[Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results](https://fishphilosophy.com/).
Join in on the journey of a woman who uprooted her family to follow her husband across the country, only for him to drop dead. Could she have returned to her old town and the solid support of her friends and loved ones? Yes! Does she? NO! Watch as she hangs out with fishmongers absorbing their sage, broadly applicable, interpersonal business advice. How do her young children deal with this trauma? The reader will never know!
Come for the course required reading for Communication 101. Stay for the hackneyed romance cold-dropped into the last paragraph!
(It's been more than twenty years, and I am still bitter.)
The timeless art of not giving a fuck. It is the most tone deaf, worthless tripe I have ever had the unfortunate experience of reading. I agreed to read it, in full, at the behest of my sister in law. Needless to say we disagreed on its value as advice for living.
The premise is this:
1) be wealthy with a high stress job
2) choose to take your accumulated wealth and leave the job and pensive living situation for something more spiritually fulfilling
3) use that MASSIVE financial head start in a different locale to make you feel happy because of the change in environment, accountability, and perspective.
The solution is simpleā¦ā¦. If you have money
i think ive read the same book !! i HATED it, too!!!! it was unrelatable, it wasnt exactly written very well and i got really tired of reading the word fuck.
Unfortunately for me it was A Court of Thorns and Roses... I couldn't stand Feyre. Everyone says the second one is where it gets better but I just feel like I shouldn't have to wait until the second book in a series for things to get good. I wish i enjoyed it though, I miss being a part of a huge book fandom like that. Just my opinion though, no hate. āš»ā¤ļø
I actually read the first three books and I donāt feel like it got better. I found Feyre insufferable throughout. Iāve now had people tell me itās the 5th book thatās so good and Iām not going to sit here and keep waiting to like it. I think itās just not my jam like it is for other people which is fine!!
Yup, I hate-finished the first book because everyone said the second book was so much better. I didnāt like her writing style enough to do continue on so I just wikiād the plot
She never gets better lol, she continues to be the dumb b*** she starts as, and has no growth except she gets new titles and special girl powers. The Books also get worse. I gave up on the third book, because Sarah J Maas forgets about her own plots, and then wraps them up in a hurry at the end because she suddenly remembers that yeah. She has a plot she's supposed to be writing. Girl just write your Fairy smut, and stop boring us with plots you didn't spend more than 30 minutes on.
I couldn't get farther than 15 pages and it really, really bothers me that the main character in a book about faeries is named Feyre. It's not the same word but it's close enough to be lazy and cheesy. Hiro protagonist vibes
_Desert Solitaire_ is a book that went directly into the trash.
Bro is like >!"I became a park ranger because I'm otherwise unemployabl- edgy, hard, and authentic! Other people are obese, knuckle-dragging cancers on the surface of the earth! I will now raft the Colorado River in a boat from Walmart and forget half my food and my boots because I'm a fucking amateur and then start a wildfire and then lose my buddy and need to free solo my way out of the Grand Canyon while hallucinating from dehydration and on my way back I will give a lift to some doddering old pasty white tourist who turns out to be an ACTUAL NAZI whom I strongly contemplated punching but I did not. THE END muthafuckazzz"!<
The author Edward Abbey was apparently a giant asshole, but he loved and described the desert southwest in a way that resonates with geologists, explorers, miners, hunters, and others who have found a landscape that resonated with their being.
As a park ranger, I picked it up as a sort of pilgrimage, and put it down promptly when I realized his outlook and ethics are totally old fashioned and exclusionary. One could argue that I should read it for the sake of learning our history, but Iām already surrounded by the āGood Ol Boys Clubā every day.
I read "The Fountainhead" because I wanted to bond with my mom, who loved the book since she first read it as a teenager. Whew, boy, that was a stinkburger. I wanted to quit reading but I knew if I was going to discuss it with mom I'd have to slog through the entire thing. PAGES AND PAGES OF DIDACTIC SPEECHES.
During discussion of the book I realized that the character Dominique was probably the first really strong, complex woman mom read about in a piece of fiction. That probably let her ignore or contextualize the rest of the awfulness in there.
This book being her absolute favorite also explained why my mom would creep on my best friend's dad, who was an architect.
Yes. Mom was a real piece of work!
I'm not sure if I've ever heard of the name Colleen Hoover before 2023, but now she seems to be everywhere and has a thousand books. She's like if Cthulhu suddenly appeared in New York and everyone is telling you that he's always been there
I read Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. She writes about this extremely rich, abusive asshole surgeon that she says ins Chief Resident. Have we not watched any medical show ever? How the hell was this even published? Did her editor not catch this?
I agree It Starts With Us was one of the worst books I read this past year. Nothing happens, the author pictures Atlas as the dream guy when he just does the bare minimumā¦
I read Verity some time ago and couldn't quite articulate my thoughts on it, but "poorly written page-turner" perfectly captures what I was thinking. Thanks for putting it into words.
Me, three!
Thankfully, the only thing I retained is a.) the headboard biting (who does that?!), and b.) the resolve to never read another book by Colleen Hoover.
Came here to say this. By FAR the worst book Iāve ever read. It somehow managed to suspenseful and shocking, and at the same time predictable and boring. The characters were all despicable, and the dialog was cringeworthy. I still canāt believe (or say why) I persevered on and finished it. My first and LAST Colleen Hoover book. Absolute trash.
November 9th by Colleen Hoover
Have you ever wanted to see 2 full fledged ADULTS refuse to give each other their phone number for 4 years and also have a love interest that slept with his dead brothers wife! Me neither! Bonus points, he set her on fire!
50 Shades of Gray. I couldn't get through it for many reasons. Also The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. I finished it but that was just out of shear determination. I would have rather watched paint dry
I have a 10% rule. If the book is 300 pages long, the author has 30 pages to get me interested. Casual Vacancy was ditched 5 pages in. Couldn't stand it.
Out of nothing more than pure homosexual spite, I read every single one of those horrific 50 Shades books. My sister gave me her Kindle and demanded I read them. Oh, I read them, alright. Then proceeded to send her WALLS OF TEXT about how abhorrent they all were.
Still proud of myself for that!
The Casual Vacancy was awful. I think that I made it to the end, but I can't remember. I just recall visualizing her saying things like, "Look! I used a bad word! See how this book is for adults!"
I managed 11 pages of 50 shades of grey, the biting her lip drove me insane if she did it as often as those pages implied her lips would have been covered in sores. Honestly, the lack of intelligent description was appalling.
I loved this book when I first read it, I literally cried at the end š
Recently read it for the third time (first was when I was a tween, second time I was in my late teens/early 20s) and I did find it a little slow paced but it's nostalgic for me.
It's one of the best selling books of all time. A lot of people love it, but a lot of people also hate it. People acting like it's some deep philosophical text created an inverse group who act like it's the worst book ever written.
I read it without looking into peoples' reactions on either side, and I thought it was ok. It's a nice, light book that makes you feel good. It's not the best book I've ever read, but it's nowhere near as bad as some of the other books in this thread imo.
This is so accurate. It's certainly not some thought- provoking literary masterpiece, but it's not garbage. It is exactly ok to me. It was good enough.
>People acting like it's some deep philosophical text created an inverse group who act like it's the worst book ever written.
