I just read a terrible book

[Orangeis]

Bring me back, B A Paris.

What a load of absolute tosh. A man's partner dissapears, 6 years later he gets with her sister and lives with her. The big twist is.....the new girlfriend is actually the missing sister. He didn't realise this as she had a different hair do.
That's hours of my life I'll never get back. I feel like taking the book in to the back garden and burning the bugger.
What's your worst book and why?

So he ends up with his old partner..?

This has made me laugh 😂 it sounds totally implausible!

I read a very dull one last year, Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan...flipping awful.
Hated Crawdads too but yours sounds worse!

Time travellers wife, I didn't care about the characters at all and that is rare for me

Gone Girl irritated me for some reason

It's a marmite book but I wish I could get the time I spent reading Piranesi back - pretentious guff!

If you want something that’s in a similar vein, but better, try ‘A Face in the Crowd’ or ‘The Girl Who Came Back’, both by Kerry Wilkinson.

The ladies midnight swimming club.

So weirdly Gp surgery focused, felt like I was reading an extended episode of Doctors, which no one ever asked for!

TBF, the top review noted the beautiful setting and if that was the best someone could say about it it should have been a clue the story was lacking!

(Bookclub choice though and in all honesty it wasn't ever going to be my genre)

The Richard Osman one, Thursday Murder Club. I never don't finish books but I found it utterly painful and refused to give it any more of my life after about a third of the way through.

Ooh I loved Piranesi! But I absolutely loathed A Little Life which everyone else adored. It was misery porn and in need of a ruthless edit.

@AinmÁlainn I read a chapter of that and gave up, I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. But this bloody B A Paris had me fooled into thinking I'd enjoy their book. My mother gave me the Thursday Murder Club as she'd really enjoyed it, we usually enjoy the same books. But I found that one somehow suffocating.

@Howeverdoyouneedme yes!!! So he's with Layla, who dissapears. A period of time passes then he gets with Laylas sister Ellen. Who is actually a mentally ill Layla who has reinvented Ellen, who is actually dead. Honestly I feel angry even writing this down, what a load of old bollox.

Anything written by Giovanna Fletcher- reads like it has been written by a love sick 14 year old! " Billy and Me" has got to be the biggest pile of doggie doo I have ever read!

The Time Traveler's Wife bugged me too. All that gazing upon her when she was a kid. Yuck.

Also:

Call Me By Your Name (aka Please Groom My Teenager)

One Damned Thing After Another. Glibby McGlibface.

Some domestic thriller type thing called The Teacher. (I can't remember the author's name just now.) Female teacher comes up with excuse after excuse as to why it's OK that she's fucking a teenage boy. Made me feel sick.

It's a marmite book but I wish I could get the time I spent reading Piranesi back - pretentious guff!

Oh no, I've had that on my list for ages.

Mine was the Luminaries - unnecessarily long, weird and inconsistent writing style that was almost faux Dickens in places and then switched back to the author's authentic voice. Odd.

Also, the first 666 Park Avenue book. It was excruciatingly bad!

The State of Us. The last bit makes me furious and wanting to reveal all.

Me too! And such is the power of marketing I’m feeling tempted to read the second one in the series even though I feel I’ve read it and dismissed it already.

@Howeverdoyouneedme yes!!! So he's with Layla, who dissapears. A period of time passes then he gets with Laylas sister Ellen. Who is actually a mentally ill Layla who has reinvented Ellen, who is actually dead. Honestly I feel angry even writing this down, what a load of old bollox.

This has got RL Stine c.1990s vibes. I'm sure there was a Fear St book a bit like this. Great when you're about 12!

What's your worst book and why?

putting my hard hat on: The Alchemist. I have read a lot of awful awful books. But never one that is so hyped up by so many (millions) of people. Such a load of tosh.

Also Birdsong. I remember thinking at the time that if i want to read about a French adultress i can read Madame Bovary. And if i want to read about WW1 i can read All Quiet On The Western Front.
Gah to both of them

I barely managed any of The Thursday Murder Club.

I used to belong to a book club and almost all our reads were hard work - they felt like homework! Particular lowlights would be David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and the Ukrainian Tractor thingy.

I think it's award winning books, tbh. They try too hard to be clever. Honestly, if Stephen Fry can write readable novels with engaging characters, strong story lines, layered messages, imagery etc then it's clearly doable.

Oh no @Wallabyone I've just started Exciting Times and had high hopes

Agree re Piranesi. Absolute bollocks. I felt the same about The Vegetarian.

The Best Things by Mel Giedroyc.
Its the only book which has ever made me angry because it was so awful. I don’t know what I was expecting but it’s utterly two dimensional, unbelievable, shallow and completely not engaging with a haughty privileged perspective.

Yes I like Richard Osman as a presenter- I think he's funny and smart and fun to listen to. But it just goes to show that doesn't necessarily translate into being able to write fiction. I couldn't get on with the Murder club book and gave up half way through.

I bloody loathed the paper palace too... stuck with it because people said it was amazing. Rubbish.

Oh the Alchemist was dire. I kept waiting for the BIG REVEAL thinking it must be imminent as it’s such a short book. Nup. Never comes.

I did however love bird song and time traveller’s wife.

Sounds familiar OP
please tell us.

A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson. It was literally like reading a boring version of my daily dog walk.