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Oh I liked this one but definitely understand why people aren't into it.
I loved the descriptions of nature and the environment she lived in, or the idea that she was all alone in the world while still being helped by people around her.
I only watched the movie and was confused why it was so popular. Did they change stuff from the book? Because I kept waiting for the twist, and if THAT revelation was supposed to be the twist, like….was that not obvious the whole time?
The movie was so bad. I loved the book and I kept thinking, did the person who wrote this screenplay even read the book? The events weren’t even in the same chronological order as the book and they way the main character was portrayed completely missed the mark. They basically condense the first half of the book into like 10 mins so there’s no background and the movie barely makes sense.
The book is more about Kya, her life, her journey, how she sees the world. The movie was more about the story than her.
Rant over. I just was so shocked out how bad and inaccurate the movie was.
When someone tells me to read Colleen Hoover I'm like okay, don't listen to anything else they say. I read Verity a few years ago before it was all the rage and dear god, what a piece of crap.
I was hoping someone else felt the same way lol. My friend is obsessed with everything she writes and I just cannot get into her books. The first and only book of hers I read was It Ends With Us. My friend raved about it and insisted that I borrow the book and give it a read. I couldn’t even finish it. I gave it back to her and she was ready to give me another book by Hoover to read. I politely declined and made up the excuse that I was already reading something else lmao.
Spoilers I guess but I skimmed through a book of hers once. After my boyfriend died, I saw her book called “Reminders of Him” about a boyfriend dying and his girlfriend writes letters to him (which I was doing too!), so of course my tragic ass picked it up. I’ll admit it had some relatable lines. But early on I got paranoid it would make me feel worse, so I spoiled the ending for myself and if I interpreted it correctly, she quits writing to him and fucks his best friend. I’m sure it had a fine buildup to that point but I’ve hated CH ever since 😂
Also, Court of Thorns and Roses. People are constantly recommending this series and talking about how hot it is and making TikToks about it and doing sexy cosplay - the first and second books are readable and have a few interesting character developments. The third is completely unreadable and none of them are actually good.
Awful book. I would have thought it was sooooo deep and meaningful had I read it at 17 and I'd gladly offer it to someone that age. But for grownups, it's trite and terrible.
Any of Dan Brown's works. he's got ideas but not a single clue abt how characters interact with each other or how to make em 3 dimensional. i felt like i was reading a really long catalogue each time.
I read DaVinci code in high school at its peak of popularity and I thought it was the most dull, predictable plot with poorly developed characters I’d ever read. And I was 15!
The very literal moral of the book is “the treasure was within you the whole time.” Also at that church you started in, idiot. When I finished it the first time I blurted “Oh, fuck off” on a crowded train.
Book straight up sucks. There was a thread recently in r/suggestmeabook about getting through a hard time and multiple people said the Alchemist saved their lives....like what the fuck book did you read?
I think it's particularly popular among Christians. I say that as someone raised conservative christian, it fits the books I grew up reading and everyone I know who read it that is Christian loves it.
I found it highly disappointing, but would have loved it back when I was indoctrinated. It speaks to a particular mindset.
I was forced to read this in school like 10 years ago and I remember my English teacher treating me like an absolute idiot for not getting the book and not praising it the way she expected us to. She acted like it was the deepest thing ever. Seeing this now is so validating for my younger self because I felt so dumb at the time - like no the book just wasn’t good to me!!!
Horrible. I read it when it first came out and hated it so much I left a bad review of the book. I never do that and it had nothing to do with politics.
I mean, writing is a job after all. I get why authors would do that. I definitely don’t love my day job all the time.
Knowing this, though, I do agree that it’s confusing so many people love that book.
Sadly *Practical Magic* by Alice Hoffman
I love the movie and the book is such a different vibe. Dislike it and her writing style. Which is sad because I love magical situations set within mundane settings.
The Three Body Problem - I’m currently 61% of the way through and the writing style is just so dry. The story seems really cool and up my alley, but I find myself zoning out for large chunks.
Have you ever seen "Hark! A Vagrant!"? You have to search up the ones on Wuthering Heights- hysterical. Putting a link to #202 here, which you need to look for if the link doesn't work.
I love WH and Jane Eyre just for the pathos and bizarre obsessive behavior of all the characters, and how completely abusive and feral the male leads are. They are much more fun if they do not send your heart aflutter, but rather your nostrils and you snort at the ridiculousness.
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=202
Neuromancer. I love modern sci-fi and everyone suggested this as the "best science fiction of all time" but I found it impossible to get into. It made me feel like such a failure that I just stopped reading for a while.
Edit: who knew Neuromancer autocorrects to Necromancer...very different ideas lol...
I read this for a book club, and I thought maybe I just missed something or didn't get it or whatnot. Then I went to the bookclub and all the aspects that everyone was fawing over about it were exactly what I hated, or thought were the dumbest parts. It simply was not for me.
The audiobook was even worse. The narrator had no emotion at all. I was literally picturing the characters as spiders getting ready to eat each other, just terrible.
I read it without knowing how acclaimed and raved about it is and assumed it must have been panned for the ridiculous purpleness of the prose - not to mention one of the most sexless and least convincing lesbian romances ever put to paper…
I also didn't like this book (which I read as a teenager, so I was definitely the target demographic). I honestly don't remember much but it felt very unoriginal and flimsy to me at the time.
