I just read a terrible book

I loved all three in the series! The biggest disappointment for me is having to wait until September for the 4th one!

Absolutely agree with you-badly written, cliche driven and just deadly dull.

I would rather read a sauce bottle than another in the series.

That said, I did give Richard Coles' book-in similar vein-a whirl and it was so much better.

I hated Crawdads too,

I have found my tribe!

The Luminaries - ended up using it to counter my insomnia)
The Goldfinch (please can someone introduce her to an editor?)
Sally Rooney's (all)

Currently reading Thursday Murder Club to try to understand the hype and failing. It's not funny? Or clever.

A lot of terrible psychological thrillers. Most recently The Silent Patient and Greenwich Park

I thought the Coffin Path a really good read, but it wasn't as advertised. It wasn't a ghost story at all really was it?

I could not finish Eleanor Oliphant, it was just so dire.

Another one I started reading last year but didn't finish: On Division by Goldie Goldenbloom. It's about a hasidic woman who already has 10 children and finds herself pregnant again at the age of 57.
It sounded great but was so slow and non-capturing, that I didn't finish.

For those of you who didn't like The Miniaturist, the sequel (House of Fortune) is imo much better as it focuses more on Amsterdam life and tangible characters rather than hyping up the random miniaturist who does absolutely sweet FA. She does appear but she doesn't dominate the storyline like the first book (which was much more interesting when it focused on Marin and Johannes).

Bella Mackie's book was only published (and only wrote for the Guardian) because her dad is Alan Rusbridger. She's a shitty shitty writer. Ilistened to part of the abridged How to Kill Your Family on R4 and was laughing at how bad it is.

The Shadow of the Wind, how did that sell 15 million copies? 🤔🤔
It’s one of the worst books I have ever read, and I only finished it because it was a boiling night in Barcelona and I couldn’t sleep anyway and had no wifi.

Bit hard on Manchester!

Tony Parsons is rubbish.

"Where the Crawdads sing" gave me the rage...it was so close to being brilliant, but the straight-out-of-Mills-and-Boon main characters killed it for me. So disappointing

Totally agree. I only bought a copy because a few people on MN recommended it. I like a “weird” plot ( really liked the idea behind Time Travellers Wife). This was utter bollocks.
Also I am not a fan of any stories that involve smug families. The devoted but slightly incapable husband ( at home only obvs, he’s very good at his well paid job) and the irrepressible children who despite a minor tantrum once in a while always turn out to be right. Fuck off the lot of you back to Insta houses.

@CaptainMyCaptain

I did see a thread just after I read it on here. It was something like ‘your favourite books’ or something? And many people had mentioned A Little Life! Also, there are loads of threads if you search with people saying they liked it. Of course not on this thread since this is about books you hated! But people do definitely like the book. God knows why because (and I’m speaking objectively as far as possible) it is poorly written. I think if you removed the fact that it’s written about gay male characters it would have gotten absolutely no hype/awards etc.

I can see why Piranesi wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I adored it. I also loved Jonathan Strange. It's been mentioned a couple of times already but The Secret History is probably the book I've hated the most - the characters are loathsome and I couldn't care less what happens to them. I also struggle with Kate Mosse - the subject matter would generally be right up my street but there is a coldness to her characters that makes them difficult to engage with.

Yeah, Completely Beside Ourselves was dire too - built on one big plot twist and then so what? And Sally Rooney is boring, narcissistic drivel

Yes - and the denoument was so bleedin' obvious

Agree, I absolutely hated this. Couldn't get on with the main character at all.
I'm also not a fan of thrillers and find most of them far fetched so sympathise with the op!

I'm also in the Little Life HATE club, had an embarrassing convo at a Christmas party with a bunch of fans. Then they started talking about Lessons in Chemistry, which I also hated although I think I'm unique in that. All this thread is doing is reminding me why I don't belong to a book club, I couldn't bear to be forced to read a book I hated, I come across too many on my own as it is ...

I have found my people - could not stand ALL! Felt like the kind of thing I wrote in creative writing aged about 14, no subtly at all - the insanely expensive apartments, the el camino trek etc etc.

I also did not enjoy we are all completely beside ourselves. Entirely built around a bizarre plot twist and didn’t really have much else to offer.

It was incredibly boring. I didn't care about any of those people.

Second both of these opinions - loved the book, hated the film.

Everyone on here so far has hated it. I'd like to hear from someone who enjoyed and can explain why.

Agreed.

Normally I plough through books even if they're not the best but this is one of the few Ive just given up on. Its about 50% read on my kindle and likely to stay that way.It was just so boring

Not a book but I watched the film 'Scorched Earth' which has some of the worst acting I've ever seen. At one point the main character is hiding from someone above them on a ledge and he drops a knife onto their head which sticks in and kills them. It would just bounce off!

I was given this by my best friend for Christmas last year.

She was so thrilled to give it to me as she knows what a huge crime and detective fiction fan I am.

I struggled through it but it was way too tame for me.

It went to the charity shop after I'd finished it so I hope someone else got to read it and enjoyed it a lot more than I did