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TOPIC | Horrible books you've read?
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I'm probably gonna get run out on a rail for this one, but:

Life of Pi. The weird thing is, I liked the book right up until the last... three pages? And then my brain decided on the most petty reason to retroactively hate the rest. At the very end of the book, two characters are asking the main character about the events from his youth (I suppose to clear any lingering questions up for the audience), but these guys are so obtuse that they end up asking him to spell out every last nuance of the novel. Like the reader is so stupid that they couldn't figure out that the animals in the boat were stand-ins for the humans that every single instance-- the zebra, the hyena, etc. --had to be explained by a terrible question-and-answer session. It felt like the "but you were there! and you were there!" from the Wizard of Oz, but dumb.

Other books so terrible that I never bothered finishing:

Everyone Brave is Forgiven, by Chris Cleave. I know the point of the book is that Mary is supposed to overcome her prejudice, but hoooooly cow, the first few times she started musing on some of her students that weren't just carbon copies of the others, I had to set the book down and stare off into space for a while. Eventually, I just gave up all together. Also, the jam-obsessed bachelors scene in the very beginning was just... poorly written? Funny, in a 'I guess we all know people like this' way, but the dialogue felt forced in a way that broke the flow. I know the book is based on irl letters from the war, so I feel bad at my 'cringe' reaction, but also... nah, man, I don't want to like any of these characters.

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. Had to read it for college. Got a little more than halfway through, and noped right the heck out of there. SparkNotes'd the rest. Not gonna finish that. Ever. Cripes, who thought that was a good novel for incoming freshmen to read and discuss in groups for 'class bonding time.'
I'm probably gonna get run out on a rail for this one, but:

Life of Pi. The weird thing is, I liked the book right up until the last... three pages? And then my brain decided on the most petty reason to retroactively hate the rest. At the very end of the book, two characters are asking the main character about the events from his youth (I suppose to clear any lingering questions up for the audience), but these guys are so obtuse that they end up asking him to spell out every last nuance of the novel. Like the reader is so stupid that they couldn't figure out that the animals in the boat were stand-ins for the humans that every single instance-- the zebra, the hyena, etc. --had to be explained by a terrible question-and-answer session. It felt like the "but you were there! and you were there!" from the Wizard of Oz, but dumb.

Other books so terrible that I never bothered finishing:

Everyone Brave is Forgiven, by Chris Cleave. I know the point of the book is that Mary is supposed to overcome her prejudice, but hoooooly cow, the first few times she started musing on some of her students that weren't just carbon copies of the others, I had to set the book down and stare off into space for a while. Eventually, I just gave up all together. Also, the jam-obsessed bachelors scene in the very beginning was just... poorly written? Funny, in a 'I guess we all know people like this' way, but the dialogue felt forced in a way that broke the flow. I know the book is based on irl letters from the war, so I feel bad at my 'cringe' reaction, but also... nah, man, I don't want to like any of these characters.

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. Had to read it for college. Got a little more than halfway through, and noped right the heck out of there. SparkNotes'd the rest. Not gonna finish that. Ever. Cripes, who thought that was a good novel for incoming freshmen to read and discuss in groups for 'class bonding time.'
Please no one kill me

Harry Potter series. God DAMN was that a bad series. It was just the same thing over and over and over again. Old teacher gets fired, new teacher is weird, weird/bad things happen, the squad goes and does things and barely gets a slap on the wrist even though he endangered A LOT of people because he’s ‘the special kid’, the squad deafeats whatever that thing is, blah blah book over. Not to even mention all the crap J.K is trying to pull these days. Sheesh.
Please no one kill me

Harry Potter series. God DAMN was that a bad series. It was just the same thing over and over and over again. Old teacher gets fired, new teacher is weird, weird/bad things happen, the squad goes and does things and barely gets a slap on the wrist even though he endangered A LOT of people because he’s ‘the special kid’, the squad deafeats whatever that thing is, blah blah book over. Not to even mention all the crap J.K is trying to pull these days. Sheesh.
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@ClickTwelve

I agree with you, my memories of reading Harry Potter as a kid were lukewarm at best. I found the world building and all the magic to be cool, but I never really liked the main characters enough to be invested into the series. I guess i've never really enjoyed the "special kid" trope in young adult novels.

And a book that I dislike- Wuthering Heights.

