That moment when the book turns terrible

Recently read a book that described eating a slither of cake it just tainted the whole thing for me - how does something like that get past extensive edits and proof reading?

I was given a first edition of the first Harry Potter book before anyone had really heard of JK Rowling but thought that the writing was so awful that I gave it away to someone…

Didn't get that far @TheRealMagic thank goodness!
I try to pack two wildly different books. One Booker type, one Rebus, Ruth Galloway or something.

Honestly, I'm sorry-not-sorry that I've blanked out most of this pish from my memory, but I remember that parts of the book were written from the cat's point of view, and there was something about it receiving clues (I think) from a flashing light on the top of a nearby building. 😔

But hey, what do I know? Patricia Cornwell is presumably absolutely minted and I'm not, so presumably some people loved it 😂

I only finished The Slap because, very foolishly, it was the only book I took with me on a holiday to quite an isolated place. It was absolutely awful. You think the first character is written to be such a misogynist deliberately, but then it turns out it is just a very misogynistic book. You may (sensibly) have not got this far, but the point where a teenage girl sticks a shampoo bottle up her and the author clearly believes this is a realistic depiction of female masturbation is a very low point.

I didn't like the ending of Gone Girl, and did feel it ruined the whole thing.

Yes!! I was really enjoying it. My friend said “you’ll never see the big twist coming” .Too bloody right I didnt! I was furious.

As a general observation I get very annoyed when:
The detective just ‘sudddenly realises” who did it.
When people blink. “ He blinked”. “She blinked”. I mean its hardly essential to the plot to write that is it?

Oh trust me, it got far far worse.

Dare I ask for more details...? This sounds hilarious...

Absolutely! It was utter drivel. Her first few Scarpetta books were so good, then that clunker. I think we used it as a firelighter in the end. It might as well have been useful.

The ending of Crawdads made a mockery of the whole book too.

This was a good few years ago now, but DH still occasionally mentions my outraged cry of "What a load of absolute FUCKING SHITE!" as I launched The Hornet's Nest by Patricia Cornwell across the room.

I'd read quite a few of her Kay Scarpetta novels but was getting bored with them as they were really samey so thought I'd try this one. I mean, WTF? A cat that helps solve the crime by trying to do some sort of bizarre charades and using props (yup, really). Utter, utter shite and the last time I ever picked up a book written by her.

But my contribution would be the 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Gripping start, but I kept giving up because I couldn’t bring myself to care who killed her. Have just sent it to the charity shop with 1 chapter to go.

I love The Names, but I like alternate reality books, like some of Kate Atkinson’s. My Bookclub voted it out best of 2025

I gave up on The Slap. Realised I disliked all the characters and didn't care what happened to them.
Have just started reading The Names and have put it down again. If I'd realised how it was structured I probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place. Has anyone here persevered with it?

There's an Australian book whose plot hinged around someone who had been in a bad car accident and was in an old people's home as a young person with nowhere else to go. She had difficulty accessing wheelchairs etc.

In Australia. The country with the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme). The scheme that would pay for OT and physios, wheelchairs and home modifications. Not mentioned even once.

Absolutely this one- rarely does a book annoy me, but this one did.

Also guilty of buying a certain book in a charity shop @SecretSquid, and binning it!

We're all different, but i thought that book was a masterpiece
I can't remember if it won the pulitzer (sp?) or the Nobel, but thought it totally deserved it. Stunning, stunning writing

Loathed that book, didn't make it past when they got to Oxford. It seemed like a rehash of Philip Pullman Northern Lights to me.

Butter. I started it on holiday, left it behind accidentally. Bought another copy, and really, really wish I hadn't bothered. It intrigued me at first, and as it started to get worse I kept hoping it would redeem itself. It didn't.
There's another book that was so bad, I ripped it up and binned it because I didn't want to be responsible for anyone else picking it up from the charity shop. I'm trying to remember what it was, but I've blanked it out!
Also that one where sister is a chimp. Good grief.

Same.
Utter tosh

Omg! The year of the locust. I’m still convinced I had a printers error book, which stuck 2 books together.

I enjoyed Babel but don't remember the plot well enough to recall the ship thing. However I have ranted on here before about Katabasis by the same author, which keeps referring to the "campus" when talking about the University of Cambridge. Ditto Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries.

Was it Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers?

Last Seen by Lucy Clark. Where to start. A women in her 30s early 40s that has never had an email account, lives on a sanbank with no electricity but at some point she mentions a mobile phone being charged. Rings up the fertility clinic and is given her husband's sperm count results over the phone, without his knowledge. And so much more...zero editing

Behind Her Eyes, This book is so bad it made me think I could write a book and get published.