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Books to avoid

217 replies

Redglitter · 23/07/2015 22:37

Plenty of threads for recommendations but what books would you advise people to avoid

For me it's 'Her' by Harriet Gray

A total non story with a dreadful ending. I actually thought my kindle had forgotten to download the last chapter. Don't know if the author was running late for her deadline or what but ugh avoid

OP posts:
Muskey · 30/07/2015 22:47

Thanks for the warning enrol. It's too late it's on my kindle

Muskey · 30/07/2015 22:48

Sorry errol

Milkyway1304 · 30/07/2015 22:50

I liked the time travellers wife, and loved Lord of the Rings.

Agree with hating The Slap- I need to like at least one character. Hated Never Let me Go also. A Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes) also makes it on my list, it was a huge disappointment to me having been highly recommended.

Milkyway1304 · 30/07/2015 22:52

I did like The Lovely Bones, We need to talk about Kevin and The Road; all of which have been mentioned as ones to avoid!

NotTellingYouMyName · 30/07/2015 23:00

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis has no redeeming features at all, and Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger must be the most boring, whiny book ever written. Can't stand either of them.

QueenofallIsee · 30/07/2015 23:06

Atonement, loathed it and could not understand the hype at all.

Anything by Dickens, I am quite widely read but try as I might I cannot enjoy his style of writing (watch films though as the stories are good)

The Casual Vacancy - i hated it and felt vaguely grubby after reading it

Sleepers - no idea that the scenes of abuse would be so graphic. I found it very upsetting

cdtaylornats · 01/08/2015 20:00

Pretty well anything that won a Booker prize

WixingMords · 01/08/2015 20:39

Completely with you on that one cdtaylornats.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 01/08/2015 22:01

Atonement Is pants but the film is fantastic.

MyNameIsInigoMontoya · 03/08/2015 22:45

I agree some things are a matter of taste but I can't believe anyone enjoys those Shopaholic ones, I just wanted to slap the daft woman all the way through. (Some people presumably must like them though...)

Also, that one - I think it was called Before I go to sleep? - about the woman with no memory and the very-obvious "twist". Picked it up in a holiday cottage and seriously wished I never had, what a waste of holiday hours.

Madame Bovary also made me want to slap her... (I am not usually violent, honest!).

LassUnparalleled · 04/08/2015 01:41

A.M Holmes This Book Will Change Your Life No it won't, it will use up hours you will never get back.

T C Boyle The Tortilla Curtain dreary beyond imagination.

LassUnparalleled · 04/08/2015 01:44

Madame Bovary also made me want to slap her... (I am not usually violent, honest!)
I've never met any female reader who didn't want to slap her. Her and Anna Karenina. Neither of you are tragic heroines - you are vain, shallow narcissistic pains who ruin several people's lives.

LassUnparalleled · 04/08/2015 01:47

Errol, has anyone ever actually read the Silmarillion? I tried to as a teenager and failed

I don't believe anyone has read it.

Oh and Catch 22 lord I have tried and failed.

LassUnparalleled · 04/08/2015 01:53

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

'The English Patient' - it's beautifully written but precisely nothing happens
?
27/07/2015 10:42 CoteDAzur

I watched the movie and quite a bit happened. Is it not based on the book?

I read the book and hated it but couldn't remember a single thing about it. I loved the film, possibly just because Juliet Binoche, Kristin Scott-Thomas , Ralph Fiennes and Naveen Andrews were so beautiful to look at.

Watching the film I had no recollection of anything on screen happening in the book.

hackmum · 04/08/2015 09:03

The film of the English Patient is very different from the book - in the book, the love story is one small part, but the film focuses (and expands) on that to the exclusion of everything else.

It's not a gripping read. I wanted to like it, and I can appreciate that it's well written, but it's quite a grind to get through.

HexBramble · 04/08/2015 09:08

Catch 22. Hated. Every. Page. So did DH.

Why this book is regarded as a classic is beyond me. Pile of poop.

spaghettina · 04/08/2015 09:45

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - dull and cloying
How to be Good by N. Hornby - such irritating characters as I remember.

But I loved Wolf Hall and the Time Traveller's Wife, and thought Her Fearful Symmetry was a good read too despite being rather ridiculous

HexBramble · 04/08/2015 09:51

Spag - dammit! It's in my holiday pule (Unlikely Pilgrimage).

Just finished The Miniturist - rather enjoyed it and the ending has kept it possible for a sequel, IMO.

HexBramble · 04/08/2015 09:52

Pule?!

Pile.

TabbyM · 04/08/2015 12:22

I've read the Silmarillion! Admittedly 15 years after my attempt as a teenager...Quite enjoyed it too, though not the Numenorean bits. Generally any interesting people will die horribly in a grimdark sort of way though.

GoooRooo · 04/08/2015 12:24

A Suitable Boy. I have tried endless times to read it and I always give up.

Hygge · 04/08/2015 18:28

I love We Need To Talk About Kevin. It makes me so angry. I hate Franklin, and the way he expects Eva to put her career on hold to look after Kevin because he can't be spared from his crappy job, but he won't listen to her or let her do anything and buys a pig-ugly house with her money but without telling her, and never once looks at Kevin and actually sees him.

I enjoyed a lot of the books that people have said they'd avoid on this thread. Although I agree very much with the person who said avoid everything by Sophie Hannah. God that woman knows how to ruin a good idea with a bizarre stream of nonsense. I was really disappointed when they let her lose on Poirot.

Of recent popular books, I'd say avoid How I Lost You by Jenny Blackhurst. It went very odd, and was not believable at all.

LittleEgret · 04/08/2015 21:43

When God Was a Rabbit just bugged me so much right from the title. I can't even remember the plot now, I just remember being so irritated at how contrived the title was. I can just see the author sitting down and that phrase pops into her head, and she thinks, Ooh, that would make a good book title, so she invents a character who calls a pet rabbit 'God', and I'm thinking No! No, that wouldn't happen... you just wanted a catchy title. When Fluffy Was A Rabbit wouldn't be the same. Or When Benjy was a Rabbit.

CitrineRaindropPhoenix · 04/08/2015 22:02

I've read the silmarillion. Once you've plodded through the elf creation myth with a bit of Ring Cycle it gets quite good. I like the elf/ human quest plus love story bits and if refers forward to lotr. I like myths though...

I can't get on with kasuo Ishiguro or murakami. My best friend loves murakami and is a bit shocked that I find it really hard to read. I think I'm so aware of the writing I can't concentrate on thd story.

MamaMary · 04/08/2015 22:16

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Yawn.

A Girl is A Half-Formed Thing. Pretentious tripe. What a waste of time: convinced the reviewers didn't read it.

The Laguna by Barbara Kingsolver. Politicized and dull as ditchwater.

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Dull, don't care about the horrid characters.

Captain Correlli's Mandolin. One of the first books I remember becoming an undeserved hit. It was pretty rubbish.