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Books I wanted to like but didn't

199 replies

Rayn22 · 12/03/2023 23:31

I so wanted to like The Thursday night murder club but it was not what I expected. I thought it would be a gritty thriller. I disliked it immensely but noticed people are raving about Richard Osman books on other threads.

Another one is The midnight library. My friends kept going on about it. Kept it for my holidays and found it really slow and dull.

Anyone else got any others they were excited to read and were disappointed in?

I hate it when it happens as it puts me off reading for a while as I feel cheated. Silly I know!

OP posts:
BellatrixLestrangesHeatedCurlers · 13/03/2023 14:09

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 12/03/2023 23:55

@Deadringer

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned The Little Friend, an absolute turd and easily the worst of Donna Tartt's and so long 12 hours of my life I will never get back

oh noooo I love The Little Friend! Not many people seem to, either. I read it in a series of lunchbreaks under some kind of spell.

BellatrixLestrangesHeatedCurlers · 13/03/2023 14:13

A Place of Greater Safety. I loved Mantel's Cromwell trilogy but really fought with this and absolutely could not finish.

Willowweaving777 · 13/03/2023 14:16

JoonT · 13/03/2023 12:41

I have completely given up on the literary establishment. People don’t win prizes for the quality of their writing but for who they are. Harold Bloom warned about this twenty years ago. He despaired at the way writers were being overpraised (or dismissed), and the way the canon was being attacked. Even George Orwell warned about it. He writes somewhere about the quality of literary criticism when he was young. For example, Orwell recalled a horrible, old-school Tory reviewer who praised a novel by a socialist. The Tory reviewer may have hated the socialist, but he regarded it as his sacred duty to be honest about the work. The socialist had written a great novel, and the Tory reviewer was honourable enough to acknowledge that. In other words, he cared more about art than politics.

Arts journalists and literary critics have abandoned that duty. And they have betrayed the young. I no longer trust them, and I ignore things like the Booker. If I want a guide, I use Harold Bloom. There are enough established classics for me. I’m no longer interested in contemporary fiction.

Show quote history

Well said! Totally agree! Honestly this post should be printed in a banner and tacked to every entrance to every publishing company, book shop, every book club meeting, every literary prize event, every book award. It's all Emperor's new clothes and the talent is definitely not rising to the top. I feel so sorry for young aspiring writers today who have been betrayed by those who should know better.

ClairlouS · 13/03/2023 15:05

I really like The Thursday Murder club, I have read the second and have the third. I also liked The Midnight Library! Can’t all like the same though.

Few yrs ago now but I didn’t like Room by Emma Donoghue. For me reading is about relaxing and to switch off so if the subject is to gritty I don’t like it. I also didn’t like Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and, different genre, Wicked.

My faves are The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom and The Island by Victoria Hislop.

senua · 13/03/2023 15:14

BellatrixLestrangesHeatedCurlers · 13/03/2023 14:13

A Place of Greater Safety. I loved Mantel's Cromwell trilogy but really fought with this and absolutely could not finish.

Agree on this. It was a DNF for me, too, and put me off even trying the Cromwell books. So much waffle!

Deadringer · 13/03/2023 15:52

I really wanted to like Wolf Hall, I usually love historical fiction but I just found it boring and very confusing. I will try it again at some point though.

StinkerTroll · 13/03/2023 16:03

Thursday murder club, Crawdads, I didn't like either, just not my thing. I hated The Paper Place, I disliked every character

gluenotsoup · 13/03/2023 16:10

I’ve tried and failed 3 times to read 1974 by Val McDermid. So boring and clunky, but I loved many previous ones. I’m also struggling with The Beekeeper of Aleppo. I want to love it so I will persevere …

Breadhead1 · 13/03/2023 16:18

Shuggie Bain, the reviews are great. I wanted to love it but I didn't and gave up

alloutofcareunits · 13/03/2023 16:26

@KnottyKnitting I agree, it was dreadful! I persisted until I was 1/2 way through as it got so many good reviews but it was so irritating and quite boring I admitted defeat and gave up!

TheShellBeach · 13/03/2023 16:39

Angela's Ashes.
It bored me to tears.

FfeminyddCymraeg · 13/03/2023 16:41

ClairlouS · 13/03/2023 15:05

I really like The Thursday Murder club, I have read the second and have the third. I also liked The Midnight Library! Can’t all like the same though.

Few yrs ago now but I didn’t like Room by Emma Donoghue. For me reading is about relaxing and to switch off so if the subject is to gritty I don’t like it. I also didn’t like Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and, different genre, Wicked.

My faves are The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom and The Island by Victoria Hislop.

