Biggest disappointments - Which book you thought would be great but did not live up to your expectation?

[CoteDAzur]

I will gladly volunteer "The Quiet Girl", by Peter Hoeg, his 1996 book after a 10 year silence since "Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow".

I read the synopsis and I was so hopeful that I would love it:

• children with special abilities (great!)
• main character who loves Bach and talks about Bach's music throughout the book (brilliant!)

It turned out to be one of the stupidest books I have ever read, and that is against some competition. The plot is dumb and assumes the reader is an idiot. The translation is downright pathetic.

I want back the time I spent reading this rag

The house at riverton.

A few year's ago, everyone was reading Sophie's World - a sort of child's exploration of philosophy. What utter c**p - did anyone get beyond the third chapter??

But must confess, I do like a bit Sebastien Faulkes

Hotel World by Ali Smith. Great title, had to pinch myself to keep reading. Gave up

thefunkypea - Yes, that was about 15 years ago Cheap philosophy-lite. One of the few books I have ever chucked away without soldiering on to the last page.

More recently, there was Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" on the same theme. Again, everybody and their dog were proud to have read it. Never understood the appeal.

The Historian.Can't remember the author.Elizabeth ?

I was enjoying it until I read a thread on here about how scarey it was.Good,I thought & carried on reading,only to get to the end & find it wasn't frightening at all.A real anti climax.

Also,The God of Small Things-it made such an impression upon me that I can hardly remember a thing about it.When DH asked me a few years later,what the subject matter was,I couldn't even remember that.

Have finished 'The Rose of Sebastopl' tonight.I enjoyed it,but the ending was a disappointment.

Message withdrawn

Another one for "The Quiet Girl"
"The House At Riverton" is utter drivel.

The whole Alchemist hype made me laugh. People kept saying how absolutely amazing it was, and how it had changed their lives - my standard answer was 'How?'. Very few people were able to explain further than 'the blurb on th eback said it would...'.

I knew I shouldnt have read this post, am currently halfway through the memory keepers daughter (bought at the airport last week for long haul flight), the island (visit to Greece last summer inspired me)and the Ukranian tractor (free with a magazine!!), none of which are particularly inspiring me to read on. Are any of them worth persevering with??

Prattchett, is so NOT like mr bean, mr bean is drivel, pratchett is not.

Altho, Pratchett, is prob an acquired taste (sorry, baby pressed mouse before I had finfished typing!)

Zadie Smith - On Beauty. Having loved her other books I was disappointed that I didn't like this one, my sister thought the same.

Atonement - got bored in Ch 1. Liked the film though. Time Traveller's Wife. The ending of On Beauty was very disappointing. The Gabriel Garcia Marquez I'm reading right now but only because the print is far too small! Anything by that woman that wrote Blackberry Wine.
I often find endings disappointing.

Brave New World. Moll Flanders (couldn't get into it). Wuthering Heights.

Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin. I was so looking forward to another Tales of the City book but it was nothing like its predecessors. I'd wait for paperback MaryAnnSingleton - definitely not worth getting in hardback!

Sepulchre by Kate Mosse. Plodding and pretentious.

Sophie's World - past Ch 3 and beyond - really enjoyed, and learned a lot.

Add me to the list for Birdsong. So massively overrated! I thought the modern-day scenes were unbelievably rotten. Like SunshineMummy, it put me off reading any more of his novels. (Plus, he sounds like an arse whenever I've heard him on Radio 4 discussion programmes.)

Book of Dave by Will Self. To tell the truth it was brilliant until the end then it just stopped without a satisfactory ending. Part of it was almost scifi but he missed the point that scifi generally has to leave you with a bit of hope.

The Historian was also very tedious indeed.

Cold Mountain
The Subtle Knife
Charlotte Gray - I loved Birdsong but only because I skipped the modern-day bits entirely from early on. I thought CG was not just disappointing but really, awfully poor.

@ArticRoll: hurrah for someone else that just doesn't get Birdsong or Charlotte Grey!! Although technically therefore only the first was a "disappointment".

Atonement. Could not bring myself to actually care about any of the characters. I also kept waiting for something to really happen and it didn't. Sort of like bad sex!