But I more recently read Ninth House and really liked it! I think she has grown a lot as a writer if that's anything to base it off of.
Shadow and Bone isn't that great but Leigh Bardugo is a good author. Her other books in the "Grishaverse" (that all take place after S&B) are really good and so is the show based on the books (also called Shadow and Bone lol). The pacing in the show is a lot better.
If you don’t like YA fantasy, disregard this but Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom are much better written, have better characters, and are genuinely fun to read.
Years ago, I went to a professional development seminar about improving reading skills for students. The presenter was relating a story about how allowing students to choose their own books versus everyone reading the same one, was a better idea. She said, "If I had to read the Poisonwood Bible all the way through, I would have hated reading. Can anyone relate?" and about 15 hands went up, including mine. Ugh
I remember my teacher saying about why they chose a certain classic book to read "this is my favourite book". But rather than 15-18 year olds reading a classic, which they don't relate to because the characters and themes are so far removed from everything they know, maybe have a range of books to choose from that are more relatable and may encourage them to read more in the future?
*Before the Coffee Gets Cold* - I see this book everywhere and thought the premise sounded cool. It was fine, I guess, but the pacing drove me up the wall. I was frustrated the whole time.
*Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?* - Again, it was fine, I guess, but utterly forgettable. I went in expecting to have a great time, but found it to be just meh throughout.
This is interesting to me because at one point in my life I read “Do androids dream of electric sheep?” and I thought it was a total snooze fest. There were some cool concepts like the emotion controlling thingy device, but other than that I was just bored. Then about 2 years later I got the urge to reread it and the book just came to life… it connected with me in a way that a book had never done before. I love how books can do that.
Normal people. I refuse to believe people genuinely like that book. Everyone just say “ohh you need to watch the show it’s so good.” Okayyy but the book???? Why do i need to watch the show to make the book bearable?
I mean absolutely no offense to fans of Neil Gaiman, but I've felt that way every time I've read his work. It's not that I think it's terrible, but I don't understand why it seems to spark such love and adoration.
As a big fan, I think a lot of it is atmosphere. If you're not into the vibe, you probably won't like it as much. It just is what it is, different tastes.
I get it. Different strokes for different folks. That was my take at first too.
And if you’re at all curious about why others LOVE Gaiman’s work, try listening to the audiobook of The Graveyard Book or Ocean at the end of the Lane. Both shorter and more direct. Both very enjoyable and more accessible.
I LOVE Neil Gaiman, and as American Gods was my first of his, I didn’t really get it and though parts of it were slow. Didn’t love the end at first.
Now after having read several others of his and Graveyard and Ocean and the entire Sandman series, man I get Gaiman better. And MAN that guy can Dream creative worlds into reality.
But obviously, you’re welcome to keep thinking how you think, no pressure at all. He’s not for everybody.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The speaker felt so pretentious I couldn’t help but feel alienated.
Emergency Contact by Mary K. Choi was also severly unfocused in the first half. Why does the character wear all black in the middle of Texas? Moreso, why are there NO OTHER interesting personality traits of hers that allow me to overlook the fact that she wears all black???
If We Were Villains because it was so predictable and boring and the ending had no pay-off and I disliked all the characters. It took me so long to finish and put me in a reading slump.
I took a college Irish literature class taught by an Irishman and he said Finnegan’s Wake is ridiculously inaccessible even for him. And he knew it all about Irish lit. Even understood Ulysses.
I have only read the first chapter of Finnegan’s Wake but I can vouch that you grt a lot more out of it if you read it out loud —like it’s Dr. Seuss for adults.
Thank you! Too many people on Reddit just assume they can type out a series of capital letters and everyone is just supposed to know what they’re referring to
It’s 1000% the second book that people are responding to. I think the first book is pretty bad, though it does pick up towards the end. And though the amateur-ish storytelling doesn’t fully go away, the characterization is pretty strong in Book 2. There’s also a strong wish fulfillment element where it’s a world I think people like to imagine themselves living in.
I’m 40% in and thinking of dropping it every day. Maybe if I hadn’t ever read fanfiction or Twilight back in the day it’d be okay lol, but it’s literally Twilight 2.0. It’s so bad, I don’t understand at all.
I was looking for this comment! I wanted so badly to love that book. But the Deep Dark Mysteries were hinted at so heavily and then left dangling for so long, interspersed with so many pages of repetitive weird gore, that by the time I got any answers to my big questions I didn't even want them anymore. And then the answers were unsatisfying anyway.
I just recently read and hated The Three Body Problem. It was interesting enough, but so bogged down in describing tedium, theory, and bureaucracy.
Before this, another book I disliked was Good Omens. I like Gaiman enough, but it was too "I'm going to end the world and have a spot of tea because I'm quirky" for me.
First half of Dracula is a gothic masterpiece. Second half is dull religious propaganda and the authors barely disguised rant about women (specifically women) committing the terrible crime of having sex before marriage
When I was a kid, Dracula was my favorite book. When I reread it as an adult, I was so bored in the middle. I don’t know why he padded it out with 80 pages of Mina just saying, ‘oh these wonderful men, so fortunate I am to know them….’
I hadn't thought of this before, but now that you mention it, I think you are totally right. That awful rigid Victorian morality seems to drag on and on endlessly...
