Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Books that you thought you'd love but didn't.

219 replies

CaramelJones · 05/07/2022 14:22

I thought that I was going to love We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House but I didn't, in spite of how many boxes they ticked for me.

Which books were you disappointed by?

OP posts:
InDIYHell · 06/07/2022 20:19

Captain Corelli's sodding mandolin.

Took me a couple of goes and I was so disappointed at the end!

Coatdegroan · 06/07/2022 20:10

Harry Potter

knackeredagain · 06/07/2022 20:08

Shuggie Bain. I’m plodding through it but it’s not really going anywhere

TeaAddict235 · 06/07/2022 20:04

Anything by JoJo Moyes

Life of Pi - rubbish
Sophie's world - more rubbish
Captain Corelli's mandolin - even more trash (don't even lift the lid up)

Started a complete waste of time recently about a lady moving from the city with her three kids to the countryside into a fix'er up'er. Took it right back to the library the very next day. Material for the Fire bucket. Complete trash.

Life is too short to read trash.

Gensola · 06/07/2022 20:04

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell - I was SO excited for this and couldn’t get on with it at all.
Piranesi - I didn’t finish this one, the plotless vacuousness of it overwhelmed me by about 1/3 of the way in

Life after life - I felt like I was inside a washing machine as it revolved endlessly to no purpose

Goldfinch - didn’t finish this as I found it so boring, and I was in hospital at the time for 7 weeks and desperate for reading material. Sad as I loved the Secret History.
Sally Rooney - total case of emperor’s new clothes here imo, boring narc characters and nothing happens

Loved: My beautiful friend and sequels

Elopelo · 06/07/2022 20:03

The Alchemist

The way everyone went on about it I thought it would open up a whole new world of enlightenment, but it was really really bad. I ended up reading it all only to have a laugh.

LadyCampanulaTottington · 06/07/2022 19:59

Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. I just can’t, no matter how many times I try to read it. So boring!

TooManyAnimals94 · 06/07/2022 19:53

Also I've started a few Dickens novels and just can't get into them. Very verbose, sentimental and I hate 'coincidences' in books.

TooManyAnimals94 · 06/07/2022 19:51

Loving this... Funny to see so many books I love getting slated. LOVE Wuthering Heights- you have a shrivelled soul if you don't 😂 liked Catch 22 and Catcher but didn't love.

For me it's The Stand by Stephen King. I love SK and was excited to read it as it had so many positive reviews but that ending... Blegh
Also have to agree with This is Going to Hurt although I'm not sure I expected to like it.
Life of Pi was horribly disappointing.

tillytoodles1 · 06/07/2022 19:49

cottagegardenflower · 06/07/2022 19:42

Bloody wonderful amazing book. Gothic romance at its best. Read it as a young teenager and just up my street!

Show quote history

I loved Wuthering Heights.

Pootle40 · 06/07/2022 19:48

princessspotify · 06/07/2022 17:51

The Midnight library. I agree with PP it was a good idea but didn't make a good book
Life after Life I didn't even finish it. Same goes for The Life of Pi. I read three chapters and gave up.

I couldn't follow life after life at all and I tried a few times. The TV adaptation was much more enjoyable

tillytoodles1 · 06/07/2022 19:48

Girl on the Train and the Da Vinci Code.

VaddaABeetch · 06/07/2022 19:48

Again Rachel Marian Keyes

i loves the first novel but this one felt that it had been written by a 16 year old. The characters were vacuous & unbelievable.

maybe it’s my age but many ‘popular’ books Time Travellers wife, woman in the window, . Just seem stupid to me!

Pootle40 · 06/07/2022 19:47

thecurtainsofdestiny · 06/07/2022 16:57

The Time Traveller's wife- yuck!

How to stop time by Matt Haig. I liked the concept and it had great reviews but I found the main character very irritating. Persisted to the end thinking it would get better. It didn't.

Two of my absolute favourites lol

DuesToTheDirt · 06/07/2022 19:44

A Little Life - was it just me who found it weird that 4 completely different personalities became best friends just by sharing a room, and were still best friends years later? Even more annoying was that all 4 became incredibly rich and successful.

Janie90 · 06/07/2022 19:42

All the Cecelia Aherne

cottagegardenflower · 06/07/2022 19:42

Eightiesfan · 06/07/2022 19:33

Withering Heights…worst book ever!

Bloody wonderful amazing book. Gothic romance at its best. Read it as a young teenager and just up my street!

cottagegardenflower · 06/07/2022 19:41

A La Recherche DuTemps Perdu (rememberence of things past) by Marcel Proust. I read a biography of Proust and was fascinated as a 16 year old. Tried the actual book and it was impenetrable.

Life of Pi. Shit.

Last Exit to Brooklyn - Jesus, my eyes bled.

KirstenBlest · 06/07/2022 19:39

Eightiesfan · 06/07/2022 19:33

Withering Heights…worst book ever!

I tried, tried and tried but never got very far.

Eightiesfan · 06/07/2022 19:36

Eightiesfan · 06/07/2022 19:33

Withering Heights…worst book ever!

I meant of course Wuthering…Freudian slip?

Eightiesfan · 06/07/2022 19:33

Withering Heights…worst book ever!

Hawkins001 · 06/07/2022 19:32

Jason Bourne series, yes they may be good, but I thought it was going to be more like the film version.

KittyMcKitty · 06/07/2022 19:32

The Goldfinch- loved her other books so much - didn’t manage to finish it.

daisyjgrey · 06/07/2022 19:29

This Is Going To Hurt - the man is repugnant. Women deserve better than that man.

The Bell Jar - expected great things, literary enlightenment. It was just...a bit...meh.

KirstenBlest · 06/07/2022 19:29

I never like the ones listed for a prize. I think that the hype raises my expectations, and I wonder if the judges read the whole book

I gave up on CCM three times