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Original poster

Worst book you've ever read?

380 replies

CommunistLegoBloc · 20/07/2020 21:02

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.

OP posts:
YogiMatte · 21/07/2020 10:06

Agree re Roanoke Girls, v unpleasant

Glitterbiscuits · 21/07/2020 10:19

A Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes.

It's only plus point was it's short.

Totally pointless read.

Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black. I shouldn't have started this because I don't believe in anything supernatural. But it's still plotless.

FireUnderpants · 21/07/2020 10:27

Someone upthread mentioned The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

It’s so unfortunate that someone with such an amazing story told it to such a poor writer. You can spot the point she gave up and rushed to the end.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Books
ItWasNotOK · 21/07/2020 10:30

I agree with On Chesil Beach, literally nothing happened, it just seemed like posh wank material.

I quite liked the film though.

ParisOnWheels · 21/07/2020 10:32

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. He kills himself because he thinks he’s a burden on his girlfriend and we’re supposed to find that romantic? Not only is it ableist, it’s dangerous too.

And like a pp, The Slap came to mind.

Rowenberryjelly · 21/07/2020 10:38

I really liked Eleanor oliphant and Captain Corelli Grin

My worst are -
50 shades, just boring.
Bridget Jones, so self centred.
Anna karenina, gave up with 2 pages to go.
Fingers in the sparkle jar. I admire Chris Packham and was looking forward to reading this but it is so descriptive that frequently takes two pages to say what could have been said in one sentence. Also the chapters from the viewpoint of other people were weird.

Zebrahooves · 21/07/2020 10:47

I (thankfully) haven't read 50 Shades, but read somewhere that they couldn't even be recycled due to some of the products the book was made of.
I would also add According to Yes by Dawn French and The Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews.
I enjoyed the first Barbara Taylor Bradford but agreed with a previous poster re the sequels.
Loved the summary of successful woman moving to small village and suddenly gaining great friends and the attention of the, previously reserved, local hunk who is usually a highly successful businessman. I've read quite a few of these, and whilst appreciating the point, still find them easy reads once in a while.

RatinaMaze · 21/07/2020 10:49

The only book worse than The Time Traveller's Wife, IMO, is the author' second book, Her Fearful Symmetry. Why I put myself through that, I just don't know.

Agree with those who hated The Slap but also agree with the PP who enjoyed the TV adaptation.

Another one which comes to mind is The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

HandbagDog · 21/07/2020 10:55

Oh, @RatinaMaze, I laughed so hard throughout Her Fearful Symmetry, which I only picked up because I like Highgate Cemetery. The little kitten of death and the multiple twin switcheroo nonsense nearly killed me. It was nearly as unintentionally funny as The Da Vinci Code.

WarmSausageTea · 21/07/2020 11:11

Ratina has picked out two of mine, the Memory Keeper’s Daughter and Her Fearful Symmetry. Both irredeemably awful.

I’ll add American Psycho, which I loathed from start to end. In those days, I wouldn’t give up on a book, but AP made me realise that life’s too short to waste on reading something you’re not enjoying. Especially when it’s something that bloody awful.

But the worst of the worst for me was the Hare With Amber Eyes, which is the biggest load of self-indulgent wank I have ever had the misfortune to wade through. There’s an amazing story in there, but the author comes across as utterly self-absorbed and self-important, with a turgid style of writing. I read it for a local book club and left soon after.

RatinaMaze · 21/07/2020 11:15

@WarmSausageTea - we must share a brain. I think I had blanked out The Hare with Amber Eyes, I hated it so much (and also had to read for book club)

This has also reminded me of The Unbearable Sadness of Lemon Cake - such a great premise but do badly executed. I had bought it while ploughing my way through The Hare in the hope that it would be a just reward for that pretentious nonsense - nope, I just ended up with two awful books in a row.

Passmethecrisps · 21/07/2020 11:21

Oh yes!!! I had completely forgotten about the Memory Keepers Daughter. That was proper bilge

Passmethecrisps · 21/07/2020 11:23

Oh no. Wrong book. It was something about lost things . . .

vampirethriller · 21/07/2020 11:27

White Oleander. No likeable characters in the whole thing.

