Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask what was the most annoying book you have ever ploughed through?

726 replies

pandarific · 02/02/2014 13:22

I am reading Her Fearful Symmetry for bookclub and I'm a fifth of the way through and hating it. It is just striking me as very cutesy and mimsy wimsy and I have eyerolled so many times in the past 100 pages. (Children, in 2010, in London, happily playing croquet - really? Oh and then there's a ghost. And some creepy twins! Great.)

It wouldn't be so bad, but the fecking thing is 500 pages long.

I know it's a matter of taste as the author's books are massive bestsellers. And I may be being unfair as I seem to just really dislike magical realism in general. And I am open to reading all kinds of different books (last one A Game of Thrones, before that The Kite Runner), and anyway, half the point of a bookclub is to read things you wouldn't pick for yourself. But but. The salesperson at Waterstones even went on about how great it was when I was buying it, ffs! Waaah, boo, disappointment, 500 pages of life wasted etc.

Anyway, I definitely will finish it as it's only fair to give it a real chance, and I will try not to BU and judge so quickly, but I have to ask - what books have you made yourself finish, bookclub or no, that you've hated?

OP posts:
Lilka · 03/02/2014 13:47

Sorry, Alissa not Alice

flippinada · 03/02/2014 13:47

Yep, Tolkien was very fond of the old purple prose. And god-awful songs (I read the Hobbit to DS last year).

flippinada · 03/02/2014 13:49

That's exactly why I like Mankell, Profondo. He says so much with so little.

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 03/02/2014 13:53

Single White E-mail. Totally awful and so predictable yet I was compelled to keep going to see whether I was right or not.

Gave up about halfway through in the end because it was taking forever to get to the point and the damn main character was so CLUELESS. I skipped to the end and then proclaimed myself right Grin

halfwildlingwoman · 03/02/2014 14:06

Errmmm, I think the ending of The Slap was that the teenage girl, who was so badly let down by every single fucking adult in her life, found herself by taking drugs at a festival. That's the last thing I remember.

DoctorTwo · 03/02/2014 14:10

I used to buy the Booker/Man Booker priize winner every year and the only one I've ever finished and thought 'I'd read that again' (the ultimate compliment for a book, I think) was Vernon God Little. I have re-read it a couple of times since, and the lengths Vernon goes to to ensure everybody in his life is justly rewarded always makes me smile.

squoosh · 03/02/2014 14:12

John Banville's The Sea

too.many.adjectives.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 03/02/2014 14:26

hackmum, are you in my book club? I also loathed Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I stayed up all sodding night reading it and then read more on the way to work before the book club lunch and it was dire.

Also The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window or whatever it's called. That was the first book picked for out book club and we all hated it.

Shopaholic shite - somehow I have read a number of these and she just gets worse and worse. The lies! The pointless, pointless lies! Why can she never tell her husband what she's playing at? Honestly!

OP - spoiler alert! I don't despise Her Fearful Symmetry but I was massively disappointed. And the basic premise is Sweet Valley High - the twins have a mystical bond! They can feel when the other is hurt! And they sleep in the same bed, for god's sake! I am a twin and I was really annoyed that an author I had rated so highly after TTW was peddling the same hackneyed shite about twins. Oh, and the twin switch thing - the wrong twin gets pg so goes and lives with the bloke and then leaves the kids behind and swaps lives with her sister - what? And the bloke knew all along but never said anything - double what?

thepiggotupandslowlywalkedaway · 03/02/2014 14:32

Confessions of a Bad Mother by Stephanie Calman.

I swear I have never willingly hurt a book. Until I read this one. I gave it to my nine-month-old son to 'play' with, so that no-one else would have to suffer it.

She's utterly useless, but that's OK because she never deals with anything, just gets husband to pay for someone to deal with it for her. Oh no, someone got mugged near them in Islington. What to do? A page of dithering. Phew, they've barely escaped with their lives to Dulwich.

anonacfr · 03/02/2014 15:02

Speaking of books I remember a colleague of mine announcing proudly that the only book she'd read since leaving school was the first Harry Potter.
I was a little Hmm

flippinada · 03/02/2014 15:29

I've just remembered another book which annoyed me. Don't recall the title, it was about a single mum and was marketed as a "chick-lit" type read, so I wasn't expecting anything highbrow, just something light and enjoyable.

