Books that weren’t shit, just underwhelming/didn’t get

[KenForPM]

So we’ve had a number of shit books threads... how about a thread for books that we didn’t necessarily hate, but were underwhelmed by/were forgettable, if you get what I mean.

I read Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud a good few years ago. I remember getting to the end and thinking “what even happened in that book?” I remember thinking it just felt like there was no plot. I suppose it’s partly to do with the fact that the narrator is so young (four/five IIRC), but others seem to rave about it when I googled it. It made no sense.

Never Let Me Go
The Time Traveller’s Wife

Both left me very underwhelmed. Struggled to finish them (I hate not finishing a book, so it’s rare that I give in)

On the other hand, I loved The Hare with the Amber Eyes, The Book Thief and Brick Lane.

I loved several of the books mentioned here, but agree with The Power. I bought it as a treat for myself as was so sure it'd be brilliant. Ended up ditching it about 1/3 of the way through . Just didn't like the writing or care about any of the characters.

I also thought The Martian was very underwhelming. Found the main character v. annoying, and since so much of the book is just him yakking on, I really didn't enjoy it.

I had to force myself to finish It last year. I thought it was awful. I'd never seen the films or TV adaptations but thought it must be good as

1. It's Stephen King
2. Everyone raves about it.

Genuine Fraud by EA Lockhart. It's a rip off of the talented mr ripley but told in reverse!

@Piggywaspushed is the chimpanzee book "We are all absolutely beside ourselves"? If so I totally agree!!

dwangela yes, it is! I read it on holiday in Spain maybe three years ago and just found myself skim reading most of it.

So glad I’m not the only one who feels completely underwhelmed by The Great Gatsby! Couldn’t get through Wuthering Heights either, it was a dirge! Never Let Me Go - meh.

The Keeper of lost things
Into the water (riding on the back of Girl on the Train and clearly a two book publisher's deal)

Cloud Atlas. I couldn't engage and it was just a bit flat.

My name is Leon (what a crap ending).
The Little friend (what a crap ending).
A little life (what a crap ending).

There's a theme here.....

I'm currently reading The Power and can't see what the fuss is about!

The Hobbit. The dullness.

Oh, and 'Eat, Pray, Love'. The film didn't improve it either.

Catch 22 stands out.

Insomnia by Stephen King .... I read it 20 years ago and the pointlessness of it still bothers me.

All the Harry Potter books. Just can’t get into the Hogwarts zone!
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
1984
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Da Vinci Code
The Forgetting Time

When God Was A Rabbit. I won’t totally condemn it because early on it interested and amused me, but then kept introducing 2-d uninteresting characters into the ‘family’. Plot wise, the second half was a bit of a mess.

Agree about The Time Traveller’s Wife and The Miniaturist. I expected them to be much more interesting but they were just OK.

Yes, to so many of these. A Little Life also bored me rigid by the end. Just so relentlessly miserable.

The Invention Of Wings
The Hourglass factory
The Minaturist
The Crimson Petal and the White
The Maddaddam trilogy

I think The Girl on the Train, the Da Vinci Code and Me before You all go beyond underwhelming.

Oh God I've found my people

I am third of the way through 'we are completely beside ourselves' and thinking 'I don't know if i can be arsed to finish it'

Gone Girl, Girl on a train, In a dark dark wood all mediocre tosh
Secret History Donna Tartt - how much time do I give to that (but it wasn't as bad as the next one I read)
And Paul Coelho - the Alchemist - turgid

Liked some Ian mcewan (esp the early short stories) but forced myself to finish the Children's act and have vowed never to read anything of his again

Codswallop I HATED the alchemist too. Do not see the fuss.

I love this thread. It has really cheered me up!!!

I actually like quite a lot of the ones others find underwhelming

but I've never been able to get beyond first two chapters of

Cormac McCarthy (apart from The Road, which is good because it is zombie apocalypse) All Pretty Horses
Michael Ondaatje English Patient
Crace - Harvest and Quarantine
Paul Auster
most of the early Martin Amis although I do like London Fields
Scarlet and Black and Madame Bovary. Hate them depressing and sad.

conversely I love Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, Secret History, Little Stranger, Moby Dick, Great Gatsby (keep reading it again to try and find out what it actually means!) and Ian McEwan's Chesil Beach is just the greatest, and lots of the others you mention.

I love this thread. It has really cheered me up!!!

I actually like quite a lot of the ones others find underwhelming

but I've never been able to get beyond first two chapters of

Cormac McCarthy (apart from The Road, which is good because it is zombie apocalypse) All Pretty Horses
Michael Ondaatje English Patient
Crace - Harvest and Quarantine
Paul Auster
most of the early Martin Amis although I do like London Fields
Scarlet and Black and Madame Bovary. Hate them depressing and sad.

conversely I love Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, Secret History, Little Stranger, Moby Dick, Great Gatsby (keep reading it again to try and find out what it actually means!) and Ian McEwan's Chesil Beach is just the greatest, and lots of the others you mention.

And I've re-read Crimson Petal several times. I think Sugar is an amazing character.

I liked the introduction of Fahrenheit 451 but I couldn't get through the book itself so dated.