General Discussion

Animal Farm. It was the first book I ever read against my will.(it was required for the class) It was just terrible imo. Yeah I get the significance but it was just boring.

@TheArcaneKitsune

I remember it also had some really ham-fisted environmental themes that made me groan. I'm pretty sure it was a younger teen book, and I just always grumble when they put political/controversial themes like that in books. If it's like undertones? Fine? But the author just hammered it in over and over. It kind of sucked the joy out of the book to be constantly reminded "the polar bears are going to die and the dragons can't live here anymore because climate change =( also this is happening IRL too, lol". I felt the same way with the Artemis Fowl series.

Ok... A loooot of sexual material, I'll try not to be graphic, but if you're upset by that sort of thing you probably shouldn't read my rant.

Dragonriders of Pern series, by Anne, and later Todd, McCaffrey.

Pros: Dragons. Alien dragons that are telepathically and emotionally bonded with one human. They're kind of adorable. Also, they serve a great purpose in the books, in other words, they're the only reason people can live on that planet, because this all-consuming alien creature called Thread falls out of the sky and eats everything but rock and metal.

There are also tiny versions of dragons, which are actually the predecessors of the dragons themselves! Settlers modified the "dragonets" into "firelizards" more suited for an omnivorous diet, and then into "dragons" for lifelong bonding and riding, and then into "watch whers" which were reported to be botched attempts at scaled dragons. Except that was just a coverup to keep people from panicking because, oh, Thread actually does fall at night.

Cons: It feels.... too "progressive" at times. The older I get the more I realize how disturbing some of the Weyr/dragonrider life is from a sexual standpoint. I actually had a huge rant but I decided to trim it down because I think it was too much.

I should say, I don't hate Anne's books, but Todd's I definitely do not like. So, yeah, I'll just say the series feels kind of **** -y at different points.

The Old Man and the Sea, Of Mice and Men.. mostly because I was forced to read them in school and they are boring.

Also these 50 shades bullcrap books because they pretend to be BDSM when it's not. As I'm somewhat into these things I just facepalm whenever people mention them or use them seriously into journalism(really.. there are proper books if you want to do research god...)

First and foremost, let me start off by saying that I'm a pretty patient person. I've actually liked or found some redeeming qualities in multiple books listed in this thread. It is pretty difficult for me to dislike a book, IMO.

Now, with all that said, there is one book that I can't stand (outside of religious texts)...


Name: The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Pros: Beautiful world. Lots of imagination. Great story.

Cons: Crammed full of unimportant details about various things that really don't influence the story line AT ALL.

Rant: Now, don't get me wrong; details are great! They really help you imagine the world and the characters in the books. However, I REALLY don't need to know the backstory of the tree that was used to create this one board in the floor of the inn that some of the characters are in for a short amount of time. HOW IS THAT RELEVANT TO THE STORY?!?!?! Spoiler Alert: It isn't. The saying "too much of a good thing" totally applies here. Details are great, but the author WAY over did it.

I was given this book as a gift roughly 10 years ago. Accidentally lost it while moving. Haven't even been sad about it once.

Name: Eon/Eona (hated both)

Pros: Can you say wasted potential?? Like there was this amazing "celestial dragons bonded to people and theres one missing and he comes back oh no wait he's a she and she's bonded to a girl" and they could have done So. Much. With that, like no kidding it could have been amazing

Cons: So its been awhile since I read this and I'll probably miss a lot of stuff but I just remember hating the romance subplot thing. I don't think it was even a love triangle but I think the main character fell in love with this dude who was a total butt and her entire character was abandoned just for this and it felt rushed and ugh by the end I really really regretted reading it.


Name: Oh man I really don't remember, if someone knows please tell me

Pros: DUDE THIS BOOK HAD THE MOST AMAZING CONCEPT EVER LIKE OMG WOW dragons that stole color by flying over it and turned people into bronze and??? wow?? it was really awesome

