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Original poster

I just read a terrible book

687 replies

Orangeis · 06/02/2023 11:29

Bring me back, B A Paris.

What a load of absolute tosh. A man's partner dissapears, 6 years later he gets with her sister and lives with her. The big twist is.....the new girlfriend is actually the missing sister. He didn't realise this as she had a different hair do.
That's hours of my life I'll never get back. I feel like taking the book in to the back garden and burning the bugger.
What's your worst book and why?

OP posts:
beguilingeyes · 07/02/2023 19:26

Sebastian Faulks is always awful, IMO..his version of a James Bond book was diabolical also.

LobeliaBaggins · 07/02/2023 19:26

I have another one which I hated and everybody liked : The Family Upstairs.
They were such a weird family. Ok, I know that is kind of the point, but not one of them behaved in a sane manner.

Farmageddon · 07/02/2023 19:26

HelloBunny · 07/02/2023 18:54

Must agree about Cecelia Ahern. The idea for PS I Love You is good, and would work for a movie (I think they made one?). But the writing... Such repetition! It was so hard to get through.

She really only got published because of who her dad was.

dinosauriam · 07/02/2023 19:22

HelloBunny · 07/02/2023 18:54

Must agree about Cecelia Ahern. The idea for PS I Love You is good, and would work for a movie (I think they made one?). But the writing... Such repetition! It was so hard to get through.

'The Marble Collector' wasn't too bad.It was a Book group choice.

Kanaloa · 07/02/2023 19:09

Violinist64 · 07/02/2023 18:45

I couldn’t agree more. Very grating. Some time ago, l read a book set in 1981 where a character from talked about “wanting closure.” I was a teenager in 1981 and this is not a phrase that was ever used at this time. I feel the same way when twenty first century values are put on characters from an earlier time. TV programmes (I’m looking at you Call the Midwife and All Creatures Great and Small, channel five, in particular) and films are especially guilty of this.

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To be fair I can sort of understand the conforming to 21st century values. Downton Abbey would have been ultra depressing if they had slung Thomas out on the street to be homeless because he was gay, and refused to ever speak his name again. Or if Call the Midwife had people being dismissive and nasty to women suffering domestic violence etc. It just wouldn’t appeal to the modern viewer.

StellaOlivetti · 07/02/2023 19:09

Re Jodi Picault, @SirChenjins , I read her only when I’m holiday and over the years I have discovered this fact: she writes both awful books and really quite good books; the ratio is something like 4:1.
The Thursday murder club was rubbish.

SkippyKangeroo · 07/02/2023 19:04

Usually love everything by Mike Gayle, but 'Half a World Away' was too predictable and cliched, and when it did try a twist it made it utterly miserable.

Also Libby Page - 24hr Cafe ..couldn't get past the opening few chapters as I felt it was just poorly written with cringy characters. I enjoyed her book The Lido ( so many books now about lidos or wild swimming nowadays) , but recognised it wasn't brilliantly written either.

I love Richard Osmans books though, some proper laugh out loud moments.

ElegantlyTouched · 07/02/2023 18:58

Elly Griffith's Ruth Galloway series. Have read the first ten, wasn't impressed with the first hit ploughed on thinking they'd improve. They didn't. Threw one across the room it annoyed me so much!

HelloBunny · 07/02/2023 18:54

Must agree about Cecelia Ahern. The idea for PS I Love You is good, and would work for a movie (I think they made one?). But the writing... Such repetition! It was so hard to get through.

HelloBunny · 07/02/2023 18:48

Boring, obvs!

HelloBunny · 07/02/2023 18:48

I once binned a book, half way down the high street. I’d been reading it on my lunch break & couldn’t take any more! I was quite young then & don’t have particularly high brow taste, but still... It was that bad. The worst offenders, for me, are ones where conversations are literally transcribed with no nuance or character building. So bring to read.

Violinist64 · 07/02/2023 18:45

pollyhemlock · 07/02/2023 11:45

One thing that really annoys me is when authors make characters speak in a way that they just wouldn’t have at the time. Near the beginning of Still Life someone says something like ‘ I know, right?’. Nobody would have used that expression in 1944. I didn’t like the book much anyway but that put me off right at the start. Couldn’t believe in the period or the setting.

I couldn’t agree more. Very grating. Some time ago, l read a book set in 1981 where a character from talked about “wanting closure.” I was a teenager in 1981 and this is not a phrase that was ever used at this time. I feel the same way when twenty first century values are put on characters from an earlier time. TV programmes (I’m looking at you Call the Midwife and All Creatures Great and Small, channel five, in particular) and films are especially guilty of this.

Fiddlesticksand · 07/02/2023 18:39

Anything by Cecelia Ahern. All total mind numbing rot.

FallonofDynasty · 07/02/2023 17:56

Rauha · 07/02/2023 14:12

I absolutely hated Our House by Louise Candlish. Poorly executed, convoluted nonsense.

I actually enjoyed Our House, so read Those People by the ame author.

