I just read a terrible book

Thank god someone said this book
the ending was so bad I was so annoyed felt like I wasted my time

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

Behind closed doors was wild!!

I couldn't stand The Other Boleyn Girl. I knew it was going to be a silly bodice ripper, but I hoped for a slightly more nuanced portrayal of Anne. Nope...same old claws-out scheming bitch strumpet stuff.

I don't think Anne Boleyn was a nice person as such, but I much prefer Hilary Mantel's depiction as a political player trying to survive just like all the others. Or Alison Weir's, as flawed and determined but no more self serving than anyone around her, and with recognition of her politics and an understanding as to why she might have been as she was.

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

😂 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.

If you read Philippa Gregory, you deserve everything you get!

In Phillippa Gregory's The White Queen, one of the characters call another 'a numpty'. It's set in the 1400's. I know what the characters would actually be speaking would sound like a foreign language today, but she wasn't even trying.

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.

@Funkyblues101
If you are planning to hike the Appalachian trail you should read "Grandma Gatewood's Walk" for inspiration!

I read Lord of the Rings as a teen - else I'd have never finished it - my capacity to push though any book has diminished with age.
I had a feeling there was a good story there entire way through but fighting to get read and yes it was hard going.
I did like the Lord of the ring films though but not the Hobbit films though that book was okay.

I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings fairly often, and I find the secret to enjoying them is to skip the battles. I do this with other books too- Colleen McCullough's Masters Of Rome series was brilliant, but had loads of battles, which I hate, so I just skipped past them.

I couldn't watch the LOTR films, because I can't get past the Hobbits not being fat!

OP I was also the same with that book. I read behind closed doors by B.A.Paris first and it was brill so was looking forward to others but yeah when I got to the end I did wonder what the hell I'd just read 😂

I see The Historian has had a few mentions. I really enjoyed most of it but bloody hell the ending is just so rushed and pointless.

Re The Miniaturist, I loved it but the main conceit did seem totally irrelevant to the rest of the story. It's telling that in the dramatisation they had to give the miniaturist a bigger role and more explanation.

Agree with the comment about the Earth's Children series. I started reading them in my teens and was obsessed, forgave the bad sex writing and endless unnecessary inclusions of the author's research (Plains of Passage goes on for ever), but was desperate for the final book to come out. What a pile of shit it was when it finally appeared.

This thread has saved me a fortune in books that I was going to try but now won't bother with.

That's not as bad as That Scene in It by Stephen King.

What was that book about, anyway? A monster who feeds on fear? Oh, OK...so you defeat it by overcoming your fears and therefore destroying its power, right? What? No? You go into a trance, have a conversation with a huge turtle and then bash the creature to death when it turns into a spider?

Ok then.

How many pages?

I thought a PP was joking about the family where everyone has sex with the one male member of the family (without any coercion, just because...) so I looked it up - omg. What was that author thinking???

I adore the Thursday Murder club books.

Easy to read, pleasant characters, and I read them in Richards Voice 🤣

😱omg! That's dark

I can't remember who wrote it or what the title is but it was about a guy who goes to some remote cottage with his new girlfriend/wife and wierd things keep happening to them.
I got it from a community book (Tele)phone box. It was awful, apparently there was no way anyone could guess the twist. Well I did about 1/3 of the way through. It was so dire I couldn't believe I actually read the whole flipping thing!!! More fool me!

He isn't at all like that though. I like the Cormoran Strike books.

Dh Lawrence and breastfeeding
He was right

@Emotionalsupportviper

I suspect it's a little bit of both. I do like him, but his writing is very samey, so he's doing a fair amount of rehashing even if on different topics, and the more you've read the less charming it becomes.

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.

I gave up on this 90 pages from the end. I just couldn't take anymore & didn't care enough to see how it ended. I loved her first book.

Yy to this. I remember reading a book that covered my job and an illness we have in our family. Every part related to either had me gritting my teeth in frustration. Once I'd got to the end I checked and, of course, they had never worked in that field or had that condition.

I know this is a thread about books we don't like, but anyone who loved the Evelyn Hugo book would also (I think) love Mr Wilder and Me.

I felt the same but am having another go and it's getting better.
See also Wolf Hall. I struggled with the present tense thing for a long time.