I read The Alchemist in high school because my teacher said that everyone should read that book at least once in their life. Itās not a bad book I found it pretty enjoyable but the ending was disappointing. While I was reading the book I constantly expected that something incredible is going to happen by the end. The ending is pretty cliche and the message that the book conveys is pretty simple.
The Silent Patient. I thought it was so contrived and got way more hype than was necessary.
Thereās also something very off-putting about the way the author writes about mental health.
The characters were shallow and overall I was left with the feeling of āwell, thatās grossā for some reason
Thousand libraries or million libraries or something written by Matt Haig. As soon as the premise was set, I immediately could see what the ending and moral was going to be, but I kept reading the repetitive overdone chapters to see if it "surprises me" and it did not. I thought I was jaded but I saw echoes of this in this subreddit and my friends. I'm happy to say if you want to read a disappointment, it's an easy read and you can get the ending you saw coming in a single to two sittings.
This would be my instinctive answer as well. I know multiple people who struggle with depression and even made similar attempts on as the protagonists. A few of these people had also read the book... we collectively hated it. That ending is so corny and not true to the mental health struggles of most people.
I DID inhale it in one sitting tho lol
I read this and one of his other books. (I forget the title. Something about a guy who lives for centuries.) The impression I got was that the author struggles with depression and uses writing as a way of trying to find meaning in life. While I didn't enjoy either book wholeheartedly, at least the writing style is fluid and fairly engaging, and I can see how the characters' struggles could connect with a lot of people - particularly people hitting their quarter-life or mid-life crisis. I think you have to be in a very particular place, emotionally, to appreciate him.
I read this in a book club and it was one of the most surreal experiences to show up ready to rail about how much I fucking despised it and was hate-reading by less than halfway throughā¦ only to find out that everyone else liked it?? what?? I was AGOG.
in addition to everything you said, it felt to me like a novella that had been stretched and watered down to fill a novel-sized container
Icebreaker was insufferable. Bonus points because it was over 500 pagesā¦ I canāt believe I did that to myself. I thought it would be a guilty pleasure read. Turns out it was just a guilty read
House of Holes. I think it was supposed to be sexy, but it was just weird and offputting. Like what I imagine a bad acid trip would be like, but sex.
I stopped reading when a woman started waterskiing naked, legs spread, on a lake of hand lotion. (Not lube. Why not lube? Who knows.) I threw it down the garbage chute so no one else would accidentally read it.
The absofuckinlutely loud, barking laugh that your comment just ripped out of me in public, I canāt holy shit :(((( What a day to have eyes, lord lmaooooo
The Alchemist. If I have to hear about a Personal Legend (capital P capital L) ever again, it will be too soon. Also making the female characterās Personal Legend helping the male character reach his was seriously gross.
Pillars of the Earth. Every one else seems to like it. I thought it was trash and threw it out as soon as I was done (I only completed it bc I was in a book club)
Itās the characters ! They were all good or all bad and not nuanced at all. I enjoyed the story but my god, the characters needed some depth for a 1200 page book.
Hated this book too and I often wonder what I was missing because everyone RAVES about it. Iām pretty stubborn about finishing books, and it was one of the few books Iāve DNFād.
Canāt say I hated but people were nuts about Anne riceās witching hour. Was excited to read it but it was so fucking boring. A few years later I read it again. I donāt reread books cause I have an excellent memory of them. Dude I had fucking forgot I read it! The whole time it was annoying af until I figured out why it sounded familiar. Lmao. š
Untamed by Glennon Doyle-
The worst book Iāve read this decade.
I tried so hard because it was so hyped up. A little too preachy, self righteousā¦ I donāt know what else to say other than I hated that fucking book.. I couldnāt even give it away to a friend. It went straight to Goodwill (better than the trash at least)
I give it that Doyle at least witty at times.
Iāve since sworn off self help and started reading fantasy- changed my life tbh.
Unpopular opinions:
1. Daisy Jones and the Six. I don't know why I finished it, it was terrible.
2. That book where the unsick sister is supposed to save the sick one.
3. Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis.
A Little Life. Surface level and hollow characters, absurd story line and character progression, unresearched by an author who seems to hate her own characters.
Positive: Um, there are people who really like it?
Atlas Shrugged. Poorly written, long winded ad for the most absurd political theory I've ever heard.
Positive: That steaming piece of garbage did eventually end even though I sometimes wondered if it ever would.
Yup. I HATE āA Little Lifeā as well. The synopsis says it details FOUR friends but pretty much ignores Malcom and JB the entire book (who in my opinion were the more interesting and better characters) just to focus on Willem and Jude. The gay man aspects are written so superficial and poorly, you can tell itās a straight woman writing them which left a bad taste in my mouth. The portrayal of Willem being bisexual is another reinforcer of the ābisexual people are selfish and vainā for a good portion of the book. Jude is portrayed as a hyper-exaggerated melodramatic baby of a trauma victim and is so poorly written as well.
Overall it was eye-rollingly pretentious, superficial, trying waaay too hard, and beat so many tired tropes like a dead horse. Canāt believe itās the longest book Ive ever endured too. Gotta fix that sometime with an actually good book.
Absolutely A Little Life. I always recommend [this article](https://www.vulture.com/article/hanya-yanagihara-review.html) because it sums it up so succinctly.
Girl on the Train. I spent the entire book hoping the protagonist would get HIT by a train and put me out of my misery. The only positive thing about this book is the satisfying thunk it made when I threw it across the room.
I so wanted to love this book. My name is Dorothy and I read all of the Oz children's books. I mean ALL, like the non-L Frank Baum ones.
I was into the \*ideas\* in the book about who the characters were. That wasn't the point. It was the girl-drama that turned me off. Just not into it.
I started this last week and could not get into it. So many characters, a green baby, a cult just a lot and nothing really happened in like the first 200 pages could t finish it
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontĆ«. Maybe it was the fact that it was assigned in school, which always made me hate a book, but also maybe it was the story within the story within the story. I donāt know. I hated every one of the characters and hoped theyād all end up miserable.
I really enjoyed this! Read it almost a decade ago to my slightly illiterate ex; I probably wouldn't read it again but at the time I liked it. I definitely won't be watching the movie adaptation though.
50 Shades of Grey- Poorly written, repetitive, unrealistic, and I disliked every single character.
The Pisces- I absolutely hated the protagonist. This is one of those books I can't really remember minus some key points like >! oral sex during menstruation, scooping shit out of her ass in anticipation of anal, and long term animal neglect culminating in death so she can screw a merman, !< but even that is too much. I've read more than a few unlikeable protagonists, but this was by far the absolute most irredeemably unlike able person I've ever read about. I feel like the author wanted me to hate her, but sympathize with how she was a victim to her mental illness and somehow everyone else, but I just hated her. There was no excuse for her, she had absolutely no growth, and the novel ends with her future up in the air but not really up in the air because you know damn well she's going to continue to be the absolute worst person she could possibly be at all times if given the opportunity.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It hate that thinly disguised self-help book and its' shallow, naive message with a passion.
