Disappointing Bestsellers

[LittlleMy]

Hello everyone 🙂

I just wondered if anyone else has bought a ‘bestseller’ that otherwise wouldn’t have appealed without that status only to be hugely disappointed?

So I realise I’m slightly late to the party but I just finished ‘The Housemaid’ by Freida McFadden and it was such a struggle to get through! It felt more like it was written for the Young Adult market. Barely any descriptive text, always telling rather than showing, ridiculous coincidences, underdeveloped characters, juvenile writing especially sentences like ‘’there was something about that room that was very scary” “his expression sent a chill down my spine”. Highly predictable in parts, silly in others and just so very average!

Don’t come after me if you loved it, this is just my opinion of a recent book that really shocked me that it was able to reach the dizzying heights of becoming a bestseller.

I thought it might be fun to hear from any fellow disgruntled readers if they’ve had similar experiences! With Autumn just round the corner, and me needing a new list of books to read, this post may help some of us avoid similar disappointments!

I thought “Tattooist of Auschwitz” was disappointing. It wasn’t bad but I was expecting something more.

Absolutely agree. I usually love her books and the quirky things she writes about. However I think she is trying to be Agatha Christie with this one and totally failing. Leave that to Sophie Hannah and Greg Horowitz who have nailed the Christie genre. I just cannot understand or carry on reading the Feast.

I bought his latest on the recommendation of a staff member. I’ve tried it twice now and just can’t get into it. It’s sitting on my bedside table mocking me

It just shows how different everybody is.

There seems to be almost full agreement on The Thursday Murder Club, Where the Crawddads Sing, Normal People and Orbital. I hated The Time Traveller's Wife,

I thought Normal People was really engrossing, as was the TV version. I felt I should like Orbital, and I did feel that some of it was quite moving and profound, but ultimately it got a bit monotonous and I couldn't finish it - though I might try to go back to it.

I am surprised that Remains of the Day was quite unpopular. I thought it was a wonderful book, as was the film adaptation. I like most of Kazuo Ishiguro's book, though I found Klara and the Sun (I think that's the title) to be confusing and depressing.

Books that I found readable, but not exceptional were Hamnet, On Chesil Beach (made me feel frustrated and sad), Eleanor Oliphant (whimsical and a bit predictable but interesting to me anyway), The God of Small Things.

My husband bought me Lessons in Chemistry and reading the plot summary I felt I would not like it. I have found it difficult to get into and can't remember any of the characters' names (which usually means I won't be able to finish it). It sits on my bedside table, looking at me accusingly.

My absolute favourites are Secret History (Donna Tartt), St Maybe and The Accidental Tourist (Anne Tyler), Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro), One Day, Us, and You Are Here (David Nicholls). These too are among other people's hates.

I have the book Life of Pi but haven't ventured to read it yet. However, I thought the film was absolutely beautiful, visually and emotionally. I am surprised that a poster found it dull.

I am very cautious about reviews on the back of books - especially when they are from individuals. I sometimes wonder whether they are friends of the author - perhaps writer friends.

I'm so glad it's not just me - I haven't been able to finish any Colleen Hoover or Freida McFadden, just awful!

I agree with Thefairycaravan , I started to read the first one of the Thursday Murder Club and only got part way through it . It was dreadful . I haven’t even tried any of the others in the series .

I wasn't taken with all the ecclesiastical references

I am enjoying his "The life impossible" though.

Donna Tartt The Golfinch is very good too, I think.

I tend to do the bestsellers as holiday reads.
Didn't think Remains was a bestseller though. I've taught that and Atonement many times. I think they're slow burners. Kids usually hate them to start with, then fall in love. Stephens gets me every single time. I just think it's a properly crafted novel, which is genuinely funny and heartbreaking. I felt klara and the sun was a re- working of rotd in some ways.

Matt Haig.. meh.
I quite liked Crawdads, for all it's schmaltz.
Loved Demon.
Loved colours of the dark, but preferred we begin at the end. That one totally blindsided me.
Goldfinch disappointed me a little and went on way too long. Had shades of Vernon God Little.

They absolutely are pals of the author - often stablemates (I work in publishing so I often know who publishes who). And there’s barely a Greek myth retelling that hasn’t got a cover quote from Jennifer Saint!

I enjoyed both the Thursday Murder
Club series, Life of Pi, Where the Crawdads Sing and Lessons in Chemistry. Loved The Remains of the Day, a beautiful book.

I do think often when you read a book (so your age/stage in life, but also when in the lifetime of the book) can make a difference. People do get caught up in a buzz that’s them missing if you don’t come to that book for 10 years. Of course, classics endure.

I could only manage Cloud Atlas by reading each story in it's entirety so I ended up on the 'middle' story. I just couldn't see the point in splitting each story and bookending them.
Then I saw the film and they had done what I did, more or less.

Anything by Jodi Picoult and Lately Lisa Jewel books been a disappointment

YY to Lisa Jewell

i thought the one about the podcast was absolutely dire

It Ends With Us - just don’t understand what the hype was about! It was basic, short and just a bit meh!
To this day, I’m still annoyed that I fell for the hype of 50 shades - I read them all hoping to understand the hype at some point, but no!
That one by Dolly whatsherface - but in my friend group I think I’m the only one who didn’t like it!

Ones I’ve read recently and loved “The Book Thief” and “All the light we cannot see”

Oh I loved the podcast Lisa Jewell one but didn’t rate her new one as much

Great appraisal of the thread - thank you!

Life after life by Kate Atkinson 😴😴😴😴 tried twice, couldn’t do it, so unbelievably dull

Yes I can understand that. To me it was something new to learn but completely understand it could be a bit too much, especially in the 3rd book. But I’d say that writing style was quite solid in general

Ooh I loved that one!

Sobering thought 😐

I used to think Lisa Jewell wrote entertaining but thoughtful chick lit.

Then she went over to thrillers and totally jumped the shark.

Literally one of the best books I have ever read and an understanding of mental health issues like no other book offers.

It should probably be said that Crawdads writer’s husband and son were implicated in an actual murder in Africa; and Life of Pi premise was copied from a book by a S.American novelist’s book called “Max and the Cats”, in which a teenage Jewish boy is adrift at sea in boat with a panther after a shipwreck.

I Am Pilgrim…about twice as long as it needs to be and full of shallow nonsense as a plot.