I was going to write a long reason why I don't like it, but my feelings towards it aren't that negative. It's mostly just a general wouldn't recommend. It's not particularly gratifying to read. It took me two separate tries to read through until the end because I just didn't really care to know what happens next in the story. If anyone here is planning on reading this for english class or something, it's a lot easier if you know that this book isn't meant to be a romance.
@ClickTwelve

I agree with you, my memories of reading Harry Potter as a kid were lukewarm at best. I found the world building and all the magic to be cool, but I never really liked the main characters enough to be invested into the series. I guess i've never really enjoyed the "special kid" trope in young adult novels.

And a book that I dislike- Wuthering Heights.

I was going to write a long reason why I don't like it, but my feelings towards it aren't that negative. It's mostly just a general wouldn't recommend. It's not particularly gratifying to read. It took me two separate tries to read through until the end because I just didn't really care to know what happens next in the story. If anyone here is planning on reading this for english class or something, it's a lot easier if you know that this book isn't meant to be a romance.
oof...so many. *This is an unpopular opinion no offense guys*

but i...

i HATE Ender's Game.

I haven't read it in years but I mostly remember a cruel loss of innocence(yes, I know that's the point) and a lot of children's manipulation. Vocabulary seemed outdated without having the poignant old English charm. End of rising action took literally forever.

Anybody else out there?
oof...so many. *This is an unpopular opinion no offense guys*

but i...

i HATE Ender's Game.

I haven't read it in years but I mostly remember a cruel loss of innocence(yes, I know that's the point) and a lot of children's manipulation. Vocabulary seemed outdated without having the poignant old English charm. End of rising action took literally forever.

Anybody else out there?
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@Fates Harry Potter has lost some of its charm for me as I have grown up and realized its shortcomings. Of course, times change, but I think some of its messages had the capacity to be damaging.

I've never read Wuthering Heights because it seemed so sorely uninteresting that it ought to be defenestrated simply by reading the synopsis. So I get you.

That's how I felt about the Great Gatsby. Nothing notably wrong...but simply nothing good, either. I read about a hundred pages and fell asleep. Never picked it up again.
@Fates Harry Potter has lost some of its charm for me as I have grown up and realized its shortcomings. Of course, times change, but I think some of its messages had the capacity to be damaging.

I've never read Wuthering Heights because it seemed so sorely uninteresting that it ought to be defenestrated simply by reading the synopsis. So I get you.

That's how I felt about the Great Gatsby. Nothing notably wrong...but simply nothing good, either. I read about a hundred pages and fell asleep. Never picked it up again.
Go to my Art Shop or my Lore Shop!

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I loved Huckleberry Finn, lol. Admittedly, I was also the high school student who took AP English and Brit Lit her senior year of high school because I was really into reading classics.

The only classic I can think of off the top of my head I personally disliked was Farewell to Arms. My junior year of high school when I was in American Lit and had to read it for a test, I ended up so annoyed at the last three chapters, I chucked it across my room, read the spark notes and aced the test the next day at school. I’ve never picked it up since, I hated the nurse character, Catherine, hated Henry and yeah, just hated the book in general. I wasn’t fond of Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men, but those were because I found them too dry, same for Moby ****.

As for HP, I didn’t read the books until I was in college, and had already seen the movies. By the time I started reading the books, the 5th-6th movies had already come out, and I mostly read them so I’d know how the books related, but I was never really fond of Rowling’s writing style or the characters, because I thought they lacked character growth and because I really, really disliked the ending to the last book, though I read it more or less in a day or 2. I still like the movies, I haven’t picked up any of the books since because, to this day, I’ve never really thought of them as being more than meh, ok books though.
I loved Huckleberry Finn, lol. Admittedly, I was also the high school student who took AP English and Brit Lit her senior year of high school because I was really into reading classics.

The only classic I can think of off the top of my head I personally disliked was Farewell to Arms. My junior year of high school when I was in American Lit and had to read it for a test, I ended up so annoyed at the last three chapters, I chucked it across my room, read the spark notes and aced the test the next day at school. I’ve never picked it up since, I hated the nurse character, Catherine, hated Henry and yeah, just hated the book in general. I wasn’t fond of Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men, but those were because I found them too dry, same for Moby ****.

