I just read a terrible book

The shopaholic books wanted to give the main character a slap

A book a friend wrote and self publised that was trying to be 50 shades and was just awful

The baby trail by Sinead Moriarty really disliked the main character so couldn't get invested in the story.

I have no guilt not finishing books I hate now as far too many other books to read.

Matt Haig is a plonker

Here is a decent telling of the story:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Marie_Hilley

Stranger than fiction.

Ditto!

Currently reading American wife which was given to me by my sister in law for Xmas. A huge brick of a book and now half way through I see why. Every room they go into or house they go to is described in length. 2 pages to describe the boyfriends house, what's on his shelves, what's in his cupboards, what's in the fridge....... who cares just get on with the story.
Also it's supposed to be based on the life of Laura Bush meaning her boyfriend/husband in the book is George W. He's described as a charming, charismatic man who people are drawn to and has a gusto for life. Doesn't equate for me from what I've seen as George W the president , to me he seemed a shrunken little man and weasely

Don't say that, it's in my to read pile. OTOH, How To Stop Time by Matt Haig - I looked at all the glowing reviews on the front and wondered what I missed. An Amazon review said if Stephen Fry AND Graham Norton both like it then that's a dire sign and I couldn't agree more.

I think the podcast was A Date With Dateline. This is the case:

www.upi.com/Archives/1983/01/14/Fugitive-fakes-death-and-returns-as-twin-sister/2797411368400/

It is a series of books set in Botswana. According to someone I knew who had lived there the way people spoke was true to life and the name of the agency worked. I quite liked the first two or three but they got very samey.

I love most of JoJo Moyes stuff but hated Me Without You.

Same. Well, I didn’t exactly hate it but the premise of the book left a nasty taste, ethically. And it was dizzyingly implausible. How many of us in the UK actually have a Lord/Lady Someone living round the corner and up the hill?

@Haus1234 couldn't agree more. After all the hype over The Midnight Library, I decided I had to read it. Repetitive, vacuous drivel.....

I don’t think it does trivialise childhood abuse. I think often people trivialise their own abuse because it’s all they’ve ever known….I’ve not been abused really but I can remember saying something to a counsellor about my childhood and her looking horrified and me saying “No it’s ok, it hasn’t affected me!” That’s what Eleanor is doing. Also, she’s never ok.

My late dad loved it and he was an English lecturer and very well read!

I'm in a book club so have to read books that I wouldn't ordinarily choose (which can be a good thing).

The absolute worst pile of shite was The Tattooist of Auschwitz. FFS there are so many brilliantly written books about the holocaust or WW2 but this one was abysmal. Utter drivel. But I also hate The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - think that book is deeply problematic and an awful way to have children enter the history of the holocaust.

Hated The Life of Pi (see it had an mention upthread) - struggled through that and will never get those hours back. Still no fucking idea what it was about.

Crawdads was implausible from start to finish plus the bullshit spelling out of the ending as if us readers were too thick to work it out.

OP, I was listening to a true crime podcast (different cases every week) and a scenario like this actually happened. I think the husband knew though. I'll see if I can find it.

Came to post the exact same thing.

what a load of crap that was 🤣 grateful
it wasnt a long book and i didnt waste too much of my life on it.

another one that seems to get a lot of love on MN but i thought was a waste of time
was ‘Still life’ 🥱

My book club is a very small group and we choose quite different genres each month. It is quite good to try something you wouldn't normally read but I never waste time reading anything I hate. A Little Life was the all time low - I kept flipping forward to see if things improved but they never did. We have read Virginia Wolf (not a fan).

Gone Girl irritated me too. It took a long time for the book to be even remotely interesting. The language bothered me.

Well they left the country and never went back.

And the absence of a body - the Zambian police concluded that Mark Owens had disposed of it.

Weirdly the two books that jumped out at me when thinking about 'my worst book' of recent times were My Favourite Wife, Tony Parsons and The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry. I was massively irritated by every single character in them and yet ploughed through those novels straightforwardly so they must've been fairly engagingly written.

I'm a shocking 'started so I'll finish' reader like a PP and it took me months to finish A Gentleman in Moscow and I'm determined to finish 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Both of which have much more sympathetic characters and yet I'm really slogging my way through.

I read that. Premise sounded interesting so I read it thinking there must be a fascinating explanation where as it turned out it was just a totally implausible scenario which got more stupid as time went on.

My conclusion is that Book Clubs choose some really bad modern novels. Going back to the 'Classics' is often more rewarding. Currently trying Virginia Woolf for the first time.

I’ve just bought that book, was looking forward to reading it🙁 I’ve read some pretty heavy going books in my time and have never referred to R&J’s book club for inspiration 🙂

Haven't read the second one. I couldn't now explain the plot or the murderer as it was very unmemorable. The fact that the police liaised with the 'old folk' in the sheltered accommodation reminded me of the Secret Seven by Enid Blyton! Maybe Blyton was Osman's influence?😁

@AinmÁlainn completely agree with you on Thursday Murder Club although I finished it believing it would improve....it didn't. Would have happily buried Richard Osman under the bench by the end tbh.

Agree, on Me Without You, again, a really horrible fetishisation of disability. Plus the idea that beyond a certain level of disability you're better off dead. Plus really stupid and major medical / physical improbabilities e.g. someone with a high level SCI has feelings throughout their body. Just, no.

Bloody hell, I’ve just googled that - how the hell did they evade questioning? 😲