Most disappointing books you've read this year?

Loved lessons in chemistry but needed to get into it & it got better & cleverer.
Songbirds - dull and the ending was utter rubbish. Just ended

Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day. Self indulgent, boring, taught me virtually nothing despite promising so much.

Another vote for Lessons in Chemistry. Also the Covenant of Water. Far too long and drawn out.

Witch Hunt by Syd Moore interesting to start with. Prompted me to look into Matthew Hopkins and my local witch trials. Then got a bit weird and rushed towards the end. Still kept me somewhat entertained sat I the car whilst DD was at sport practice

Hamnet

*yawn

The Satsuma Complex By Bob Mortimer. Supposed to be funny but it just irritated me and I gave up. I liked Lessons in Chemistry and The Marriage Portrait though.

Tried the Richard Cole's one. Was probably the most tedious book I've had the misfortune to come across in a long time.

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner. The only plus point is that it's quite short.

The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah. So lacking in any subtlety I did wonder how she'd been lucky enough to get published.

I do try and persevere but could not finish Memorial by Bryan Washington, The Island of Missing Trees & The Road, Cormac McCarthy

Where the Crawdads Sing - started off liking it then it turned into sub-John Grisham.
Middle England by Jonathan Coe - very disappointing as I've found his previous books insightful and laugh out loud funny. This was just pedestrian for anyone who's lived in Britain over the period it describes.
Also didn't get the hype about Tomorrow and Tomorrow etc but my book group loved it.
Quite liked Lessons in Chemistry though!

Oh I've still got about 3 months wait at my library before I'll get lessons in Chemistry. Perhaps I'm not missing out.

The biggest disappointment for me this year was The heart is a lonely hunter by Carson Mcullars. I read a free kobo version and I wondered if it was missing something, it never seemed to reach a point. Just page after page of awful people and no particular plot. I'd been wanting to read it for years, and had really high expectations. I am completely at a loss why it's so loved.

As others have said Lessons in Chemistry. So predictable and clunky. Shrines of Gaiety and The Marriage Portrait disappointing as I love both the authors. Maybe more editing needed. I think there is too much emphasis on writing ‘big books’ when shorter would be better.

I did quite enjoy Lessons in Chemistry….

I have form for not liking/finishing anything that most of my book group like. Main one being The Echo Chamber by John Boyne. I eventually gave myself permission not to finish it and it’s still sitting there looking at me. I found all the characters so grating and it just wasn’t as funny as everyone else seemed to find it.

Hauntings: A Book of Ghosts and Where to Find Them by Neil Oliver. I gave up around 100 pages in because it was so dull and so overwritten. Ghost stories are not supposed to send you to sleep. Give me a good Mumsnet ‘woo’ thread any day.

So glad to see other people mention lessons in Chemistry!! I also hated it and couldn't finish it and wondered what everyone else loved about it. Ditto the Thursday murder club series, all so twee and overly neatly wrapped up

I started reading Confess by Colleen Hoover. Just not good; I couldn't continue.

Also anything I have read by Matt Haig.

Lessons in Chemistry
Where the crawdads sing
Songbirds
All the broken places

I LOVED Stone Blind, if it helps.

I popped on this board to get some ideas for a hamper I’m making for MIL.
Thought I should check out this thread for inspiration for what not to buy but as she bloody loved that Lessons in Chemistry maybe this thread should be the inspiration.

I forgot I tried to read Thursday Murder Club and gave up - I think stories like that focus too little on the crime and I just wasn’t taken with the characters and the comedy.

Issac and the Egg - don't bother! Three Women - terrible sex scenes, seriously.

Lessons in Chemistry. Shittest book in a while.

Oh no I'm so disappointed about Natalie Haynes and Kate Atkinson! I am desperate to become the bookworm I once was and was planning a delicious splurge, those are exactly the kind of books I'd have picked to get me back into it.

The Party by Elizabeth Day
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (utter rubbish and I am certain the author hadn’t read a lot of the books that were supposedly transformative for her characters)
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

Started reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow but have put it down. I'm not into gaming and struggling to get to grips with it - don't want to give up just yet though.
Sorry to tell you that I found it: difficult to start with (also not into gaming), it got better / interesting then went downhill. It's one of those that has a good idea but doesn't Know how to tie it all up at the end.

Lessons in Chemistry for me too - I was really looking forward to it but I didn't bother finishing it in the end.

Murder before Evensong and the Thursday Murder Club were pretty terrible too and I didn't finish them either, but I was so sure I would enjoy Lessons in Chemistry, that was the one that disappointed me most.

There have also been some poor continuations of series that I have enjoyed in the past, but I suppose it's a lot to ask the writers to endlessly churn out good material.