Mother, is that you?! 😂

My DM loves your two favourites but I loathed The Island. I did finish the Five People You Meet in Heaven and it was Ok-ish

beguilingeyes · 13/03/2023 16:42

Oh god...Wolf Hall. I tried.it twice and gave up. The wretched present tense thing. Why?
And then she died and I felt I needed to finish it ,so I did and now I'm wondering what the fuss was all about. Stick to the TV version.
Give me Lee Child any day.

FrownPrincess · 13/03/2023 16:50

I finished Wolf Hall last week after a struggle. At first I thought I would enjoy it, but I soon became confused as most of the male characters seemed to be called Thomas and the females were often Anne or Mary. (I’m aware that they were all real people and that the pool of names was very limited in those days.)
The dialogue was also confusing because of the lack of quotation marks, and it often wasn’t clear who said what. I was determined to plough through to the end, but my God, it was long. It was disappointing enough to put me off reading Bring Up the Bodies.
Crawdads is another book that I expected to enjoy but didn’t, as is We Are Completely Beside Ourselves or whatever it’s called - very turgid.

Thisisnotmyname2022 · 13/03/2023 16:52

Girl on the train.

I just couldn’t get into it at all.

Hepzibar · 13/03/2023 16:55

Agree with Thursday Murder Club, I love a good murder mystery but didn't finish it.

The worst though is We are all completely beside ourselves' dreadful and the 'twist' made me stop reading it immediately.

PepsiMaxandPringleStacks · 13/03/2023 17:01

Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow.

What a snooze fest. I was waiting on the bit that would have me crying all the tears too and I was so angry when I read the book for wasting my time lol.

Sparkleshine21 · 13/03/2023 17:05

I enjoyed the midnight library as an easy read! I realise this isn’t the reason for the thread but, does anyone have book recommendations for someone who likes Wilkie Collins, Bram Stoker, Elly Griffiths and also books like The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock/The Binding/ The Essex Serpent? Thanks in advance

PepsiMaxandPringleStacks · 13/03/2023 17:07

MissBattleaxe · 13/03/2023 08:10

Robert Galbraith would have been dissed by publishers galore had he not been JK. I respectfully disagree. She sent it out as Robert Galbraith and not as JKR. Also, the books are brilliant. There are really good cases and a will they/won't they slow burn Not-Romance.

I didn't like Elinor Oliphant as I thought she was an unrealistic character.

I couldn't get into Wolf Hall AT ALL. Mantel used "he" so many times I had no idea which of the many male characters she was talking about.

Colleen Hoover It Ends With Us- it had such hype and she's a prolific bestseller that I thought I'd chance it. It reads like teenage fan fic. It's a ridiculous love story that sounds like a fantasy in a teenage diary. I got to page 130 and thought life's too short to read bad books.

BA Paris Behind Closed Doors- poorly researched and unrealistic. Trying not to give spoilers here but the hold that you know who had over his wife would not happen in the 21st century.

Regarding your comments on BA Paris Behind closed doors - some men do still have this hold over their partners, it's a very good portrayal of an abusive controlling relationship

Qbish · 13/03/2023 17:07

A Little Life. Massively hyped, so I thought I would try it.

Dear god. I got about a third of a way through and couldn't do any more. I decided to Wikipedia the rest of the plot, and I actually laughed out loud at it.

newtowelsplease · 13/03/2023 17:10

Linnet · 13/03/2023 00:14

All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr. My friends loved it, raved about it, I eventually got round to reading it and I couldn’t finish it. I wasn’t enjoying it at all so I gave up. I did read the last chapter so I know more or less what happened but it was a no from me.

This! I tried it 3-4 times but just couldn't stick with it. It was so boring!

Also didn't enjoy the crawdads, or the Richard osman books, or Donna tart.

I've had wolf hall on my to-read list for absolutely ages but can't seem to face starting it. I think I'm concerned that it won't be as good as others say it is

StaunchMomma · 13/03/2023 17:19

I hated the Midnight Library but love the Thursday Murder Club books - probably because the oldies remind me of my Nan and co at their complex, though. Defo not a thriller, really.

crumpet · 13/03/2023 17:19

Time Travellers Wife. Awful

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 13/03/2023 17:21

@BellatrixLestrangesHeatedCurlers

But you never find out what really happened and that was the whole point!

@So1invictus

#TeamHamletWasShite

@EspeciallyDedicated

Funny you should say that, I quite enjoyed the Margolyes book but that was my exact reaction about Matthew Perry's book. Went in as a 90s fan of Friends but with no real opinion of him as a person. Came out : Christ What a dickhead

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 13/03/2023 17:26

I've found I've hated almost all big (non-genre) novel hits for the last 20 years. I'm not sure why - I love a John Grisham or a Patricia Cornwell, so it's not like I'm a literary purist.

Wolf Hall was an exception - loved that, liked the second, thought the 3rd needed an editor's axe.

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