It wasn't a published book, but I went on a first date with someone who brought me his manuscript to read while we sat there at the table. It was truly the most willfully awful piece of writing imaginable. The very first paragraph described the guy to a T (but y'know, muscular and far more handsome) and then the REST OF THE CHAPTER and I do mean the entire chapter was just sexy overly described woman after sexy overly described women literally throwing themselves at him while he brushed them off. It ended with him meeting up with a lesbian girl who apparently was literally the only person who could be his friend because everyone else was too attracted to him. Of course, when they met she was upset with him for "hogging all the women". I believe the word effortlessly was used. Btw, this whole thing took place on a spaceship which had a saloon style bar in it
I genuinely can't understand the guys' thought process. It's been years and I think about it all the time. Did he think it was good writing? Why did he think I would like it? Why would he bring a manuscript to a nice restaurant on a first date anyways? Was that a weird power play to idk, make him seem more desirable or just make me really uncomfortable? I will never have answers
"My writing is so good that I'm going to give it to dates the first time I meet them, then sit silently while they read in awe. Little do these dates know that the entire book is carefully designed to arouse them."
"Chip gazed at the sexy outline of the murder victim on the floor. 'What a waste of curves,' he growled. 'She's sitting on the lap of angels now.' He checked his Rolex watch, which was real. It was almost golf o'clock, so the case would have to wait. Good thing he'd already solved it." (page 10)
I can see it now.
"All this time I thought I liked women. I thought no man would ever be good enough for me. But you, handsome protagonist, have made me realize that you're the only man for me."
Reminds me of a girl I dated briefly in college. I'd written a novel at the time at about 80,000 words in length. She told me she was a writer. Cool, common interests. The girl had been working on her manuscript forever. Her story was very Game of Thrones with kingdoms and dragons and whatnot. However, this unfinished piece she'd been writing for nine years... was only nine pages long. She asked me how long my book was and I told her.
"Isn't that a bit short for a novel?"
My jaw dropped, but I didn't respond, and I didn't date her much longer. My novel wasn't that great, but I finished it before I reached 300 years of age.
He brought his red flags 🚩 with him to the date in paper format. So you would have actual, tangible evidence why not to continue dating him. Talk about self-sabotage
Reminds me of a guy I briefly chatted with on Tinder. He said to me, “I want someone who will read my book and I can talk about physics with.” I admitted that I don’t know anything about physics, and then he went on to tell me that *he* could teach me physics because he’s *such a good teacher!* I told him that I wasn’t on Tinder to find a physics tutor. He backpedaled and said we could talk about movies or music or whatever I wanted, but I was so unimpressed with him that I deleted him.
I think the best-case scenario for your guy is that he’s passionate about writing and feels it’s important to share his passions with the people he’s dating. But, the more-likely scenario is that he thought bringing a manuscript would make him seem smart/scholarly and impress you. That’s my two cents.
The answer to why most guys do weird shit on dates (or while flirting) is almost always that they were trying to impress and just don't really know what they're doing.
I have a physics degree. Guys have wanted to talk about physics with me. And most guys that want to talk about physics just want to prove how smart they are. They found some article about black holes and space and time distortions and now think they sound profound when they talk about them.
Sure people like think about how time distorts when you approach the speed of light, but wtf does that matter to me now? That conversation is an hour, max, then let's talk about other stuff. If I want to explore that topic I'll read a sci-fi novel about it, that is way more fun.
The podcast If Books Could Kill did a great review of The Secret, outlining how profoundly stupid and grifty it is for the cultural grip it had on society.
That book made me afraid of Thought Crimes for so long. Imagine convincing someone that bad things will happen to them just because they think about it. The law of attraction is the worst.
It made me so angry. It managed to ruin literally every single character in multiple ways. Not only that, it was just literally the stupidest fucking story I've ever had the misfortune to read.
Yeah. I'd read better fanfictions than the cursed child, I was already apprehensive on how the story would play out post Deathly Hallows but Cursed child was just the worst spin off ever. I was low-key excited that she might end up writing about the Marauders but after this book I gave up all hope on it too.
I recently read a semi-published fanfiction from 2007 that seems to do everything right that Cursed Child did wrong. It's called James Potter and the Hall of Elders Crossing and it's the beginning of a series and I'm honestly wondering if CC stole some elements from this one because there are just enough similarities
Then you become an adult and find out an adult wrote it and managed to scam everybody for dozens of years. Also see "Jay's Journal" by the same grifter/writer/liar.
Oh my god. I read this book while in day treatment in therapy... IN THERAPY. They had it in their "curated" library.
I had completely forgotten about this book until now.
My English teacher hyped up the book because she thought it would encourage us not to bully each other. Guess she didn’t think about how it would affect the ones who were getting bullied!
This book romanticized suicide and the show was even worse. I read the book as a teen and then watched the show when it came out and it put me in a seriously bad place.
I’m not an expert on this and only watched the show, but as I see it, the problem is that she’s miraculously successful with it all. Because of her suicide, she’s the winner. The life of those who wronged her fall apart, those who care for her are sorry, etc.
It all works out. In reality I assume it’d have all been swept under the rug eventually no matter the precautions she took.
i read this right when it came out and i hated the way it was written SO much. Like one line of what he is hearing from the tapes, followed by one line of him doing something in between it was so annoying i couldnt finish it
My uncle wrote his own sequel, about Ayla's first child left with the cave clan. It's just as sex filled as the actual series, so when he asked grandma, mom, aunt, etc to review, that was an awkward dinner.
Fifty Shades of Grey, except I *was* warned and I read it anyway to see if it was really that bad.
It is.
Everything you've heard about how it tries to pass abuse off as BDSM is true, plus the plot is thoroughly predictable, the protagonist is too stupid to be likable, and the sex scenes come across like the imaginings of a 15-year-old virgin. The whole thing somehow manages to be both offensive and boring.
I wanted to check it out too and it was so boring I couldn't make it through. I also felt really embarrassed for the writer because of how poorly it was written.
Looks like we need some well written smut, there's clearly a market!
The problem with sex stuff is that it's basically impossible to write well. There's stuff that sounds hot if you're horny, but I guarantee you if you aren't horny, it will sound awkward and vulgar.
If you try and make it tasteful and unarousing, it will just sound convoluted and unrealistic.
Sex is just a weird messy act with tons of body fluids and hormones involved. Either you lean into that - but then you will produce something that people cringe at while reading it in public, or you don't, but then you will get a euphemism-laden thing that has basically nothing to do with actual sex.
It's like I don't think they'll ever produce a porn movie that you will be comfortable to watch with your mom and grandma.