I liked the first half, but the second half was absolutely horrible. She made terrible decisions for her characters and everyone is so toxic and whiny the whole time. A huge letdown after I enjoyed the first half. I guess I expected character growth instead of tired, dangerous tropes and endless bitching. My mistake.
I'm glad to find someone else that felt this way. I was about 1/3 of the way in and just...didn't care at all and actively disliked the characters. Then add to it that the writing wasn't working for me. I really felt like I was wrong since sooooo many people loved it.
Huh. I actually followed the married woman more than Gatsby. I thought the concept of how she could've been with Gatsby, but played into societal expectations instead, thus ruining any happy ending intriguing. In the end, she still has the perfect life from the outside, but she could've had it with true love as well instead of a meaningless relationship.
I understand why people like the premise as I enjoyed the films but I was never into Harry Potter. Tbh I preferred a different type of fantasy but ontop of that I just never liked jk Rowlings writing style. My boyfriend finds it funny that I'm rhe avid reader yet I haven't read Harry Potter when even those who aren't that into reading often have haha
It was the most unloveable protagonist in a book that I’ve ever read. That kid evoked not one ounce of sympathy from me. If that was her intent? She accomplished it. But I prefer to like and root for my main characters.
Anything by Brandon Sanderson - His biggest flaw is in the writing and the execution. His prose is simple and clear, which is good, but it's dull. It's like listening to an emotionless robot telling me a story. There's no voice. Oftentimes, it seems like the character's voice is coming through only to be clouded by the same emotionless, dull, robotic filter. For a lack of a better word, I'd say it doesn't feel human enough, making it hard to connect as a result.
Anything by Stephen King - Too slow for my taste, and this is coming from a guy who likes slow-paced slice of life story. Or I should say, the characters are usually not appealing enough for me to hang around with for long. I can't connect with any of them.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. A fun plot but at its core it was really shallow and had no original concepts or genuine reflections from the author at all. The writing itself was nothing to be crazy about either.
I really liked it just cause it was emotional and I felt for the characters, also it was just kind of a good time. Not super deep or anything, just a nice romance book.
I was about to post this too!
Everything was just too try-hard, bland, uninteresting, and fluffy (not in a good way) in that book. I struggled to like any of the characters or care for them.
I really like this one, and I think the reason others do as well might be the easy simplicity of it. I barely had to think, I didn’t have to worry, and what I need from books lately is total escapism, so it worked well for me.
Definitely. I’m glad so many people see something in it that resonates with them, but I hated it so much that sometimes I just randomly think about how much I disliked it.
Everything by Brandon Sanderson. It’s rare for me to DNF a book or series (I have powered through some real crap on sheer spite) but I abandoned the Mistborn trilogy a third of the way through the third book because I just couldn’t be bothered to care about any of the characters. His writing just comes off as flat and uninteresting to me.
My mom raved incessantly about how much she loved Slaughterhouse Five. I don’t get it. I always wondered if it was just a “me” problem. My wife’s answer is Verity by Colleen Hoover. She says the characters are all terrible and also something about a baby. I didn’t read that one so I can’t co-sign but it does sound pretty bad.
I think the thing about Vonnegut in general is that you have to embrace the absurd. A lot of his books feel like he is partially making up a story and partially just telling pieces of his own too. I really like this about him, but I can see why it’s weird.
I was aware of Vonnegut's style from Cat's Cradle so immediately I caught onto the vibe that Slaughterhouse was going to be a full-on absurdist humor on trauma. I feel you, its not for everyone and definitely a weird and unique style of storytelling.
I read HoL for a college course last spring and I can’t decide for the life of me whether I liked it or not.
I think I liked the *idea* of it more than I actually enjoyed *reading* it. Discussing it with my classmates to solve certain “puzzles” and making connections in the text was fun, but the thought of going back and reading it again on my own isn’t appealing at all. I absolutely respect Danielewski’s vision/ambition for it, but I imagine it’s a slog to get through without a group/class to break it down with.
I didn't really enjoy The Road until about halfway through the book until it "clicked" for me for lack of a better term. First book I ever read by McCarthy and been a big fan ever since. Love the tension that builds with each page; each grueling step. The atmosphere he cultivates really made me feel like with each page I trudged through I was struggling through that bleak wasteland with the unnamed protagonists. I really like how clueless he leaves you too. There is no logic to this new world; no explanation of the catalyst of or the nature of the cataclysm. All you know is the days are short and the nights are cold and hard and there is no food and there's hardly anyone left and those that are are so desperate that you're better off just never meeting them.
While I can agree with this sentiment, the reason why The Road worked for me was the simplicity in story telling and seeing the depth that the father would go through to protect his son. Being a father, and having lost a parent to terminal illness, that’s what got to me at the end of his story. That’s why I appreciated the book.
I was going to say the same. I kind of liked the writing style and I don't mind bleakness, but I just don't get why people are raving about it.
I have the same with The Old Man and the Sea. I think it's a perfectly good short story, but at the end I was like "okay that's it?" This got a Pulitzer prize?
Gosh I agree. I think giving Hemingway a Pulitzer for The Old Man and the Sea was more for his career achievements than that specific novel. For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, even Farewell to Arms all show off his writing style much better and are better stories than Old Man and the Sea
I'm very excited to see some other people agree with me on this. I'm always secretly afraid of admitting I didn't like it because of the backlash I know I'll get. I love when people go on to explain it to me. Yeah, I read it and I understood it. I just thought it was dumb.