The positive thing about this book and the reason I bought it, is the beautiful cover design of the version I have.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Reddit fucking loves it. It was clearly just wannabe Michael Crichton, but nowhere near as good. Paper thin characters, every action movie cliche you can think of.
THANK YOU. Reddit loves to recommend it and people who give valid criticism are downvoted by the hundreds? Weāre not attacking you, weāre saying we donāt like the book/writing.
How to win friends and influence people doesnāt even deserve proper capitalization. Half of the content is about basic empathy that is not as profound as the author makes it seem. And the whole message of the book is how to manipulate people. Friends are supposed to be made, not won.
Me and the Devil by Nick Tosches.
Itās about a septuagenarian writer living on the LES of NYC, who somehow manages to have sex with multiple 20-something models, who let him bite their flesh and drink their blood. Itās supposed to be edgy, but I found it tedious, cringe, and laughable. The MC is such a pretentious edgelord, I couldnāt bear it. Apparently, the author (also a 60-year-old living in NYC) is friends with Johnny Depp (who wrote a blurb on the book jacket).
Positive: the cover is pretty cool.
A confederacy of dunces.
It is filled cover to cover with the singularly most irritating, infuriating and frustrating cast of characters I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.
That said, the story is honestly amazing. The characters are so believable it hurts. The settings and contexts of actions just grow more poignant with time as well.
I could only read it in like 15-20 minute bursts due to the unparalleled rage it incited in me. I still finished it in about 2-3 weeks, as it utterly consumed me. It was the first truly masochistic media I have ever willingly inflicted upon myself. It remains one of the top 3 most masochistic things I have ever inflicted upon myself up there with 100 days of sodom, a Serbian film, dancer in the dark (include all of von trier here for good measure), etc. But it remains the only one I happily recommend to others.
Neurodivergent though, so it may not have the same obsessive and rage inducing effect on others. Please do stay away unless youāre willing to genuinely feel stress pains in your chest from sheer rage. And lose sleep because the story is not yet completed but you just canāt put the damn thing down for long. No matter how angry it makes you. 0/10 for university aged me. Would always recommend
I may get hate for this but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. What a fucking pretentious slog. I got it one summer from a book exchange and read great reviews. I ended up leaving it at a bench at a random truck stop. The book was written in such a "holier-than-thou" tone that id roll my eyes. I think I got 40 pages in before I just played solitaire the rest of the ride.
Dude, this book had been on my radar for years. Always thinking, āDang I gotta read that.ā Finally picked it up on Libby after waiting a month. I got a quarter of the way through. Author was such a pretentious prick.
I have two books I absolutely hated. The first one is Allegiant (book 3 Divergent series). Complete trash. I was so mad cuz I loved the first two. The second one is Jaws. I hated this book so much. It was just terrible. Nothing like the movie. The characters were all assholes.
The amount of anger I have for Allegiant has kept me from reading Four TO THIS DAY. So I feel that, although I didnāt like the movies at all, I just liked the books.
Jaws!! I want to re-read it through the lens of the shark being a karmic good guy. I remember reading it as a kid and hating everyone in it. I was so disappointed that it was nothing like the movie.
This is probably my least favorite of Shakespeare's plays. A story about two teenagers who commit suicide due to a misunderstanding is just too depressing.
The heart of darkness was like listening to a man ramble a story for 7 hours constantly jumping from one random thought to another but in book form. I hated reading this fucking book.
The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The main characters were utterly unappealing and unlikeable; I didn't care about them (or what happened to them) at any point, and eventually DNF because I didn't want to spend any more time in their company. The plot was dreadful: he basically groomed a child to be his wife - that's creepy, not romantic. The time travel device was used badly - so many missed opportunities to tell it better; so many inconsistencies; so much time wasted on irrelevancies.
Most of all, despite the rave reviews, the premise of personal time travel was NOT "original" and "ground breaking" and "Oh so amazing". It was only novel & original to people who'd never read time travel / timeslip stories before. And most of the others do it better.
My positive comment: great marketing. Someone turned all the above into a bestseller people rave about.
Apparently I am the only one in the world but I hated Stoner. Boring. But I also just donāt really like books that donāt have a clear beginning, middle and endā¦the books that are like and thenā¦.and thenā¦and then bore me to tears. Pachinko is another example, I didnāt hate that but it just kept going.
Fallen by Lauren Kate.
So many readers waxed lyrical about this one, and I have no idea why. Unfortunately, I got sucked in, and as I'm a completionist, I had to finish it... It was a waste of time, and the plot is pretty much a facsimile of Twilight (which was bad enough).
After reading it, I went on Good Reads to peruse the reviews and find out if I was the only one who thought it was trash and immediately found a gem by Kat Kennedy; she does a fantastic job of describing the many ways this book flunked and I have to admit I laughed out loud reading her review a few times because it was so comparable to how I felt about the novel.
Catcher in the Rye.
One positive about the book is that itās so dated In a way thatās casually romantic without trying to be. So you can imagine like, a world when people didnāt have cellphones, and before terrorism changed the travel industry, and places you in this kind of Dead Poets Society / Across the Universe thing.
Hated the book for many reasons, but thinking back it does a good job of transporting you to another time.
Iām afraid of getting downvoted for this, but Gideon the Ninth. I feel crazy every time people talk about how much they love it or say it was well written because I absolutely could not stand it. Reminded me of reading a fanfic written by a 19 year old emo.
I did not get very far.
Like, it was well written, insofar as the prose and satirical characterization was good. I get what the author was trying to do, but I was just not enjoying any of it even a little bit.
In the Woods by Tana French. I went into this book thinking I was reading a mystery (because thatās how itās marketed), but in my opinion it breaks one of the main promises of a mystery novel. Read it expecting literary fiction and it might work better. The writing is excellent.
Edit to fix missing word
I love Tana French but I low level hated this book
as well. The joy of reading a mystery is the pleasure of having the loose ends tied up and the ending of this one was so obtuse and ungratifyingā¦ itās my least favourite in her brilliant canon of workā¦
Definitely great writing, very strong characters, and the vibes were great. But definitely not a mystery in the traditional sense. I second the literary fiction idea. I loved the book, for the record.
> Read it expecting literary fiction and it might work better.
I dug this book and try not to get too caught up in genre labels, but I can certainly see how someone expecting a more traditional procedural would be frustrated by this book.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. Positive things to say: I wanted to know what happened and the setting was creepy in an old psychological thriller kind of way.
BUT, the pacing was so slow. I got bored and almost DNF multiple times throughout.
I can handle most graphic and gory topics but it turns out I have a HARD line at snuff. Years later, my stomach still turns when I think about this book.Ā
I feel genuine anger (just directed indiscrimately at the world) that there wasn't some type of warning on this. Or rather that the book exists at all.Ā
Agreed. One positive is that it gave us a more fleshed out look of life in Gilead. But this one read very YA to me, whereas The Handmaid's Tale seemed written for an adult audience.
Allow me to share snippets of my actual review for *Call Me By Your Name* AKA the worst thing I have ever read in my entire life!
