What’s your “ How did this crap get published?!” book?

[MrsGrindah]

Just finished The Pretenders by Agatha Zaza. Gosh it was dreadful.Cannot understand how drivel like that gets a publishing deal. There was a scene where, in the middle of a “ dramatic” moment, one of the side characters crosses the room to his wife and “ took hold of the corner of her blouse” . What?! Who does that?! I can’t even picture it.

@MrsTerryPratchett I disagree that The Slap should be included on a list of crap books. I hated it because the characters were all so unlikeable but wouldn't say that it was a badly written book.

I can't remember who said anything by Stephen Fry but Mythos and Heroes are really good retellings.

@Ragwort. Great! Let me know if you've any recommendations for me. I need a new book to get into.

The part time working mummy book (she a blogger). Fucking hell the grammar errors in it. Half of it doesn't make any sense. And after reading a few chapters of it, I gave up trying to fathom why anyone would care about this woman's life

[quote cariadlet]@MrsTerryPratchett I disagree that The Slap should be included on a list of crap books. I hated it because the characters were all so unlikeable but wouldn't say that it was a badly written book.

I can't remember who said anything by Stephen Fry but Mythos and Heroes are really good retellings. [/quote]
I agree. I didn't like 'The Slap' but the premise was clever and it wasn't poorly-written at all.
'Eleanor Oliphant' likewise wasn't terrible but it wasn't a masterpiece. Gave up about halfway through.

Not about her life. That sounds harsh, her life story I mean

I loved The Slap. I thought it was excellent precisely because every single character was thoroughly unlikeable but I still wanted to know what would happen to them. I think it takes a good writer to make me care about people who I dislike.

I really struggle with the idea that Martina Cole was once an ok writer who has become formulaic. They're all a pile of toss. I quite admire her because she grew up poor and is now sleeping on a pile of money, but they're really, really bad.

Conversations with friends was just tedious.

I actually enjoyed 50 shades, it was silly but an easy read. As are most of the "with a twist you never see coming" books. But takes me 2 hours or so to read that length book so it's never a big commitment to finish one.

@TheLuckiest I found the same problem with Wolf Hall at first. I struggled for a long time but eventually got into it and enjoyed it. Bringing up the Bodies has just the same style but I seemed to understand who was who straight away.

I'd really recommended the audiobooks for the trilogy. They're probably on Amazon but I borrowed them from the library. The narrator is brilliant and he does different voices so you don't get confused.

@Ragwort

Can't stand chick lit, I manage a charity shop and I know snob alert that our customers do not buy chick lit so I have an arrangement with another charity shop that we can pass it in, they sell it well . But sometimes my volunteers don't realise what is chick lit and I find it on the shelves!

What is chick lit?

Girl on a Train was fine but The Time Travellers Wife is terrible

I refused to read 50 shades as I'd heard the writing was dreadful. But it's pretty obvious why it did so well isn't it? Lots of sexually repressed middle aged women. Two women I know were raving about it to me.

The goldfinch I thought was good except for that she clearly had a deadline to get it finished and so just left all these loose ends whereas the ending had potential to be good. And the middle.. well that went on and on a bit too long.

Oh and girl on a train... read it on holiday and nearly threw it in the pool at times but it accompanied my sunbathing well and didn't require me to engage brain

I haven't read The Girl on the Train but took dd to see the stage version because she loves the film and it was really enjoyable.

I really loved The Slap too. I'm always surprised it gets so much hate on book threads. The scenario was interesting, the place and period, characters and their lifestyles were believable, the different cultural backgrounds were well observed. What's not to like?! (No I'm not the author )

Another thumbs down for The Time Traveller’s Wife here. It could have been condensed into 15 pages. But it went on and on and on and on....

I think some books are not marketed to the right age group. If you are not young, you won’t enjoy Normal People, you’ll find it tiresome. And the Da Vinci Code - young ds loved this book, as it was a more grown-up Famous Five, but running around and solving mysteries isn’t a lot of people’s cup of tea.

Tbh there’s a few with a graphic description of a dead woman so I won’t even bother listing them, I dint finish them.

The main one I was really excited for was the Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. The first few pages were brilliant.

After that....don’t waste your money.

Oh The Goldfinch, I stopped after 60 pages of.....I don’t know, what was that?

Shantaram

@IrmaFayLear

Another thumbs down for The Time Traveller’s Wife here. It could have been condensed into 15 pages. But it went on and on and on and on....

I think some books are not marketed to the right age group. If you are not young, you won’t enjoy Normal People, you’ll find it tiresome. And the Da Vinci Code - young ds loved this book, as it was a more grown-up Famous Five, but running around and solving mysteries isn’t a lot of people’s cup of tea.

Interested to know why younger people would like Normal People. My cousin is 50 and keeps telling me read it. I keep telling her it sounds really dull but she loved the writing style.

normal People does that classic thing where the heroine is not conventionally attractive but the object of her affections sees the quirky beauty and finds her so much more beguiling than all the “ordinary” girls. Yeah, right. In our dreams.

For "The Girl on the Train" I found the film and stage adaptation much more enjoyable than the book,as my main issue with the novel was that the three different characters all had the same voice, so when reading it was difficult to remember who was narrating.

I loved The Goldfinch! One of my favourite books ever. It's definitely marmite.

@LocaNel, I am the Victoria Hyslop hater and that was the book I was referring to. It was so awful, I had wiped the title from my mind.

On the other hand, I loved The Goldfinch, all of the Ian McEwan books mentioned and A Little Life. It’s just as well we don’t all like the same things.

I agree with another post "Cows" absolutely unbelievable. I have no idea how it was published. None of it made sense and was disgustingly vile.