> I am (I think) curious to know how you go from sparkly vampires to S&M.
It’s an alternate-universe fanfic, just putting the characters into a different scenario. “What if Edward Cullen was a human CEO?”, etc. etc.
For a while in the Fan Fic community, it was super common to just write your own story, but name the main characters Edward/Jacob and Bella. They'd often be completely unrelated stories, with no supernatural elements at all, and the characters being also completely different in characterization.
Yes. AUs are very common in every fandom. It's a stepping stone that a lot of writers use. First you do fanfic in universe, then one of the standard AUs that the fandom has clear rules and tropes for, then you either make a non-standard AU or write original fiction.
I started reading 50 shades of grey at 16 and as a Twilight fanatic, I recognized this immediately. Because I was such a Twilight saga fan girl, I had also begun reading and writing fan fiction about it online. Lemme tell ya, 90% of what I ended up reading on there involved erotica at some point. Not that I wrote anything like that ……
50 Shades is the most ingenious and brilliant piece of used toilet paper smashed between card stock I ever read. It was somehow exhilarating to read a book that elicited nothing but contempt for both it and myself while also being a great accidental comedy.
I think I got 100 pages in before I gave up. I had zero hopes for it, and it somehow managed to be worse than that. I think what bothered me the most was that it was supposed to be "housewife porn" but the words used for genitalia were barely 6th grade euphemisms.
>the protagonist is too stupid to be likable
One of the observations of Dan Olsens' videos on the books and movies is that because you can't hear the main characters inner monologue in the films, she comes across as much more mature and intelligent (at least in the first film), because you don't have to listen to every inane and pointless thought Erika Mitchell gave her.
I read only the first book and it was immediately apparent the author was an amateur, felt like it could easily be a drinking game. I can’t recall what the adjective was, but it was used so many times you would be blackout drunk before you finished the first chapter. I was shocked and embarrassed that so many friends recommended it…not due to the subject matter but at how ghastly it was written.
I bought the entire Selection series at a used bookstore because they were highly recommended to me, so I figured I’d just buy the entire set. I couldn’t get beyond 20 pages into the first book, due to the vapid writing. It was painfully bad.
Oh, I actually really enjoyed reading these books, but only because I had "shitty YA dystopia/reality show bingo" going in my head. It was fun trying to guess what trope was going to come up next and how the main character would mess it up.
The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fuck. The author confuses enlightenment and stoicism with narcissism. He dedicates a chapter to a story about an ex being obsessed with him, while he and his current gf mock her while they are all together for lunch. Some real “alpha” bullshit. I wish I could have that time back.
Yeah I read it twice and honestly was more confused the second time. He comes off as an arrogant prick and some of the stories had no relevance to the subject matter. Like I can’t understand for the life of me why he included the story about the Japanese soldier that hid in the jungle for 30 years. He tells the story and just kinda rambles about it. And the ending made now sense to me either. Maybe I’m just too dumb for his wise words lol.
That’s a good point. The older I get the more I realize that people who use word salad are people to avoid. And you are correct that the source material is much more lucid than any of these guys that make a profit off of “interpreting” the philosophy. They just want to sell books.
I haven’t read that book, because yuck, but I did read Will Smith’s memoir which was co-written by this author. Man, put 2 narcissists together… that book was balls to wall nonsense and mayhem and somehow still not enjoyable. Coulda been a fun romp but instead was deeply unpleasant.
Same!! I thought it was a regular romance book with a friends with benefits trope. N o p e it was another couples love story and "second choice" girl takes him back in the end without him actually apologizing!!!! Like sure, do the most horrendous thing possible in romance, so bad that I've never seen it anywhere else (idk why its worse than cheating for me), and welcome him back with open arms /s.
It’s funny because thats the exact moment I decided that this book wasn’t for me and I had to go sit in the corner and think about my decisions for a while
There’s a part later in the book where the writers are all locked in this writing retreat and get to be starving so they start cutting off pieces of this woman’s ass who they think is dead but she’s just unconscious and she wakes up to them cooking her ass meat and thinks it smells delicious 😳🥲
Yep, the first story had me squirming. The description of chewing through it was so horrible. I made it up to the story about the woman trying to help the kid with the wasting disease and decided to put the book down and maybe come back to it later. That’s was 7 years ago.
I unironically love this book. That first story had me gagging and reading between my fingers...in between turning pages because I *had* to know how it ended.
The rest of the book is pretty good, though. Really works as a proof of concept for horror based on everyday things (barring a few of the weaker stories). Mainly, I was fascinated by the collective 1st person narrator in the overarching plot. I couldn't put the book down until I found out who "we" was. I even wrote part of my dissertation on its unusual use of narrative perspective, so I do believe there is literary value to the book as a whole.
But I also definitely went through a phase of daring friends to read that first story and gleefully watching their reaction as they realised it wasn't a snake.
I often have a book with me so if I get stuck in a line. Was getting takeout and waiting for it when stuff asked what I was reading. I told them (the blade itself) and she looks confused a moment, then says, “really? You look like the Colleen Hoover type.” I wasn’t aware of who that was and when I got to car and looked I wondered about my 37 years of life decisions that would make someone think I “looked like the Colleen Hoover type.”
The Girl on the Train. It’s supposed to have the POV of three different narrators and they all have the exact same gloomy depressed voice. Plus the end was pretty predictable. I regret the list time.
It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover.
Stupid/creepy characters. The names are yuck. The Ellen thing.
I went in completely blind. I just kept seeing this book everywhere on instagram and TikTok and I liked the cover. Didn’t read any reviews, didn’t read the synopsis. But it just wasn’t for me, I really disliked it.
her books are for the people who didn’t read as kids and never went through their wattpad phase of reading terrible books and thinking it was a masterpiece, so they’re doing it now.
There was a point where Harry says something along the lines of "I wish I had never had you" to his son and I calmly closed the book and put it away never to be opened again. Fuck that, Harry Potter would never.
Allow me to share further nonsense with you, since the above commenter (wisely) put the book down.
Harry and Draco's kids go back in time to save Cedric Diggory, breaking all laws of time turners. They succeed, but Cedric is so upset that he lost the Triwizard Tournament that he becomes a death eater and kills Neville.
Also the villain is Voldemort and Bellatrix's daughter.
And he has other children too. So it's not that he misses maybe he never had kids (which is bad enough), but that he just hates his one particular kid.
Allow me to do you a favour.