Cons: Literally everything else. The plot was rushed unmemorable and unclear and took random turns. Also there was this weird dose of real life stuff in what should have been a purely fantasy book (and by real life stuff I mean international politics??). Random things happened that didn't make sense (I'm not sure if I remember this right but I'm pretty sure the book started when the main character looked too hard into this book about Nepal and was suddenly there. Oh yeah and the whole thing was in Nepal, nothing against it but it was a core theme of the book yet there was no real reason for it that I remember). The ending was really really weird, something to do with the invisible prince's birth causing the dragons to exist and he did something and that was that nbd like they killed thousands of people but its okay because he had his color back. Also for some reason I think he looked exactly the same as the main character for no discernable reason??? Oh and this may just be me but it was like one of those things where you think theres gonna be gay representation but nope. Like the summary was all like "two dudes go on an epic journey discover a connection between one another" or something like that and the whole book it kinda seemed like the might get together and I was like "oh man cool! finally something other than straight characters in a book!" but no. There had to be the straight romantic subplot. And tbh if it were only for the things I had just mentioned I probably would have still liked the book. It would have gotten a mediocre rating from me but the premise it was on was just so cool and unique that it wouldn't have been that bad. But no. The author just had to stick romance into this. Ugh. It was the most rushed and stupid romantic subplot/love triangle thing in the history of YA fiction. The romantic interest, this rebel leader girl, started off kind of mary-sue-ey but tolerable, like at least she had a character at this point right? And everything went downhill from there. First of all she was introduced towards the very end of the book and any interactions with her seemed rushed and bluh. As well as that her character just disappeared. Poof. She went from kind of cool to completely forgettable outside of the random sex scene she was in in the middle of a freaking snowstorm. Ugh. Anyways.

@TheBlueWheaten:

Are you SURE that's a real book? A real PUBLISHED book?

It sounds like either a piece of terrible fanfiction or a thirteen-year-old's first attempt at writing a novel.

I don't really hate any books aside from the obvious ones that most of the human population hates (Twilight, FSoG, etc), but there've been a couple that annoyed me.

Basically, any book where a cool concept is tarnished by a forced love triangle will irk me to no end.

Also, books where the protag solves their problems by becoming overpowered.

I actually really disliked The Book Thief. Everyone was just drooling over it and hyping it up and I decided to go for it and nothing... happened? I really like how Death narrates the book (and their preoccupation with lists, which was kinda adorable. Can Death be adorable?) but I felt like nothing really happened during the book. It wasn't absolutely horrific, per say, but it's so over-hyped that I ended up disliking it anyway.

I think that's the reason that I end up not liking a lot of books. Life of Pi, Percy Jackson, a great deal of classics that I have to read for school, all have one thing in common- Everyone drools all over them. Most of them ain't even bad, they're just uninteresting and I dislike having things shoved down my throat.

I absolutely cannot STAND Ender's Game. It feels so full of itself and the fact that Orson Scott Card is a horrible person is just icing on the cake. (Also, that line about there not being many girls at the Battle School because of "how they're evolved" made me FUME. Nah, there's only one girl cause f how you write female characters, jerk.)

oh, i have another.

it's the selection trilogy by kiera cass. spoilers. it's basically the hunger games but instead of killing, you have a bunch of girls who are all pining over this prince (who has been physically abused all his life, but this is only ever glossed over once in book two or three) in a competition to win his hand in marriage and become queen.

pros: relatively short books. none make it over 350 pages, if i remember correctly. lots of nice girls, one mean girl who gets a redemption arc in the last book. very fluffy and cute, and a great plot idea.

cons: it's dystopian. it has a love triangle for the first two books. you can tell that the quality of the writing starts sucking in the last two books. the main girl character is literally an idiot. she's so dumb. she'll go off and do **** that ruins everything and then asks if it's a bad idea later. there's also these weird groups of rebels (north rebels who are peaceful about their nonsense an southern ones who only want death and destruction), which main girl's dad is a part of (???). also there's a murder spree at the very end of the last book, in which the mean girl is shot in the head, and both the prince's parents are killed, so that the prince is free to marry the main girl.

the selection itself was great. i'd recommend it as a book hangover book. the second book, the elite, is where the series starts to suck, what with the main girl's stupidity and the forced romance and terrible writing and all. the third book, the one, is so bad. literally every fanfic writer who writes for this trilogy rewrites the one. it's that bad. it's so bad that a murder spree takes place in the very end of this delightfully fluffy, short little trilogy that eliminates all the obstacles preventing the prince and main girl from hooking up.

and there's more than just the selection. kiera wrote a book called the heir, which is about the main couple's kid, who is having a selection of her own. i'm not gonna waste my time reading it though.