It was absolute tripe and full of ludicrous contrivance. She caught her husband in bed with someone else (so far so unremarkable). But then, she lives next door to her best friend who provides free childcare for her adorable toddler on tap at the drop of a hat. Then she gets a great new job (despite having no work experience) with a hunky male boss who fancies her and they end up dating! Then a gorgeous single dad (plot device alert) moves in next door (the other side), although they are just friends! Even though they secretly fancy each other! And then there's a mishap involving their adorable toddlers and sexy single dad comes to the rescue! Then her husband realises he's made a terrible mistake and wants her back!

I bet you can't possibly guess the ending Hmm .

DoctorTwo · 03/02/2014 15:36

I bet you can't possibly guess the ending

They get beaten to death with a copy of the book?

squoosh · 03/02/2014 15:38

That sounds like the plot of most chick lit books to be honest.

limitedperiodonly · 03/02/2014 15:40

TeacakeEater My mouth dropped open at that. The Scarlet and Black is one of my favourite books.

So clever and funny.

But I never noticed the Birdsong rip-off before. So not clever and funny.

Yes, you're right.

TeacakeEater · 03/02/2014 15:44

Thank you for the validation!

limitedperiodonly · 03/02/2014 15:45

There was a dog in Birdsong that I liked. She died. Best thing all round really.

superlambanana · 03/02/2014 15:49

A Tiny Bit Marvellous. Being by Dawn French and having good reviews, no.1 best seller etc I thought I'd like it. It's annoyingly written (eg appallingly way off the mark way of writing in supposedly teenage voices) and just not very good. I have ploughed through most of it thinking it might et better, and I'll finish it now I've come this far, but feel a bit like that's a few hours of my life I won't get back...

Caitlin17 · 03/02/2014 16:25

flippinada a I'm sure that's an India Knight book, possibly Hen's Dancing? Stupid cover with someone wearing a ballgown and wellies.

HenriettaMaria · 03/02/2014 16:35

anonacfr That reminds me of a girl I was at school with. A level student (including Eng Lit) planning to go to university, very bright girl - she said that she had never read a book that wasn't for school.

I was a bit Shock that she saw reading as a chore. I guess that, for some people, reading isn't something that they do for fun.

Greydog · 03/02/2014 16:38

Got to agree with the poster Badbelinda who destroyed American Pyscho - one of the nastiest little books I've ever come across. didn't finish it, tore it up and put it in the recycling. It should be toilet paper. Didn't finish Wolf Hall - utter tripe. Loathed the Game of thrones stuff (only read half the 1st book) - and I detest anything by Thomas Hardy! especially Tess of the bloody d'urbervilles!

rookiemater · 03/02/2014 16:43

Oh yes superlambanana - I had the misfortune of ploughing my way through a Dawn French book as well, my SIL gave it to me for Christmas.

Once I read it through I was plagued by the thought that either she a) thought that I liked DF - I don't, never have, hated Vicar of Dibley or b) had read it herself and thought it was a good read.

It wasn't, it was truly horrible, only published because of her name. Hateful as I try to write in my spare time, I can't say I'm any good, but can churn out better than that dross.

bluebump · 03/02/2014 16:47

I loved Birdsong, and Shadow of the Wind. I didn't mind One Day in book form, the film however - terrible.

I never did finish On Beauty, I lent it to my sister and she gave up on it too. I hated Her Fearful Symmetry, just dire but I did actually finish it. I also didn't like one of the Donna Tartt books but I can't remember which.

wildfig · 03/02/2014 17:38

Hens Dancing is by Raffaella Barker - I think it's meant to be a bit tongue in cheek? Or at least that's how I read it...

Twilight was also very very annoying. I read it under the impression that the author was 18, so was cutting her a lot of slack on the useless plot and the cliched language. Then I found out she was my age, and promptly retracted all my slack, faster than you can say twinkly vampire cheekbones.

MrsAMerrick · 03/02/2014 17:50

The Hive. Absolute drivel. Can't believe I ploughed through it.

FootieOnTheTelly · 03/02/2014 17:52

Yuk, even the title 'Hens Dancing' would be enough to put me off Hmm