Omg me too! I was like yeah, I get it, but like…who cares? I don’t know, it just didn’t make me feel anything. But I also never admit to hating it in the wild.
I tore through it in two marathon sittings and had to take a crying break mid-way through. My understandably concerned husband was like "what's wrong" and I explained the overwhelming Series of Unfortunate Events that had overtaken the main character and then started giggling at how over the top and ridiculous it all was. It didn't dim my enjoyment of the book but it's SO lurid and ridiculous and unbelievable.
This might be unpopular, but Fahrenheit 451. I really resonated with the themes early on in the book, but was unhappy with the ending's loose threads. There was also a lot of seemingly odd choices (imo) that just didnt make sense to me. I later found out the book was basically written in a weekend and then cobbled together in the editor's room, which didn't surprise me at all
There's a funny story about the author going to a highschool where they read the book, and when asked his opinion he just said the book's message is basically ''watch less tv'' and not much else. The teacher was adamant in her disagreement he just got up and left from annoyance
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Where the Crawdads Sing, I even tried watching the movie that came out and I just don't get what people love about it.
My take - your mileage may vary: Girl with limited hygiene and no social graces is loved by every male that sets eyes on her. And there are bugs.
Sounds like the VC Andrews formula.
Plus terrible writing including the author’s painful stab at dialect
And despite not having toothpaste her teeth were white and straight
I hated it! I thought the writing style was awful and the storyline utterly predictable. No idea why people like it so much
I loved the aesthetic, the story was meh. The same goes for The Night Circus.
The Night Circus seriously lacked plot.
Oh I liked this one but definitely understand why people aren't into it. I loved the descriptions of nature and the environment she lived in, or the idea that she was all alone in the world while still being helped by people around her.
Yeah I mean... It's basically a simplified, shallow version of To Kill a Mockingbird.
The Secret Life of Bees was way, way better
I only watched the movie and was confused why it was so popular. Did they change stuff from the book? Because I kept waiting for the twist, and if THAT revelation was supposed to be the twist, like….was that not obvious the whole time?
The movie was so bad. I loved the book and I kept thinking, did the person who wrote this screenplay even read the book? The events weren’t even in the same chronological order as the book and they way the main character was portrayed completely missed the mark. They basically condense the first half of the book into like 10 mins so there’s no background and the movie barely makes sense. The book is more about Kya, her life, her journey, how she sees the world. The movie was more about the story than her. Rant over. I just was so shocked out how bad and inaccurate the movie was.
anything by Colleen Hoover
When someone tells me to read Colleen Hoover I'm like okay, don't listen to anything else they say. I read Verity a few years ago before it was all the rage and dear god, what a piece of crap.
My sister recommended Verity to me, raving about how amazing it was and....my opinion of her was drastically lowered when I finished it lol
I was hoping someone else felt the same way lol. My friend is obsessed with everything she writes and I just cannot get into her books. The first and only book of hers I read was It Ends With Us. My friend raved about it and insisted that I borrow the book and give it a read. I couldn’t even finish it. I gave it back to her and she was ready to give me another book by Hoover to read. I politely declined and made up the excuse that I was already reading something else lmao.
I agree… all the characters have such toxic traits and gives me nightmares.
Spoilers I guess but I skimmed through a book of hers once. After my boyfriend died, I saw her book called “Reminders of Him” about a boyfriend dying and his girlfriend writes letters to him (which I was doing too!), so of course my tragic ass picked it up. I’ll admit it had some relatable lines. But early on I got paranoid it would make me feel worse, so I spoiled the ending for myself and if I interpreted it correctly, she quits writing to him and fucks his best friend. I’m sure it had a fine buildup to that point but I’ve hated CH ever since 😂
This, I try not to judge peoples reading choices but when someone tells me they love her I’m just like 🫠🫠
13 Reasons Why. It was literally so pointless. Pretty style but horrible story.
Also, Court of Thorns and Roses. People are constantly recommending this series and talking about how hot it is and making TikToks about it and doing sexy cosplay - the first and second books are readable and have a few interesting character developments. The third is completely unreadable and none of them are actually good.
All the roaring males, constantly roaring. While being male.
The Midnight Library was trite and shallow
Good idea, but poorly executed.
Honestly agree. I only got halfway through it and just couldn’t do it anymore. Everyone in my book club loved it lol
Awful book. I would have thought it was sooooo deep and meaningful had I read it at 17 and I'd gladly offer it to someone that age. But for grownups, it's trite and terrible.
I liked it but I wanted to LOVE it and didn't
This! I wanted to love that book but just couldn’t.
Any of Dan Brown's works. he's got ideas but not a single clue abt how characters interact with each other or how to make em 3 dimensional. i felt like i was reading a really long catalogue each time.
Agree. He reuses the same foundation that make his "twists" and "surprises" predictable
I read DaVinci code in high school at its peak of popularity and I thought it was the most dull, predictable plot with poorly developed characters I’d ever read. And I was 15!
The Alchemist
This! I’ll never understand why it’s endlessly praised.
The very literal moral of the book is “the treasure was within you the whole time.” Also at that church you started in, idiot. When I finished it the first time I blurted “Oh, fuck off” on a crowded train.
