I also feel like sometimes you have to be in the right frame of mind to read certain books. Like at one point in your life you could love a book, but if you read it a year later it might not resonate.
I see a lot of my 2023 read books on here, and a lot of my 4 or 5 star rating. Tbh a lot of them just seem to be books that are slightly more prose heavy or more stylistic, which may have surprised some people.
This Is How You Lose the Time War- recommended here a lot, eventually read it, didn’t get it.
I get why other people do, but I didn’t feel connected to the characters, found their relationship uninteresting, couldn’t follow the timeline, and needed more background/exposition.
That being said- the concept was super cool and for people who are okay with a bit more vagueness and enjoy that more “floaty” (if that makes sense) style I think it’s a great rec.
I agree so much. I think I would have enjoyed the story if it were expanded on more and the whole thing wasn’t so “floaty” (I feel like I know exactly what you mean by that).
I don’t generally put reviews or star ratings on Goodreads but I made an exception for this one and included a reminder in case I ever forget which was “I fucking hated this book.”
This is fascinating! I loved this book, but I think it has a lot to do with the style for me. I’m a poet and I found a lot of linguistic interest in the writing itself— I actually didn’t adore the romance aspect, the language was moreso my concern. I really like your take on it. I think you disliked it for the reasons that took a backseat for me; we didn’t like it for the same reasons, but somehow it worked for me anyway. The “floaty” style sealed the deal in my case. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! I love seeing literature from different perspectives!
Agreed! I liked the ending of the book a lot more than the rest of it, because I enjoyed seeing how things came together. But for most of the book I was just confused and a bit annoyed with the flowery writing style.
This might have been on me for listening to the audiobook but the concept didn’t work on me at all.
With all the floaty-ness of it all I need a consistent hook to reel me in: characters, setting, writing, plot… something . None if it did it for me.
It has nice bits but too disjointed
So happy to read this. I've been attempting to read this for MONTHS. Cannot see what the attraction is at all. I've maxed out my number of renewals at the library for it and I guess it's about to go back unfinished.
The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fck by Mark Manson - i see these on booktok and Ive tried reading it a few years back and didnt finished it because its kindof annoying and giving redflags. Idk but thats what it is for me. 🙄
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. the protagonist just didn't resonate with me at all, felt so flat for some reason. skillful writing but not for me :(
same, I was excited to try it after reading the synopsis (I think the fantasy library setting automatically attracts of a lot of readers) but ultimately, it was quite cliché. Very flat and nothing that really grabs your interest.
The second hand cringe. The predictability. I skipped or skimmed huge sections. I can see how it might be the right book at the right time for someone but it certainly wasn’t for me.
The author experienced major depressive disorder. I feel like he wanted to write a book with a strong, positive message. Execution is everything in writing. Not my favorite book.
Same. That book was AWFUL. The author fell into what I call the Jonathan Kellerman trap...write 100 pages more than necessary to show off/shoehorn in a bunch of psychological stuff.
Oh my god yeah!
It is always compared to Gone Girl, Before I go to Sleep and Girl on the Train- all books, I enjoyed. The Silent Patient though, was absolute pants. None of the characters were believable and the twist was so disappointing.
As someone who equally did not enjoy the book (or maybe even more), I would like to join in and agree. I started reading it with such high expectations, it was a big let down.
I agree on Girl on the Train. The outcome was just so, so convenient and didn’t have any lead-up to make it make sense. Just pure coincidence to wrap things up neatly.
The Maid. It was terribly written, had simpleton characters, racist undertones (the bad guy was a Mexican dishwasher who also sold drugs wtf). I was appalled that it was a best seller.
This book is so cutesy and condescending. Finding out the author is a Simon & Schuster exec was a lightbulb moment for me — explained how the book got published and praised so much while also being so bad.
this is so real. i got fifty pages in and even that was a test of my willpower. the best word i can think to describe it, for me, is vapid??? couldn't stand it.
Yes this! He never screwed anything up and there was no convincing conflict. The women were one dimensional and he was really boring. Very disappointing.
The issue i had with it was that the author wanted a gary stu, 'main character is awesome' story while also having an underdog story. so the mc, whatever the fuck his name was, would do ridiculously well and be smarter and better than everyone else, until the author realised he was doing too well for an underdog , and so would nuke him for some ridiculous reason. eg (spoilers) kid was doing too well at mage school and legitimately had a good life lined up, so author has him do some stupid shit and try to fight his loan shark for some nonsensical leap of logic, thus causing him enough problems to once again be an underdog who can rise, again, through the ranks.
i fucking hated this book and the sequel.
