Worst book(s) you read in 2020

[makingitupaswegoon]

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 ...

Queenie was a definite disappointment but oh my days, do NOT read The Discomfort of Evening. I can appreciate it is 'literary' but it was absolutely revolting, and I have a high tolerance for revulsion.

Oh and my thoughts on Milkman - so strange, I read it and was desperate for it to be over, I was hating it so much. But now I think about it a lot, I feel like it got under my skin.

I hated The Discomfort of Evening too, and I don't have a weak stomach for 'nasty' books. I just felt it was all being done for shock value, not to really say anything.

@Pukkatea

Oh and my thoughts on Milkman - so strange, I read it and was desperate for it to be over, I was hating it so much. But now I think about it a lot, I feel like it got under my skin.

I feel exactly like this about Milkman!!

Piranesi. Recommended by so many. Incredibly imaginative but so fucking weird I have no.idea what was going on.

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne - hated the plot, characters and found it totally unbelievable.

The Familiars by Stacey Halls. How this got published I'll never know...

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler, incredibly slow moving and I just couldn't get into it.

@Pukkatea

Oh and my thoughts on Milkman - so strange, I read it and was desperate for it to be over, I was hating it so much. But now I think about it a lot, I feel like it got under my skin.

Couldn't finish the Milkman - found the dialogue hard to follow and just wasn't invested enough in the plot and characters.

Anything by Caitlin fucking Moran - have been given a book of her's 'How To Be A Woman' by SIL.

Never read something so complete and utter tosh and smug-ridden as that though must admit did watch 'Raised By Wolves' and laughed at that.

Moran seems to be a figurehead, iconic voice for some women.

Girl, Woman, Other. There were bits I liked, primarily the stuff set in the past, but a lot of it was so preachy. Like she'd written an essay and at the last minute decided to make her words come out of the characters'. It was ok but not amazing.

@CleverCatty

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne - hated the plot, characters and found it totally unbelievable.

The Familiars by Stacey Halls. How this got published I'll never know...

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler, incredibly slow moving and I just couldn't get into it.

Agree with ‘The Familiars’ no idea how anyone can rave about it

I started this thread primarily because there are too many books and I don't have time to waste reading disappointing books. I do think the problem is very much a lack of editing or publishers jumping on a genre /theme to make quick bucks when something becomes popular. And I think it's great that what one person may hate, another may love.

I have just reread 'Tender is the Night' which I hated in my 20s but now I am a couple of decades older can now more fully appreciate.