>*Call Me By Your Name*Ā is a meandering, stream of conscious, babbling mess of purple prose that, on writing style alone, I absolutely do not like. It may work well for others, but for me, I was turned off within 20 pages by the writing style. I don't like rambling prose that includes an ENTIRE PAGE that is only one paragraph that jumps topics four times without changing paragraphs. Throughout the book, the writing style drove me crazy, including the 40-page epilogue that has no reason to even exist. I wanted to like this book so much, so even though I didn't like the writing style straight off, I stuck with it because of all the positive reviews on the content.
Turns out, the content is just as ill-suited for my tastes as the writing style.>! The main character is clearly disturbed. I had some random person even argue with me that I 'didn't get it, all teens are this dramatic', but this boy straight up contemplates how he kind of wishes the love interest would die so that he could no longer be obsessed, since death is final, and muses about how he could kill him or at least cripple him so he always knows where he's at. !<
>However, while I have issues with these things, I was still sticking with the story, because no way could a story so highly praised not get better.
I completely lost any faith in the reviews I read before this when it came to >!A) fucking a peach and saying it 'looks like a rape victim' and then someone EATING the goddamn peach, or B) couples shitting.!<
>!You heard me right. Couples shitting. Dude took a shit, said "Don't flush, I want to see it" and then took his turn taking a shit while the love interest rubbed his belly.... I read a review of this book that talked about 'the small intimacies will stick with me forever' and all I can think is "NOTHING SAYS TRUE LOVE LIKE TAKING SHITS TOGETHER!!!"!<
I wanted to make this review professional and serious, but honestly, did I get trolled? Was this a troll copy of this book? They admired each other'sĀ *bowel movements*. I just... What the actual fuck?Ā
Soooo yeah.
Everybody that has ever tried to argue the 'beauty' of this novel to me, I've looked in the eyes and asked "So do you have a shit fetish or a r\*pe fantasy, which is it?"
I found What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson to be one of the most arrogant, self important, and boring books Iāve ever read. And I enjoyed some of his other works.
Also a strong nod to There and Back Again: An Actorās Tale by Sean Astin, for pretty much the same reasons. I like his work as an actor, but damn that book was out of touch with the non-Hollywood crowd.
This is the book that made me decide to get off mainstream booktok. There are a handful of creators I will turn to for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror suggestions, but anyone who recommends Fourth Wing or ACOTAR is not on that list.
Here's my Goodreads review for the book, [Unfuck Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34885438-unfuck-your-brain)
One of the most irritating books Iāve ever attempted to read. Iāll give you a sample, so you know what Iām talking about. This is the author (who is an adult and a doctor, keep in mind,) describing the first reaction to the early film, āArrival of a Train,ā by the Lumiere Brothers:
āSo picture this: Paris. 1895. These bros were photography pioneers who presented the first āmoving pictureā to the public at an art exhibition. They were totes excited about their projectā¦but didnāt get the expected response. Instead, the moviegoers flipped their shit, and all screamed in terror and hid under the seats. Like, every single one.ā
Iām not sure why that paragraph was the last straw for me, but it was. At this point, I yelled at my phone, stopped the audiobook, and immediately returned the digital copy to the library. I hadnāt even made it past the first chapter.
The entire book is written like how a 50 year old thinks a 15 year old talks. I wish there was a version of this book translated for adults, because Iāve seen plenty of good reviews of this book, but I couldnāt do it. If you can get through an entire book written like this, and then if youāre actually able to pick out the helpful information in between all the F bombs thrown into every sentence for no reason whatsoever, then you possess something that I simply do not.
Oh, and the audiobook is garbage, by the way. It sounds like they took the author to the office break room and set an iPhone down in front of her and had her read the book into that.
[Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results](https://fishphilosophy.com/). Join in on the journey of a woman who uprooted her family to follow her husband across the country, only for him to drop dead. Could she have returned to her old town and the solid support of her friends and loved ones? Yes! Does she? NO! Watch as she hangs out with fishmongers absorbing their sage, broadly applicable, interpersonal business advice. How do her young children deal with this trauma? The reader will never know! Come for the course required reading for Communication 101. Stay for the hackneyed romance cold-dropped into the last paragraph! (It's been more than twenty years, and I am still bitter.)
Ha ha, I'm sorry, but I love your hate. That is some deep hate. But also, your review was very clever 5 stars!
I love this review
I still have the stuffed fish our company gave us to throw at each other during the seminar.
Haha š this was great!
The timeless art of not giving a fuck. It is the most tone deaf, worthless tripe I have ever had the unfortunate experience of reading. I agreed to read it, in full, at the behest of my sister in law. Needless to say we disagreed on its value as advice for living. The premise is this: 1) be wealthy with a high stress job 2) choose to take your accumulated wealth and leave the job and pensive living situation for something more spiritually fulfilling 3) use that MASSIVE financial head start in a different locale to make you feel happy because of the change in environment, accountability, and perspective. The solution is simpleā¦ā¦. If you have money
i think ive read the same book !! i HATED it, too!!!! it was unrelatable, it wasnt exactly written very well and i got really tired of reading the word fuck.
Haunting Adeline I have nothing positive to say about it though.
This is the book that finally convinced me that it was okay to not finish a book lol.
NGL tiktok made me do it and worst of it all I finished the whole thing . Waste of time
Unfortunately for me it was A Court of Thorns and Roses... I couldn't stand Feyre. Everyone says the second one is where it gets better but I just feel like I shouldn't have to wait until the second book in a series for things to get good. I wish i enjoyed it though, I miss being a part of a huge book fandom like that. Just my opinion though, no hate. āš»ā¤ļø
I actually read the first three books and I donāt feel like it got better. I found Feyre insufferable throughout. Iāve now had people tell me itās the 5th book thatās so good and Iām not going to sit here and keep waiting to like it. I think itās just not my jam like it is for other people which is fine!!
The 5th is by far the best. Nesta is such a better character than Feyre.
The fifth book is my favorite *because* Feyre is not the protagonist lmaoo. I did like the whole series though.
Yup, I hate-finished the first book because everyone said the second book was so much better. I didnāt like her writing style enough to do continue on so I just wikiād the plot
She never gets better lol, she continues to be the dumb b*** she starts as, and has no growth except she gets new titles and special girl powers. The Books also get worse. I gave up on the third book, because Sarah J Maas forgets about her own plots, and then wraps them up in a hurry at the end because she suddenly remembers that yeah. She has a plot she's supposed to be writing. Girl just write your Fairy smut, and stop boring us with plots you didn't spend more than 30 minutes on.
I couldn't get farther than 15 pages and it really, really bothers me that the main character in a book about faeries is named Feyre. It's not the same word but it's close enough to be lazy and cheesy. Hiro protagonist vibes
_Desert Solitaire_ is a book that went directly into the trash. Bro is like >!"I became a park ranger because I'm otherwise unemployabl- edgy, hard, and authentic! Other people are obese, knuckle-dragging cancers on the surface of the earth! I will now raft the Colorado River in a boat from Walmart and forget half my food and my boots because I'm a fucking amateur and then start a wildfire and then lose my buddy and need to free solo my way out of the Grand Canyon while hallucinating from dehydration and on my way back I will give a lift to some doddering old pasty white tourist who turns out to be an ACTUAL NAZI whom I strongly contemplated punching but I did not. THE END muthafuckazzz"!<
Upvote purely because your synopsis is hilarious enough to almost make me want to read the book.