As for HP, I didn’t read the books until I was in college, and had already seen the movies. By the time I started reading the books, the 5th-6th movies had already come out, and I mostly read them so I’d know how the books related, but I was never really fond of Rowling’s writing style or the characters, because I thought they lacked character growth and because I really, really disliked the ending to the last book, though I read it more or less in a day or 2. I still like the movies, I haven’t picked up any of the books since because, to this day, I’ve never really thought of them as being more than meh, ok books though.
Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.- Le petit prince.
God I can't even remember the name of the book because it's been so long but when I was in 9th grade I was a reading books at the speed of light, but the only one that I had an interest in but immediately put down and refused to read more of was this book set in the ice age. the locals were Neandertals while two main characters were Sapians which I thought was a neat concept and wonder how they would explore this.

WELL chapter 1/2 got very NSFW very very quickly as the two characters watched two mammoths do the do and... when I say detailed I MEAN Graphicly detailed. I put it down immediately after that and tried to use my horrible memory to try and forget it but as you can see it didn't work. I am plagued by this stupid book to this day
God I can't even remember the name of the book because it's been so long but when I was in 9th grade I was a reading books at the speed of light, but the only one that I had an interest in but immediately put down and refused to read more of was this book set in the ice age. the locals were Neandertals while two main characters were Sapians which I thought was a neat concept and wonder how they would explore this.

WELL chapter 1/2 got very NSFW very very quickly as the two characters watched two mammoths do the do and... when I say detailed I MEAN Graphicly detailed. I put it down immediately after that and tried to use my horrible memory to try and forget it but as you can see it didn't work. I am plagued by this stupid book to this day
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what you mean like Wings of Fire

But seriously. Anything by E.K Johnston. I read one book of hers, That Victorian something-or-other. I have never read a more boring teen book. The premise was neo-Victorian Canada, with teens falling in love and getting their genetic soulmates via the Big Church Computer™?. But one of the girls is, *gasp*, intersex!! I thought oh cool, a potential enby or genderqueer character?
But no. Just a girl who happens to have a Y chromosome. Fine, cool. The whole story was just so boring. It’s about a princess in disguise, and a young captain of industry dealing with Great Lakes piracy! It should have been thrilling. But E.K Johnston can make it boring.
Even teenagers having an (implied?) poly relationship. That includes a British Princess.

She also wrote the Ahsoka novel which was so boring I couldn’t finish it. Seems no one can write Ahsoka as she deserves since Rebels. The whole novel was about farming(?) and rebellion. I can only remember a paragraph dedicated to Ahsoka not understanding human hair.
we also have major conflicting Star Wars opinions but that’s beside the point
what you mean like Wings of Fire

But seriously. Anything by E.K Johnston. I read one book of hers, That Victorian something-or-other. I have never read a more boring teen book. The premise was neo-Victorian Canada, with teens falling in love and getting their genetic soulmates via the Big Church Computer™?. But one of the girls is, *gasp*, intersex!! I thought oh cool, a potential enby or genderqueer character?
But no. Just a girl who happens to have a Y chromosome. Fine, cool. The whole story was just so boring. It’s about a princess in disguise, and a young captain of industry dealing with Great Lakes piracy! It should have been thrilling. But E.K Johnston can make it boring.
Even teenagers having an (implied?) poly relationship. That includes a British Princess.

She also wrote the Ahsoka novel which was so boring I couldn’t finish it. Seems no one can write Ahsoka as she deserves since Rebels. The whole novel was about farming(?) and rebellion. I can only remember a paragraph dedicated to Ahsoka not understanding human hair.
we also have major conflicting Star Wars opinions but that’s beside the point
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i had to read a (cut down) story for literature class, and it lasted far too long, the main character just seemed like a terrible husband or person (he just kills one of his sons unceremoniously for just joining the other side of the conflict or whatever, because said son was simping for a girl from that side or something), theres far too many intricate descriptions of people dying, and also it has some antisemitic and xenophobic undertones on top of that! didnt really like it
i had to read a (cut down) story for literature class, and it lasted far too long, the main character just seemed like a terrible husband or person (he just kills one of his sons unceremoniously for just joining the other side of the conflict or whatever, because said son was simping for a girl from that side or something), theres far too many intricate descriptions of people dying, and also it has some antisemitic and xenophobic undertones on top of that! didnt really like it
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TFW you asked for villain/heroine romances and your friends had the nerve to recommend you the Grisha trilogy, what a waste of time that series was.
TFW you asked for villain/heroine romances and your friends had the nerve to recommend you the Grisha trilogy, what a waste of time that series was.
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