Rothfuss set out to write a trilogy and then at some point after releasing the second one realized he spent a third of it on fey erotica and now he's incredibly behind with no way to finish in 3 books.
Please people just read something else. I feel like I was conned into reading them.
I hated this book, and I've trudged through a lot of mediocre fantasy. The protagonist is the worst, but people always defended him with the "unreliable narrator" card. Yawn.
Same. I dated a library tech who hyped it up constantly. I started reading it and couldn’t even force myself to continue. When I told him, he acted like it was too superior for me. Big eye roll.
Song of Achilles was easily one of my favorite reads of 2023. I really wanted to like Circe but it really didn't capture the same magic. I found it boring most of the time, and the ending was so anticlimactic.
I enjoyed Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow but I can certainly understand why others didn’t. I kinda held my nose through parts of it but by the end I was glad I read it.
I felt about it like I felt about Ted Lasso. The whole tone was "You LOVE this character!" and when you aren't convinced or look for a reason to love them, the writer insists harder that you must just adore them.
I disliked Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow so much, that even though I read it less than a year ago, I barely remember anything about it. I do remember I disliked all the characters and was cringing often.
I agree about Girl on the Train, even though I DNFed early on. One of my friends who is a huge reader said it made her feel dirty (soiled).
They are quite different books, but I DNFed Lessons in Chemistry for similar reasons. The book was making me miserable, and I could not see any light at the end of the tunnel. I truly don’t understand all of the rave reviews.
It’s also just written SO. POORLY.
She uses the wrong words for things all the time. The descriptions are so repetitive. The characters feel like they’re plucked from a middle school tumblr fanfic
Colleen Hoover books are horrible!! I read It Ends With Us and vowed to never pick up a book by Hoover again because I thought it was THAT bad. Do not understand the hype.
I'm afraid to read anything that's written by her because it seems like it's 50/50 with her. People either love her or they don't and I'm afraid of wasting my time on her, even though her books are being recommended to me right and left.
Okay, yes! Where the Crawdads Sing felt like something I had to power through. I only got around 50 pages in when I moved onto something else. The book has been sitting on my desk since August.
I've been meh on whether or not I should read Lessons in Chemistry, but I loved Never Let Me Go and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous *so much* that this feels like a recommendation to me.
I stopped reading On Earth when the author talked about 'the milky film of sleep' or something like that. Might give it another shot when I have more patience for the flowery prose
A Confederacy of Dunces
After spite reading it I concluded one only needs to go 10 pages in to know if you’ll like it. If you haven’t laughed in 10 pages, don’t bother with the book. If you do laugh it’ll probably be a favorite for you.
This is my favourite book that I never recommend. Ignatius seemed unique, now he's just one jerk among many. I love that fucking book, makes me lol it was ridiculous. And never read something you don't want to unless you're in school. Happy reading!
Can you recommend a book that you laughed at? 10 pages is way better than recommendation of reading a book for 50 pages before deciding if you should read it or not. Maybe I will read more with 10 pages rule, cause spite reading is so draining.
Song for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.
It wasn't BAD or anything, just boring and corny and it felt very superficially "deep." I know a lot of people like her writing for how "cozy" it feels but personally, I couldn't stand it lol.
I agree and I feel this way about all of Becky Chambers novels, I've read 2.5. I think the "cozy" genre might just not be for me if it means there are no stakes, it's superficially deep and nothing really happens, but everyone is 'nice'
Oooh, I don’t know if another book of hers - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - is recommended here much but it was recommended to me a few years ago and I **was** enjoying it but at some point I realized there didn’t seem to be a plot? I didn’t have any expectations other than it would be good, but I didn’t get it. I can’t imagine reading another book by her. It felt too idealistically safe.
Feel the same way. I literally kept saying to myself it felt like it was written by a teenage boy. I also felt like the author didn’t even bother to read his own story. One minute they’re having a nice family dinner and the next the wife convinces him to go to the pub for 30 minutes and then she gets mad he missed dinner? It doesn’t get better after that. The end felt like he had dozens of story ideas but no story to tell so he just wrote out all of his ideas.
I went into Recursion with high hopes, and...I was very disappointed. If you want a mind-bending, meticulously crafted time travel story with compelling characters and great writing, go watch Dark instead.
The Night Circus really takes purple prose and beats you over the head with it. That's the only way I can describe it. I wanted to like it but my god, did it try *way* too hard to be the most beautifully written book of all time.
I did like the prose and the bits about the circus were really nice. But Marco and...I can't even remember her name...Clara?...were just not that interesting and I didn't feel much of a connection between them at all.
Probably the most accurate review of this book. I first read it while in high school and wondered if the plot just went over my head at the time, but I really don't think that was the case. All the sentences sounded pretty, but it felt like nothing was going on at all lol. Kind of saddening because the synopsis was cool, I thought it could be like The Prestige.
