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?

I say this all the time on here but A Little Life is mine. I hate it too because when you say you thought it was awful people always bleat ‘oh I know it was soooo heart wrenching, it’s hard to get though.’ No, I didn’t dislike it because I found it too bleak or gritty. I disliked it because it was very poorly written, badly plotted, lacked realism entirely, and had a cast of characters who were entirely interchangeable and had no character traits. I spent the last quarter snorting with laughter every few pages at the absolutely theatrical silliness of it all. But so many people love it. Plus to make it worse it was recommended to me by a friend who says it’s her favourite book, so I felt I had to be diplomatic and say it wasn’t for me rather than I saw her in a whole new light for liking it.

I have just googled the end of "haven't they grown" to save me sone hassle.

Secret history by Donna tratt was one I ploughed through at 20 and wondered what all the fuss was about.

Recently on kindle (which makes it much harder to speed flick to the end) was SNAP about a mother who disappeared 13 years ago and her son who brings up the kids left behind. Very pedestrian.

Oh I see ALL has already come up 😂 it’s like a reverse fan club. A Little Life Hate Club. I was actually tempted to go see the play just to continue my deep seated hatred but I’m trying to be a bigger person. I would just love to see it and discover why they’ve bothered casting an actor to play the character of Malcolm. I would have saved the money and just stuck a wig on a lamp and sat it in the back.

Yinka where is your husband?

Rubbish, I gave it a go thinking it might be different but was the same old Bridget Jones type, my man dumped me, I need a new man, when will I get a man, oh the man I thought I wanted is no good, and this old friend might actually be the one, navel gazing tosh.
Except in this one the woman is a virgin and a christian. yawn.

Normal people.

I finished it because it was a book club read. And resented every minute wasted on that drivel

Not really; it was (almost) banned for the use of certain four-letter words.

My dislike is nothing to do with how tame it was, anyway. It's just very badly written!

I didn't like this either - I thought it was sordid. He spent a lot of time letching over her when she was a child.

I also detested The Reader. That anyone would rather go to jail as convicted Concentration Camp guard directly responsible for hundreds of murders than admit they were illiterate.

Both The Da Vinci Code and SPQR have joined the very small pile of books that I just couldn't finish. The Da Vinci code because it was just such bollocks, and SPQR because all of the life and energy of Mary Beard's TV appearances just didn't carry over into the book, and it was just really, really blah. I found the Cambridge Latin Course at school more interesting!

Conversations with friends by Sally Rooney. Maybe it’s my age but I really don’t understand all the hype about this book at all. I found the writing and characters pretentious and lacking in depth and maturity.

I have found that Bryson's books have got less and less engaging as he has got older (or maybe as I have got older).

Lady Chatterley’s Lover
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - and they made a film of it !

The Essex Serpent, I did enjoy it. Although, until this thread reminded me, I'd forgotten I'd actually read it. So, make of that what you will.

I read a DH Lawrence but so long ago I've forgotten which, possibly the Rainbow. My abiding, perhaps only, memory of it was there seemed to be an awful loot about clothes. Unless I'm mixing it up with the Freeman's catalogue.

I was given this by my best friend for Christmas last year.

She was so thrilled to give it to me as she knows what a huge crime and detective fiction fan I am.

I struggled through it but it was way too tame for me.

It went to the charity shop after I'd finished it so I hope someone else got to read it and enjoyed it a lot more than I did

Not a book but I watched the film 'Scorched Earth' which has some of the worst acting I've ever seen. At one point the main character is hiding from someone above them on a ledge and he drops a knife onto their head which sticks in and kills them. It would just bounce off!

Agreed.

Normally I plough through books even if they're not the best but this is one of the few Ive just given up on. Its about 50% read on my kindle and likely to stay that way.It was just so boring

Everyone on here so far has hated it. I'd like to hear from someone who enjoyed and can explain why.

Second both of these opinions - loved the book, hated the film.

It was incredibly boring. I didn't care about any of those people.

I have found my people - could not stand ALL! Felt like the kind of thing I wrote in creative writing aged about 14, no subtly at all - the insanely expensive apartments, the el camino trek etc etc.

I also did not enjoy we are all completely beside ourselves. Entirely built around a bizarre plot twist and didn’t really have much else to offer.

I'm also in the Little Life HATE club, had an embarrassing convo at a Christmas party with a bunch of fans. Then they started talking about Lessons in Chemistry, which I also hated although I think I'm unique in that. All this thread is doing is reminding me why I don't belong to a book club, I couldn't bear to be forced to read a book I hated, I come across too many on my own as it is ...

Agree, I absolutely hated this. Couldn't get on with the main character at all.
I'm also not a fan of thrillers and find most of them far fetched so sympathise with the op!

Yes - and the denoument was so bleedin' obvious

Yeah, Completely Beside Ourselves was dire too - built on one big plot twist and then so what? And Sally Rooney is boring, narcissistic drivel

I can see why Piranesi wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I adored it. I also loved Jonathan Strange. It's been mentioned a couple of times already but The Secret History is probably the book I've hated the most - the characters are loathsome and I couldn't care less what happens to them. I also struggle with Kate Mosse - the subject matter would generally be right up my street but there is a coldness to her characters that makes them difficult to engage with.

@CaptainMyCaptain

I did see a thread just after I read it on here. It was something like ‘your favourite books’ or something? And many people had mentioned A Little Life! Also, there are loads of threads if you search with people saying they liked it. Of course not on this thread since this is about books you hated! But people do definitely like the book. God knows why because (and I’m speaking objectively as far as possible) it is poorly written. I think if you removed the fact that it’s written about gay male characters it would have gotten absolutely no hype/awards etc.