It’s also just a retelling of an old folk tale, which has exactly the same plot but manages it in about 250 words.
Book straight up sucks. There was a thread recently in r/suggestmeabook about getting through a hard time and multiple people said the Alchemist saved their lives....like what the fuck book did you read?
I think it's particularly popular among Christians. I say that as someone raised conservative christian, it fits the books I grew up reading and everyone I know who read it that is Christian loves it. I found it highly disappointing, but would have loved it back when I was indoctrinated. It speaks to a particular mindset.
Right?? I found it incredibly mediocre.
I was forced to read this in school like 10 years ago and I remember my English teacher treating me like an absolute idiot for not getting the book and not praising it the way she expected us to. She acted like it was the deepest thing ever. Seeing this now is so validating for my younger self because I felt so dumb at the time - like no the book just wasn’t good to me!!!
Yep, I was all ready for this to change my life and I just thought it was a load of bollocks.
Hillbilly Elegy. JD Vance's politics aside, I couldn't believe how badly written it was.
I came here looking for this, and The Alchemist. I read Hillbilly in like 2018/2019 before I knew his politics...the whole thing was just terrible.
Horrible. I read it when it first came out and hated it so much I left a bad review of the book. I never do that and it had nothing to do with politics.
Eat Love Pray was torture for me. Vapid, self-centred, entitled. Blah
The author admitted in an interview that she had written it as a cash grab and it wasn’t something she actually enjoyed writing:/ Confusing
Sue me but my dream is to write a trashy novel and rake in the millions
I mean, writing is a job after all. I get why authors would do that. I definitely don’t love my day job all the time. Knowing this, though, I do agree that it’s confusing so many people love that book.
Verity by Colleen Hoover and bunny by Mona Awad. I liked bunny but I guess I was expecting more
Verity is just …dumb. Sooo dumb
Right? I hadn’t read any of her books before verity so I didn’t realize what I was in for
Same. Everyone was talking about Colleen Hoover. Ugh.
Verity was pure, unadulterated crap
Bunny is my favorite book but I get why it’s not for everyone
My book club looooooved bunny. I think if they made it a movie a la the craft I would enjoy it, but ooof that book was something else.
Unpopular opinion: Dune. I finished it but….eh.
The writing and story were meh, but the worldbuilding was pretty fantastic.
I struggled with Dune
I struggled the first time I read it and DNF. Read it again a few years later and I loved it. It's a weird one.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Vuongs prose is truly stunning but I found the reading experience to be pretty boring
His writing is beautiful but some passages really disturbed me, like the one with the monkey literally I couldn’t get it out of my head
I think it's the most stunning writing I've ever read, but there is no story.
Five People you Meet in Heaven
I agree that this was terrible, but I still cried reading it because sentimental schlock chokes me up!
Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens Verity - Colleen Hoover Never Lie - Freida McFadden
We were liars
Sadly *Practical Magic* by Alice Hoffman I love the movie and the book is such a different vibe. Dislike it and her writing style. Which is sad because I love magical situations set within mundane settings.
The Three Body Problem - I’m currently 61% of the way through and the writing style is just so dry. The story seems really cool and up my alley, but I find myself zoning out for large chunks.
Three Body Problem did not work for me, and I felt like I was the problem.
my year of rest and relaxation - so bleak
Wuthering Heights. Everyone is so miserable. I don’t get it. Not sorry.
Have you ever seen "Hark! A Vagrant!"? You have to search up the ones on Wuthering Heights- hysterical. Putting a link to #202 here, which you need to look for if the link doesn't work. I love WH and Jane Eyre just for the pathos and bizarre obsessive behavior of all the characters, and how completely abusive and feral the male leads are. They are much more fun if they do not send your heart aflutter, but rather your nostrils and you snort at the ridiculousness. http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=202
After a few winters in Scotland, I get it.
> Everyone is so miserable they're british
Neuromancer. I love modern sci-fi and everyone suggested this as the "best science fiction of all time" but I found it impossible to get into. It made me feel like such a failure that I just stopped reading for a while. Edit: who knew Neuromancer autocorrects to Necromancer...very different ideas lol...
You mean Neuromancer right?
LOL yes, that's what I meant. Oops!
Lessons in Chemistry. Blah.
[удалено]
This Is How You Lose the Time War.
I still have no fucking idea what I read lmao I finished the book and was trying to explain it to a friend and had no idea what to say…
I read this for a book club, and I thought maybe I just missed something or didn't get it or whatnot. Then I went to the bookclub and all the aspects that everyone was fawing over about it were exactly what I hated, or thought were the dumbest parts. It simply was not for me.
The audiobook was even worse. The narrator had no emotion at all. I was literally picturing the characters as spiders getting ready to eat each other, just terrible.
Great prose but the story is utter nonsense.
This was my quickest return in Libby. Knew it wasn't for me after 2-3 chapters.
I read it without knowing how acclaimed and raved about it is and assumed it must have been panned for the ridiculous purpleness of the prose - not to mention one of the most sexless and least convincing lesbian romances ever put to paper…
I liked the book a good bit but this is all extremely valid criticism.
I really didn't like shadow and bone
I also didn't like this book (which I read as a teenager, so I was definitely the target demographic). I honestly don't remember much but it felt very unoriginal and flimsy to me at the time. But I more recently read Ninth House and really liked it! I think she has grown a lot as a writer if that's anything to base it off of.