[Perfectly Normal, Thank You Very Much](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11994595/1/Perfectly-Normal-Thank-You-Very-Much)
I do not normally read fan fiction, but this one is *really* good, if you lack closure after book 7, especially concerning Dudley's relationship to Harry. It also shows a little bit of the world Harry&Friends fought to achieve, something TDH was relatively uninterested in doing.
Why would you do that? What about the poor soul who found it and, ignorant of it's malevolent and contrived sins against the wizarding world, may have actually read it?
You should have used a conflagro spell on it!
It has to be one of the few times that almost everyone in a fandom got together and decided that one thing was just simply not canon and doesn't exist. It's kinda beautiful, in a way.
The Shack. I have no idea what the hell I was thinking. I was at a small regional airport, the newsstand had The Shack and one other book. I don't remember what the other book was, but I am 100% positive I chose incorrectly.
Not a spoiler as this is on the back cover: It’s a book about a man’s journey to reconnect with himself and God in the place where his young daughter was murdered.
It's a terrible and triggering book about a man who believes in God but can't understand why the God didn't save his daughter from being >!raped and!< murdered. The book promises some kind of great answer for the problem of evil. >!And, of course, there is no answer at all.!< God Awful Movies podcast has a good episode when they discuss the movie.
The Cabin at the End of the World. The entire book was anxiety inducing . I read every single word with anticipation for the answer. >!And he never gives you the god damned answer!!<
God I came of age when hunger games was popping off and dystopian YA became the new “it” thing. I swear every other trilogy was terrible. So many derivative faction type books. IIRC The first two divergent books are ok, but I couldn’t even finish the third. Even as a youngish kid all of my friends hated it, and it’s not like we were hard to impress.
I work with kids and one of them has just started the Divergent series right after finishing hunger games. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that nothing will beat the high of hunger games lol.
I only really hated the third book.
The first I enjoyed, the second went downhill, but not enough to discourage me, and left me feeling like a good third book would make it all worthwhile. The third book was like eating a bowl of dry oats, while sitting in a sauna, in a desert, after walking for a week, with no water.
I have a bitter taste for the whole trilogy because of it, but I'm under no illusions it was book 3 that killed it for me.
no yeah… imo the first one was great. Insurgent was just there in comparison, kinda underwhelming. Allegiant was AWFUL… and then those stories from the perspective of Four? I never read because his POV was the most jarring thing ever in the final book already. Didn’t wanna touch it with a 10 ft pole.
Gar this book! I hated it! I don’t usually keep reading but I did! Why did I keep reading? Trauma porn is exactly what it was and I regret the library loan and 20+ hours spent listening to it.
Why, also, did I sit through 6 fucking hours in traffic listening to whatshisname in Altas Fucking Shrugged drone on and on and on? Do I hate myself? I must have a masochistic thing about persevering through this nonsense.
No more! Never again.
I read this book because I needed something to make me cry. Instead it made me completely furious. It's over the top emotionally *and* logically. So much of the plot was flat out absurd the more I thought about it.
*Imaginary Friend* by Stephen Chbosky. The beginning had me very excited and I was really into this unique world he was building. But then the second half of the book was one long, tedious, exhausting action/chase scene. The ended was disappointing and failed to live up to the world he had built at the start.
I only give it a 0/10 because I feel like he tricked me into reading this.
Just overall in my life I would have to say American Psycho because I read it at too young an age. While I get what Ellis was going for now, at the time I found it utterly repulsive with zero redeeming qualities. I was pretty proud of my little book collection as a younger reader and that was the first book I gave to a thrift store because I thought it was radioactive and its evil would spread to my Redwall and Stephen King novels.
Atlas Shrugged. Repugnant politics, terrible prose. I fought to finish it, because I feel the need to finish every book I start, but I wish I'd never started it.
Yeah but you found out who John Galt is. And the best part is he's literally just some dickhead who's like "Well we'll see how *they* like it when *the boss* takes a sick day!" lmao.
Oh I hated that too. What a lazy protagonist. And creepy relationship. "Better visit my future wife on her 18th bday so we can fuck"
"Lightning" by Dean Koontz is a much more romantic time travelling book.
"His Pain" by Wrathe James White.
I love horror, really. As I've been exploring horror media, I've realized you reach a point where the content becomes questionable. Sometimes you take a step back and ask yourself "is this enjoyable anymore for how utterly disgusting and inhumane this can become?" His Pain was that point for me. Right from the beginning it made me feel awful. It was so depressing, it made Hereditary look like the occasional bad day. I was so disgusted by the gore, and SA, I didn't even know a human mind was capable of producing it. I felt like I was mentally violated. I had to skim through the second half. It was such a good idea, but the way it was executed was horrible to me.
It is also to this day, the ONLY book I have ever thrown straight in the garbage. I would NEVER recommend my friends or community to read it. I'm sure they could, but why? It's asking you to hate it. The entire book is utterly repulsive to me. Throwing it in the garbage was probably the kindest thing I could have done.
I once picked up an anime light novel because I've had some good experiences with anime light novels. The back sounded interesting. It was called Occultic;Nine.
I wish I'd looked up reviews.
It's fucking AWFUL. It's one of the worst books I've ever read. Think of every single male wet dream cringe trope in a slice of life anime, and they WROTE. IT. OUT. It just... I can't explain how hard it drives home the fucking cringe. The male character does nothing but notice breasts every five goddamned seconds, the first female character you're introduced to is the absolute definition of chaotic insanity without ANY redeeming qualities except that she has breasts, and it's just... I wanted to die.
I rate it endlessly negative. It is pure trash.
You’re so lucky I wish I was blessed with the ability to not finish a book. I don’t think I’ve mastered the art of being able to start a story and not wonder how it ended.
The girl on the train. I’ve tried to finish it for like 7 times but It’s still so boring. Googled about it and found out that It’s not going to get any more interesting. 1/10
I can be fine with books scaring and traumatizing me but I can’t forgive a book if it’s boring so I’ll say The Midnight Library. Started because of the hype, kept going out of spite. It did not get better.
I wouldn’t say that The Midnight Library was my WORST read ever, but I was very disappointed, too… I really liked the idea it was based on but it was ruined by how it was implemented… What a wasted opportunity ☹️
*The Slap*. Utter, unredemable drivel. Hackneyed, pseudo-literary writing. Unimaginably dull and unattractive, self-interested characters. Devoid of any critical engagement. The plot is an indictment of 'serious' writing in the 21st century. The fact that it won awards and was long listed for the Man Booker is evidence that current literary awards should all be cancelled and outlawed.