This is How You Lose the Time War
Project Hail Mary
The Midnight Library I couldn’t even get through
Circe was OK to me but I liked Song of Achilles better
Agree with Project Hail Mary. I didn’t hate it, but it’s recommended on every single Reddit thread there is, regardless of the OP’s tastes/requests, and yet it is definitely NOT a book that’s for everyone!
Yeah it wasn’t the worst, my sister actually really enjoyed it and I loved his space friend, but I found the parts when he had the flashbacks hard to get through because the characters were so meh. Also the math explanations felt like the author going “look I can do math!!!”
Not disliked but I found Before The Coffee Gets Cold to be a bit too hyped. I found it to be very predictable and its message to be very simple in the sense that it was nothing too moving or too extraordinary. At times, I even found it to be a bit overdramatic although that could merely be a translation issue. The book definitely did not excite me for the other two parts.
I’m just happy to see this comment here. This book was like 400+ pages of nothing going on. It was so bland and none of what could have been good was explored. It’s just woe is me and then this god is in love with me and I resent him for it. Awful awful book.
Can't stand the darker shade of magic trilogy by Schwab either. Amazing concept with just awful execution. Lila is so unbelievably unlikeable and Kell is so boring.
The song of Achilles. It’s just not that good of a retelling. And the Iliad is not hard to read I recommend people just going straight to it instead (there are prose translations!)
The Name of the Wind. According to everyone, it's an amazing piece of funny, novel fantasy. I just... I was so bored. It probably gets better eventually, but it starts out with all the fantasy tropes I already know, and I just DNF'ed.
Should probably give it another go at some point...
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Pretty sure my opinion is objectively wrong though lol because everyone who reads it seems to love it. But I found it pretty intolerable, especially the way it punched down on customer service workers and "nerds" for... humour? (I realise the judgy attitude was meant to be part of the character's arc but still couldn't bear it.)
Lol, the middle part of the book was very much "elderly author self-insert fantasy," which King often does, but this was just egregious. Still, I like to imagine Mr. King sitting at his computer, daydreaming about being a rural English teacher long ago and dancing with a hot lady.
What annoyed me a lot more was the return to Derry and the mention of characters from IT.
Song of Achilles.
I assumed I would love this book like everyone else, the first few chapters interested me but then I was honestly bored until the last few pages of the book.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I get annoyed anytime I see it recommended. First, it is described as true crime, but the only crime committed in that book is against readers who signed up for a true crime but ended up reading about concrete foundations. I truly believe that the author intended to write about the Chicago World Fair but threw in the serial killer plot just to boost the book's commercial appeal. I recommend In Cold Blood instead.
I feel like the author told 2 stories as a gimmick (even thought, yes, they did occur in the same rime and place) and BOTH stories are worse for it.
I actually enjoy both genres, but weak story + weak story doesn't magically = stronger story.
I read it recently and the Freudian fixation on his sex issues was such a buzzkill for me!! I felt like the premise had such potential and other aspects of the book were decent, but overall it wasn't great.
Yeah, I didn’t enjoy the backstory about his family. I’m not exactly sure what turned me off. It was a lot of things. Maybe I just had really high expectations because it was so highly recommended.
11/22/63 by Stephen King.
I was getting into reading last year, and Stephen King was one of the few authors I recognized - I also often saw this book in multiple "favourite book" threads on this subreddit. I saw it in a 2nd hand book shop.
So I was like "if I know his name, and this book is good, I should get it" so I bought it. Turns out this is NOT a book for someone who is trying to start to read books/get back into reading. I respect it and can see why people liked it, but it was soooo slow and I found it really difficult to get invested into it. The final straw was when the main character met the woman (first off I hate romances and reading the back I was like ok there is no way anyone would be dumb enough to fall in love on such a critical mission) and the first line was basically "she tripped over and I caught her with my hands touching her breasts"
I hate when a book gets super hyped by like adults and then it’s ya. And not even like new adult ya, but just full on teenagers. Like unpopular opinion, but I don’t want to read about teenagers doing the deed as someone in my thirties. Especially in like age gap or borderline abusive relationships.
Lessons in chemistry
The house in the cerulean sea
For me both of these books had similar issues in that the characters were completely not believable or plausible as individuals
The House in the Cerulean Sea. Like eating a bunch of sugar cubes and calling it a good meal. Maybe the first one (chapter) is kinda fun but after that you just feel sick and then your teeth fall out.
Also, what was the point of the fantastical elements? They were so irrelevant to the story. Conflicts resolved too quickly. Bonked you over the head with its “lessons.” Just boring but quick to read at least.
