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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask about the worst book you have ever read.

597 replies

Whereisthecoffee · 25/11/2018 18:43

Title says it all really. What book or books have you absolutely hated and why?

OP posts:
GoldenWonderwall · 26/11/2018 20:58

I never finished American Psycho after the rat bit - didn’t want to read anymore.

I gave up on The Luminaries as nothing happened or looked like it might happen.

I freely admit I just read the sex scenes in 50 shades. Apparently I should have persevered as the plot is better in the rest of the trilogy. I doubt this myself.

I did finish Little Fires Everywhere recently but it’s gone straight to the charity shop as it was utterly soulless. I usually pass books onto friends I think might like them but I didn’t want to give this one to anyone I actually like myself!

DianaPrincessOfThemyscira · 26/11/2018 21:03

I enjoyed Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides so decided to try The Marriage Plot. Gave up half way through - Unlikeable characters and a boring plot.

I’ve liked quite a lot on this post but have agreed with a lot - The Goldfinch, anything by Kazuo Ishiguro, Jodi Picoult and Bret Easton Ellis. I had to read American Psycho for uni and it gave me nightmares. Recently a friend told me to try another one of his - I did and just could not be arsed.

Could not get into Room or We Need To Talk About Kevin either.

Elderflower14 · 26/11/2018 21:08

Just remembered another. Wild Swans. My DH bought it for me. The footbinding description made me feel quite ill.

longwayoff · 26/11/2018 21:08

Actually, now you mention it, Dawn French and Jenny Eclair. Neither appealed to me at all as writers, cant recall titles, didnt finish either.

JohnGalt · 26/11/2018 21:10

Glad to see The Alchemist getting lots of mentions; smug clichéd crap that thinks it's clever and original. Also agree with Saturday; he pretty much phoned that one in, very disappointing.

groundcontroltomontydon · 26/11/2018 21:10

Ian McEwan's Amsterdam. I found its unashamed crapness strangely uplifting.

groundcontroltomontydon · 26/11/2018 21:18

And I didn't hate it, but "Jude the Obscure" sent my mood downwards for a good few weeks after finishing it.
Dear god yes - I read it while at law college to compound the misery. A harrowing read.

cafenoirbiscuit · 26/11/2018 21:19

Can’t do Jane Austen. I’ve tried. Life is too short.
I had the misfortune to read Ulysses as part of a book group. Gave up. Worst book ever.

Annandale · 26/11/2018 21:22

Oh yes the Marriage Plot! Was recommended to me as i was married to someone with a severe MH problem. I did finish it but practically wore out my dentures grinding my teeth at it.

Asthenia · 26/11/2018 21:22

I’m so surprised by all these mentions of The Lovely Bones! It’s one of my favourite books...it’s so haunting and beautifully written.

Annandale · 26/11/2018 21:23

I'm going to add Sweet Caress, not because it's bad but because it feels a bit like William Boyd's Saturday - glossy and superficial and in my view actually pernicious in the attitudes it promotes.

cheeseoverchocolate · 26/11/2018 21:27

Among classics I really don't like Dostoyevsky and Joseph Conrad.

Not a fan of kazuo ishiguro and Hilary mantell either.

Otherwise I agree with 50 shades, PS I love you , eat pray love.

I did enjoy moby dick, les mis, we need to talk about Kevin and Ian McEwan though.

Ofthread · 26/11/2018 21:31

Yeah, The Alchemist is awful and I read it when I was really young - not taken in though.

MawkishTwaddle · 26/11/2018 21:35

Oh God, I've remembered another. Comfort and Joy by India Knight.

I used to like her books, but that one is unbelievably smug and patronising. There's a bit in it where the protagonist invites her cleaner to a family dinner and the cleaner is all wide-eyed in amazement at the sheer middle-classness of it all.

I've never read anything else of hers since, snooty madam.

ForAMinuteThere · 26/11/2018 21:39

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. Awful sick book which should never have been written. Took me months to get it out of my head and the graphic torture and violence.

They are all horrific @augusta2012 and I was shocked by the intro to the first. I stuck with them though and they're actually a great set of books.

I have read worse for gore!

MorbidlyObese · 26/11/2018 21:44

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A580Hojas · 26/11/2018 21:45

I read a Joanna Trollope when I was staying with my Mum once. It was very bad.

Thomas Hardy wrote beautifully about humans and his stories are universal and always relevant. Tess could be any young woman raped by an older predatory man.

thenightsky · 26/11/2018 21:46

Last month we had Hereward by James Crosse at our book group. When we met to discuss it we just all looked at each other and burst out laughing. Oh it was soooo bad. As one of our members said... 'has James Crosse actually met a really woman?' Grin

We'd voted for it as we all thought it was an actual historical book about Hereward the Wake. What we got was a filthy version of Game of Thrones.

LuYu · 26/11/2018 21:46

I didn't hate The Goldfinch, but I didn't like it much, either. It was the kind of book where if it was on the bedside table and I had a choice between reading it or staring at the ceiling for a while, the ceiling usually won. I read it a second time, because I couldn't work out what was wrong, and I still thought it was very well-written; it just didn't ever fully come to life, which is a shame for a great whopping book with no obvious flaw.

The Secret History, on the other hand: I could write a hundred-point list of things which annoy me there, but I've read it a dozen times and will read it again. For all its flaws, it has real charisma, if that's possible in a book. I feel something similar for We Need To Talk About Kevin. So much wrong with it! Then suddenly I'm half-way through again.

I dislike The Miniaturist so much it's almost embarrassing. Take a big glop of historical research, chuck in all the Important Social Issues you can think of (don't worry if they don't blend easily: just mash them into the plot as much as you can), season with nice descriptions of food and furniture, then sprinkle with random and purpose-free magic realism. Sell a trillion copies. Ugh.

A580Hojas · 26/11/2018 21:46

MorbidlyObese - I think that means it's good!

thenightsky · 26/11/2018 21:46

*real woman - not really woman obv.

MsTSwift · 26/11/2018 21:51

Detest those awful horror books where (usually women) get horribly tortured - the dragon tattoo Swedish genre. Urgh pure misogyny. Agree Eleanor oliphant was really unbelievable why did it get so popular?

Really enjoyed many of the books others hate though - goldfinch, little lie, the slap, hundred years of solitude, lovely bones

MorbidlyObese · 26/11/2018 21:52

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LuYu · 26/11/2018 21:56

Also, has anyone read Infinite Jest? I have nothing against the book itself, but it's infamously unfinishable and I didn't finish it. I was so confident, going in. I've read the bloody Faerie Queene: this won't beat me! One line at a time, page by page. Make the effort. Then I got a terrible, throwing-up-everywhere migraine about a third through and never opened the thing again.

PepeLePew · 26/11/2018 21:59

The Rainbow by DH Lawrence. Awful boring pretentious nonsense. If I hadn't had to read it for A Level I would not have persisted.

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