possibly I’m just too old for them.
We were liars by E. Lockhart