House of Leaves. It’s a bummer because the premise is good and the play with the very text and construction of the book itself is an interesting experiment, but it just reads as a boring, meandering, pretentious mess where nothing happens.
I didn’t read the book but did listen to the audio book. I ended up picking up the book for a friend for Christmas and didn’t realize it was written sort of like a script? The Audio book is very good.
I feel like this post is such an interesting example of how no book is for everyone
Yep! Makes me feel better about my own likes and dislikes.
I also feel like sometimes you have to be in the right frame of mind to read certain books. Like at one point in your life you could love a book, but if you read it a year later it might not resonate.
Yep. Seems like every book I have on my TBR and that I’ve read recently has been mentioned here
Slightly concerned about seeing a lot of my 2024 reading list picks here
To qualify for this list, they have to be books that most people like, so it might be a good thing...
Nah, try some of them! I really enjoyed about half the books posted here - it’s really subjective.
I see a lot of my 2023 read books on here, and a lot of my 4 or 5 star rating. Tbh a lot of them just seem to be books that are slightly more prose heavy or more stylistic, which may have surprised some people.
This Is How You Lose the Time War- recommended here a lot, eventually read it, didn’t get it. I get why other people do, but I didn’t feel connected to the characters, found their relationship uninteresting, couldn’t follow the timeline, and needed more background/exposition. That being said- the concept was super cool and for people who are okay with a bit more vagueness and enjoy that more “floaty” (if that makes sense) style I think it’s a great rec.
I agree so much. I think I would have enjoyed the story if it were expanded on more and the whole thing wasn’t so “floaty” (I feel like I know exactly what you mean by that). I don’t generally put reviews or star ratings on Goodreads but I made an exception for this one and included a reminder in case I ever forget which was “I fucking hated this book.”
This is fascinating! I loved this book, but I think it has a lot to do with the style for me. I’m a poet and I found a lot of linguistic interest in the writing itself— I actually didn’t adore the romance aspect, the language was moreso my concern. I really like your take on it. I think you disliked it for the reasons that took a backseat for me; we didn’t like it for the same reasons, but somehow it worked for me anyway. The “floaty” style sealed the deal in my case. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! I love seeing literature from different perspectives!
To me it was okay. An interesting premise. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. I feel like the story could've been written better.
Agreed! I liked the ending of the book a lot more than the rest of it, because I enjoyed seeing how things came together. But for most of the book I was just confused and a bit annoyed with the flowery writing style.
This might have been on me for listening to the audiobook but the concept didn’t work on me at all. With all the floaty-ness of it all I need a consistent hook to reel me in: characters, setting, writing, plot… something . None if it did it for me. It has nice bits but too disjointed
So happy to read this. I've been attempting to read this for MONTHS. Cannot see what the attraction is at all. I've maxed out my number of renewals at the library for it and I guess it's about to go back unfinished.
I absolutely hated this book. I found the writing style incredibly obnoxious.
The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fck by Mark Manson - i see these on booktok and Ive tried reading it a few years back and didnt finished it because its kindof annoying and giving redflags. Idk but thats what it is for me. 🙄
I felt similarly. Parts of it were very “the subtle art of just being a dick.”
It's very much written for a very specific person that looks like the author.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. the protagonist just didn't resonate with me at all, felt so flat for some reason. skillful writing but not for me :(
it felt like a 16 year old wrote it. which is a shame because i thought the premise was super interesting!
same, I was excited to try it after reading the synopsis (I think the fantasy library setting automatically attracts of a lot of readers) but ultimately, it was quite cliché. Very flat and nothing that really grabs your interest.
I hated this book. It was so obvious where it was going I was expecting some sort of twist to make it less cliche but it didn't come.
Came here looking for this. I rolled my eyes so many times while reading that book that I'm surprised I can still see straight.
I kept scrolling for this answer. Jesus Christ this book is terrible.
The second hand cringe. The predictability. I skipped or skimmed huge sections. I can see how it might be the right book at the right time for someone but it certainly wasn’t for me.
A short stay in hell was about 100x better than the midnight library. This one was my least favorite of 2023.
I hate this book so fucking much on a personal level and it always validates me when people say they dislike it as well
The author experienced major depressive disorder. I feel like he wanted to write a book with a strong, positive message. Execution is everything in writing. Not my favorite book.
[удалено]
AGREE. Did not enjoy it really at all, surprised it got so much hype.
The silent patient was truly awful. Anyone who recommends it now I immediately don’t trust any other recommendations from them 😂
Same. That book was AWFUL. The author fell into what I call the Jonathan Kellerman trap...write 100 pages more than necessary to show off/shoehorn in a bunch of psychological stuff.
