I just read a terrible book

Not a fan of the Thursday murder club ones either...

But was given one of those 100 epic books scratch off posters... and some of the popular ones really suck!

Fahrenheit 451... Great premise, epic story, great characters, really, really tedious writing... why use one simile when two hundred and forty six will do!

Oh, and Jack Reacher books. Written in small sentences. Simple sentences. Gets tedious. Really want some prose.

I wanted something in between... then (back to the poster) I read Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy ... perfect!

Totally agree

This made me laugh...these are probably my two least favourite books of all time!

Little life is truly awful!

The Island, Victoria Hislop.

What? Amazon didn't warn you about the lesbians? The bastards!!!
I loved Girl Woman Other.

Midnight Library on the other hand is dog shite.

I couldn’t get into American Gods (Neil Gaiman). DH liked it, which was just as well because I picked it for him as a present 😂 but I found it way too rambling with too many literary gimmicks.

There were so many characters in that book, I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. I don't think I'm a stupid person, but they just didn't stick with me for some reason.

I just read one that wasn't bad per se, but it was poorly edited. The author used the word "preceded' when she meant "proceeded," which was not correct. She also described a man's scent as "inebriating," when I think "intoxicating" was a more standard use.

I was about to give Crawdads a second try... but I don't think I'll bother after reading this thread. For the record, I have thoroughly disliked Piranesi, Time Traveller's Wife, B A Paris, and have been underwhelmed by some others mentioned repeatedly, but I've only skimmed the first four pages here!

Thursday Murder Club was out on Borrowbox so I went for the second one in the meantime - oh my god. Total shit. The main woman spoke like a cliche, like someone set out to write Clever Ex-Detective and made her speak like a shitty noir protagonist. When she was finishing her ex's sentences and giving "smart" quips (and him doing it back) I returned it. Absolute tosh.

On Chesil Beach
One Day
both for largely the same reason - awful, unlikable characters that I couldn’t give a toss about. I read On Chesil Beach years ago and I’m still angry about it.

My Brilliant Friend - so boring, couldn’t finish it.

A Spool of Blue Thread - mind numbing. It was a book club read and I actually left the club because, by that time, I was so fed up with wasting my time on such nonsense books. In fact I’ve never read as few books as I did when part of a book club.

Can’t get through The Mirror and The Light for some reason, it’s just not grabbing me even though I loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.

However, two of MNs ‘love to hates’ that I did like are; The Essex Serpent and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. So…what do I know?

Behind her eyes…I was so angry with the terrible ending. Wasted hours on that book. Cannot believe they made it into a Netflix series and the books now a best seller 😱

They got better. I wasn't sure about the first one but it was recommended to me so I carried on. I just took them for what they are, light hearted and totally unbelievable, although the deterioration of one of the characters was actually more moving than I expected.

I hated this one so much, but rest of book club loved it??
Boring, and written like the author expected it to be picked up for a movie. All telling, no showing.

I think I said out loud "Is that IT?" when I finished it!

The Snakes by Sadie Jones.

Not the worst book I have read by a long way but very disappoitning because Sadie Jones is a good writer and the premise of this book is very interesting. But it is just such a missed opportunity and has an unforgivably rushed ending.

I have read many really bad books, some of them by authors I usually love, but the absolute worst has to be 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz. So glad I got it from the library rather than buying it. I still don't know why I bothered to read the whole thing. I don't read him at all any more, he's gone full conspiracy libertarian nut job.

I'm glad I've found you people - I thought I was missing something major with the Thursday Murder Club! I couldn't give a crap about any of the characters and the murder itself. It was sooooo dull. Worst part, DH saw me reading it and brought me the 2nd book as a stocking filler😅

Agree her books are getting nuttier and nuttier.

With regards to the book "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman, I bought the audio CD of the book read by Lesley Manville and loved it. I have also have the CDs for Books 2 and 3. Once again I loved them. But, yes there is a but, I am 75 and I can relate to the comings and goings in the stories.
I feel these books/audio CDs are really for older readers/listerners, I cannot imagine me liking them when I was younger.

the pointless bloody Miniaturist. I'm still a bit annoyed about that!

Well that's good. Adds a bit of balance to the thread!

Sophie Hannah has gone mad!

Her early books are good but a Game for all the Family made me wonder if she was suffering from some mental aberration or was just having a laugh. I sincerely hope it is the latter but I won't be paying her any more money. I would think twice before even getting her later works out of the library.

Yes, How to Kill your family-a complete copy of Kind Hearts and Coronets. Shameless!

Lady of Hay. Written in 1985 and I read it when I was a teenager and was quite obsessed with it. I was scared to go to the toilet in the night in case William got me. I went to Hay on Wye as well! I read it again about six years ago and found it irritating - it wasn't about love at all, it was obsession. People did stupid things because they were obsessed with this character Jo, who wasn't all that, really. I got sick of reading how beautiful she was. The male lead is a rapist, the female lead is supposed to be a hard hitting journalist - I've met tougher marshmallows. She makes excuses for the guy who rapes her. Nobody does any work, they race up and down the motorway because they're in love with Jo. No, obsessed, not in love. It was very dated, too, even in its time.

Just remembered The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. So long & so dull. I got there and he had gone, ad lib to fade.

Going back to Piranesi - warning SPOILER ALERT - was it just the ramblings of someone who's had a breakdown? I hated it but may as well try to understand it I suppose.