Disappointing Reads from 2015

[Quogwinkle]

Following on from Southeast's best reads from 2015, I've been thinking about the books that have disappointed me ie not lived up to expectations, have been over-hyped by the media or were just not that enjoyable for me. I know one person's favourite book can be another's hated book, tastes are all different, but these are the ones that I haven't enjoyed as much as I was hoping I would.

1. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
2. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
3. Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
4. The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion (nowhere near as funny as The Rosie Project)
5. Stoner by John Williams (so depressing)
6. A Song For Issy Bradley by Carys Bray (just didn't like the claustrophobic religious element)
7. Wake by Anna Hope (shows WW1 books are hard to get right)
8. Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

See, I loved Harvest.

Yeah, me too. One of my favourite books from last year #totallymissespointofthisfred

Haniya Yanahigara's A Little Life, which was incredibly lengthy misery porn with perfunctory characterisation and a rather nasty joy in detailing abuse.

I rather liked The Children Act and Harvest :)

Just to clarify - I meant any book read in 2015, doesn't matter when it was published :)

Castadiva, that's next on my list I've been looking forward to reading it in the break. Is it just terribly sad (which I love) or actually about abuse (which I hate)?

Agent, I cannot think of any novel less suitable for some nice Christmas reading! I've no objection to sadness at all, my problem with A Little Life is that it is, as I said, misery porn, with hugely detailed sexual abuse, violence and self-harm in the past and present of the main character, who is also disabled and in chronic pain. It's no spoiler to tell you this, it's made plain from the start. What I found particularly objectionable is that, while we know the main facts of the abuse in the past all along, the full description of the details is held over till two thirds or so through the novel, like some kind of cynical moneyshot.

I quite liked the children act - I also quite liked Elizabeth is missing. My most disappointing read that I actually finished was the first outlander book. People rave about it but I just found it really trashy. And nearly 900 pages long. It would have to be pretty bloody good to need that many pages.
I've got the ice twins on my pile.

I couldn't get into A Little Life and I tried with a hardback copy from the library and the kindle version I bought. Gave up after 100 pages but will try again with the paperback when it's out in the spring.

I've also got The Ice Twins in my tbr pile.

A Little Life was bizarre and nasty and I agree that it is really, really not a Christmas book. Station Eleven and Daughter by Jane Shemilt both annoyed me with silly plotting. I hated Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.
I was also a bit disappointed with Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham. It was fine but I was hoping I'd love it enough to want to read the whole series. The same with The Green Road by Anne Enright. I love her and I hoped it would be a classic but it was just OK.

Elizabeth is missing was a dire book, directionless and waffly. Such a shame as the premise of the book is so fantastically original.

Really struggling with Elisabeth is missing,going to abandon I think!!!

Fault in our stars

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Found it sooo depressing and pointless.

Destiny you are so right, Harold Fry was such a depressing read.

I enjoyed the beginning of Harold Fry but found it got more tedious. However, I was on a very long train journey when I was reading it and it was the only book I had with me so read it to the end.

The Buried Giant just wasn't my sort of book although I'm a big Ishiguro fan normally.

Also The Unbearable Lightness of Being was a huge disappointment. Possibly because it was nothing like I expected it to be.

The Ice Twins is also on my tbr pile barry.

Gorbachev and his memoirs! German title translates as "Everything in its own time" but on googling it's apparently not that in English. He is so inscrutable, that man. He gives such a polished perfect just human enough account every time he talks about himself. I don't feel like I can trust what he writes? He has this whole image sorted out - the good hearted slightly bumbling politician who couldn't quite manage to do what he set out to do but had a jolly good shot at it. I don't think we're getting an objective account. How do other people feel about Gorby? (my late grandfather also looks enormously like him which is slightly weird, though my grandmother approved of the comparison...)

A book about the 7th January Paris events, but then what can you expect from a book written so soon afterwards.

"Third Culture Kids" - ok but didn't learn that much to add to what was already on the internet. Would still recommend if anyone here is bringing up kids in a culture/country that's not their own.

Was expecting to hate the Houellebecq one that came out in January but it wasn't so bad. Would criticise the fact that he did go ahead and have it released right after Charlie Hebdo more harshly than the novel itself...

Well I loved Harvest and the Children Act, but I was disappointed by:

City of Bones - ridiculously unoriginal YA fantasy
Girl on the Train - terrible and predictable
Go Set a Watchman - very disappointing sadly

I thought Elizabeth is Missing was good in parts.

Gone Girl. So badly written. Also the characters were unsympathetic and I couldn't identify with any of them.

After seeing so many mumsnetters mentioning The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom, I bought it to see what it was like.

It is dire. Absolutely stupidly simplistic writing, bloody ridiculous (an 83 year old, with walking stick, being the chief safety and maintenance guide for theme park type rides ffs?!) ,as dull as dish water etc etc.

How anybody can claim it causes them to question life I don't know. Unless they're are simplistic as the writing that is

Boohoo - I'm at Chapter 3 of The Girl on the Train and just getting drawn in, wonder if I'll finish it.

I broke my rule with it, of reading the 1 and 2 star reviews before I buy. There were so many 4/5 stars I skipped that and thought it MUST be good.

The Tea Planter's Wife was v shallow and unconvincing to me. Ceylon in the 50s (I think that was when it was set) must have been soooo exotic and fascinating, somehow that was missed... or superficially described.

Agree the Five People You Met in Heaven was dull after the first few people. Elizabeth is Missing - frustrating to read, so I jumped to the end to see what happened.

I am haunted by Sweetland by Michael Crummey which I read recently- though not sure it is everyone's cup of tea.

That bloody stupid minkey book, total pish

I wasn't mad about The Goldfinch because I couldn't see why he wouldn't have binned the stolen pic early on or at any point throughout the story.

Why give yourself so much hassle - didn't really seem sensible or believable. But the story was well told.

I quite like Michel Houellbeq, Platform was amazing and weirdly prescient so curious to know what his new novel is like. ( having said that, I do sometimes struggle with male authors as I find them to often be pretty misogynistic, even if they are not aware of it on a conscious level...or maybe they are?)

Hated Us by David Nicholls. SUCH an irritating, immature pack of self involved idiots....

Also Mr Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore was v disappointing.

Driving Over Lemons , again, v disappointing and I love a good travel/culture shock book

Also hated CJ Sanson's Sovereign . SO BORING

Didn't like US either. None of the characters were remotely likeable.