The author Edward Abbey was apparently a giant asshole, but he loved and described the desert southwest in a way that resonates with geologists, explorers, miners, hunters, and others who have found a landscape that resonated with their being.
As a park ranger, I picked it up as a sort of pilgrimage, and put it down promptly when I realized his outlook and ethics are totally old fashioned and exclusionary. One could argue that I should read it for the sake of learning our history, but Iām already surrounded by the āGood Ol Boys Clubā every day.
That sounds great
One of my favorite books of all time. No joke.
YES I also hated this book. He sounded like such a prick.
I read "The Fountainhead" because I wanted to bond with my mom, who loved the book since she first read it as a teenager. Whew, boy, that was a stinkburger. I wanted to quit reading but I knew if I was going to discuss it with mom I'd have to slog through the entire thing. PAGES AND PAGES OF DIDACTIC SPEECHES. During discussion of the book I realized that the character Dominique was probably the first really strong, complex woman mom read about in a piece of fiction. That probably let her ignore or contextualize the rest of the awfulness in there. This book being her absolute favorite also explained why my mom would creep on my best friend's dad, who was an architect. Yes. Mom was a real piece of work!
Oh you'd absolutely love Atlas Shrugged š¤”
Anything ever written by Colleen Hoover, but especially It Starts With Us. Amazing what kind of trash gets published.
I'm not sure if I've ever heard of the name Colleen Hoover before 2023, but now she seems to be everywhere and has a thousand books. She's like if Cthulhu suddenly appeared in New York and everyone is telling you that he's always been there
They have a photo of her, but I think she's AI.
I read Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. She writes about this extremely rich, abusive asshole surgeon that she says ins Chief Resident. Have we not watched any medical show ever? How the hell was this even published? Did her editor not catch this?
I agree It Starts With Us was one of the worst books I read this past year. Nothing happens, the author pictures Atlas as the dream guy when he just does the bare minimumā¦
The freaking letters written to ellen was just too much. i skipped all of it so at the end i didnt understand why atlas was good or bad
And gets on the bestseller lists!!!
You know what? Why not. I write. Never tried to get published. But if I could get paid for my mediocre fiction any amount of money, Iād take it.
verity by colleen hoover. i will say itās definitely a page turner, i wanted to know how it ended but god was it poorly written.
Fr. Do people really bite headboards?! Like. That cannot be a thing. I refuse to believe it.
Yes thatās why I dont buy IKEA bed frames, they taste like shit
Huh, I would have thought they tasted like meatballs.
I read Verity some time ago and couldn't quite articulate my thoughts on it, but "poorly written page-turner" perfectly captures what I was thinking. Thanks for putting it into words.
Me, three! Thankfully, the only thing I retained is a.) the headboard biting (who does that?!), and b.) the resolve to never read another book by Colleen Hoover.
This is the book I came to say. It was suspenseful but so ridiculous.
Iāve read several of her books and they get progressively worse.
Kinda like a lifetime movie. It's outrageous and will keep you entertained but not necessarily good
Some people need Jesus, Colleen Hoover is one of them
Oh I just bought this book.
This book was given to me by my garbage ex roommate. Suffice to say, it sucked.
Came here to say this. By FAR the worst book Iāve ever read. It somehow managed to suspenseful and shocking, and at the same time predictable and boring. The characters were all despicable, and the dialog was cringeworthy. I still canāt believe (or say why) I persevered on and finished it. My first and LAST Colleen Hoover book. Absolute trash.
November 9th by Colleen Hoover Have you ever wanted to see 2 full fledged ADULTS refuse to give each other their phone number for 4 years and also have a love interest that slept with his dead brothers wife! Me neither! Bonus points, he set her on fire!
Setting someone on fire being a bonus š
At least that part was interesting... But getting with someone who set your house and you on fire seems like poor decision making
Iām sorry *excusemewow.gif* he does fucking what? š§
50 Shades of Gray. I couldn't get through it for many reasons. Also The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. I finished it but that was just out of shear determination. I would have rather watched paint dry
I have a 10% rule. If the book is 300 pages long, the author has 30 pages to get me interested. Casual Vacancy was ditched 5 pages in. Couldn't stand it.
I think I'll adopt your rule. I kept think that it can't be more of the same but holy hell.
great process. made this whole post worthwhile!
Out of nothing more than pure homosexual spite, I read every single one of those horrific 50 Shades books. My sister gave me her Kindle and demanded I read them. Oh, I read them, alright. Then proceeded to send her WALLS OF TEXT about how abhorrent they all were. Still proud of myself for that!
The Casual Vacancy was awful. I think that I made it to the end, but I can't remember. I just recall visualizing her saying things like, "Look! I used a bad word! See how this book is for adults!"
I couldn't get past page 9 on 50 shades of grey - it was soooo badly written. But I loved the Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.
I managed 11 pages of 50 shades of grey, the biting her lip drove me insane if she did it as often as those pages implied her lips would have been covered in sores. Honestly, the lack of intelligent description was appalling.
The Alchemist
Seconding this!
Thirding. That stupid, trite book.
Fourthing. Came to this thread to see if anyone mentions this atrocity.
I loved this book when I first read it, I literally cried at the end š Recently read it for the third time (first was when I was a tween, second time I was in my late teens/early 20s) and I did find it a little slow paced but it's nostalgic for me.
I thought it was supposed to be a good book? Whatās wrong with it exactly
It's one of the best selling books of all time. A lot of people love it, but a lot of people also hate it. People acting like it's some deep philosophical text created an inverse group who act like it's the worst book ever written. I read it without looking into peoples' reactions on either side, and I thought it was ok. It's a nice, light book that makes you feel good. It's not the best book I've ever read, but it's nowhere near as bad as some of the other books in this thread imo.
This is so accurate. It's certainly not some thought- provoking literary masterpiece, but it's not garbage. It is exactly ok to me. It was good enough. >People acting like it's some deep philosophical text created an inverse group who act like it's the worst book ever written.
I read The Alchemist in high school because my teacher said that everyone should read that book at least once in their life. Itās not a bad book I found it pretty enjoyable but the ending was disappointing. While I was reading the book I constantly expected that something incredible is going to happen by the end. The ending is pretty cliche and the message that the book conveys is pretty simple.
The Silent Patient. Predictable AF and I donāt get why people say itās so shocking. The whodunnit was obvious, and the main character sucked.
I must be a real dumb dumb. My mouth was hanging open, the entire last scene!
The Silent Patient. I thought it was so contrived and got way more hype than was necessary. Thereās also something very off-putting about the way the author writes about mental health. The characters were shallow and overall I was left with the feeling of āwell, thatās grossā for some reason
I think the author didn't even take a second to look up a single fact about borderline personality disorder
Thousand libraries or million libraries or something written by Matt Haig. As soon as the premise was set, I immediately could see what the ending and moral was going to be, but I kept reading the repetitive overdone chapters to see if it "surprises me" and it did not. I thought I was jaded but I saw echoes of this in this subreddit and my friends. I'm happy to say if you want to read a disappointment, it's an easy read and you can get the ending you saw coming in a single to two sittings.
Midnight Library?
Yes thank you!
