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 read her account of this, Lucky. Obviously a terrible thing happened to her, but she didn’t come across to me as a particularly likeable person in the book.

Ah don’t tell me this, this is one of the next ones on my list!

It Ends With Us felt like it was written by a dramatic teenager. I was truly baffled by it's popularity. Same with that Behind Closed Doors book. Thousands upon thousands of 5 star reviews 🤷‍♀️

Fifty Shades of Cr*p. Over-hyped, dreadful subject, and appallingly badly written. It's interesting to see how often copies of the Fifty Shades series are now appearing in charity shops - frequently with Books 2 and 3 showing little or no signs of being read. Presumably people had bought all three titles and given up after Book 1.

What really infuriates me about it is that I know lots of writers who have had far better work turned down.

Aaah, I didn’t know that .

I feel like I've not liked most of the bestsellers I've read in the past decade or so (with a few notable exceptions). They seem to be more cookie-cutter and less well-written than before. Colleen Hoover, I recall being particularly terrible.

This. Dire.

I also agree on the housemaid. Just silly really.

Also, Thursday Murder Club

Most of them seem to be self published.

Oh , I love Captain Corelli’s Mandolin !
Dont get me started on the film , though.
Yes, Nicholas Cage, I’m looking at you .

I enjoyed The Ministry of Time - I listened to the audiobook, which may have made a difference in helping the characters to come through.

Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education fell as flat as the proverbial pancake for me. My DH loved it - he really enjoys her books - but I struggled to get to the end of it and wouldn't have bothered if I'd had to physically read it rather than listen to the audiobook. What a lot of overwrought adolescent tosh! (OAT.)

Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros - where it's good, eg, the dragons, Violet's terrifying mother - it's brilliant. Where it's not - the, shall we say, romantic stuff, it's yet more OAT.

Agree with this. I recently read a couple of this type of novel and they are all what I would call 'quick win' reads. Every chapter is short and ends on a cliffhanger, there is very little character development, just a constant driving forward of the plot, a ridiculous twist at the end...

I think a lot of current 'bestsellers' are targeted towards a generation with very short attention spans who would only ever read that type of book.

The Glass Bead Game: got in a charity shop, looked forward to reading it...such hard work! Rather like Father Ted, I have a bookmark on page 7..
Famous fantasy/Sci-Fi book The Many Coloured Land. I like this genre for relaxation reading but have thrown this book across the room several times. Unbearable writing! No bookmark left in that one.

I hated Orbital so much I think ‘god I hated that book’ every time I see it. I work in a library, I see it a lot.

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I’ve loved every TJR I’ve read and was looking forward to reading this one but the ending made me so angry I threw the book across the room when i finished it.

The Ministry Of Time. I never DNF books (I even finished Orbital ffs!) and even I gave up on The Ministry Of Time.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. I hated The Salt Path too, couldn't get beyond the first couple of pages, but seems a bit of a cliché to say that now.

Thursday Murder Club
Murder Before Evensong
Normal People

All awful. The first 2 in particular just bandwagon-jumping appealing-to-Boomers crap.

On the other hand I really enjoyed Yellowface, Ortibal and The Ministry of Time. Butter and Caledonian Road are both on my audible app so don't know yet!

I haven't read Fifty Shades or Salt Path and have no intention to.

Describes The Da Vinci code perfectly, maybe because I had read The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail a few years before and I don't care what the court case said.............

Where the crawdads sing. I was fuming!

Ditto - Midnight Feast one of my holiday books and I finished it because I was on a sun lounger, and would categorise it as an easy holiday read, but not something I’ll recommend.

Enjoyable thread as I’ve read many of the books mentioned and great that people have such differing views. I DNF books all the time - life is too short (unless you are holiday with a limited supply). A recent DNF was All The Other Mothers Hate Me.

Normal People was absolute garbage I have no idea how it got so popular.

Anything by Martina Cole - I’d read a few and really liked them but then I watched her being interviewed and I can’t get rid of her accent in my head when I read her books

I read the Housemaid, it was ok but very juvenile & I am still confused how it's so popular. Is it do with price?

I read Verity by CH & didn't mind it but saw the flowers & dv film which was shite.

I have enjoyed 2 Claire Douglas books & 1 by Lisa Jewel (?) this summer.

I am reading Circe now which i'm enjoying.

I just want easy reads, escapism & something easy to get back into after a break.

Any recommendations?

Anything by Colleen Hoover, don't get the hype at all.
Lessons in Chemistry was dire. Did not finish.
Crawdads was daft.
Fourth Wing is the epitome of tik tok romantasy nonsense.

But I do like Sally Rooney and enjoyed Yellowface, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Orbital.

My Brilliant Friend - named best book of the century by NYT. It was very interesting and well written (noting it is a translation), but I found it depressing. Probably not a great choice for a holiday read!

Was going to read TMC before I watched the film but maybe I shouldn't bother now.

I love murder/detective books. Many years ago I picked up a Patricia Cornwell book in Waterstones and flipped it open randomly to look at the style of writing.

There was a paragraph that read something like:

Scarpetta was drinking her coffee elegantly, as only Scarpetta could. She cradled the cup in her long, slim fingers, drawing admiring looks from those around the room.

Or some such bollocks. It went on for a bit about her drinking coffee in a stylish way, unlike any other. It was such fawning crap that I put the book down and I've never read one of hers, despite the fact she's a hugely successful author in my favourite genre. It may be a grossly unfair judgement as it was solely based on a single paragraph, but I thought any book that included such a truly dreadul wankfest over a character drinking bloody coffee wasn't likely to be one I wanted to read.

I had a similar issue at book club recently with In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan. Cue wise but cynical female detective, who commands respect from her male peers because of her no-nonsense approach. Think of her slamming into rooms, striding about giving instructions and so on. The author is clearly trying to make a feminist point as she makes a huge deal of forcing a male detective to make the coffee for the female protagonist who also lectures a young woman never to make the coffee for the men.

It was just awful, so heavy-handed and determined to make a point about the character and women. Others in book club loved it but I couldn't get past the first third. I appreciate the effort but it was so hamfisted. Ditto the same book making points about race. Again, valid points, but so very badly executed it was cringeworthy.