What novel by an author whose previous work you loved has most surprised or disappointed you?

[Stonehopper]

Inspired by having just read a bad first novel by an author whose previous published work a collection of short stories was extremely good, widely acclaimed and multi-prize-winning.

It's not so much that I'm disappointed as that I'm completely baffled as to how an experienced writer who wrote a psychologically acute and dazzlingly well-written collection of stories, which entirely deserved their praise and prizes, could have gone on to write such a banal novel, which commits every possible beginner writers' mistake clichéd adultery plot, far too many characters who aren't differentiated from one another, an antagonist whose age varies, barely sketched-in settings, lots of small errors like variations in how long ago something major happened and how far apart places are and an unintegrated subplot about a dead friend and a past friendship group none of whom are ever described other than in brief asides, so it's hard to care about them at all other than wonder what they're doing in the novel.

(And this came out with a major publishing house, so how come her editor didn't clock lots of the small inconsistencies, even if the author got confused?)

Anyway -- it got me thinking about other writers whose previous work I've loved but then been disappointed by when they brought something new out. The other example I can think of is Hilary Mantel's The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, which I felt was a loop back to the repellent nastiness of her earliest published novels, and away from the wonderful first two Cromwell novels.

Anyone else?

[AtlasPine]

I think one problem is when a novelist has a huge first success, they then publish their older books which were initially turned down. Lionel Shriver’s marvellous ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ was followed by a dirge of a book (in my opinion!) which I believe was written earlier.

[BIWI]

Yes - James Lee Burke is one of my favourite writers, specifically for his Dave Robicheaux novels. I got his latest one for Christmas, 'A Private Cathedral' and it was awful. Instead of being the usual crime/thriller stuff, it was all about the supernatural and far too 'woo' for the main characters to be even vaguely credible.

[Chicchicchicchiclana]

I loved The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell.

On the strength of that I bought The Girls at the airport for holiday reading. It was a terrible, dreadful let down. Rarely have I enjoyed a book less.

[RedPaperLantern]

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood was dreadful.

[Stonehopper]

@AtlasPine

I think one problem is when a novelist has a huge first success, they then publish their older books which were initially turned down. Lionel Shriver’s marvellous ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ was followed by a dirge of a book (in my opinion!) which I believe was written earlier.

Was that the one about the drearily competitive husband and wife tennis players? Yes, I hated that, but subsequently realised that WNTTAK was unusual for her, and her other books are much more akin to one another, and not my thing at all.

She was also (briefly) a friend of a friend, and behaved like a total loon, courting her with intensity and sort of auditioning her for friendship, and then dropping her when apparently something she did failed the test...

[BIWI]

@RedPaperLantern

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood was dreadful.

Absolutely agree. What a disappointment. The ending was just like a child's story where they can't think how to finish it and so end it with 'and then I woke up and it was all a dream' !

[Stonehopper]

@RedPaperLantern

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood was dreadful.

I agree that was poor. I think I found it to an extent slightly understandable because MA was revisiting something from a very long time ago, when her writing has been going in a very different direction for years and years, and the universe of The Handmaid's Tale (which I still think is an excellent novel) has been heavily intervened in by the screenwriters and producers etc of the series in the meantime. I admit I haven't seen the series, because it sounds like torture porn...)

[AtlasPine]

Yes I think that was the one. I have purposely cast it from my memory!

[Saucery]

Ghoster by Jason Arnott. After The Last Days Of Jack Sparks I had very high hopes but it was just dreadful.

[grapewine]

@RedPaperLantern

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood was dreadful.

Yes! I had such high hopes and was unable to finish it. I just couldn't buy into the narrative.

[grapewine]

Handmaid's Tale is still superb.

[SparkysMagicPiano]

Patricia Cornwell.

Her early Scarpetta books were great but the later ones were just weird. It seemed like she had lots of plots and storylines in her head, but they never made it on to the page and readers were supposed to somehow guess what she was talking about.

[PegasusReturns]

I loved The Girl with all the Gifts. Fellside was utter bilge. Couldn’t finish it despite trying several times.

[Thehogfatherstolemycurry]

The long earth books by Terry Pratchett.
Love the man's work (as my username suggests) but I've never been able to gel with these.

[poppyzbrite4]

I have this problem a lot. I love an author's book and read the rest and find that they're not as good. One big disappointment for me was Toni Morrison. I thought Beloved was an incredibly well written book, it was stunningly well written, I went out and bought some of her other books and was disappointed. Perhaps nothing could live up to that.

Another one was Haruki Murakami. I absolutely loved Norwegian Wood but was disappointed with the rest of his oeuvre. Having said that, I have read most of his books.

Short stories and novels are very different crafts and novelists can't always write short stories and vice versa. It's unsurprising to me, that a short story writer, can't write a decent novel. I also agree with the pp who said that it may be an older work.

With more established authors, their books become more bloated and less well written as their name sells.

[StringyPotatoes]

I read The Accidental Adventures of the 100yr Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared by Jonas Johannson and loved it.

It was sweet and funny and gripping and was one of my favourites.....

Until I bought The Further Adventures of the 100yr Old Man. I couldn't get passed the first chapter.

The characters were in the same place as they were at the end of the first book but their relationships to each other had changed and their reasons for doing what they did had changed. It was like the author had forgotten how he ended the first book and hadn't bothered to go back and check. Like he'd just said "I know they're in Bali. That'll do" and picked up from there. So annoying.

[Frouby]

Jane Green. Loved her stuff in the 90s. Tried another couple of her more recent ones and absolute shite, even for chiclit.

[garlictwist]

I love everything Lionel Shriver has written. You're all wrong 😛

[Ormally]

Not a novel but an autobiography: David Lodge. Love all his fiction, a lot of which has a brush with the autobiographical, but got the rage reading his autobiography.

[poppyzbrite4]

@garlictwist

I love everything Lionel Shriver has written. You're all wrong 😛

Whereas I don't like anything Lionel Shriver has written. She has a very strong authorial voice which carries into all her work. I find her characters teeth gratingly annoying.

[StepOutOfLine]

@SparkysMagicPiano

Patricia Cornwell.

Her early Scarpetta books were great but the later ones were just weird. It seemed like she had lots of plots and storylines in her head, but they never made it on to the page and readers were supposed to somehow guess what she was talking about.

I think she's gone absolutely warp speed bonkers. I think it's the Jack the Ripper obsession that kind of kicked in with her at about the time she ran out of believable plotlines and started bringing back characters from the dead etc.
Plus of course the repellent Lucy.

[StepOutOfLine]

@Frouby

Jane Green. Loved her stuff in the 90s. Tried another couple of her more recent ones and absolute shite, even for chiclit.

I'd say that for most Marian Keyes too. I know she's a national treasure and admire her muchly for being open about her demons but lordy, once Sushi for Beginners (and that was no Rachel's Holiday) was done, that was me out. I read them all for a while but no more.

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

I enjoyed The Testaments.

As a teenager, I read all of Mary Renault's books set in Ancient Greece. Then as I young adult I read The Charioteer. Very different in many ways, similar in other, still a comfort read thirty years on.

[jusdepamplemousse]

Curtis Sittenfeld has written some completely amazing books, some utterly crap.

[ToffeeNotCoffee]

I loved The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell.

On the strength of that I bought The Girls at the airport for holiday reading. It was a terrible, dreadful let down. Rarely have I enjoyed a book less.

I read, 'Ralph's Party' by Lisa Jewell. (Climax of the book - a guy taking a dump in the toilet). It was ok but I wasn't prepared to wade through any more of her books. Life's to short !