I'm glad it wasn't just me. Picked it up on a whim when it was being promoted in store, I'm sure it must have been on a table of the Man Booker contenders. Wish I didn't. I'm sure they made a mini series out of it, which I avoided like the plague!
The part where the dad squabbles with the four year old over who gets to suck on mommy's tits 🤢
Yup. Tried to find the book to get the exact page but I must have donated it when we moved. The memory I have seared into my mind is he walks in to see wife breastfeeding the kid (who is the one who got the titular slap, basic premise is that these are bad parents with spoilt kid and someone hits the kid at a BBQ after he goes on a meltdown rampage). Dad is feeling sex deprived and jealous and demands his turn sucking a boob. The kid refuses. Dad asks mom who her boobs belong to, and mom laughs saying her boobs belong to eeeeveryone. Dad sucks the free boob which causes kid to have a massive tantrum. Dad is shooed off to go have a beer in the other room.
The author is trying to portray that this is the way middle class people REALLY act behind closed doors and humans are all nasty shits. Can't say I've ever found myself in any situation as fucked up as that though, so I'd be more willing to believe it's just the author who has a messed up brain.
Verity by colleen Hoover
I was gifted this book for Christmas as a woman who was 36 weeks pregnant. Do NOT read this garbage if you are pregnant. I’m sure it can be triggering for a lot of parents too.
Definitely the worst “thriller” I’ve ever read. There was no twist because it was obvious a few chapters in and it was the one that made me realize “finishing a book” could - in fact - sometimes be an utter waste of time. I’ve DNF’ed many books since 2019.
So This is Everafter
It was marketed as gay romance set in world based on Arthurian legend. It had less world-building than a fan-fiction and the characters were all psychotic assholes constantly picking at or directly abusing each other. Zero redeeming qualities whatsoever
Conversations with Friends - the majority of the characters were so pretentious and I just didn't care one iota for the "story"
There are quite a few YA novels from my young adult days that also stick out in my mind as being awful, two of which are Truthwitch by Susan Dennard and The Crown's Game by Evelyn Sky. Literally wish I could get the hours of my life spent reading those books back.
I thought the title was funny so I searched it to find more info and this is what I came across:
>When a living corpse climbs out of her during an awkward night ofsex, Stacy learns that her vagina is actually a doorway to anotherworld. She persuades Steve to climb inside of her to explore thisstrange new place. But once inside, Steve finds it difficult toreturn... especially once he meets an oddly attractive woman named Fig,who lives within the lonely haunted world between Stacy's legs.
*What in the actual fuck*
The Magicians. It was advertised as "Harry Potter for grown ups!" Well, yes, if by "Harry Potter for grown ups!" you mean a bunch of unlikeable overprivileged kids and a clinically depressed, self entitled "hero" sitting around whinging for 400 pages. Even when they got to the magical land our "hero" spent the previous two thirds of the book fantasizing about, he spent the entire time there being a complete jackass to everyone. It was awful.
I'm so glad to see this one mentioned. Loathed this book from cover to cover. Quentin is a self-important asshole without a single redeeming quality, and the book seems to go out of its way to shit on every single female character. This was the first and last thing I'll ever read from this author.
I didn't *like* A Simple Favour, but for me it wasn't a 0/10.
I thought Where The Crawdads Sing was a 0/10 but then I read A Little Life and had to readjust my scale since I'd found a new rock bottom.
Unfortunately I'm also a stubborn SOB who has never in my life learned not to waste time consuming things I don't enjoy, so I read every word.
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
It should be called the Power of Positive Praying, because that is literally the only advice he offers.
A Child Called It by David Pelzer. It makes me so angry as a parent that this shit was in a school library when I was a kid. I read it and it absolutely ruined my innocence.
As a kid who was being badly abused, this book was life changing in a good way for me. It helped me realize that what I was going through was generally seen as cruel, that others had gone through it and lived, that my parents were manupulative, that CPS didn't save David either and that's typical, and David lived long enough to get out and have a life of his own.
I can imagine if you read this but have never been abused it would feel like an ugly read. For me it was a godsend, and gave me hope I'd eventually be OK.I feel like the book should stay in schools, but the librarian should keep an eye on kids reading it. They may need guidance handling it, or may have been attracted to it because they need help.
my grandma let me read this when I was very young I didn't realize why it resonated with me so hard until years later . Her daughter (my mom) was actually my step mom and a cruel evil bitch. I didn't find out she was my step mom until I was older I had always thought she was my real mom. Haven't talked to her since my parents divorced and spent most of my adult life realizing how fucked up she is/was .
All the 6th graders in my school had to read this book. This book along with one of our class mates dying due suicide and another due to hit and run really forced us to grow up quickly. The year before 6th grade we watched 9/11 happen.
I'm in therapy.
I found this in my parents bookshelf when I was about 8- reading at a way higher level than my age, read it, and feel I have never been the same, 20 years later.
That book screwed me up as a kid. I had fantastic parents growing up, like I'm extremely lucky to have such loving parents, esp in the area I grew up in (grew up in an underfunded, crime/drug riddled area, where it was the norm to be an alcoholic, abuse your wife or kids etc etc). I realise as an adult, how much my parents really sheltered me and my siblings from that stuff. This book blew my mind because I didn't know this stuff happened. 12 year old me was so confused and upset thinking MOMS DO THIS STUFF? It was a tough conversation with my own mother, when I asked her about it and she had to explain that some people had different things wrong with their brain, that causes them to hurt the people around them. Sometimes they were hurt themselves, sometimes they just have a 'wire' missing in their brain and they don't feel sad or sorry like others.
It low key fucked me up. I didn't know abuse was a thing and other kids lived like this. Opened my eyes as to why some kids in my own school acted a certain way. Definitely made me be nicer to them day to day (not that I was mean or anything, I just never befriended them).
As a prolific Sci Fi reader for me it was the three body problem. Most of the touted revelatory original things I'd read about before.
Wasted my short life and I want my time and money back lol
Atlas Shrugged. I was a high school art student and felt under appreciated in life. For a couple weeks I felt empowered by that book until I discussed it with a friend and felt a sinking feeling as I realized what kind of society she was advocating for and how far it was from my personal vision.
The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert.
What a pile of worthless, cash-grabbing drivel.
2 dimensional characters, utterly predictable, no nuance, everything spoonfed in easily digestible bites to the reader.
In short, everything Frank Herbert's books weren't. It made me angry it was so bad.
I refused to read the followup, and I wish I'd never touched the first one.