Started off ok and I was expecting lots of twists and turns like Our House, but they never came. It read as though she'd given up on it half way through, just seemed to have a really crap ending.

tobee · 07/02/2023 17:29

Brefugee · 06/02/2023 12:08

What's your worst book and why?

putting my hard hat on: The Alchemist. I have read a lot of awful awful books. But never one that is so hyped up by so many (millions) of people. Such a load of tosh.

Also Birdsong. I remember thinking at the time that if i want to read about a French adultress i can read Madame Bovary. And if i want to read about WW1 i can read All Quiet On The Western Front.
Gah to both of them

Couldn't stand Birdsong! Made me feel hugely emotionally manipulated

samsmum2 · 07/02/2023 16:56

I've recently discovered Karen Swan, and in spite of the slightly dodgy sweet & sickly chick-lit type covers, I'm really enjoying her books. Anyone else?

SBAM · 07/02/2023 16:45

Creamcrackersandricecakes · 06/02/2023 12:35

Oh my god, I picked this 'book' up in a charity shop recently for 50p, having never read anything of hers previously. Good lord, it is dire. I struggled through and finished it, god knows why. The main character, who we're clearly supposed to love and sympathise with, was just eurgh. Whiny, clingy, possessive and self pitying.
I really like chick-lit, but it has to be good chick-lit, (Marian Keyes etc). This never would have been published without a 'celeb' name attached to it, not in a million years.
I passed it on to my 14 year old, who managed less than one chapter before lobbing it in a corner and saying, "Wtf, did she even pass GCSE English? This is shit."

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If you live in Essex that might be because I donated a bunch of her books to the charity shop recently - sorry! I only read billy and me and one of the other ones. They were both so same-y and badly written that I couldn’t bear to read the other 2 (3?) that were in the box set.

Weightlossanne · 07/02/2023 16:33

We called The Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter goes Camping. It seems never ending.

hothands · 07/02/2023 16:21

Sharon Penman's The Summer In Splendour is what you need for The Wars Of The Roses

I've read that many times. It's one of favourite books. I don't know why I even bothered with Gregory's take on it as it was never going to live up to Penman's.

Farmageddon · 07/02/2023 16:00

HadEnough798 · 06/02/2023 16:30

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.

I felt the same about a book called Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. I had read a few of her crime fiction novels before, but this one was just over the top graphic with extreme sexual violence and made me feel a bit sick really.

I hate when authors do that, and it always seems to be women being exploited in really visceral detail.

Whatislove82 · 07/02/2023 15:55

pollyhemlock · 06/02/2023 23:40

Don’t quite get the loathing for Thursday Murder Club and sequels. I regard them as a bit of lighthearted fun. Obviously if you want gritty realism Richard is not your guy, but I like his intrepid pensioners. A Little Life on the other hand is a terrible book. Sentimental and prurient with cardboard characters.

Those “intrepid pensioners” were the most annoying and, oh I can’t even be bothered to think about them again. So one dimensional, so…. Shudder. Such a shit book!

beguilingeyes · 07/02/2023 15:51

hothands · 07/02/2023 12:18

😂 I agree tbf. I enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl for what it was (i.e an historical reimagining of actual events, that was very loosely based on facts), but hated all her others. I only tried The White Queen because I'm interested in the War of the Roses but it made me furious and I never finished it. I should have realised my mistake after she turned Elizabeth I into a complete drip.

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Sharon Penman's The Summer In Splendour is what you need for The Wars Of The Roses.

Farmageddon · 07/02/2023 15:45

Everyonehasavoice · 06/02/2023 17:40

I’m going to brave it even though I know MNs love JK Rowling
But
Very disappointed with The very long and drawn out ‘The Deathly Hallows’
If you only watched it on tv and thought it was dragging, reading it was worse

Think she must have felt forced to turn one book into two

The first time I read The Deathly Hallows (many years ago) it was least favourite of the series definitely, couldn't get into it at all - had to force myself to finish it.

I think because the format was so different to the other books, he doesn't go back to school etc. and it was frustrating to read. I suppose it's hard to bring everything to a conclusion and tie up lots of loose ends as a writer, especially after such a build up.

However, having read the series a few more times since then, I really enjoy it - he's very much on a journey, metaphorically and physically. And there's some very emotional stuff in there, I think it's the most grown up of all seven books, it definitely has a vibe of it's own compared to the others.

Whatislove82 · 07/02/2023 15:44

CaptainMyCaptain · 07/02/2023 12:22

I love her books but read them with my phone on hand to fact check.

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You would have spent more time on your phone than doing any reading

CaptainMyCaptain · 07/02/2023 15:33

Rauha · 07/02/2023 14:12

I absolutely hated Our House by Louise Candlish. Poorly executed, convoluted nonsense.

That was a book club book I didn't bother to buy. Someone lent it to me but I didn't read it and when I took it back nobody could remember if it was theirs so I donated it to the cafe bookshelf.