General Discussion

Goodness me, has no one said Ella Enchanted? Granted, the movie was half decent, but the book was atrocious. It's been a loooong time since I've read it, but my hatred remains (Even though, funny enough, my absolute favourite book ever is written by the same author and takes place in the same universe, essentially having the same antagonist, too...)

Pros: Fairy-tale-esque story. Cute heroine, even if she was a bit dumb.

Cons: Spoiler here. Literally, the protagonist would've had a perfectly good life, her gift curse of obedience could've been gone, if just wasn't obedient once in her life. Doesn't matter what it was, just don't obey and eventually the curse will give up I guess? After all the crap she goes through in the book, what happens at the end? She just doesn't say 'yes' when demanded to and poof, the curse is gone.
Also story is boring and stereotypical prince charming is typical.
All the interesting things that happen in the movie aren't in the book. And a couple critical plot points in the book are completely altered in the movie because even the directors knew that it would be a darn boring movie should those critical decisions be made.
Like, I get I'm comparing the book to the movie, (And maybe I'm biased because of that) but the book was so incredibly dull and the ending was the absolute worst next to "It was all just a dream" like, this could've all been avoided if you didn't obey just once and how does that even work anyway, the curse just gives up?


Edit: Specials (Book 3 of Uglies Sereis)
The Uglies series was actually so good- well, the first book and half of the second. It's a YA novel, and I read it while I was a YA, and liked it. I read the first, which included a simple action and a simple love triangle. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the second. Second was okay, it ditched the first love triangle and introduced a second, more annoying one, but the action was still there.
Third book, and holy smokes. Specials was named right because what a special snowflake the protagonist became. They brought back the first love triangle, thus including the protagonist in two love triangles AND world saving action, as opposed to self-saving action and one love triangle in the first two books. I couldn't even finish the last one, the action became so superficial and the characters were so cringe worthy, the love was stupid and only the protag seemed to matter to anything at all.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy. Went digging through the library's YA novels in search of proof that there's a novel put there that doesn't revolve around romance. 0/10 would not attempt this endeavor again. Sure, one or two didn't have romance so much as needless teenage crushes that should be irrelevant to the plot at hand, and one even had a canonically diverse cast of characters (but a really bad plot), buuut...there were two. Two horrible ones. I'm never touching those books again.

Name: "Vindigo" or something like that.
Pros: Villains! So many villains. They're seeking revenge on the stereotypical superheroes of the world, who wronged them so long ago but are practically untouchable due to the public's adoration. Sure, their means are questionable, but it was a solid story and was enjoyable until the last two or three chapters.
Cons: The heroes swooped in to save the day nonetheless. The "villains" had kidnapped five kids, hoping that their potential superpowers would give them an edge over the "heroes", but the kids turned on their captors at the last minute. Why? Who knows. They were presented solid evidence of the wrongdoings of the league of heroes, but still they doubted everything. And the worst part? The last page shows the "main" character (it was told from five different viewpoints, but he had the most chapters, so there we go) flying in the skies alongside the rest of the heroes while the villains were tossed into jail. They hadn't done anything wrong. They simply opposed the views of the league, who thought that superpowers should only be natural, and were forced into hiding because they artificially recreated powers in themselves and doughy crime next to the heroes. Yet they were still persecuted.
Grgh.

Name: "The Shadow Society".
Pros: Protagonist girl discovers she's actually from a different dimension and is part of a persecuted species called the Shade, which is pretty cool because she can walk through walls and stuff once she finds out.
Cons: Stereotypical Hot Male shows up at the beginning, seduces girl long enough to confirm she's part of the Shade, and then arrests her and leads her to his own dimension. She was unaware of being a Shade in the first place (insert convenient orphan backstory here), and so wouldn't have caused harm in her own dimension, for starters. Next, after being used as bait to find the location of Shade headquarters, she ends up FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE MAN WHO HAS REPEATEDLY FOUGHT HER AND HAS TOLD .0000018% OF THE TRUTH AT ANY POINT IN THEIR CONVERSATIONS, and I believe they get married at the end. Not to mention the fact that she betrays her entire species just to get Stereotypical Hot Male to like her.
No. Please no.

Just remembered another one.

Name: "I am Number Four" the the subsequent dozens of sequels

Pros: So many! Near alien race, superpowers, interesting magic, shapeshifting critters, it seemed super cool when I first started. Still following the series, albeit lazily, because I still care about a handful characters.

Cons: So very many. First of all, let's start with this mysterious Four. Who has the flattest personality I have ever been forced to witness. He falls in love with the pretty girl, whose boyfriend is the school jock (naturally), and this of course does against everything his guardian says to do. This leads to A big fight, very bad, new character shows up and is infinitely cooler than the pile of garbage that is Four, end book. Well then.
Only now, Super-cool female ninja who just came in is flirting with somebody else, making an uncomfortable soon-to-be-canon love triangle between them. Third part of the triangle ends up being the same species as these aliens as well. So when there were supposed to be NINE aliens from this race remaining, there's actually eleven (I refuse to go into detail explaining just how ridiculous this is getting, stocking up extras left and right to pull out for a shock factor) and at least one is related to their mortal enemies.
what
what is going on
pls help

Oh god, I feel like this thread was made for me.

I'm gonna get on the hate-train and say Maximum Ride is definitely one of the worst series I've ever read. When it first came out, I read it and I actually liked it a lot! I mean, who doesn't wish they had wings and could fly you know? I love series with characters that have wings/powers/curses... etc, but especially wings haha. Very, very cool idea, extremely bad execution.