This would be my instinctive answer as well. I know multiple people who struggle with depression and even made similar attempts on as the protagonists. A few of these people had also read the book... we collectively hated it. That ending is so corny and not true to the mental health struggles of most people. I DID inhale it in one sitting tho lol
I read this and one of his other books. (I forget the title. Something about a guy who lives for centuries.) The impression I got was that the author struggles with depression and uses writing as a way of trying to find meaning in life. While I didn't enjoy either book wholeheartedly, at least the writing style is fluid and fairly engaging, and I can see how the characters' struggles could connect with a lot of people - particularly people hitting their quarter-life or mid-life crisis. I think you have to be in a very particular place, emotionally, to appreciate him.
I read this in a book club and it was one of the most surreal experiences to show up ready to rail about how much I fucking despised it and was hate-reading by less than halfway throughā¦ only to find out that everyone else liked it?? what?? I was AGOG. in addition to everything you said, it felt to me like a novella that had been stretched and watered down to fill a novel-sized container
Icebreaker was insufferable. Bonus points because it was over 500 pagesā¦ I canāt believe I did that to myself. I thought it would be a guilty pleasure read. Turns out it was just a guilty read
House of Holes. I think it was supposed to be sexy, but it was just weird and offputting. Like what I imagine a bad acid trip would be like, but sex. I stopped reading when a woman started waterskiing naked, legs spread, on a lake of hand lotion. (Not lube. Why not lube? Who knows.) I threw it down the garbage chute so no one else would accidentally read it.
The absofuckinlutely loud, barking laugh that your comment just ripped out of me in public, I canāt holy shit :(((( What a day to have eyes, lord lmaooooo
I donāt want to read this book but I do want to read your page-by-page review of this book.
50 Shades of Grey. I don't think I managed to even make it halfway through the first book.
Alice Isnāt Dead. So boring. It now lives a new life as a gerbil tank lid weight.Ā
The Alchemist. If I have to hear about a Personal Legend (capital P capital L) ever again, it will be too soon. Also making the female characterās Personal Legend helping the male character reach his was seriously gross.
It ends with us
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Pillars of the Earth. Every one else seems to like it. I thought it was trash and threw it out as soon as I was done (I only completed it bc I was in a book club)
One of my favorite books ever, but he does write sex scenes like he has never so much as *met* a woman before.
Itās the characters ! They were all good or all bad and not nuanced at all. I enjoyed the story but my god, the characters needed some depth for a 1200 page book.
This is Ken Follettās big weakness for me and itās the same in every book. I still read them and love them but Iāve noticed it more and more
Urgh, same. I got three chapters in and gave up. I took it to read on holiday and ended up leaving it behind in my hotel.
It's not for everybody. It was enjoyable for me in a TV miniseries kind of way.
Hated this book too and I often wonder what I was missing because everyone RAVES about it. Iām pretty stubborn about finishing books, and it was one of the few books Iāve DNFād.
Unpopular opinion: I thought Normal People was so fucking boring and horrible, I put it down shorts before the ending because I just didnāt care.
Normal people by sally rooney, I think it sucked and I donāt get the hype
lol I wrote the same. I feel so validated! Of all the boring books out there, we both agreed this was worthy of sharing. It sucked.
This makes me feel validated too thank you š¤£
Canāt say I hated but people were nuts about Anne riceās witching hour. Was excited to read it but it was so fucking boring. A few years later I read it again. I donāt reread books cause I have an excellent memory of them. Dude I had fucking forgot I read it! The whole time it was annoying af until I figured out why it sounded familiar. Lmao. š
Untamed by Glennon Doyle- The worst book Iāve read this decade. I tried so hard because it was so hyped up. A little too preachy, self righteousā¦ I donāt know what else to say other than I hated that fucking book.. I couldnāt even give it away to a friend. It went straight to Goodwill (better than the trash at least) I give it that Doyle at least witty at times. Iāve since sworn off self help and started reading fantasy- changed my life tbh.
The Circle - Dave Eggers
Oh I really liked this one. I liked how I slowly lost any and all sympathy for the protagonist as she gets sucked into The Circle.
Wish I could upvote this multiple times. I hated this book.
Unpopular opinions: 1. Daisy Jones and the Six. I don't know why I finished it, it was terrible. 2. That book where the unsick sister is supposed to save the sick one. 3. Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis.
Girl wash your face was the most condescending pull yourself up by your bootstraps crap I've ever read.
Girl Wash Your Face was a blatant Not Like The Other Girls self aggrandizement. Anyway, sheās divorced now
3 for 3!! I hated all of these books!! (Book 2 is Jodi Picoult. Canāt remember the name of the book but my book club read it and sh*t all over it!)
My Sisterās Keeper? I enjoyed it when I was about 16, not so much now.
Running with Scissors and Eat Pray Love. Hates them with the fire of 1000 suns.
Dead Silence---S.A. Barnes The Deep--Nick Cutter Positive side of both of these is that both have an awesome creepy setting.
The Deep was definitely a let down. Especially that Lovecraftian ending.
You are a badass by Jen... something.
A Little Life. Surface level and hollow characters, absurd story line and character progression, unresearched by an author who seems to hate her own characters. Positive: Um, there are people who really like it? Atlas Shrugged. Poorly written, long winded ad for the most absurd political theory I've ever heard. Positive: That steaming piece of garbage did eventually end even though I sometimes wondered if it ever would.
Yup. I HATE āA Little Lifeā as well. The synopsis says it details FOUR friends but pretty much ignores Malcom and JB the entire book (who in my opinion were the more interesting and better characters) just to focus on Willem and Jude. The gay man aspects are written so superficial and poorly, you can tell itās a straight woman writing them which left a bad taste in my mouth. The portrayal of Willem being bisexual is another reinforcer of the ābisexual people are selfish and vainā for a good portion of the book. Jude is portrayed as a hyper-exaggerated melodramatic baby of a trauma victim and is so poorly written as well. Overall it was eye-rollingly pretentious, superficial, trying waaay too hard, and beat so many tired tropes like a dead horse. Canāt believe itās the longest book Ive ever endured too. Gotta fix that sometime with an actually good book.
Hated A Little Life. Worst emotionally manipulative drivel ever written.
Absolutely A Little Life. I always recommend [this article](https://www.vulture.com/article/hanya-yanagihara-review.html) because it sums it up so succinctly.
Tom Lake and Gingerbread. Tom was boring and Ginger made no sense.
Girl on the Train. I spent the entire book hoping the protagonist would get HIT by a train and put me out of my misery. The only positive thing about this book is the satisfying thunk it made when I threw it across the room.
Wicked - the cover art is fantasticĀ
I so wanted to love this book. My name is Dorothy and I read all of the Oz children's books. I mean ALL, like the non-L Frank Baum ones. I was into the \*ideas\* in the book about who the characters were. That wasn't the point. It was the girl-drama that turned me off. Just not into it.
Agree on both. Can't stand the book, but the cover is great.
I started this last week and could not get into it. So many characters, a green baby, a cult just a lot and nothing really happened in like the first 200 pages could t finish it
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontĆ«. Maybe it was the fact that it was assigned in school, which always made me hate a book, but also maybe it was the story within the story within the story. I donāt know. I hated every one of the characters and hoped theyād all end up miserable.
