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.

The truants by Kate we in berg. .I couldn't have dared less about any of the characters
ruth jones also a bit disappointing. ..,They both had a habit of saying something like "and then it happened"

and something not very exciting would happen

kate weinberg that should say

Yes, I read "The Five" and found it fascinating.

Fifty Shades of Grey
Eleanor Oliphant.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. That was like plodding through treacle. Apparently Spielberg bought the rights to it before it was published. God knows why.

Anything by Martina Cole.

Both of Adam Kay’s books

The Cows by Dawn O'Porter
I feel bad about my neck by Nora Ephron. All the mildly amusing stuff was on the cover, book was a let down.
A tiny bit marvellous by Dawn French

@Fluffyandsilly

The Alchemist. Ugh.

Agree with that!

And Life of Pi, My Brilliant Friend and The Lovely Bones. All totally overrated shite.

@FuckOffBorisYouTwat

Anything by Martin Amis. What a pile of misogynistic drivel.

So glad you said this. Every book I ever tried to read by Amis (back when I was young and cool and was trying to get down with the feted literary fiction writers of the era) left me so enraged and full of fucking hatred for him I threw it down in disgust. He’s a major dick.

50 shades of crap.....

The number of stupid people who fawned over the hype

@SantasBritchesSpelleas

'Keep Her Quiet' by Emma Curtis. Starts off with an emotive segment about a young woman with her new baby trying to get a mini-cab but no one will take her because she hasn't got a car seat, because she's too poor to afford one. OK, fair enough, scene setting, we're supposed to feel sorry for her.

Then she gets her cab and we get two pages of her backstory, yes, OK, have to fit it in somewhere.

Then she gets home to her crappy flat - what's the first thing she does? She rests the car seat against the back of the sofa. Yes, that's right, the car seat you spent several emotional paragraphs she doesn't have because she can't afford it.

How the heck did a continuity error like that get past the second draft, let alone the presumably numerous edits the book would have had on its route to publication?

It put me off the rest of it because I no longer felt the author/editor was taking it seriously - just churning out any old shit as quickly as possible. The tired plot bore that out.

This is hilarious and almost makes me want to read it... I read one by Ben Elton when I was quite young, based on Big Brother. I must've only read "proper" novels before that as it was my first taste of trashy bollocks and I was genuinely surprised that all books weren't well-written or about weighty subjects - they could just be very basic and still get published!

Oh and I've just remembered The Goldfinch (trying to forget it. ) God only knows how it got such rave reviews, it was crap. The only reason I finished it was because I was I off sick after a hysterectomy and was bored shitless.

Outlander - a modern American pretending to be a 1940s nurse...

Terrible

@TheLuckiest I've literally just started Wolf Hall! All those pages of accolades can't be wrong?! I must admit I opened it and saw "cast of characters" in the Contents and grimly sighed...

I also agree that The Five is excellent.

I also enjoyed Where The Crawdads Sing but I wouldn't say it was anything to shout about.

I gave up with Wolf Hall for the second time this year. I find it boring, I'm afraid. I so want to like it as well.

The Binding was good for the middle third, but dull either side of it.

I also enjoyed Where The Crawdads Sing but I wouldn't say it was anything to shout about.

They are filming an adaptation of that too.

Was going to say Normal People but you have beaten me to it. So poor. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book and this thread is a relief to read. For years I thought it was just me.

I hated that crap book about the monkey sister.
I also disliked Three Hours, a badly written young adult book surely?

@pinkhousesarebest

Was going to say Normal People but you have beaten me to it. So poor. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book and this thread is a relief to read. For years I thought it was just me.

Did you watch the series? Most people agreed it was better than the book which is rare!

@pinkhousesarebest

Was going to say Normal People but you have beaten me to it. So poor. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book and this thread is a relief to read. For years I thought it was just me.

The two books that really stand out to me in recent years that I really enjoyed have been All The Light We Cannot See and The Hearts Invisible Furies*

All the light started a little slow but passed my 100 pages test and by the end, I couldn't put it down.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - brilliant premise ruined by terrible writing and a protagonist so unsympathetic I wouldn't have weed on them if they were on fire.

However, a marvellous triumph of hype (and the machinations of the publishing industry) over substance.

A book called House Rules by Jodi Picoult. About a young man with autism, as recommended to me as my DS has ASD. The biggest load of formulaic tripe I’ve ever read. She’d obviously done a minimal amount of research as it contained every last stereotype about autism without her seeming to understand it at all. Please don’t bother with it. I can’t read anything else by her as I assume it will be another load of poorly researched stereotypes.

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher.

First part was excellent. Second was so awful my eyes never stopped rolling.

[quote AlexCabot]Can I recommend an actually very good book? I read this over Christmas last year and it's stunning. A good social commentary on women who are usually overlooked by historians.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/37570548-the-five[/quote]
I love this book. One of the best I read this year.

Nicci French, particularly the Freda thingy books have really gone off the boil. The earlier stuff was excellent but they've become more badly written as they've gone along.

All teenagers are intelligent, incredibly perceptive and interested in every aspect of their parents lives and complete strangers are happy to pour out their innermost secrets to anyone who asks.

A classic of shite books-Da Vinci Code. I threw it across the room in disgust, then picked it up and threw it again.

@daisyjgrey

That Adam Kay hospital one that loads of people think is marvellous.

Did you know he also wrote an Xmas song called swearytale of New York ? It's also not much good.