Most disappointing books you've read this year?

Based on the gap between expectation and reality, mine is probably The Fraud too (ZS books are reliably like to love for me, and this should have been right up my Victoriana loving street but it felt lazy and busy and meh).

The flat-out worst book I read this year was Bring No Clothes, Charlie Porter. The pictures were nice.
The worst I mostly skimmed was The Office of Gardens and Ponds, Didier Decoin. 90% Men Writing Women aimless sex cringe.

Isaac and the Egg.
II’m so cross that I wasted a book token from a lovely person on it.

Milkman by Anna Burns - just awful. Gimmicky: dense/no paragraphs/no names given. Extremely dull.
Agree. It was awful, a DNF. I hope the Booker judges squirm with embarrassment every time they remember they gave it the prize.

This was also the opinion of most of m bookclub. However we all enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry.

The Richard coles one. I wanted to switch off and read something light.... I just got irritated by his jolly japes of vicar life.

I loved Leonard and Hungry Paul, one of my favourite books!

Lily by Rose Tremain. I feel like the author read Fingersmith and decided to have a go at their own tale of an orphan with really crap results. Unrelenting misery.

Ok I have another.
and the main reason I am disappointed is that I saw it recommended on more than one MN thread. And also because it is being made into a big-name movie with Florence Pugh.

The Maid by Nita Prose. As if someone read ‘Eleanor Oliphant’ and ‘Thursday Murder Club’ and decided to try to cash in on their popularity all in one handy book. The result is humourless, dull, and as though you are being hit over the head repeatedly with the author’s Moral Message but still end up unsure what it is meant to be.

Avoid!!

Has anyone said In Memoriam - I just didn't understand the hype; I didn't think it was well written - or original.

I also was disappointed by Tomorrow etc - the two sales people in Waterstones were RAVING about it and said that it didn't matter if you didn't like gaming, it was about much more than that. I though it was OK, but given the huge hype, disappointing. (They did also recommend Kala, which I did enjoy).

Lessons by Ian McEwan - couldn’t finish it

Lessons in Chemistry and Crawdad's
I got the latest Nina Stibbe out of the library on the basis of a glowing review in the Spectator but gave up. Very pedestrian.

I loved Lessons In Chemistry.

Spare. It was one long whinge and I’ll never get back the time I spent wading through it.

Yes to lessons and chemistry and shrines of gaiety being disappointing. We have how to stop time in bookclub next. Also had to read The housemaid which was as rubbish as I expected.

You see I am totally into gaming and I found it meh!

I did like a previous one of hers that I read when waiting for this one from library.

My one wound be tackle by jilly cooper. Very uninteresting.

Another vote for Thursday Murder Club, so tedious, felt like hard work to finish it. Not sure whether that prejudiced my view of the Rev Coles one (can't even remember the title) but I gave up on that one pretty quickly.

I’m glad it’s not just me . I got a lot further on than you because I normally try to persevere but in the end my daughter got fed up of me moaning and found a synopsis .

Have to agree on Lessons in Chemistry - the whimsy feel and feminism combo didn't work.

Also - Shrines of Gaiety. I usually love her books, but I kept wondering if she was ill when she wrote it because there were too many characters and the stories meandered, plus she usually evokes the time and place well, but not here.

Nina Stibbe's book of diary entries was pretty dull and very unfunny. She wants to be Alan Bennett, but...it ain't happening.

I absolutely loved Leonard and Hungry Paul. Gentle and heart-warming which isn't usually my thing. I can't be doing with A Man Called Ove, The Hundred Year Old Man etc however LAHP just worked I thought.

I didn't think Hamnet or Demon Copperhead were rehashed; admittedly the structure of the latter does echo that of David Copperfield but it stands on its own in my opinion. As for Hamnet .. in what way was it rehashed? My main objection to Hamnet was the constant use of three adjectives in a row. Once you notice it, it gets pretty annoying. I like Maggie O'Farrell though.

Someone lent me Where the Crawdas Sing and I just can't get into it. I'm not fond of books that flit between years at the best of times but Crawdads is slower than molasses and I suppose the pace fits the Deep South but Lord is it dull so far.

A Little Life. A friend whose opinion I really trust recommended it to me. Struggled to half way and gave up. Hated it. Was so disappointed.

Interestingly, Lessons in Chemistry seems to feature equally on the Best book of the year thread and now here, as the worst

Ah no, this is "most disappointing" rather than "worst". I've started plenty of worse books this year, but they didn't disappoint me as much because I wasn't so confident that I would like them.

Everything!!
I'm finding almost all fiction dull, trite, boring, repetitive. Maybe it's just me though...

I'm getting on OK with non-fiction though. Popular Science and Feminist Criticism mostly

I don't think Lessons in Chemistry was all that bad. It was just overhyped. I live under a rock and manage to pick it up and give it a go without having heard much about it at all. It was fine - a zippy read. If I'd been excitedly told it was the best book of the year by a long shot, I'd have been disappointed. I think Crawdads suffered the same fate. The best advice is to do as someone upthread said and completely ignore all reviews and go in without expectations.

In fact I just finished Tomorrow etc and from the breathless quotes on the cover you'd think it was the single most extraordinary book written this century. It isn't, but it was fine. Fairly intricately woven, and interesting character studies. The writer wrote a book that 90% of us could not have, and fair play.

I usually pick up random books from the Charity shop and dive in knowing nothing about them. Works for me.

although of course Hamnet did not rewrite- just rehashed.

Hamnet and Demon Copperhead.

I really cannot be arsed with authors re-writing existing texts and expecting accolade for their new and original ideas.

One about a robot!