I just read a terrible book

WRT to the Twilight books (saw soemone
mention) I actually reread the first one for a book group recently and we had some super interesting and surprising conversations. They were all the rage when I was a teen but rereading as an adult with context was fascinating. I didn’t know the author was a Mormon and reading the novel from that perspective, plus seeing the racism etc, is so interesting.

It's a hideous book. Hated it.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - gave up - couldn't see the point. but funnily enough I read and thought Piranesi by the same author was okay

Totally agree. I hated all the characters and didn't care whether they got there or not.

Me before you was mawkish shite.

Also hated that one about Appleyard. Stupid premise.

I really liked Thursday Murder Club though (slinks away from thread)

❤ yes Marian is queen and he can go and fuck himself from behind

Oh and another - the books by John Marrs. They sound right up my street, Black Mirror type thing, but I just dislike them so have to give up trying more now. The concepts are good but the storylines/people themselves are too unbelieveable for me that I can't enjoy them.

The Darkest Corner, which was recommended on here with people absolutely raving about it.
It was total shite, a woman meets a very rough shagging bouncer who seems irresistible to women who have their shit together including her mate, he turns psycho in about two pages, she then gets PTSD and starts counting forks, and of course some nice guy swoops in.
Think I worked in the sector at the time and was reading it thinking oh piss off!

I bought Lessons in Chemistry because everyone was raving about it, I gave it twenty pages and couldn't go on.

Even worse was One Night in August (or words to that effect) which was the same story told differently.

The absolute worst I’ve read is Still Standing by Vicki someone. The most self indulgent pile of poor me drivel I’ve ever read. Terribly written as well. The reviews were good so I kept expecting it to get better but it really didn’t. Thank goodness I only got it on a kindle 99p special!

Loving this thread, BTW.....a sort of anti-book club. Though it's distracting me from my work!!!

Ugh yes! What was it even about?? Gang warfare and shoes?? Then obviously it ends without resolution as she wants to sell more books, screw that.

Recently tried to read The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes for the second time - got slightly further this time, maybe 2/3 of the way through and I just can't be bothered again.

I was also rather underwhelmed by Grown Ups. Thoroughly tedious navel gazing family; I finished it feeling as if I’d gone 10 rounds in the Relationships board. 😂 TWWSML is several varieties of implausible anyway and I think MK could do with a proper editor these days.

'Timeline' by Michael Crichton - it was so dumb and it was like.... 'Oooh, a book where people are going to go back in time to Ancient France and look, there just happens to be a group of associates where one is an expert swordfighter and one's an expert in French cultural and languge history and one's a rock climber [yes it comes into it somehow]' DH and I just refer to it as 'That stupid book' and we know exactly the book we mean!

WHAAT! 😯All the Light We Cannot See is probably one of my favourite books of all time!!

Omg yes! This book was dire.
I’d forgotten about it until you mentioned it. What was Sadie Jones thinking, writing this drivel?.

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper. Set in a brothel in Pompei. It was just relentless disgusting abuse of women, forced upon them, time after time for the entire story. Every other page was about them giving blow jobs to gross men.

The reviews were reasonable so I was really disappointed. Honestly thought a man must have written it - it was so grim, it turned my stomach, but that wasn't the point of the book - it was supposed to be uplifting and about the sisterhood... the details and relentlessness didn't add anything either. A few accounts would have been enough. It was almost written in a porny way... ugh.

I just don't get how a woman can write that.

That reminds me of something, but I can't remember who said it:

'Life is NOT one damn thing after another. It's the same damn thing over & over again.'

DH & I started listening to The Thursday Murder Club but both felt that it wasn't going anywhere interesting & we didn't care about any of the characters, so we gave up. It's a shame, as RO seems likeable, funny & clever, & I loved the Desert Island Discs episode about his life. I expected something qute special.

@beastlyslumber I thought it was a shame - Jessamine Chan could have written so much more convincingly if she’d explored the real relationships in that book, the manipulative ex and the Orwellian social services and the impossible demands of work and childrearing at the same time. I think she’s got a point about ideal modern motherhood being a bit of a cult, but going all sci-fi wasn’t the way to do it.

Give me Margaret Attwood every time.

I couldn’t get on with Lady Chatterly’s Lover either (seen every film version though!)

Loved Maurice by E. M Forster thoughts, the (imo) more interesting book on which it is clearly based.

A Gentleman in Moscow - entire premise was bullshit.
I couldn't get past the fact that this aristocrat was apparently sentenced to house arrest in a hotel by the Bolsheviks, rather than being simply shot or sent off to Siberia for hard labour.

And I hated "All the light we cannot see".

@WFHbore2023 if it helps, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is streets, no whole countries, better than Malibu Rising.

I agree the latter is really tedious and if I'd read it first I probably wouldn't have read any more of her books. So believe me when I say that The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (and Daisy Jones and the Six) are both much, much better written and far cleverer. Honest 😀

I also gave up on A Little Life.

And left Cloud Atlas on a train.

I loved Spool of Blue Thread but there are other Anne Tyler I couldn't get into.

Oh, and After Me Comes the Flood.

Similarly boring and pretentious. Sorry Sarah Perry (though I don't suppose she'd mind being compared to Virginia Woolf)