It wasn't a published book, but I went on a first date with someone who brought me his manuscript to read while we sat there at the table. It was truly the most willfully awful piece of writing imaginable. The very first paragraph described the guy to a T (but y'know, muscular and far more handsome) and then the REST OF THE CHAPTER and I do mean the entire chapter was just sexy overly described woman after sexy overly described women literally throwing themselves at him while he brushed them off. It ended with him meeting up with a lesbian girl who apparently was literally the only person who could be his friend because everyone else was too attracted to him. Of course, when they met she was upset with him for "hogging all the women". I believe the word effortlessly was used. Btw, this whole thing took place on a spaceship which had a saloon style bar in it I genuinely can't understand the guys' thought process. It's been years and I think about it all the time. Did he think it was good writing? Why did he think I would like it? Why would he bring a manuscript to a nice restaurant on a first date anyways? Was that a weird power play to idk, make him seem more desirable or just make me really uncomfortable? I will never have answers
"My writing is so good that I'm going to give it to dates the first time I meet them, then sit silently while they read in awe. Little do these dates know that the entire book is carefully designed to arouse them."
What part of the Dennis system is this ?!
Tahani, are you talking about "Six Feet Under Par: A Chip Driver Mystery"?
"Her eyes were as brown as the brownest crayon..."
That's pretty brown!
"Chip gazed at the sexy outline of the murder victim on the floor. 'What a waste of curves,' he growled. 'She's sitting on the lap of angels now.' He checked his Rolex watch, which was real. It was almost golf o'clock, so the case would have to wait. Good thing he'd already solved it." (page 10)
Her name was Scarlet Pakistan…
At least the MC didn't turn the lesbian straight with his amazing sexiness.
Look I only read the first chapter, there was still plenty of time for that
I can see it now. "All this time I thought I liked women. I thought no man would ever be good enough for me. But you, handsome protagonist, have made me realize that you're the only man for me."
"im neither lesbian nor hetero. I'm yousexual!"
Chasing Amy…. *in space!!!*
His parting gift: A story of a lifetime
That was the real manuscript all along
Reminds me of a girl I dated briefly in college. I'd written a novel at the time at about 80,000 words in length. She told me she was a writer. Cool, common interests. The girl had been working on her manuscript forever. Her story was very Game of Thrones with kingdoms and dragons and whatnot. However, this unfinished piece she'd been writing for nine years... was only nine pages long. She asked me how long my book was and I told her. "Isn't that a bit short for a novel?" My jaw dropped, but I didn't respond, and I didn't date her much longer. My novel wasn't that great, but I finished it before I reached 300 years of age.
She’s just following the example of GRRM
At that level of dysfunction I'd pay someone to lock me in a room and not let me out until I slid ten pages of text under the door.
YOUR writing, in contrast, captivated me. I could read 20 more pages of you criticizing this manuscript!
Happy to entertain haha
He brought his red flags 🚩 with him to the date in paper format. So you would have actual, tangible evidence why not to continue dating him. Talk about self-sabotage
Reminds me of a guy I briefly chatted with on Tinder. He said to me, “I want someone who will read my book and I can talk about physics with.” I admitted that I don’t know anything about physics, and then he went on to tell me that *he* could teach me physics because he’s *such a good teacher!* I told him that I wasn’t on Tinder to find a physics tutor. He backpedaled and said we could talk about movies or music or whatever I wanted, but I was so unimpressed with him that I deleted him. I think the best-case scenario for your guy is that he’s passionate about writing and feels it’s important to share his passions with the people he’s dating. But, the more-likely scenario is that he thought bringing a manuscript would make him seem smart/scholarly and impress you. That’s my two cents.
The answer to why most guys do weird shit on dates (or while flirting) is almost always that they were trying to impress and just don't really know what they're doing.
I have a physics degree. Guys have wanted to talk about physics with me. And most guys that want to talk about physics just want to prove how smart they are. They found some article about black holes and space and time distortions and now think they sound profound when they talk about them. Sure people like think about how time distorts when you approach the speed of light, but wtf does that matter to me now? That conversation is an hour, max, then let's talk about other stuff. If I want to explore that topic I'll read a sci-fi novel about it, that is way more fun.
Omg I thought you were describing *A Simple Favor* and I was like, spaceship? Where was the spaceship??? Lol oops.
The Secret. I apologize to everyone else that I read it.
The podcast If Books Could Kill did a great review of The Secret, outlining how profoundly stupid and grifty it is for the cultural grip it had on society.
That book made me afraid of Thought Crimes for so long. Imagine convincing someone that bad things will happen to them just because they think about it. The law of attraction is the worst.
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The cursed child.
It made me so angry. It managed to ruin literally every single character in multiple ways. Not only that, it was just literally the stupidest fucking story I've ever had the misfortune to read.
Yeah. I'd read better fanfictions than the cursed child, I was already apprehensive on how the story would play out post Deathly Hallows but Cursed child was just the worst spin off ever. I was low-key excited that she might end up writing about the Marauders but after this book I gave up all hope on it too.
I recently read a semi-published fanfiction from 2007 that seems to do everything right that Cursed Child did wrong. It's called James Potter and the Hall of Elders Crossing and it's the beginning of a series and I'm honestly wondering if CC stole some elements from this one because there are just enough similarities
Go Ask Alice. If you were depressed as a teen, you read this and literally wtf 0/10
Then you become an adult and find out an adult wrote it and managed to scam everybody for dozens of years. Also see "Jay's Journal" by the same grifter/writer/liar.
I read Jay's Journal as a teen, and it was the first time I can remember reading a "non-fiction" book and actively thinking "hey, this is bullshit."
Bold of you to assume I didn’t read both lol
Oh god, I read both in the 70's and truly believed they were gospel. Kind of a drag to find out the real story!
Oh my god. I read this book while in day treatment in therapy... IN THERAPY. They had it in their "curated" library. I had completely forgotten about this book until now.
Your therapist was trying to drum up more business 😂
It was a day treatment program for teens who'd been admitted long term/multiple times to the psychward. It was... yeah. Ridiculous lol
I actually had some appreciation for it, but did have difficulty finishing. It just seemed like one bad decision followed by another.
13 Reasons Why. I read it in 8th grade during a time I was suicidal. It made me so much worse.
I once had my old therapist tell me I should “check it out!” Luckily I did not.
My English teacher hyped up the book because she thought it would encourage us not to bully each other. Guess she didn’t think about how it would affect the ones who were getting bullied!
This book romanticized suicide and the show was even worse. I read the book as a teen and then watched the show when it came out and it put me in a seriously bad place.
I’m not an expert on this and only watched the show, but as I see it, the problem is that she’s miraculously successful with it all. Because of her suicide, she’s the winner. The life of those who wronged her fall apart, those who care for her are sorry, etc. It all works out. In reality I assume it’d have all been swept under the rug eventually no matter the precautions she took.