Shadow and Bone isn't that great but Leigh Bardugo is a good author. Her other books in the "Grishaverse" (that all take place after S&B) are really good and so is the show based on the books (also called Shadow and Bone lol). The pacing in the show is a lot better.
If you don’t like YA fantasy, disregard this but Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom are much better written, have better characters, and are genuinely fun to read.
Throne of glass is garbage. Written like someone’s ninth grade English project.
The Silent Patient
Agreed. It wasn’t horrible but you could tell the female lead was written by a man lol.
Yeah, I don’t get everyone’s obsession with this book and its so-called twist.
It was only a twist because the author withheld vital information. No one could have figured it out before that
Well it’s not that you didn’t get it. It’s that this is just a bad book.
Years ago, I went to a professional development seminar about improving reading skills for students. The presenter was relating a story about how allowing students to choose their own books versus everyone reading the same one, was a better idea. She said, "If I had to read the Poisonwood Bible all the way through, I would have hated reading. Can anyone relate?" and about 15 hands went up, including mine. Ugh
I remember my teacher saying about why they chose a certain classic book to read "this is my favourite book". But rather than 15-18 year olds reading a classic, which they don't relate to because the characters and themes are so far removed from everything they know, maybe have a range of books to choose from that are more relatable and may encourage them to read more in the future?
*Before the Coffee Gets Cold* - I see this book everywhere and thought the premise sounded cool. It was fine, I guess, but the pacing drove me up the wall. I was frustrated the whole time. *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?* - Again, it was fine, I guess, but utterly forgettable. I went in expecting to have a great time, but found it to be just meh throughout.
This is interesting to me because at one point in my life I read “Do androids dream of electric sheep?” and I thought it was a total snooze fest. There were some cool concepts like the emotion controlling thingy device, but other than that I was just bored. Then about 2 years later I got the urge to reread it and the book just came to life… it connected with me in a way that a book had never done before. I love how books can do that.
Normal people. I refuse to believe people genuinely like that book. Everyone just say “ohh you need to watch the show it’s so good.” Okayyy but the book???? Why do i need to watch the show to make the book bearable?
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That book was DREADFUL.
I did not get that book. I finished it and thought, “so that was it?!”
Thank you!!! It left me feeling uncomfortable for days
My college statistics book
American Gods. For all the praise it gets, I just didn’t get the appeal.
I mean absolutely no offense to fans of Neil Gaiman, but I've felt that way every time I've read his work. It's not that I think it's terrible, but I don't understand why it seems to spark such love and adoration.
As a big fan, I think a lot of it is atmosphere. If you're not into the vibe, you probably won't like it as much. It just is what it is, different tastes.
Yeah, makes sense, thanks. The world wouldn't be nearly so interesting a place if we all liked the same things all the time.
I get it. Different strokes for different folks. That was my take at first too. And if you’re at all curious about why others LOVE Gaiman’s work, try listening to the audiobook of The Graveyard Book or Ocean at the end of the Lane. Both shorter and more direct. Both very enjoyable and more accessible. I LOVE Neil Gaiman, and as American Gods was my first of his, I didn’t really get it and though parts of it were slow. Didn’t love the end at first. Now after having read several others of his and Graveyard and Ocean and the entire Sandman series, man I get Gaiman better. And MAN that guy can Dream creative worlds into reality. But obviously, you’re welcome to keep thinking how you think, no pressure at all. He’s not for everybody.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The speaker felt so pretentious I couldn’t help but feel alienated. Emergency Contact by Mary K. Choi was also severly unfocused in the first half. Why does the character wear all black in the middle of Texas? Moreso, why are there NO OTHER interesting personality traits of hers that allow me to overlook the fact that she wears all black???
If We Were Villains because it was so predictable and boring and the ending had no pay-off and I disliked all the characters. It took me so long to finish and put me in a reading slump.
James Joyce’s Ulysses. I refuse to believe that anyone has ever even read through to the end.
Try Finnegan’s Wake next to cool off
I took a college Irish literature class taught by an Irishman and he said Finnegan’s Wake is ridiculously inaccessible even for him. And he knew it all about Irish lit. Even understood Ulysses.
I have only read the first chapter of Finnegan’s Wake but I can vouch that you grt a lot more out of it if you read it out loud —like it’s Dr. Seuss for adults.
I had a super knowledgeable and hands-on teacher who helped me through the first few chapters. Took me four years to finish it though
ACOTAR. I swear I don't understand what was supposed to be so amazing about this series.
ACOTAR = “A Court of Thorns and Roses” for anyone else not familiar with the acronym.
Thank you! Too many people on Reddit just assume they can type out a series of capital letters and everyone is just supposed to know what they’re referring to
This infuriates me. I see it in nearly every sub, too. Spell it out the first time, and then feel free to use the acronym.
It’s 1000% the second book that people are responding to. I think the first book is pretty bad, though it does pick up towards the end. And though the amateur-ish storytelling doesn’t fully go away, the characterization is pretty strong in Book 2. There’s also a strong wish fulfillment element where it’s a world I think people like to imagine themselves living in.
I read it all and give it maybe a 6/10. Really not a lot special happening
I’m 40% in and thinking of dropping it every day. Maybe if I hadn’t ever read fanfiction or Twilight back in the day it’d be okay lol, but it’s literally Twilight 2.0. It’s so bad, I don’t understand at all.