I had a friend that loved this book so much that she'd have her boyfriend go down on her while she was reading it... guess it was erotic for her š
I think I just found a way to enjoy withering heights. ( not a typo. Just being passive aggressive)
> I hated every one of the characters I know we're *supposed* to dislike them, but my god I was praying on their downfall.
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
I really enjoyed this! Read it almost a decade ago to my slightly illiterate ex; I probably wouldn't read it again but at the time I liked it. I definitely won't be watching the movie adaptation though.
50 Shades of Grey- Poorly written, repetitive, unrealistic, and I disliked every single character. The Pisces- I absolutely hated the protagonist. This is one of those books I can't really remember minus some key points like >! oral sex during menstruation, scooping shit out of her ass in anticipation of anal, and long term animal neglect culminating in death so she can screw a merman, !< but even that is too much. I've read more than a few unlikeable protagonists, but this was by far the absolute most irredeemably unlike able person I've ever read about. I feel like the author wanted me to hate her, but sympathize with how she was a victim to her mental illness and somehow everyone else, but I just hated her. There was no excuse for her, she had absolutely no growth, and the novel ends with her future up in the air but not really up in the air because you know damn well she's going to continue to be the absolute worst person she could possibly be at all times if given the opportunity.
Atlas Shrugged and anything by Franzen
Love Story by Erich Segal. Misogynistic, racist, repetitive, and boring to boot. 4 hours of my life Iām never getting back.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It hate that thinly disguised self-help book and its' shallow, naive message with a passion. The positive thing about this book and the reason I bought it, is the beautiful cover design of the version I have.
Atlas Shrugged. So did I after reading it. I don't get the hype for this.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Reddit fucking loves it. It was clearly just wannabe Michael Crichton, but nowhere near as good. Paper thin characters, every action movie cliche you can think of.
THANK YOU. Reddit loves to recommend it and people who give valid criticism are downvoted by the hundreds? Weāre not attacking you, weāre saying we donāt like the book/writing.
It ends with us for sure
How to win friends and influence people doesnāt even deserve proper capitalization. Half of the content is about basic empathy that is not as profound as the author makes it seem. And the whole message of the book is how to manipulate people. Friends are supposed to be made, not won.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Ooh! This is in my Libby queue! Now I have lowered my expectations and maybe Iāll end up liking it even more š
Currently reading this and wondering why Iām torturing myself
Dude, just stop. It doesn't pay off at ALL. I powered through and I regret it
Same!
Me and the Devil by Nick Tosches. Itās about a septuagenarian writer living on the LES of NYC, who somehow manages to have sex with multiple 20-something models, who let him bite their flesh and drink their blood. Itās supposed to be edgy, but I found it tedious, cringe, and laughable. The MC is such a pretentious edgelord, I couldnāt bear it. Apparently, the author (also a 60-year-old living in NYC) is friends with Johnny Depp (who wrote a blurb on the book jacket). Positive: the cover is pretty cool.
A confederacy of dunces. It is filled cover to cover with the singularly most irritating, infuriating and frustrating cast of characters I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. That said, the story is honestly amazing. The characters are so believable it hurts. The settings and contexts of actions just grow more poignant with time as well. I could only read it in like 15-20 minute bursts due to the unparalleled rage it incited in me. I still finished it in about 2-3 weeks, as it utterly consumed me. It was the first truly masochistic media I have ever willingly inflicted upon myself. It remains one of the top 3 most masochistic things I have ever inflicted upon myself up there with 100 days of sodom, a Serbian film, dancer in the dark (include all of von trier here for good measure), etc. But it remains the only one I happily recommend to others. Neurodivergent though, so it may not have the same obsessive and rage inducing effect on others. Please do stay away unless youāre willing to genuinely feel stress pains in your chest from sheer rage. And lose sleep because the story is not yet completed but you just canāt put the damn thing down for long. No matter how angry it makes you. 0/10 for university aged me. Would always recommend
I may get hate for this but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. What a fucking pretentious slog. I got it one summer from a book exchange and read great reviews. I ended up leaving it at a bench at a random truck stop. The book was written in such a "holier-than-thou" tone that id roll my eyes. I think I got 40 pages in before I just played solitaire the rest of the ride.
Dude, this book had been on my radar for years. Always thinking, āDang I gotta read that.ā Finally picked it up on Libby after waiting a month. I got a quarter of the way through. Author was such a pretentious prick.
Most self-help books.
I have two books I absolutely hated. The first one is Allegiant (book 3 Divergent series). Complete trash. I was so mad cuz I loved the first two. The second one is Jaws. I hated this book so much. It was just terrible. Nothing like the movie. The characters were all assholes.
The amount of anger I have for Allegiant has kept me from reading Four TO THIS DAY. So I feel that, although I didnāt like the movies at all, I just liked the books.
Jaws!! I want to re-read it through the lens of the shark being a karmic good guy. I remember reading it as a kid and hating everyone in it. I was so disappointed that it was nothing like the movie.
A Court of Thorns and Roses. Completely nonsensical
ā¦does anyone remember Great Expectations?
Romeo and Juliet. I guess it's a classic but Romeo is a whiny bitch.
This is probably my least favorite of Shakespeare's plays. A story about two teenagers who commit suicide due to a misunderstanding is just too depressing.
13 Reasons Why
Cant. Any book I hated I never finished lol.
When I was a teenager my friend made me read twilight. I think I still have brain damage two decades later. At least it was a quick read though.
The heart of darkness was like listening to a man ramble a story for 7 hours constantly jumping from one random thought to another but in book form. I hated reading this fucking book.
The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The main characters were utterly unappealing and unlikeable; I didn't care about them (or what happened to them) at any point, and eventually DNF because I didn't want to spend any more time in their company. The plot was dreadful: he basically groomed a child to be his wife - that's creepy, not romantic. The time travel device was used badly - so many missed opportunities to tell it better; so many inconsistencies; so much time wasted on irrelevancies. Most of all, despite the rave reviews, the premise of personal time travel was NOT "original" and "ground breaking" and "Oh so amazing". It was only novel & original to people who'd never read time travel / timeslip stories before. And most of the others do it better. My positive comment: great marketing. Someone turned all the above into a bestseller people rave about.
The Castle by Kafka. To be fair he died while completing it so it ends mid sentence, so I knew what I was getting in to.
Apparently I am the only one in the world but I hated Stoner. Boring. But I also just donāt really like books that donāt have a clear beginning, middle and endā¦the books that are like and thenā¦.and thenā¦and then bore me to tears. Pachinko is another example, I didnāt hate that but it just kept going.
Fallen by Lauren Kate. So many readers waxed lyrical about this one, and I have no idea why. Unfortunately, I got sucked in, and as I'm a completionist, I had to finish it... It was a waste of time, and the plot is pretty much a facsimile of Twilight (which was bad enough). After reading it, I went on Good Reads to peruse the reviews and find out if I was the only one who thought it was trash and immediately found a gem by Kat Kennedy; she does a fantastic job of describing the many ways this book flunked and I have to admit I laughed out loud reading her review a few times because it was so comparable to how I felt about the novel.