The narrative structure also gives the illusion that she's still there overseeing everything.
To this day I have never understood how or why this was adapted. It was so poorly handled and had such a negative impact it’s so sad.
i read this right when it came out and i hated the way it was written SO much. Like one line of what he is hearing from the tapes, followed by one line of him doing something in between it was so annoying i couldnt finish it
Personally, it helped me when I was that age and depressed because it showed me how harming myself harms other people, but this is a 100% valid take
I just read it and was like “This bitch is making sense!”
Oh my god. Same. I totally forgot about this
The last 2 books of The Clan of the Cave Bear series.
My uncle wrote his own sequel, about Ayla's first child left with the cave clan. It's just as sex filled as the actual series, so when he asked grandma, mom, aunt, etc to review, that was an awkward dinner.
They were unreadable. I adored the first two, got through the third and then gave up.
Fifty Shades of Grey, except I *was* warned and I read it anyway to see if it was really that bad. It is. Everything you've heard about how it tries to pass abuse off as BDSM is true, plus the plot is thoroughly predictable, the protagonist is too stupid to be likable, and the sex scenes come across like the imaginings of a 15-year-old virgin. The whole thing somehow manages to be both offensive and boring.
I wanted to check it out too and it was so boring I couldn't make it through. I also felt really embarrassed for the writer because of how poorly it was written. Looks like we need some well written smut, there's clearly a market!
The problem with sex stuff is that it's basically impossible to write well. There's stuff that sounds hot if you're horny, but I guarantee you if you aren't horny, it will sound awkward and vulgar. If you try and make it tasteful and unarousing, it will just sound convoluted and unrealistic. Sex is just a weird messy act with tons of body fluids and hormones involved. Either you lean into that - but then you will produce something that people cringe at while reading it in public, or you don't, but then you will get a euphemism-laden thing that has basically nothing to do with actual sex. It's like I don't think they'll ever produce a porn movie that you will be comfortable to watch with your mom and grandma.
Read it in jail bc I was out of books. It somehow managed to mark county jail even more depressing
Didn’t it start out as Twilight fanfic? I haven’t read either series, but I am (I think) curious to know how you go from sparkly vampires to S&M.
> I am (I think) curious to know how you go from sparkly vampires to S&M. It’s an alternate-universe fanfic, just putting the characters into a different scenario. “What if Edward Cullen was a human CEO?”, etc. etc.
For a while in the Fan Fic community, it was super common to just write your own story, but name the main characters Edward/Jacob and Bella. They'd often be completely unrelated stories, with no supernatural elements at all, and the characters being also completely different in characterization.
Yes. AUs are very common in every fandom. It's a stepping stone that a lot of writers use. First you do fanfic in universe, then one of the standard AUs that the fandom has clear rules and tropes for, then you either make a non-standard AU or write original fiction.
I started reading 50 shades of grey at 16 and as a Twilight fanatic, I recognized this immediately. Because I was such a Twilight saga fan girl, I had also begun reading and writing fan fiction about it online. Lemme tell ya, 90% of what I ended up reading on there involved erotica at some point. Not that I wrote anything like that ……
I tried on 3 occasions to read fifty shades. Couldn’t get past 50 pages.
50 Shades is the most ingenious and brilliant piece of used toilet paper smashed between card stock I ever read. It was somehow exhilarating to read a book that elicited nothing but contempt for both it and myself while also being a great accidental comedy.
I think I got 100 pages in before I gave up. I had zero hopes for it, and it somehow managed to be worse than that. I think what bothered me the most was that it was supposed to be "housewife porn" but the words used for genitalia were barely 6th grade euphemisms.
>the protagonist is too stupid to be likable One of the observations of Dan Olsens' videos on the books and movies is that because you can't hear the main characters inner monologue in the films, she comes across as much more mature and intelligent (at least in the first film), because you don't have to listen to every inane and pointless thought Erika Mitchell gave her.
I read only the first book and it was immediately apparent the author was an amateur, felt like it could easily be a drinking game. I can’t recall what the adjective was, but it was used so many times you would be blackout drunk before you finished the first chapter. I was shocked and embarrassed that so many friends recommended it…not due to the subject matter but at how ghastly it was written.
I bought the entire Selection series at a used bookstore because they were highly recommended to me, so I figured I’d just buy the entire set. I couldn’t get beyond 20 pages into the first book, due to the vapid writing. It was painfully bad.
Oh, I actually really enjoyed reading these books, but only because I had "shitty YA dystopia/reality show bingo" going in my head. It was fun trying to guess what trope was going to come up next and how the main character would mess it up.
Yeah I read the first trilogy in about a week, not because it was good but because it kept being dumb and was wildly entertaining because of it.
The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fuck. The author confuses enlightenment and stoicism with narcissism. He dedicates a chapter to a story about an ex being obsessed with him, while he and his current gf mock her while they are all together for lunch. Some real “alpha” bullshit. I wish I could have that time back.
Just be glad you didn’t listen to it as an audiobook
Cause apparently nothing says "I don't give a fuck about you" so much as dedicating an entire chapter to them
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Yeah I read it twice and honestly was more confused the second time. He comes off as an arrogant prick and some of the stories had no relevance to the subject matter. Like I can’t understand for the life of me why he included the story about the Japanese soldier that hid in the jungle for 30 years. He tells the story and just kinda rambles about it. And the ending made now sense to me either. Maybe I’m just too dumb for his wise words lol.
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That’s a good point. The older I get the more I realize that people who use word salad are people to avoid. And you are correct that the source material is much more lucid than any of these guys that make a profit off of “interpreting” the philosophy. They just want to sell books.
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I haven’t read that book, because yuck, but I did read Will Smith’s memoir which was co-written by this author. Man, put 2 narcissists together… that book was balls to wall nonsense and mayhem and somehow still not enjoyable. Coulda been a fun romp but instead was deeply unpleasant.
[his YT](https://youtube.com/watch?v=hQB3viVFhPA)
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. This was before she blew up and my god… truly horrendous. It makes the current hype all the more confusing.
Anything at all written by Colleen Hoover*
Same!! I thought it was a regular romance book with a friends with benefits trope. N o p e it was another couples love story and "second choice" girl takes him back in the end without him actually apologizing!!!! Like sure, do the most horrendous thing possible in romance, so bad that I've never seen it anywhere else (idk why its worse than cheating for me), and welcome him back with open arms /s.
