Books you feel were overrated

[ClearSky456]

Just finished Lessons in Chemistry and kind of wondering what all the fuss was about?! Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it but given so many people had told me I HAD to read it, I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Anyone else felt the same, or anyone felt like this about another book recently? I had the same feeling with Daisy Jones and the Six too.

So many of these overhyped massive selling 'book of the year' type books are 'books for people who don't read'. I try and resist them because I know they're never great literature. At best they're a bit of mindless pleasure, like watching a rom com.

Agree about precocious children in books, I can't read them now I have children, they are always so unrealistic. To be fair to JKR she did accurately describe how annoying and self obsessed teenagers can be in TOOTP 😂.

Yup. Needed a good edit.

Anne Frank's diary-im an awful person for saying this,but it didn't make sense
I know her story but the book just went in and on
I got 5 chapters in and gave up

I'm thinking of getting a badge - Am I The Only Person Never To Have Read Anne Frank? (a big badge 😆). Mind you, as far as seminal works of literature go I'm a bit of late developer, I didn't read Mockingbird until my 60s.

I gave up reading The Time Traveller's Wife as hated it. I did enjoy the film though.

So many of these over-hyped massive selling 'book of the year' type books are 'books for people who don't read'. I try and resist them because I know they're never great literature. At best they're a bit of mindless pleasure, like watching a rom com.

Exactly! I read around 40 books per year, so I know that almost every 'summer bestseller' is going to be a pile of shite. Booksellers know there's a significant demographic that only reads a couple of books a year, probably when they're on holiday. So they market certain books to that demographic, which probably doesn't include many of the posters on this thread!

Skip the first 20 pages or so. It's just rambling from the author but it gets better, honest!

Matt Haig How To Turn Back Time. A brilliant premise that turned into a depressing pile of pants. I reached the bit where the hero was in Elizabethan London and had a quiet bet with myself that at some point he'd be bumping into that nice Mr Shakespeare who puts on those plays. And I won.

Moby Dick
Lady Chatterley's Lover
All of the works of Shakespeare

Hi to you and the other poster who recommended A Gentleman in Moscow, my son gifted that to me, I read it, enjoyed it, but it wouldn't be one of my great literary loves. Here, as requested are some of my best books, in no particular order, but with the aforementioned Star of the Sea number 1. .

Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
Blind Assassin and Alias Grace Margaret Atwood
Life After Life Kate Atkinson
Demon Copperhead and The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
The Crimson Petal and The White Michel Faber
Asta's Book Barbara Vine
The Quincunx Charles Palliser
The Heart's Invisible Furies, All The Broken Places, A History of Loneliness John Boyne
Atonement Ian McEwan
The Forgotten Garden Kate Morton, several of her other books, but not the latest one.

These are all books that I didn't want to end, unlike as someone mentioned up thread, The Luminaries, at over 800 pages, hours of my life I won't get back, I shouldn't have persevered.

and yours please NoisyDachshundd

I agree about Elinor Oliphant but loved We Need to Talk about Kevin.

It’s interesting that magical realism divides opinion so much. What I read of the genre I enjoyed.

But I can see why others would dislike it.

Pocketfullofdogtreats, I meant to address my post to you as well regarding your best books.

haven't read some and am happy to swerve the ones that get the most votes.

loathed The Alchemist to the point that it makes me angry thinking about it.

a lot of books i can't even be bothered to pick up because i know they'll annoy, enrage or whatever.

2 books really made me angry. The Kite Runner because the main protagonist is a selfish narcissistic swine (I could be misremembering though). The Time Traveller's Wife because i just want to reach into the book and punch the wife so bloody hard for what she did. She enrages me whenever i think of what she did (to her daughter, basically)

Harry Potter derivative you say? that isn't a bad thing. Lots of things are derivative and are wonderful (LOTR for eg). What isn't good about the Potter books from about 4 onwards is the overlongness of them. That is a word, i just invented it.
Strike - meh. I made the mistake of thinking The Ink Black Heart was the 3rd, got confused, didn't like it, saw it coming a mile off and will stick to the TV versions.

So pleased to see mention of Wolf Hall - it is certainly the type of book I would read, but really disliked it, I think it is HM style of writing.

I received many raised eyebrows when saying it though - it seemed to be one of those books that could not be criticised.

i loved Wolf Hall, and the sequel, didn’t finish the third. I loved the dreamlike writing.

The book of not by Tsitsi dangeramba. Second in a trilogy of which the third was booker nominated.

I loved the first book Nervous Conditions and the second was so crushingly disappointing i never bothered with the third. Someone who read all three agreed with me and said the third doesn’t improve things!!

shame because the first was so good

God yeah it was dreadful! For some reason I also read The midnight library and that was a load of nonsense too, he gets great PR but I won’t be falling for it again.

I feel the same, I so wanted to love it but I couldn’t get into it at all.

I tried to read his book "Reasons to Stay Alive" which was about his own issues with depression, but it actually enraged me. He made some ridiculous judgements about medical treatments for mental health issues, which is downright dangerous if it unduly influences others in that situation.

He's not a doctor but seems to think he knows it all.

I’m struggling to get through Matt haigs book about his depression. Don’t like his style but there’s something else I can’t put my finger on.

Cross post! That’s what it is!!

Yes! I had just finished reading Fourth Wing and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros and fancied something similar. I normally don't read books on the 'Romantasy' side of fantasy fiction, but Yarros' books had me absolutely hooked, though they are hardly wonderful prose. I found A Court of Thorns and Roses tedious, derivative and cringeworthy and disliked all the (poorly written) characters!

Oh no! I adored Nervous Conditions but was also disappointed in The Book of Not, but I thought that was just because it was so depressing (which I guess is the point). I've got This Mournable Body sitting on my TBR shelves, was hoping for a return to form.

I struggled on to page 100 3 times but gave up each time

I thought she changed the character too much