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Original poster

Worst book(s) you read in 2020

136 replies

makingitupaswegoon · 29/12/2020 11:55

So I haven't participated in the 50 book challenge this year and was planning to ask for your best / worst reads during 2020 but see someone else has started a thread on best reads.

But I also want to know what to avoid. What did you spend your time reading that you really wished you hadn't wasted your time on or gave up on partway through?

Usually there's a good few 'must reads' that are absolute pants ... 'girl on the train' and 'we are all completely beside ourselves' spring to mind ...

OP posts:
Original poster
makingitupaswegoon · 31/12/2020 12:10

i read Wuthering Heights around age 15 - thought it was shite then.

Tried reading' Lanny' earlier in the year and gave up on it. I think part of the problem was that the text didn't reproduce will in e-reader format and it became difficult to read. Also thought the plot was weak - although could see the love for the book was mainly about the use of language.

The Fireman by Joe Hill was truly shite too.

OP posts:
RollOnForever · 31/12/2020 12:14

Normal People made me angry with how bad it was. I absolutely hated it. So unrealistic and should have been called Nasty People.

I liked Crawdads a lot though! Probably one of my favourites of the year.

KaptainKaveman · 31/12/2020 12:20

'Queenie' - badly written superficial drivel. God knows how CCW landed a weekly Guardian gig Shock

'Normal People' - Emperor's New Clothes or what?

'An American Marriage' - (please say in a loud Chandler Bing voice) Could there BE any more stereotypes and cliches?

My best reads were The Nickel Boys and The Navigator of New York.

HeadNorth · 31/12/2020 12:27

The Mirror and the Light - what a disappointment. The hype can only have been based on her previous books and no one was brave enough to edit it or admit it is a tedious dirge.

I loved Wolf Hall. Bring up the Bodies was not as good, but still decent. Then this long, unending grind through tedious court politics. No thanks.

rookiemere · 31/12/2020 13:00

Yes @HeadNorth I toiled through The Mirror and The Light as well. I can only assume her editor was on holiday, or too reverential to remove any of Mantels words. A very self indulgent finale I felt, and I enjoyed the other two.

PlanDeRaccordement · 31/12/2020 13:02

I read “Shrill” by Lindy West
Worst book ever.

Cheeseandlobster · 31/12/2020 13:06

Where the Crawdads Sing. Thank god it was a library book. Tedious, implausible self indulgent rubbish. I had to force myself to finish it

Strugglingtodomybest · 31/12/2020 13:12

Easily the worst book I've ever read was The Lido. It is the only book I haven't finished to the bitter end as it was actually making me angry that it was so badly written and so obvious what was going to happen (later confirmed to me by other members of my book group).

I loved Crawdads but hadn't heard of it before I read it, so no hype to give me expectations.

AmberRoseGold · 31/12/2020 13:18

Totally agree with Queenie and Haven’t they grown. Interested to read any more comments on Rodham before I buy it. I usually love her books

iklboo · 31/12/2020 13:25

Some trite 'gothic horror' bollocks I can't even remember the name of. I learned more about sheep farming from it than I did about the rest of the plot.

One set in an asylum. The doctor was possessed by a demon in the second chapter. It was set in Yorkshire but I don't think the author could find the county on a map. All the dialogue was

'Eeeh, ah went t'shops for t'milk and fell in t'beck' (literally written like that). SO annoying. I know what a Yorkshire accent sounds like, you don't have to write in an accent.

AlbertCampion · 31/12/2020 14:23

Eight Detectives and Rules for Perfect Murders both sounded like dream books for me. I loved the concepts and ordered them in hardback because I just couldn't wait to read them. Both were huge disappointments - clumsily plotted, 2D characters, poorly written, completely lacking in suspense. I have no idea how either got published.

I adored Normal People and wept buckets at the end. It felt like someone had opened a window into my brain and plucked out my thoughts.

TheYearOfSmallThings · 31/12/2020 14:24

Some trite 'gothic horror' bollocks I can't even remember the name of. I learned more about sheep farming from it than I did about the rest of the plot.

That would be "The Coffin Path". I liked it Blush. I also learned a lot about fly strike.

Somethingkindaoooo · 31/12/2020 14:29

I just finished the second in the Book of Dust series.
Really really bad. What on earth, Phillip Pullman? It was just, bad. The ' ending' is awful, the story is thin. Parts of it read like some creepy man's fantasy.