I made it through the first three books (i don't even remember the plot anymore it was so long ago lol), but I kinda just... didn't like it anymore. I never liked Angel. At all. I think we were supposed to like her or something, but she was the biggest Mary Sue I've ever read. Ever. Just... wow. I couldn't get over how annoying she was.

I also remember really wanting a redemption arc or spinoff starring Ari, because honestly, he was the most interesting character IMO. What? Wolfmonsterboy with inferiority complex, seriously deep seated psychological issues, and ANGST. YES PLS. Then he was killed off and I just... felt kinda letdown and lost interest in reading it. Plus, the older I got, the more atrocious I realized the plot and writing was, ugh. The plot didn't take itself seriously, so I didn't either.

I never really cared for Eragon. I don't exactly HATE it, but it was kinda... meh. It was very dry writing, and I was disappointed in the severe lack of dragons considering, y'know, it's supposed to be about them or something. I remember leafing through a lot of the long ***. dry writing and atrocious romance just thinking 'OK, maybe there's a Saphira chapter next. GOD DAMMIT ERAGON SHE DOESN'T LOVE YOU JUST GET BACK ON UR DRAGON AND DO GO DO SOMETHING INTERESTING ALREADY!'

lkjs;dlkjf I also just could not understand why there were so many chapters about training, Jeebus, like, I can only take so many chapters of the main character meditating and tree-hugging god. It felt super pretentious and rubbed me wrong a bit. Also, I kind found most of the side-plots and characters to be very uninteresting. A lot of the time I was wishing that the plot would go back to what Eragon was doing, and when it was focusing on him, I wished he was doing something else. I didn't even bother to read the last book.

Those are the two series I didn't like that I read voluntarily.

Like, 99.99% of the books I read for school were dreadful.

Catcher in the Rye? Very dry and very pretentious. WHY IS THIS BOOK FAMOUS IT'S SO BORING.

Glass Menagerie? What was this even supposed to be about again I forgot. Super boring, hated it.

Life of Pi? It was... okay. I liked the twist at the end, but it was still kind of boring and depressing. Read once, that's all the times I ever need or have to read it.

Yellow Raft in Blue Water? Super, super boring and unengaging. It was a class read, but I re-read that book quite a few times because I was reading it ahead of the class and I stil never liked it. It kinda felt like drama for the sake of drama. Like, I remember half the time thinking that these people just needed to sit down and have a real deep heart to heart and that would actually solve like 99% of everybody's problems.

I've never bothered to read Hunger Games because I dislike dystopian stuff, plus, I could already tell what all the tropes were going to be.

I was a much more avid reader of books in the past compared to now because so many authors and 'bestseller' books are such utter trash and have almost always been such massive disappointments. I almost exclusively read fanfic and manga now. Why? Cuz I don't waste any money if it's something I don't like. Don't like the plot? Hate the characters? Bad writing? Just click that tiny little 'x' on the tab you're on and it's gone forever, nothing lost save some time.

This is a shameless plug, but since there seems to be a lot of Maximum Ride disappointment, I highly recommend reading a new manga coming out called Birdmen. Very similar idea, but much MUCH better characters and much better writing/character development. I don't even like comparing it to MR, but if you liked the 'clueless kids with wings' idea, I highly recommend it, it needs more love.

@gazehound:

You should've sat that book out.

*ba-dum-ching*

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
Pros: um... the hard cider in snow was pretty cool
Cons: Boring. And over-analyzed by my 10th grade English teacher. I could not stand the book, I didn't care if Gene went to war or about his jealousy/thinly veiled closet attraction to Phinny that led to the "major action". Just. No. Humdrum

Hemingway. Anything by Ernest Hemingway. Yes, he is one of those "great American authors", but his prose is way too compact for my liking. Adverbs are not bad things! Seriously! Had to read "The Sun Also Rises" for school, and the only good thing was the almost-fight in the bar - which was quickly diffused and thus deprived the book of any actual conflict. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was slightly better - the plot moved along much more. I don't think he should be on the curriculum for high school - I don't think high schoolers have had the life experience to find his works interesting and/or meaningful. I certainly did not. Maybe now I'd like it better, but given how much I enjoy turns of phrase, probably not.

The Anita Blake books, by Laurell K. Hamilton. These are a love/hate relationship, because I adore the world she's built for Anita, and the plots, when and where they exist, but they've gone from urban fantasy to paranormal romance to poorly written smut - not as bad as 50SOG, but that's because the author has some experience with the subject matter. I really, really dislike it when that stuff takes the bulk of the book, and the plot is rushed and crammed in between those scenes, because I LIKE the vampire politics and were-creature heirarchy and zombie-raising and things. Outbreak of new zombie plague that doesn't act like the zombies Anita usually deals with? Awesome, let's find out why. Except, oh, wait, no, we have to have the steamy scenes while Anita's main squeeze's DAD is in the hospital with the zombie plague. Good grief! Solve the plot, then reward yourself with the steamy stuff! But I think what I hate most about them is that, for all that I rant, I STILL READ THEM. There's just enough of the good to keep me looking for the next book, like maybe THIS one will be more like the first few in terms of solid plot and pacing and such. But I'm always disappointed. And still, I read.

@MythGriffin24 Oh no, it's a real book. It's published. I'm just as surprised as you are.

@Ruination Specials is alright; it's not in the league of Uglies or Pretties, to be sure, but it's okay. I like how it closes the series and sets the world up for change that has a lot of potential for fanfic and stuff or just... imagining.

Never, ever read Extras. Dear god. Ava annoyed me so much.

Twilight.

There's a reason it got rejected so many times