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.

I am feeling rather smug that I have resisted reading a lot of the books mentioned as I sensed they were overhyped however I have succumbed to a fair number.
On my list would be:

100 Years of Solitude- recommended by a good friend & I found it incredibly tedious, confusing & the magical realism irritated the crap out of me!
Still Life- characters didn’t ring true, everyone was too good to be true. Too long.
Sorrow and Bliss- a bit forgettable, so many told me to read it but I can’t remember it much now.

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying loads of things! Big massive complex intertwined stories and ruthless social commentary from the writer.

I'd really recommend reading it - it's called Our Mutual Friend.

Agree. Started it three times and hated it.

Murder Before Evensong. I love Rev Richard on TV and was really looking forward to this but one sentence would last a whole page and - I'm a fairly well educated person - I often had to resort to looking up some very obscure words.

I liked the Strike series on TV but got to about page 20 of one of the books. Then my FiL was raving about it being so well written he couldn't put it down.

Read one HP book. That was enough

Thanks for all the replies!

A few books are mentioned that I have genuinely loved (eg The kite Runner, Hamnet) but some others that I would totally agree were overrated. Had completely forgotten about Shrines of Gaiety, and I usually love Kate Atkinson books. An odd change of style and not for the good! Agree about Thursday Murder Club books too - felt so much like poor imitations of loads of other books I've read, I feel.

Oh yes, my tongue was firmly in my cheek.

Dickens was a genius storyteller and a hugely influential social commentator. 👍

100 Years of Solitude- recommended by a good friend & I found it incredibly tedious, confusing & the magical realism irritated the crap out of me!

That's one of my favourite books 😂

Captain Corelli - just so boring and have tried numerous times.

And Harry bloody Potter. I hate the coy literary allusions for the grown ups who have read Hardy and the Greek myths. I suppose it's ok if it gets children reading. Cannot fathom the adult fascination with it.

For me:
Time Traveller's Wife
Life of Pi
Wolf Hall

I have a category called really-want-to-like-but-struggle-with. A lot of Isabel Allende falls in to that.

but I enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant, Gone Girl and Girl on the Train.

Harry Potter
7 husbands of Evelyn Hugo
daisy jones & the 6
when the dust settles (non-fiction widely recommended on mn)

Worse book of all times: The Slap. Was reading by the pool on holidays and just got up and put it in the bin. And l never throw books out.
And l like Anne Tyler!!

Also the Miniaturist. Wanted to slap the protagonist and gave up

I find Harry Potter hate - for the writing, narrative, themes and so on - baffling. They are obviously the best written books for children and adolescents from the last 70 years at least.

I can understand an opposition to the merchandising and brand extension, but not the books.

Having said that, the later ones are too long and too bothered with teenage preoccupations, but as a whole they’re magnificent.

As a Potter reader and a Strike reader I’d say JKR is a modern wonder.

Agreed. The ending is so infuriating, it's one of very few books where I prefer the film version as the ending was changed!

Also
The Alchemist
The Catcher in the Rye
Madam Bovary

They are obviously the best written books for children and adolescents from the last 70 years at least.

I really don't think they are. She's got good ideas but the writing is terrible. There are a lot of good writers in children's and YA fiction.

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying re Our Mutual Friend, sorry, I missed your tone completely! I love Dickens.

That’s me twice.

I’ll happily take a contrary opinion on Potter. Though I do think there’s something special about the book series, beyond marketing and momentum.

We are one on Dickens!

I think I'm alone on this thread and possibly in the universe in really rating The Slap. I read it when my kids were little and have family from the aussie communities portrayed. The characters were mostly quite unpleasant though. But I do like a realistic, eviscerating look at human nature!

Lincoln In The Bardo - awful! worse than homework
Owen Meany - tedious
The Lovely Bones, such a load of old tosh. Years ago when Richard and Judy had their book club on tv, that was one of their promoted books, it won the best book category, over the runner up which was "Star of the Sea" one of the best books I've ever read. I hated LB even more, if that was at all possible, after that.
Richard Osman's drivel. I hate the way certain c'lebs use their name to launch a literary career of mediocre offerings. There are so many talented writers who've never had a fraction of the recognition he has had.

I'd forgotten about The God of Small things! I hated that one! The writing style was so irritating.

I've tried reading Sense & Sensibility about 3 times. But never got beyond the 1st chapter. Loved Northhanger Abbey though

I've just listened to that on Spotify, and was also disappointed. It struck me as being aimed at teenagers in the style that Danielle Steele/Judith Kranz was in the 1980's (when I was a teenager).

The Heart’s Invisible Furies - I probably would have enjoyed it ok if everyone hadn’t told me it was the best book ever!
Agree re crawdads - the whole story was in the second half of the book. If I’d ripped the book in half and started with the second half I would have enjoyed it much more instead of reading all that drivel about a bloody marsh!

I read it at aged 16, 20/30ish and again a couple of years ago in my 40's. I think it's brilliant. I guess literature, like all art, is subjective.
Sorry, I really liked Lessons in Chemistry, Crawdads, Elinor Oliphant too. I'm not terribly high-brow obviously.

Omg ME TOO

I thought of this book when I read your thread title and was so pleased to see it was this book you were referring to!

it was my local book club choice and they all loved it. I was like What??? It was dull and full of stereotypes and I felt absolutely no chemistry between the main couple - she didn’t even seem to like him?!

Oh no 😂! My friend loved it so much, I could never admit to him that I didn’t enjoy it. I feel the same about My Beautiful Friend & lots of people love that so it’s probably me 😂.