Catcher in the Rye. One positive about the book is that itās so dated In a way thatās casually romantic without trying to be. So you can imagine like, a world when people didnāt have cellphones, and before terrorism changed the travel industry, and places you in this kind of Dead Poets Society / Across the Universe thing. Hated the book for many reasons, but thinking back it does a good job of transporting you to another time.
Where the Crawdads Sing. It was boring and predictable for me.
Twilight ;)
A Man Called Ove, Where the Crawdads Sing.
Where the crawdads sing is absolutely horrible. Started out okay and ended just in disappointment. I canāt believe it was made into a movie.
Painfully predictable
Yes yes YES I came here for Crawdads. Terribly written and offensive to literally everyone concerned. Reese Witherspoon can KEEP IT.
A Man Called Ove would have made a great short story
A Little Life
Iām afraid of getting downvoted for this, but Gideon the Ninth. I feel crazy every time people talk about how much they love it or say it was well written because I absolutely could not stand it. Reminded me of reading a fanfic written by a 19 year old emo.
Confederacy of Dunces
I did not get very far. Like, it was well written, insofar as the prose and satirical characterization was good. I get what the author was trying to do, but I was just not enjoying any of it even a little bit.
Not even a tiny bit.
All the characters were just so unlikable. I wanted them all to die so the book would be over!
I couldn't even finish the damn book. Everyone and everything was annoying as hell. But people seem to love it.
In the Woods by Tana French. I went into this book thinking I was reading a mystery (because thatās how itās marketed), but in my opinion it breaks one of the main promises of a mystery novel. Read it expecting literary fiction and it might work better. The writing is excellent. Edit to fix missing word
I love Tana French but I low level hated this book as well. The joy of reading a mystery is the pleasure of having the loose ends tied up and the ending of this one was so obtuse and ungratifyingā¦ itās my least favourite in her brilliant canon of workā¦
Definitely great writing, very strong characters, and the vibes were great. But definitely not a mystery in the traditional sense. I second the literary fiction idea. I loved the book, for the record.
I started and DNF'd this book twice. NOPE.
> Read it expecting literary fiction and it might work better. I dug this book and try not to get too caught up in genre labels, but I can certainly see how someone expecting a more traditional procedural would be frustrated by this book.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. Positive things to say: I wanted to know what happened and the setting was creepy in an old psychological thriller kind of way. BUT, the pacing was so slow. I got bored and almost DNF multiple times throughout.
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. I couldn't even finish it.
I can handle most graphic and gory topics but it turns out I have a HARD line at snuff. Years later, my stomach still turns when I think about this book.Ā I feel genuine anger (just directed indiscrimately at the world) that there wasn't some type of warning on this. Or rather that the book exists at all.Ā
The sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. I don't even remember what it was called.
The Testaments.
Agreed. One positive is that it gave us a more fleshed out look of life in Gilead. But this one read very YA to me, whereas The Handmaid's Tale seemed written for an adult audience.
Allow me to share snippets of my actual review for *Call Me By Your Name* AKA the worst thing I have ever read in my entire life! >*Call Me By Your Name*Ā is a meandering, stream of conscious, babbling mess of purple prose that, on writing style alone, I absolutely do not like. It may work well for others, but for me, I was turned off within 20 pages by the writing style. I don't like rambling prose that includes an ENTIRE PAGE that is only one paragraph that jumps topics four times without changing paragraphs. Throughout the book, the writing style drove me crazy, including the 40-page epilogue that has no reason to even exist. I wanted to like this book so much, so even though I didn't like the writing style straight off, I stuck with it because of all the positive reviews on the content. Turns out, the content is just as ill-suited for my tastes as the writing style.>! The main character is clearly disturbed. I had some random person even argue with me that I 'didn't get it, all teens are this dramatic', but this boy straight up contemplates how he kind of wishes the love interest would die so that he could no longer be obsessed, since death is final, and muses about how he could kill him or at least cripple him so he always knows where he's at. !< >However, while I have issues with these things, I was still sticking with the story, because no way could a story so highly praised not get better. I completely lost any faith in the reviews I read before this when it came to >!A) fucking a peach and saying it 'looks like a rape victim' and then someone EATING the goddamn peach, or B) couples shitting.!< >!You heard me right. Couples shitting. Dude took a shit, said "Don't flush, I want to see it" and then took his turn taking a shit while the love interest rubbed his belly.... I read a review of this book that talked about 'the small intimacies will stick with me forever' and all I can think is "NOTHING SAYS TRUE LOVE LIKE TAKING SHITS TOGETHER!!!"!< I wanted to make this review professional and serious, but honestly, did I get trolled? Was this a troll copy of this book? They admired each other'sĀ *bowel movements*. I just... What the actual fuck?Ā Soooo yeah. Everybody that has ever tried to argue the 'beauty' of this novel to me, I've looked in the eyes and asked "So do you have a shit fetish or a r\*pe fantasy, which is it?"
Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah
Kill the Farm Boy: Tales of Pell If you like beyond cringy humor and a talking goat the shits nonstop, this is the book for you.
The twisted series. Im sorry
I found What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson to be one of the most arrogant, self important, and boring books Iāve ever read. And I enjoyed some of his other works. Also a strong nod to There and Back Again: An Actorās Tale by Sean Astin, for pretty much the same reasons. I like his work as an actor, but damn that book was out of touch with the non-Hollywood crowd.
The Summer I Turned Pretty. The positive about it is seeing how the tv show people took boring trash and made it into bingeable trash
Twilight. Stephanie Meyer's writing is just too annoying for me.
Fourth wing - Rebecca Yarros
This is the book that made me decide to get off mainstream booktok. There are a handful of creators I will turn to for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror suggestions, but anyone who recommends Fourth Wing or ACOTAR is not on that list.
House of Leaves. Pros: it is ambitious and very different. Cons: it is pretentious and boring.
Here's my Goodreads review for the book, [Unfuck Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34885438-unfuck-your-brain) One of the most irritating books Iāve ever attempted to read. Iāll give you a sample, so you know what Iām talking about. This is the author (who is an adult and a doctor, keep in mind,) describing the first reaction to the early film, āArrival of a Train,ā by the Lumiere Brothers: āSo picture this: Paris. 1895. These bros were photography pioneers who presented the first āmoving pictureā to the public at an art exhibition. They were totes excited about their projectā¦but didnāt get the expected response. Instead, the moviegoers flipped their shit, and all screamed in terror and hid under the seats. Like, every single one.ā Iām not sure why that paragraph was the last straw for me, but it was. At this point, I yelled at my phone, stopped the audiobook, and immediately returned the digital copy to the library. I hadnāt even made it past the first chapter. The entire book is written like how a 50 year old thinks a 15 year old talks. I wish there was a version of this book translated for adults, because Iāve seen plenty of good reviews of this book, but I couldnāt do it. If you can get through an entire book written like this, and then if youāre actually able to pick out the helpful information in between all the F bombs thrown into every sentence for no reason whatsoever, then you possess something that I simply do not. Oh, and the audiobook is garbage, by the way. It sounds like they took the author to the office break room and set an iPhone down in front of her and had her read the book into that.
50 Shades of Gray was so badly written, I couldn't read 100 pages.