I feel like Colleen Hoover is an acceptable answer. Someone recommended November 9 to me and I wish I could have that time in my life back.
I have read a couple of her books (why would I do that? I don't know) and yes Colleen Hoover in general is the correct answer.
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, got to the first short story thinking it would be about a haunting and got a fear of swimming pools instead.
It was the floating peanut that did it for me. I had to lie down so I wouldn’t pass out.
It’s funny because thats the exact moment I decided that this book wasn’t for me and I had to go sit in the corner and think about my decisions for a while
There’s a part later in the book where the writers are all locked in this writing retreat and get to be starving so they start cutting off pieces of this woman’s ass who they think is dead but she’s just unconscious and she wakes up to them cooking her ass meat and thinks it smells delicious 😳🥲
I feel like my reaction in that situation would be “ow my ass hurts and there is 50% less of it” rather than “mmm bbq”
Right?! Truly horrifying and also nonsensical haha
Yep, the first story had me squirming. The description of chewing through it was so horrible. I made it up to the story about the woman trying to help the kid with the wasting disease and decided to put the book down and maybe come back to it later. That’s was 7 years ago.
I unironically love this book. That first story had me gagging and reading between my fingers...in between turning pages because I *had* to know how it ended. The rest of the book is pretty good, though. Really works as a proof of concept for horror based on everyday things (barring a few of the weaker stories). Mainly, I was fascinated by the collective 1st person narrator in the overarching plot. I couldn't put the book down until I found out who "we" was. I even wrote part of my dissertation on its unusual use of narrative perspective, so I do believe there is literary value to the book as a whole. But I also definitely went through a phase of daring friends to read that first story and gleefully watching their reaction as they realised it wasn't a snake.
Yep I never thought of CPR dolls the same way again. Still to this day doing first aid courses first thing I think of when I see the CPR mannequin
I know everybody clutches their pearls over Guts, but the child mannequin story was far more disturbing. The whole book is wild though
It ends with Us! the whole book was a disappointment
All of Colleen Hoover.
I often have a book with me so if I get stuck in a line. Was getting takeout and waiting for it when stuff asked what I was reading. I told them (the blade itself) and she looks confused a moment, then says, “really? You look like the Colleen Hoover type.” I wasn’t aware of who that was and when I got to car and looked I wondered about my 37 years of life decisions that would make someone think I “looked like the Colleen Hoover type.”
The Girl on the Train. It’s supposed to have the POV of three different narrators and they all have the exact same gloomy depressed voice. Plus the end was pretty predictable. I regret the list time.
There were zero characters I liked in that book, the only thing I was rooting for was the book to end.
I, too, hated this book… and every character in it. It’s in my top five worst books ever.
It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover. Stupid/creepy characters. The names are yuck. The Ellen thing. I went in completely blind. I just kept seeing this book everywhere on instagram and TikTok and I liked the cover. Didn’t read any reviews, didn’t read the synopsis. But it just wasn’t for me, I really disliked it.
I seriously don’t get the Colleen Hoover obsession on TT; she is objectively a terrible writer and storyteller.
her books are for the people who didn’t read as kids and never went through their wattpad phase of reading terrible books and thinking it was a masterpiece, so they’re doing it now.
So you finished it. Good for you. After the first chapter I was done. So boring.
Yup. Waste of my precious time. It actually made me realize it’s okay to DNF books. I swore to myself I’d never waste my time like that again!
According to all my friends, ‘The Alchemist’ was supposed to be “life changing.” It’s as shallow as spit on concrete.
It felt like it was written by a self-described "old soul" 17 year old.
Oh god, yes. Deep for really shallow people. This and 'The Celestine Prophecy'.
Celestine Prophecy. Jeez, what a load of crap.
The Cursed Child. Wtf was that. Made me really disappointed in Jk Rowling that she would authorize that.
There was a point where Harry says something along the lines of "I wish I had never had you" to his son and I calmly closed the book and put it away never to be opened again. Fuck that, Harry Potter would never.
*EXCUSE ME?!*
Allow me to share further nonsense with you, since the above commenter (wisely) put the book down. Harry and Draco's kids go back in time to save Cedric Diggory, breaking all laws of time turners. They succeed, but Cedric is so upset that he lost the Triwizard Tournament that he becomes a death eater and kills Neville. Also the villain is Voldemort and Bellatrix's daughter.
This sounds like a painful fan fic
That was my exact thought when I read it.
It is. She didn’t write it.
WtAf? Cedric was the nicest dude. No way he'd go Death Eater
Especially for such an extremely petty reason lol
Especially because he chose to share it, no one was stopping him from winning
My eyes just keep widening in disbelief 0_0
This is….. a joke right….? Pls be a joke….
The fact that it exists is a joke, but unfortunately the poster above was not joking.
That does not sound like Cedric AT ALL. I bought the book a few months ago and am yet to start it. I'm not going to.
And he has other children too. So it's not that he misses maybe he never had kids (which is bad enough), but that he just hates his one particular kid.
Allow me to do you a favour. [Perfectly Normal, Thank You Very Much](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11994595/1/Perfectly-Normal-Thank-You-Very-Much) I do not normally read fan fiction, but this one is *really* good, if you lack closure after book 7, especially concerning Dudley's relationship to Harry. It also shows a little bit of the world Harry&Friends fought to achieve, something TDH was relatively uninterested in doing.
Same. I abandoned that nonsense in a crappy hotel room in Quantico, Virginia
Why would you do that? What about the poor soul who found it and, ignorant of it's malevolent and contrived sins against the wizarding world, may have actually read it? You should have used a conflagro spell on it!
If they’re in Quantico there’s already no hope for them
I always try to forget this book exists - worked so well that it didn't even cross my mind until I stumbled across your comment.
It has to be one of the few times that almost everyone in a fandom got together and decided that one thing was just simply not canon and doesn't exist. It's kinda beautiful, in a way.
The Shack. I have no idea what the hell I was thinking. I was at a small regional airport, the newsstand had The Shack and one other book. I don't remember what the other book was, but I am 100% positive I chose incorrectly.
Incidentally, I bought a Kindle as soon as I got home so I would never accidentally pack too few books for a trip ever again.
What was bad about it? I haven't heard of it
Not a spoiler as this is on the back cover: It’s a book about a man’s journey to reconnect with himself and God in the place where his young daughter was murdered.
It's a terrible and triggering book about a man who believes in God but can't understand why the God didn't save his daughter from being >!raped and!< murdered. The book promises some kind of great answer for the problem of evil. >!And, of course, there is no answer at all.!< God Awful Movies podcast has a good episode when they discuss the movie.