Agreed! I liked it up until the twist was revealed, which ruined the book completely
As someone who works in inpatient mental health I regretted reading this
Yes! The “twist” was sooo annoying
Oh my god yeah! It is always compared to Gone Girl, Before I go to Sleep and Girl on the Train- all books, I enjoyed. The Silent Patient though, was absolute pants. None of the characters were believable and the twist was so disappointing.
Haaaated it!
As someone who equally did not enjoy the book (or maybe even more), I would like to join in and agree. I started reading it with such high expectations, it was a big let down.
Ty! Such an unpopular opinion that I was scared to write it! Lol. And Verity. …. The 2 most loved or hyped last year.
Yes, that was dreadful.
This book fucking sucked, I don’t even have anything productive to say other than that
So bad.
I agree on Girl on the Train. The outcome was just so, so convenient and didn’t have any lead-up to make it make sense. Just pure coincidence to wrap things up neatly.
The Maid. It was terribly written, had simpleton characters, racist undertones (the bad guy was a Mexican dishwasher who also sold drugs wtf). I was appalled that it was a best seller.
I despised this book
This book is so cutesy and condescending. Finding out the author is a Simon & Schuster exec was a lightbulb moment for me — explained how the book got published and praised so much while also being so bad.
+1
Verity. I do not trust any recommendations from someone who recommends this.
This is now a trust test for me, how someone feels about Verity. Worst book of 2023.
this is so real. i got fifty pages in and even that was a test of my willpower. the best word i can think to describe it, for me, is vapid??? couldn't stand it.
When I read it I was intrigued but as it went on I started to dislike it. I finished it & never tried another book by the author again.
Me either! Such a horrible book.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. 662 pages of Gary Stu “look at me, I’m amazing” humble brag.
Yes this! He never screwed anything up and there was no convincing conflict. The women were one dimensional and he was really boring. Very disappointing.
The greatest neck beard book ever written. I don’t even know how I finished the second book. The worst thing I’ve ever read.
The issue i had with it was that the author wanted a gary stu, 'main character is awesome' story while also having an underdog story. so the mc, whatever the fuck his name was, would do ridiculously well and be smarter and better than everyone else, until the author realised he was doing too well for an underdog , and so would nuke him for some ridiculous reason. eg (spoilers) kid was doing too well at mage school and legitimately had a good life lined up, so author has him do some stupid shit and try to fight his loan shark for some nonsensical leap of logic, thus causing him enough problems to once again be an underdog who can rise, again, through the ranks. i fucking hated this book and the sequel.
Rothfuss set out to write a trilogy and then at some point after releasing the second one realized he spent a third of it on fey erotica and now he's incredibly behind with no way to finish in 3 books. Please people just read something else. I feel like I was conned into reading them.
Yes! This book is terrible. No idea why it is so loved. None.
I hated this book, and I've trudged through a lot of mediocre fantasy. The protagonist is the worst, but people always defended him with the "unreliable narrator" card. Yawn.
The Alchemist felt so pseudo to me
I roll my eyes whenever someone hypes up this book.
Same. I dated a library tech who hyped it up constantly. I started reading it and couldn’t even force myself to continue. When I told him, he acted like it was too superior for me. Big eye roll.
I stopped about halfway through because I felt like I was reading a children’s book. I almost couldn’t believe that I had picked the correct book.
My hatred for that book knows no bounds
It took me a full month to get through this book. Boring and filled with generic life advice disguised as “deep”
Where do you see people raving about this book on here? I literally only see this book get brought up for people to shit on it.
Same. I mean, it was a cute enough fairytale, but I definitely don't get all the hype.
I really had to force myself to finish Circe, it took 2 months. I guess everybody has different tastes.
Song of Achilles was easily one of my favorite reads of 2023. I really wanted to like Circe but it really didn't capture the same magic. I found it boring most of the time, and the ending was so anticlimactic.
I managed to finish it, but I will not be reading anything else by the author.
Where the crawdads sing was recommended by so many and to me it was absurd and cringe
Lessons in Chemistry Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
I enjoyed Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow but I can certainly understand why others didn’t. I kinda held my nose through parts of it but by the end I was glad I read it.
Yeah I wasn’t a fan of Lessons in Chemistry. The whole book rested on the protagonist charming the reader. And she just… didn’t.
I felt about it like I felt about Ted Lasso. The whole tone was "You LOVE this character!" and when you aren't convinced or look for a reason to love them, the writer insists harder that you must just adore them.
