Worst book you've ever read?

[CommunistLegoBloc]

Inspired by the film thread, what's the worst book you've read?

I think mine was The Miniaturist purely because it was SO hyped. It was completely overwritten, ridiculous, boring, and you'd think for that amount the author got paid, she'd have bothered to come up with an ending.

Yes, The Slap. Urgh, what horrible people.

And I didn’t finish The Goldfinch either.

Catch 22 - well, I finished it, but I will never be tempted to read it again. It had a few engaging bits though I seem to recall.

Time travellers wife is a bit marmite I think - I loved it personally.

Really disliked Sophie's World. Didn't think My Brilliant Friend lived up to its hype. Wolfe Hall was a wash because of the pronouns. I hated The Secret History but really liked The Goldfinch!

I like the testaments but didn't love it. Felt like it was well written fan fiction

Marabou stork nightmares - only book I've put in the bin, grim

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen - yawn !
Cows - Dawn O'Porter - badly written
Middle England - Jonathan Coe - cliched stereotypes, love his other novels but was so disappointed with this one.
Fran Kiss Stein - Jeanette Winter - just irritating

*Jeanette Winterson

I totally agree about
Wild Swans
The time traveller’s wife
The Alchemist
Minette Walters

50 Shades - utter crap
Labyrinth- so dull

Vernon Godlittle by DBC Pierre booker prize winner absolute shite

I love Captain Corelli and Far Fromthe Madding Crowd, two of my favourite authors! I also liked Life of Pi, Wolf Hall, Eleanor Olliphant.

I loathed The Slap. Such nasty misogynistic sex-obsessed vile characters.

I also hated Pillars of the Earth, The Davinci Code, Gone Girl, American psycho, The Driveway has Two Sides, and anything by Jodi Picoult.

The Da Vinci Code. I threw it across the room when I'd finished reading it. Mostly because I was so cross with myself for wasting an entire afternoon!

A book by Will Self with no punctuation in at all. The biggest load of shite I've ever started reading. (Needless to say I couldn't finish it.)

On Chesil Beach made me so so cross..

I liked the slap, even though it was full of unlovable folk - it certainly divided our book club opinions - will hunt out the TV series mentioned

Matthew Riley - any title by him. Absolutely gobsmackingly shite. Even worse - he was recommended to me and I forced myself to read not one but two of them just in case the first one was an anomaly. Written for the semi-illiterate IMO, in the style of a very bad American action movie.

Mutant Message Down Under. Couldn't finish it. Tosh, bollocks, nonsense, and shite.

Tattooist of Auschwitz, dreadful crap. Made Auschwitz sound like Butlins. I saw the author at an event and she hadn't even been there before she wrote it. Shameful

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, read it years ago and I now think it probably falls into the "so bad it's good" category.

Hated The Slap. I know characters don't have to be likeable, but these had no redeeming features at all.

Very disappointed in The Testaments. As others have said, it's like quite well-written fan fiction.

Liked The Goldfinch. Thought The Secret History was ok. Brilliant first paragraph, which really drew me in.

Couldn't get past the first 50 pages of My Brilliant Friend.

Enjoyed How to Stop Time - it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but it did its job as an undemanding, enjoyable read.

The Outsider by Stephen King - started as such an interesting mystery and seems like by half way through, he ran out of an ending so tied it up in a ludicrous way.

Mother’s Milk ~ Edward St. Aubyn
Old Sarum ~ Edward Rutherfurd
A Debt to Pleasure ~ John Lanchester

The Power by Naomi Alderman. Hated it. Stuck with it until about three quarters of the way through, then had to give up. I love The Miniaturist, the Binding and How to Stop Time

The Collector by John Fowles
Truly depressing and miserable. Felt obliged to finish it as it was a book club book.

American Psycho, Wolf Hall, Appletree Yard, The Girl on the Train

Eleanor Oliphant is Absolutely Fine.. I wasn't

also

Anything that involves a thirty something successful woman running away from a tragedy moving to a small town/village and within 30 mins meets chiselled, normally reserved man of hidden but sensitive depths who immediately has the hots for her. Especially as she has no discernible personality . (Perhaps that's not what he is interested in..) Usually accompanied by a host of quirky but heart of gold neighbours. One of said neighbours always shuttles off their mortal coil.

If I could write them myself I would as they obviously sell! I couldn't stomach the twaddle though. I think there must be the possibility of artificial intelligence being used to create them soon. (Who knows its possible that's how they are created currently).

Hated fifty shades
Life of Pi I gave up on
I genuinely don’t understand the love for Great Gatsby
Same for the Da Vinci code

Probably not the target audience as I liked The Time Travellers Wife and On Chesil Beach

Hated Cloud Atlas

A Little Life because it was misery porn.