Passmethecrisps · 21/07/2020 11:28

It was the Keeper of Lost Things. That’s it

itssquidstella · 21/07/2020 11:30

A book I got free with a copy of Cosmo or similar when I was 16. I think it was called Waiting For Addison. Absolute drivel and has cemented my lifelong antipathy towards chick lit; I don't care if that makes me a literary snob, that book was godawful.

HandbagDog · 21/07/2020 11:31

Keeper of Lost Things was unbearably twee, and it also frazzled my eyes by putting the 'stories' of the lost objects in italics for long passages of the novel. I read it because it was one of the few books in a holiday home I was renting and I'd run out.

ComfortablyGlum · 21/07/2020 11:31

Saturday by Ian McEwan has to be the worst for me. I managed 3 chapters where all that happened was a man got out of bed.

I recently read ‘Machines like me’ by the same author, and although I finished that one, I was perpetually in a rage with how each sentence was over written. For goodness sakes man, I do not need half a page on describing a cup of coffee as if it was some very clever metaphor. No just coffee.

If you like up ‘pretentious’ in the dictionary I swear a picture of Ian McBore would suffice to convey its meaning.

Other books that have doubled as a basketball as I have lobbed them in disgust at my bin are:

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel. Pompous, dull and reading it was like walking through a swamp in skiis.

The Tommyknockers - Stephen King. I swear this was a bet between Steve and his publishers. ‘I bet I can write a book about furry aliens that you shit out and it will be a hit’ Publisher ‘No, Mr King, that won’t work’ Steve: ‘Hold my beer‘. Utter wank and I can’t believe the same author wrote one of my fave books, ‘The Stand’.

The Remains Of The Day - Kazuo Ishiguro. Staring at a magnolia wall whilst waiting for a kettle to boil contains more excitement than this novel. If scientists were looking for a way to keep adrenaline levels at zero, then this book would work better than any medicine. I’ll save you 2 hours by summarising the plot...’Butler retires’. There, now go and clean your toilet as that will be time better spent.

itssquidstella · 21/07/2020 11:32

I love Hilary Mantel, and cried at the end of The Mirror and the Light - partly because of the ending itself and partly because there was no more book to read 😂

Ginandplatonic · 21/07/2020 11:33

50 Shades - abysmal writing, but I didn’t expect that one to be good. Was given to me by a friend for my 50th birthday as a joke.

Of books that were supposed to be good I detested The Slap - awful, detestable characters. It was touted as an expose of the underbelly of the Australian muddle class or some rubbish. Er, no, my friends and I are that precise demographic and we are quite nice and have pleasant, civilised barbecues.

Also A Little Life and The Road because I want to read to escape misery, not be immersed in it.

On the other hand I love some of the books mentioned here - The Secret History, Captain Corellis Mandolin, pretty much everything by Ian McEwan.

vampirethriller · 21/07/2020 11:35

@itssquidstella I got that free with Cosmo as well. I bought it to read on a train and it was terrible. I seem to remember one character was disliked because she objected to people stealing her chocolate biscuits.

Ginandplatonic · 21/07/2020 11:36

Unlike PPs I also hated the TV adaptation of The Slap.

Loved Remains of the Day too (the book and the movie).

FrugiFan · 21/07/2020 11:37

I don't usually finish a book if its rubbish. I tend to give it 100 pages or so but if I'm not enjoying it I just give it up.

However there have been a few for my book club which I felt I should finish even even though I wasnt enjoying them. They didnt get better

  • Cold Comfort Farm
Dull as anything. I couldn't work out if it was supposed to be funny or if it was just badly written but I didnt enjoy it at all.
  • A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
About a shooting at an abortion clinic so I thought it would be tense and interesting. It's written in a weird backwards style so you already know who dies and who doesnt - totally takes away and tension. Very repetitive and none of the characters were memorable or engaging
WarmSausageTea · 21/07/2020 11:43

@RatinaMaze thank you, I feel vindicated. Grin

Honestly, the rest of the group loved Hare, whereas I had to make myself read ten pages an evening just to get through it. Never again.

Enb76 · 21/07/2020 12:01

Honestly, the rest of the group loved Hare

I didn't love the book but I thought that, without meaning to, he precisely illustrates why people were angry with the wealth of some of the Jews in Vienna while people were starving. In that, it was interesting but yes, pompous self-regarding bore.