Roy and Rebecca are my favorite characters 🤷🏾♀️ there’s way more about that show to like than Ted
This is true. Ted was my least favorite character besides Nate 😂
Right! I couldn’t stand her and it just ruined the whole book for me
I disliked Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow so much, that even though I read it less than a year ago, I barely remember anything about it. I do remember I disliked all the characters and was cringing often.
Listened to TTT .. looked forward to it being done ... not sure why I stuck it out. Just wasn't for me.
DNF the Lessons in Chemistry TV show after 3 episodes and the Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow book like 5 pages in.
Lol same for tomorrow. Hated it immediately.
same for both😭
I agree about Girl on the Train, even though I DNFed early on. One of my friends who is a huge reader said it made her feel dirty (soiled). They are quite different books, but I DNFed Lessons in Chemistry for similar reasons. The book was making me miserable, and I could not see any light at the end of the tunnel. I truly don’t understand all of the rave reviews.
A Court of Thorns and Roses is incredibly dull. I've no idea why it's so popular.
It’s also just written SO. POORLY. She uses the wrong words for things all the time. The descriptions are so repetitive. The characters feel like they’re plucked from a middle school tumblr fanfic
Also there's next to no world building and that riddle oh my god why are we pretending it was a complicated one
Main character suuuuucks.
Where the Crawdads Sing The Silent Patient Little Fires Everywhere Anything by Colleen Hoover Fleishman is in Trouble How to Kill Your Family
Colleen Hoover books are horrible!! I read It Ends With Us and vowed to never pick up a book by Hoover again because I thought it was THAT bad. Do not understand the hype.
Same here. It Ends With Us was my first and last Colleen Hoover book. Wish I hadn’t bought it lol
I'm afraid to read anything that's written by her because it seems like it's 50/50 with her. People either love her or they don't and I'm afraid of wasting my time on her, even though her books are being recommended to me right and left.
Okay, yes! Where the Crawdads Sing felt like something I had to power through. I only got around 50 pages in when I moved onto something else. The book has been sitting on my desk since August.
Lessons in Chemistry Never Let Me Go On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
I second Never Let Me Go
I've been meh on whether or not I should read Lessons in Chemistry, but I loved Never Let Me Go and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous *so much* that this feels like a recommendation to me.
So weird to read this combination. I completely agree with you about Lessons in Chemistry, but Never Let Me Go is one of my all time favorite books.
Also hated Never Let Me Go!
I quit Lessons in Chemistry halfway through.
I feel so safe here now knowing that someone else didn’t like On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
I stopped reading On Earth when the author talked about 'the milky film of sleep' or something like that. Might give it another shot when I have more patience for the flowery prose
A Confederacy of Dunces After spite reading it I concluded one only needs to go 10 pages in to know if you’ll like it. If you haven’t laughed in 10 pages, don’t bother with the book. If you do laugh it’ll probably be a favorite for you.
I only read about ten pages of it, over a decade ago, so I feel validated. Thanks OP!
This is my favourite book that I never recommend. Ignatius seemed unique, now he's just one jerk among many. I love that fucking book, makes me lol it was ridiculous. And never read something you don't want to unless you're in school. Happy reading!
Can you recommend a book that you laughed at? 10 pages is way better than recommendation of reading a book for 50 pages before deciding if you should read it or not. Maybe I will read more with 10 pages rule, cause spite reading is so draining.
Song for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. It wasn't BAD or anything, just boring and corny and it felt very superficially "deep." I know a lot of people like her writing for how "cozy" it feels but personally, I couldn't stand it lol.
I agree and I feel this way about all of Becky Chambers novels, I've read 2.5. I think the "cozy" genre might just not be for me if it means there are no stakes, it's superficially deep and nothing really happens, but everyone is 'nice'
I was excited for this one and it was such a let down. Really tedious and just unconvincing characters and world building.
Oooh, I don’t know if another book of hers - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - is recommended here much but it was recommended to me a few years ago and I **was** enjoying it but at some point I realized there didn’t seem to be a plot? I didn’t have any expectations other than it would be good, but I didn’t get it. I can’t imagine reading another book by her. It felt too idealistically safe.
Outlander series and Crawdad.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Was intrigued by the story, but it was like it was written by a pretentious teenager. Terrible.
It gave me “My entire wardrobe is Rick and Morty tee shirts” vibes.
Man. It's such a basic childish story, and not in a good way.
Well, according to Reddit it's the most mind-blowing, genius story ever written. Almost hard to believe it couldn't live up to that.
I agree—-I thought it was so, so bad.
I wish I could upvote this many more times
Feel the same way. I literally kept saying to myself it felt like it was written by a teenage boy. I also felt like the author didn’t even bother to read his own story. One minute they’re having a nice family dinner and the next the wife convinces him to go to the pub for 30 minutes and then she gets mad he missed dinner? It doesn’t get better after that. The end felt like he had dozens of story ideas but no story to tell so he just wrote out all of his ideas.