So glad I borrowed and didn't buy

Pops1985 · 31/12/2020 14:33

Really struggled with Rodham, Such a fun age and Normal People.

However I loved Crawdads and A little Life (although I get its a bit misery porn)

2020nymph · 31/12/2020 14:34

@TheWindOnTheMoon

Where The Crawdads Sing was utter shite in my opinion. Overblown, over-written, unbelievable nonsense.

The Binding, also over-hyped garbage. Promised far more than it delivered.

Agree with PP - The Lido is bad. Poorly written, I wondered how it even got published.

Oh no, that's our book club read for January, which I have put off starting for the past two weeks...

iklboo · 31/12/2020 14:39

@TheYearOfSmallThings - that's the one!

cdtaylornats · 31/12/2020 14:44

The Scent of Bones by Levi Fuller

My comments at the time were

I couldn't read more than 20 pages because of the errors, but I paged through the rest. I can only guess he was too busy to do any research.

Bute does not have a Bute PD - it has a Police Office and is part of Police Scotland.

Bute will have a sergeant and 3 or 4 constables. Additional support, detectives, forensics will come from the mainland.

No one in Bute will be described as the Chief of Police.

Burglars is not a term in Scotland, the police refer to them as house breakers.

We don't have the rank of Detective in Chief either.

We don't have interrogation rooms we have interview rooms.

All in all The Scent of Bones stank it was as if someone had taken a story written for a small American island and decided moving it to Scotland and picking out a small island. Picking the island seems to have been the limit of the author's research. It is simple arrogance to assume that everything is the same as America and that police in Scotland would want or need help from a Miami detective.

Original poster
makingitupaswegoon · 31/12/2020 15:36

So glad I started this thread. It is illuminating and much more helpful (IMO) than the 'best books'

@cdtaylornats thanks for giving me a laugh today. Can understand your absolute annoyance ...

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froggywentacarolling · 31/12/2020 18:28

The Goldfinch: Bought it in hardback when it was first released, finally managed to get through it. The Secret History is a masterpiece. I loved The Little Child. This is eight trillion pages of meandering nonsense (you could skip through the entire section that's just the main character getting wasted in Vegas and not even notice) with no point to it.

After the Snow - Susannah Constanine. Got this as a free Kindle ebook. No idea who the target audience is. The main character is a horse-obsessed little girl and the writing style is so simplistic you'd assume it's a children's book, but the language and some of the content makes clear it's aimed at adults. It's also basically just one big British aristocracy arse-kissing fest. I don't need to read about small children excitedly murdering foxes, or how all working class people are illiterate oiks. The part with Princess Margaret in the bath is utterly bizarre!

The new Phillip Pullman - how does a writer go from the masterpiece that is the original Northern Lights to this?

The Swap - Nancy Boyarsky. Some random thriller which was another Kindle freebie. Set in London but clearly written by someone who's never been here.

I read The Last last year and found it totally stupid.

northernstars · 31/12/2020 18:35

Gave up on Normal People which isn't like me. Husband started Milkman twice then gave it to me unread. Have Crawdads on my pile too.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 31/12/2020 18:38

My worst of the year were :

IT by Stephen King
The Gift Of Fear by Gavin De Becker
Delta Of Venus by Anais Nin

and

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I would agree about Crawdads and Normal People not quite as bad as those listed BUT a pair of overrated shockers

Come back to 50 Books OP! We are mostly doing roundups now.

JuneFromBethesda · 31/12/2020 18:51

@froggywentacarolling I loved The Goldfinch - I read it during the first lockdown, happy memories of lying in the hammock in the sun absolutely engrossed!

Standrewsschool · 31/12/2020 19:07

Eleanor Oliphant - didn’t really like it

Crawdads - okay, but flawed

Thursday murder club - didn’t like first half, second half was better

SionnachRua · 31/12/2020 19:09

The book thief. I try reading it every few years. I always get a few chapters in, remember why I put it down - it's unbearable - and shove it back in the bookcase again!

LazyFace · 31/12/2020 19:12

Piranesi - I bought it based on a thread here, thinking 'no idea what it's about but I'll keep an open mind'.
Still no idea what it was about, no plot twist, no sense.