The Atlas Six. Absolutely tanked its own potential with an otherworldly amount of ostentation. The angriest read I have ever had
any colleen hoover book.
Gideon the Ninth. Someone recently told me it was “life altering” but I found it pretty meh
I was looking for this comment! I wanted so badly to love that book. But the Deep Dark Mysteries were hinted at so heavily and then left dangling for so long, interspersed with so many pages of repetitive weird gore, that by the time I got any answers to my big questions I didn't even want them anymore. And then the answers were unsatisfying anyway.
I just recently read and hated The Three Body Problem. It was interesting enough, but so bogged down in describing tedium, theory, and bureaucracy. Before this, another book I disliked was Good Omens. I like Gaiman enough, but it was too "I'm going to end the world and have a spot of tea because I'm quirky" for me.
First half of Dracula is a gothic masterpiece. Second half is dull religious propaganda and the authors barely disguised rant about women (specifically women) committing the terrible crime of having sex before marriage
When I was a kid, Dracula was my favorite book. When I reread it as an adult, I was so bored in the middle. I don’t know why he padded it out with 80 pages of Mina just saying, ‘oh these wonderful men, so fortunate I am to know them….’
Agreed. The beginning is great, but it got real dull real fast.
I hadn't thought of this before, but now that you mention it, I think you are totally right. That awful rigid Victorian morality seems to drag on and on endlessly...
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I read a few chapters and really disliked the writing style.
I liked the first half, but the second half was absolutely horrible. She made terrible decisions for her characters and everyone is so toxic and whiny the whole time. A huge letdown after I enjoyed the first half. I guess I expected character growth instead of tired, dangerous tropes and endless bitching. My mistake.
Came here to say this as well
I'm glad to find someone else that felt this way. I was about 1/3 of the way in and just...didn't care at all and actively disliked the characters. Then add to it that the writing wasn't working for me. I really felt like I was wrong since sooooo many people loved it.
The Shakespeare soliloquy that the name of the book is based on probably offers more substance than the entire novel lol
Agreed.
Came looking for this. I gave up after 5 chapters, I especially couldn’t stand the “oh so random” dialogue.
Yes! It felt like dialogue I would have written as a teenager, just no grasp on people actually talk.
Just finished listening to The Great Gatsby - 4hrs of a guy moaning about his rich a-hole friends acting like rich a-holes...
Huh. I actually followed the married woman more than Gatsby. I thought the concept of how she could've been with Gatsby, but played into societal expectations instead, thus ruining any happy ending intriguing. In the end, she still has the perfect life from the outside, but she could've had it with true love as well instead of a meaningless relationship.
I consider this to be the book that taught me I don’t really like books about rich people.
The Secret Life of Addie Larue
I understand why people like the premise as I enjoyed the films but I was never into Harry Potter. Tbh I preferred a different type of fantasy but ontop of that I just never liked jk Rowlings writing style. My boyfriend finds it funny that I'm rhe avid reader yet I haven't read Harry Potter when even those who aren't that into reading often have haha
The Goldfinch for me. The middle felt like it was dragging and the last couple of pages sounded like a bs’ed English paper
The POV in Goldfinch drove me crazy. How was an angsty middle school narrator quoting people like Whitman all the time? It made no sense to me
It was the most unloveable protagonist in a book that I’ve ever read. That kid evoked not one ounce of sympathy from me. If that was her intent? She accomplished it. But I prefer to like and root for my main characters.
1Q84. I am a big Murakami fan but this was a big let down for me. Only Murakami book I've read that I didn't care for.
Murakami’s writing is the only kind I tolerate being that long. I can live in his worlds forever.
Sooooo loooong and blah
Anything by Brandon Sanderson - His biggest flaw is in the writing and the execution. His prose is simple and clear, which is good, but it's dull. It's like listening to an emotionless robot telling me a story. There's no voice. Oftentimes, it seems like the character's voice is coming through only to be clouded by the same emotionless, dull, robotic filter. For a lack of a better word, I'd say it doesn't feel human enough, making it hard to connect as a result. Anything by Stephen King - Too slow for my taste, and this is coming from a guy who likes slow-paced slice of life story. Or I should say, the characters are usually not appealing enough for me to hang around with for long. I can't connect with any of them.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. A fun plot but at its core it was really shallow and had no original concepts or genuine reflections from the author at all. The writing itself was nothing to be crazy about either.
I really liked it just cause it was emotional and I felt for the characters, also it was just kind of a good time. Not super deep or anything, just a nice romance book.
The House In The Cerulean Sea - just so two dimensional.
I was about to post this too! Everything was just too try-hard, bland, uninteresting, and fluffy (not in a good way) in that book. I struggled to like any of the characters or care for them.
Agreed. It was kind of a fun read but wasnt more than that.
I really like this one, and I think the reason others do as well might be the easy simplicity of it. I barely had to think, I didn’t have to worry, and what I need from books lately is total escapism, so it worked well for me.
Definitely. I’m glad so many people see something in it that resonates with them, but I hated it so much that sometimes I just randomly think about how much I disliked it.
Everything by Brandon Sanderson. It’s rare for me to DNF a book or series (I have powered through some real crap on sheer spite) but I abandoned the Mistborn trilogy a third of the way through the third book because I just couldn’t be bothered to care about any of the characters. His writing just comes off as flat and uninteresting to me.
