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!

The Thursday murder club. Absolutely terrible.

Yes, I did a bit of research on this few months ago and I was disappointed to learn that this is very much often the route to market and so many good writers will unfortunately be sidelined/deterred by this preference.

Same! I was so frustrated by the ending

I know this sounds like a dreadful indictment of the general reading public but I have read a number of books this year that have gone on to sell MASSIVE quantities - and every one of those books has been 'tell tell tell' with juvenile, cliched descriptions and plot telegraphed to hell. It's almost as though people nowadays don't really want to think about a book or have a book tell them anything new - they want to be told a story in as plain and non-descriptive a language as possible, and preferably with plenty of sex.

I’m inclined to agree 🙁

Oh I've found my people!
Normal people- awful.
50 shades - thats a given.
The Silent Patient
A Little Life
The Bee sting

All awful

I didn't mind the first Thursday Murder Club but the second one was boring. I've not bothered with the rest - and he is now churning them out at a rate of knots. It's a shame average celeb writers get so much attention these days at the expensive of actually decent (but not celeb) writers. I'll end up watching the Netflix version and get irritated by the terrible casting choice of Piers brosnan as Ron.

I'll add Verity by Colleen Hoover into the mix. Utterly ridiculous, terrible writing.

I loved where the crawdads sing! It's one of my favourites

I don't have that many 'avoids' as I usually find an author I like and read their whole back catalogue!

I did struggle a bit through the Thursday murder club and finished it.

Currently reading Summer people. Not yet finished, I'm enjoying it (not sure if it's a best seller)

I did read exciting times by naoise Dolan struggled a bit but I enjoyed it

Authors I love!
Kate Morton
Lianne Moriarty
Claire Douglass
Lucinda Riley
Lisa jewel
Shari Lapena
Sophie kinsella

Sorry not quite on topic

I couldn't stand the writing style. Unbearably twee.

Throne of Glass. It was raved about, but I didn’t enjoy it at all!

Thursday Murder Club - was just so unrealistic. I quite enjoyed the first one, liked the feel-good aspect, but as a one-off. The sequels (and yes I did read them) went beyond suspending reality and just became daft.

Other posters have mentioned Lucy Foley and I think it’s the same for her books. I read the first two but wouldn’t bother with any future ones.

I do read quite a bit of rubbish on Kindle Unlimited but at least they come with the subscription. I’m not that fussed about the writing being good if the plot draws me in, so I’ll give them a try. Some can be enjoyable and I’ll continue the series, others I’ll give up after the first couple of chapters. But they aren’t ever presented as must-read best sellers.

The book I’ll put forward as a disappointment was ‘We need to talk about Kevin’. Was told it had this amazing twist. No, it didn’t.

I think that's a result of the short attention span thing, and also more people listening on audible which can be a very different experience than physically reading a book. So I suppose it might be an indictment of some sections of the reading public but more so of the publishing industry.

I occasionally re-read old favourites from the 80s or 90s and think this would never be published now because of the long descriptive passages and character side stories that aren't strictly necessary for the plot. Everything has to be trimmed down, stripped back, cut for pace in today's market so people can read quickly and buy more.

I wanted Ray Winston as Ron in the Netflix adaptation of the Thursday murder club.
I also agree that too many celeb writers are pushed when the more traditional writers are sidelined.

Haha, I LOVED Ministry of Time! But I do work in publishing so perhaps that just solidifies your argument...

Do you mean We Need To Talk About Kevin? I thought that was very good.

@Sidebeforeselfhard agree with Midnight Library and Yellowface but the biggest disappointment is Remains of the day; I LOVE Kazuo Ishiguro but it was so dull!

Interesting thread - happy that some of my hated books (left unfinished) are mentioned ie Lessons in Chemistry; Time Traveller's Wife; Girl on the Train - I did finish that though, but laughed for all the wrong reasons! Also 'Where the Crawdads Sing' - finished it but felt it was all a load of bollocks.. The Matt Haig one - never got into that.

Contrary to some - I've loved The Beach; Yellowface; We Need to talk about Kevin; The Thursday Murder Club; Emma (anything by Jane Austen) and Remains of the Day (superb book and have loved all Kazuo Ishiguro books- amazing author).

If I had tried a book twice and hated it - I ain't trying a third time - no way 😃

I'm currently a published author and would like to think that my books aren't like this! So it's not every book being published now, but the ones that seem to sell in the largest quantities appeal to the lowest common denominator, and therefore hit many of the points that are most annoying - twee, cliched, predictable, characters that behave the way they do for the purposes of the plot not realism, lots of 'emerald eyes' and 'well defined muscles' - and everybody being gorgeous.

Oh loads - I need to stop listening to my favourite Waterstones bookseller as I hardly ever enjoy his recommendations 🤣

The Thursday Murder Club - thought it would be a decent easy read holiday book, how wrong I was!
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Midnight Library
White Teeth
Caledonian Road

I did like Yellowface though

I was a bit disappointed with the Thursday murder club book, gave number 2 a go , but it left me cold.
I wanted to like it too.

I found these books and disappointment:
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, couldn't finish it
The Da Vinci Code
Agree with Thursday Murder Club, tried the second book, didn't like it, won't bother with any more from the series

War of the Worlds
Spare
all of Ernest Hemingway books

I actually liked the Da Vinci code and the other books in that series. I know that people think it was pants.

Could see what all the fuss was about for The Thursday Murder Club or Girl on a Train.

Conversations with friends by sally Rooney.

I hated The List by Yomi Adegoke so much I pulped it rather than inflicting it on someone else via charity shop donation. So awfully written.

Loved Yellowface, though.

And I take issue with your premise, OP, framing badly written books as for the young adult market. YA is like any other section of the bookshop: some bestselling crap, some churn-it-out easy reads, some incredibly complex writing, some beautiful books. It’s not on to categorise it as “oh it’s for teenagers and they’re stupid”. I read a lot of YA and very little of it is as bad as your description of the book in your OP.