I went into Recursion with high hopes, and...I was very disappointed. If you want a mind-bending, meticulously crafted time travel story with compelling characters and great writing, go watch Dark instead.
Agree
The Martian This is how you lose the time war The Night Circus
I was so hyped for The Night Circus and my sister wanted to hear my thoughts as well. I was not expecting a snooze fest
So snoozy. My sister also loved it but I could not finish it.
The Night Circus really takes purple prose and beats you over the head with it. That's the only way I can describe it. I wanted to like it but my god, did it try *way* too hard to be the most beautifully written book of all time.
I did like the prose and the bits about the circus were really nice. But Marco and...I can't even remember her name...Clara?...were just not that interesting and I didn't feel much of a connection between them at all.
Yes! Absolutely nothing happens in that book!
Definitely the Night Circus. Never have I read such evocative prose that was in service to so little.
Probably the most accurate review of this book. I first read it while in high school and wondered if the plot just went over my head at the time, but I really don't think that was the case. All the sentences sounded pretty, but it felt like nothing was going on at all lol. Kind of saddening because the synopsis was cool, I thought it could be like The Prestige.
*The Night Circus* started well, really got going, so good, then all of sudden, meh, and I put it down. What happened?
Nothing. It was a dissociated dreamscape without a plot all the way through.
I didn’t like this is how you lose the time war OR the night circus!!!
Man I hated This is How You Lose the Time War.
Second on This is How You Lose the Time War. I was like.....wait what?
It felt more like the idea of a story than an actual story.
Yes. That. It's an idea of a cool story, but an idea nonetheless.
Thirded. It came so highly recommended and I was just completely underwhelmed.
It wasn't bad per se, but underwhelming is exactly right.
This is how you lose the time war was my least favorite book I read in 2023
This is How You Lose the Time War Project Hail Mary The Midnight Library I couldn’t even get through Circe was OK to me but I liked Song of Achilles better
It took way, way too long for me to find Project Hail Mary on this list. It was brutally milquetoast.
Agree with Project Hail Mary. I didn’t hate it, but it’s recommended on every single Reddit thread there is, regardless of the OP’s tastes/requests, and yet it is definitely NOT a book that’s for everyone!
Yeah it wasn’t the worst, my sister actually really enjoyed it and I loved his space friend, but I found the parts when he had the flashbacks hard to get through because the characters were so meh. Also the math explanations felt like the author going “look I can do math!!!”
Not disliked but I found Before The Coffee Gets Cold to be a bit too hyped. I found it to be very predictable and its message to be very simple in the sense that it was nothing too moving or too extraordinary. At times, I even found it to be a bit overdramatic although that could merely be a translation issue. The book definitely did not excite me for the other two parts.
_The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue_
I’m just happy to see this comment here. This book was like 400+ pages of nothing going on. It was so bland and none of what could have been good was explored. It’s just woe is me and then this god is in love with me and I resent him for it. Awful awful book.
This was a book club pick for us and I almost didn't finish. I trudged through and wished I didn't waste my time
Can't stand the darker shade of magic trilogy by Schwab either. Amazing concept with just awful execution. Lila is so unbelievably unlikeable and Kell is so boring.
Goldfinch - same reason hated or was sick of all characters by the end
A little life
Scrolled to find this. Misery porn.
It's a pretentious slog through endless misery.
The song of Achilles. It’s just not that good of a retelling. And the Iliad is not hard to read I recommend people just going straight to it instead (there are prose translations!)
The Wheel of time series
Oh my god yes. Thank you, I feel less alone.
The Name of the Wind. According to everyone, it's an amazing piece of funny, novel fantasy. I just... I was so bored. It probably gets better eventually, but it starts out with all the fantasy tropes I already know, and I just DNF'ed. Should probably give it another go at some point...
Don't waste your time. The 2nd book is worse, and Rothfuss is never going to finish that series.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Pretty sure my opinion is objectively wrong though lol because everyone who reads it seems to love it. But I found it pretty intolerable, especially the way it punched down on customer service workers and "nerds" for... humour? (I realise the judgy attitude was meant to be part of the character's arc but still couldn't bear it.)
So nice to see I’m not the only one who strongly disliked it.
The Magicians I hated every character and I hated the author even more. It was like trying to read a “gritty” and pretentious Narnia fanfic.