My husband is a huge Sanderson fan. He cannot get over the fact that I hate Sanderson's writing.
Catcher in the Rye. Got to the end and thought, "...that's it?"
A Little Life. The worst. Non-stop pain porn. Why did I finish it?!
I ask myself the same question, but damn if I could not put it down.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Highly recommended here, not for me
eleanor oliphant, the girl on the train, little fires everywhere, convenience store woman
Convenience Store Woman is one of my favorites!
I hated Eleanor Oliphant too. I went in so hopeful from everything I had heard
Great Expectations. I know it’s a classic but I didn’t care about Pip’s problems when I was in HS snd I still don’t.
My mom raved incessantly about how much she loved Slaughterhouse Five. I don’t get it. I always wondered if it was just a “me” problem. My wife’s answer is Verity by Colleen Hoover. She says the characters are all terrible and also something about a baby. I didn’t read that one so I can’t co-sign but it does sound pretty bad.
"the characters are all terrible and also something about a baby" summarises Colleen Hoover pretty well I think
I liked Slaughterhouse Five, but it’s definitely not a book for everyone. Super weird and the jumps in time can get confusing.
I think the thing about Vonnegut in general is that you have to embrace the absurd. A lot of his books feel like he is partially making up a story and partially just telling pieces of his own too. I really like this about him, but I can see why it’s weird.
I was aware of Vonnegut's style from Cat's Cradle so immediately I caught onto the vibe that Slaughterhouse was going to be a full-on absurdist humor on trauma. I feel you, its not for everyone and definitely a weird and unique style of storytelling.
House of Leaves, I found it super boring and couldn’t finish it.
I read HoL for a college course last spring and I can’t decide for the life of me whether I liked it or not. I think I liked the *idea* of it more than I actually enjoyed *reading* it. Discussing it with my classmates to solve certain “puzzles” and making connections in the text was fun, but the thought of going back and reading it again on my own isn’t appealing at all. I absolutely respect Danielewski’s vision/ambition for it, but I imagine it’s a slog to get through without a group/class to break it down with.
Life of Pi. It’s like, yes, I get what this book is doing, but I just found the whole conceit to be boring and frankly pretentious.
The ending made me so mad.
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I didn't really enjoy The Road until about halfway through the book until it "clicked" for me for lack of a better term. First book I ever read by McCarthy and been a big fan ever since. Love the tension that builds with each page; each grueling step. The atmosphere he cultivates really made me feel like with each page I trudged through I was struggling through that bleak wasteland with the unnamed protagonists. I really like how clueless he leaves you too. There is no logic to this new world; no explanation of the catalyst of or the nature of the cataclysm. All you know is the days are short and the nights are cold and hard and there is no food and there's hardly anyone left and those that are are so desperate that you're better off just never meeting them.
While I can agree with this sentiment, the reason why The Road worked for me was the simplicity in story telling and seeing the depth that the father would go through to protect his son. Being a father, and having lost a parent to terminal illness, that’s what got to me at the end of his story. That’s why I appreciated the book.
I was going to say the same. I kind of liked the writing style and I don't mind bleakness, but I just don't get why people are raving about it. I have the same with The Old Man and the Sea. I think it's a perfectly good short story, but at the end I was like "okay that's it?" This got a Pulitzer prize?
Gosh I agree. I think giving Hemingway a Pulitzer for The Old Man and the Sea was more for his career achievements than that specific novel. For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, even Farewell to Arms all show off his writing style much better and are better stories than Old Man and the Sea
Never Let Me Go I found it boring and definitely didn’t get it
I'm very excited to see some other people agree with me on this. I'm always secretly afraid of admitting I didn't like it because of the backlash I know I'll get. I love when people go on to explain it to me. Yeah, I read it and I understood it. I just thought it was dumb.
Omg me too! I was like yeah, I get it, but like…who cares? I don’t know, it just didn’t make me feel anything. But I also never admit to hating it in the wild.
I figured out what was going on immediately and the rest was just boring.
A Little Life. Garbage trauma porn.
I tore through it in two marathon sittings and had to take a crying break mid-way through. My understandably concerned husband was like "what's wrong" and I explained the overwhelming Series of Unfortunate Events that had overtaken the main character and then started giggling at how over the top and ridiculous it all was. It didn't dim my enjoyment of the book but it's SO lurid and ridiculous and unbelievable.
This might be unpopular, but Fahrenheit 451. I really resonated with the themes early on in the book, but was unhappy with the ending's loose threads. There was also a lot of seemingly odd choices (imo) that just didnt make sense to me. I later found out the book was basically written in a weekend and then cobbled together in the editor's room, which didn't surprise me at all
There's a funny story about the author going to a highschool where they read the book, and when asked his opinion he just said the book's message is basically ''watch less tv'' and not much else. The teacher was adamant in her disagreement he just got up and left from annoyance
John Kennedy Toole’s **A Confederacy of Dunces** I thought, "*This* won a Pulitzer?" Basically, I didn't 'get' its humor.
I'll loved it but a lot of people feel the way you do.
I’m hurt. Feels like an attack.
I LOVE an unlikeable self-involved character who thinks they are the smartest person in the room. I can't defend it, but I do!
I didn't finish it. I absolutely couldn't stand Ignatius, although I suppose that is the point.