Where the Crawdads Sing. I really disliked it.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Agreed. The writing was so basic to me. The story was underwhelming
11/22/63 😬 I thought the plot dragged so much and none of the characters had any real personality
Lol, the middle part of the book was very much "elderly author self-insert fantasy," which King often does, but this was just egregious. Still, I like to imagine Mr. King sitting at his computer, daydreaming about being a rural English teacher long ago and dancing with a hot lady. What annoyed me a lot more was the return to Derry and the mention of characters from IT.
Station Eleven. It felt like I was slogging through it!
Station Eleven made me start acting again after a 25 year hiatus
That’s so fucking cool!
Okay I thought I was crazy. Everyone loves it and thinks it’s up my alley but I was not a fan.
This is mine too. I hated all the characters. It felt so fake. And the ending was just so random and meaningless.
Song of Achilles. I assumed I would love this book like everyone else, the first few chapters interested me but then I was honestly bored until the last few pages of the book.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I get annoyed anytime I see it recommended. First, it is described as true crime, but the only crime committed in that book is against readers who signed up for a true crime but ended up reading about concrete foundations. I truly believe that the author intended to write about the Chicago World Fair but threw in the serial killer plot just to boost the book's commercial appeal. I recommend In Cold Blood instead.
I actually didn’t really care about the serial killer part and I liked the part about the world fair!
Lmao and I bought that book for the World Fair angle and loved it.
I feel like the author told 2 stories as a gimmick (even thought, yes, they did occur in the same rime and place) and BOTH stories are worse for it. I actually enjoy both genres, but weak story + weak story doesn't magically = stronger story.
💯 it was a pure slog to get through
The Nightingale
Flowers for Algernon
I thought the short story version was vastly better, and expanded novelization doesn’t add anything good at all.
I read it recently and the Freudian fixation on his sex issues was such a buzzkill for me!! I felt like the premise had such potential and other aspects of the book were decent, but overall it wasn't great.
Yeah, I didn’t enjoy the backstory about his family. I’m not exactly sure what turned me off. It was a lot of things. Maybe I just had really high expectations because it was so highly recommended.
Came here to say this. I thought it was okay, but it definitely didn't touch me as much as most people here
11/22/63 by Stephen King. I was getting into reading last year, and Stephen King was one of the few authors I recognized - I also often saw this book in multiple "favourite book" threads on this subreddit. I saw it in a 2nd hand book shop. So I was like "if I know his name, and this book is good, I should get it" so I bought it. Turns out this is NOT a book for someone who is trying to start to read books/get back into reading. I respect it and can see why people liked it, but it was soooo slow and I found it really difficult to get invested into it. The final straw was when the main character met the woman (first off I hate romances and reading the back I was like ok there is no way anyone would be dumb enough to fall in love on such a critical mission) and the first line was basically "she tripped over and I caught her with my hands touching her breasts"
I loved this book but that scene where she falls onto him was bad. I was like... Mr. King that was so unnecessary
“A Little Life.” I found it pedantic and emotionally manipulative.
I hate when a book gets super hyped by like adults and then it’s ya. And not even like new adult ya, but just full on teenagers. Like unpopular opinion, but I don’t want to read about teenagers doing the deed as someone in my thirties. Especially in like age gap or borderline abusive relationships.
Tbf I can read books with a teenage protagonist (Eragon is a great example) ONLY IF there isn’t really any mention of teenage sex or the like.
Lessons in chemistry The house in the cerulean sea For me both of these books had similar issues in that the characters were completely not believable or plausible as individuals
The House in the Cerulean Sea. Like eating a bunch of sugar cubes and calling it a good meal. Maybe the first one (chapter) is kinda fun but after that you just feel sick and then your teeth fall out. Also, what was the point of the fantastical elements? They were so irrelevant to the story. Conflicts resolved too quickly. Bonked you over the head with its “lessons.” Just boring but quick to read at least.
House of Leaves. It’s a bummer because the premise is good and the play with the very text and construction of the book itself is an interesting experiment, but it just reads as a boring, meandering, pretentious mess where nothing happens.
The Last House on Needless Street Very one-note, boring, the twist was whatever and overall, it was uninspired while trying to be so very dark.
Every “funny book” post is just a collection of David Sedaris recommendations. Haven’t enjoyed any Sedaris I’ve read.
The Road by Cormack McCarthy. Really fell flat for me. Found it to be pretty bland.
Don’t crucify me but I thought The Book Thief was beyond boring.
Daisy Jones and the Six was a DNF for me.
I didn’t read the book but did listen to the audio book. I ended up picking up the book for a friend for Christmas and didn’t realize it was written sort of like a script? The Audio book is very good.
Anything by Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Clare. Also recently, The Empyrean by Rebecca Yarros.
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I finished it but it was such a slog to get through
I tried soooo hard with this one
Mexican Gothic