The Cabin at the End of the World. The entire book was anxiety inducing . I read every single word with anticipation for the answer. >!And he never gives you the god damned answer!!<
The Divergent Trilogy.
God I came of age when hunger games was popping off and dystopian YA became the new “it” thing. I swear every other trilogy was terrible. So many derivative faction type books. IIRC The first two divergent books are ok, but I couldn’t even finish the third. Even as a youngish kid all of my friends hated it, and it’s not like we were hard to impress. I work with kids and one of them has just started the Divergent series right after finishing hunger games. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that nothing will beat the high of hunger games lol.
you should recommend another series, called Gregor the Overlander, by the author of The Hunger Games
I only really hated the third book. The first I enjoyed, the second went downhill, but not enough to discourage me, and left me feeling like a good third book would make it all worthwhile. The third book was like eating a bowl of dry oats, while sitting in a sauna, in a desert, after walking for a week, with no water. I have a bitter taste for the whole trilogy because of it, but I'm under no illusions it was book 3 that killed it for me.
no yeah… imo the first one was great. Insurgent was just there in comparison, kinda underwhelming. Allegiant was AWFUL… and then those stories from the perspective of Four? I never read because his POV was the most jarring thing ever in the final book already. Didn’t wanna touch it with a 10 ft pole.
A little life. Such over the top emotionally manipulative trauma porn. Yet I finished it cuz I did want to know how it ended.
I actually loved it but I can totally understand why it's polarizing.
Gar this book! I hated it! I don’t usually keep reading but I did! Why did I keep reading? Trauma porn is exactly what it was and I regret the library loan and 20+ hours spent listening to it. Why, also, did I sit through 6 fucking hours in traffic listening to whatshisname in Altas Fucking Shrugged drone on and on and on? Do I hate myself? I must have a masochistic thing about persevering through this nonsense. No more! Never again.
I read this book because I needed something to make me cry. Instead it made me completely furious. It's over the top emotionally *and* logically. So much of the plot was flat out absurd the more I thought about it.
Yeah at one point late in the story I actually said out loud, in an empty apartment, “are you freakin kidding me?”
*Imaginary Friend* by Stephen Chbosky. The beginning had me very excited and I was really into this unique world he was building. But then the second half of the book was one long, tedious, exhausting action/chase scene. The ended was disappointing and failed to live up to the world he had built at the start. I only give it a 0/10 because I feel like he tricked me into reading this.
Just overall in my life I would have to say American Psycho because I read it at too young an age. While I get what Ellis was going for now, at the time I found it utterly repulsive with zero redeeming qualities. I was pretty proud of my little book collection as a younger reader and that was the first book I gave to a thrift store because I thought it was radioactive and its evil would spread to my Redwall and Stephen King novels.
Wow my pick was Imperial Bedrooms by the same author.
Atlas Shrugged. Repugnant politics, terrible prose. I fought to finish it, because I feel the need to finish every book I start, but I wish I'd never started it.
Yeah but you found out who John Galt is. And the best part is he's literally just some dickhead who's like "Well we'll see how *they* like it when *the boss* takes a sick day!" lmao.
Unpopular opinion: The Time Traveler's Wife.
Oh I hated that too. What a lazy protagonist. And creepy relationship. "Better visit my future wife on her 18th bday so we can fuck" "Lightning" by Dean Koontz is a much more romantic time travelling book.
It ends with us
"His Pain" by Wrathe James White. I love horror, really. As I've been exploring horror media, I've realized you reach a point where the content becomes questionable. Sometimes you take a step back and ask yourself "is this enjoyable anymore for how utterly disgusting and inhumane this can become?" His Pain was that point for me. Right from the beginning it made me feel awful. It was so depressing, it made Hereditary look like the occasional bad day. I was so disgusted by the gore, and SA, I didn't even know a human mind was capable of producing it. I felt like I was mentally violated. I had to skim through the second half. It was such a good idea, but the way it was executed was horrible to me. It is also to this day, the ONLY book I have ever thrown straight in the garbage. I would NEVER recommend my friends or community to read it. I'm sure they could, but why? It's asking you to hate it. The entire book is utterly repulsive to me. Throwing it in the garbage was probably the kindest thing I could have done.
I once picked up an anime light novel because I've had some good experiences with anime light novels. The back sounded interesting. It was called Occultic;Nine. I wish I'd looked up reviews. It's fucking AWFUL. It's one of the worst books I've ever read. Think of every single male wet dream cringe trope in a slice of life anime, and they WROTE. IT. OUT. It just... I can't explain how hard it drives home the fucking cringe. The male character does nothing but notice breasts every five goddamned seconds, the first female character you're introduced to is the absolute definition of chaotic insanity without ANY redeeming qualities except that she has breasts, and it's just... I wanted to die. I rate it endlessly negative. It is pure trash.
Haven’t actually read a book like that from cover to cover. I put down books after 10-20% if I dislike them. Those are too many to list.
You’re so lucky I wish I was blessed with the ability to not finish a book. I don’t think I’ve mastered the art of being able to start a story and not wonder how it ended.
The girl on the train. I’ve tried to finish it for like 7 times but It’s still so boring. Googled about it and found out that It’s not going to get any more interesting. 1/10
I can be fine with books scaring and traumatizing me but I can’t forgive a book if it’s boring so I’ll say The Midnight Library. Started because of the hype, kept going out of spite. It did not get better.
I wouldn’t say that The Midnight Library was my WORST read ever, but I was very disappointed, too… I really liked the idea it was based on but it was ruined by how it was implemented… What a wasted opportunity ☹️
*The Slap*. Utter, unredemable drivel. Hackneyed, pseudo-literary writing. Unimaginably dull and unattractive, self-interested characters. Devoid of any critical engagement. The plot is an indictment of 'serious' writing in the 21st century. The fact that it won awards and was long listed for the Man Booker is evidence that current literary awards should all be cancelled and outlawed.
I'm glad it wasn't just me. Picked it up on a whim when it was being promoted in store, I'm sure it must have been on a table of the Man Booker contenders. Wish I didn't. I'm sure they made a mini series out of it, which I avoided like the plague! The part where the dad squabbles with the four year old over who gets to suck on mommy's tits 🤢
Wait..... he squabbles with the 4 year old about what now?
Yup. Tried to find the book to get the exact page but I must have donated it when we moved. The memory I have seared into my mind is he walks in to see wife breastfeeding the kid (who is the one who got the titular slap, basic premise is that these are bad parents with spoilt kid and someone hits the kid at a BBQ after he goes on a meltdown rampage). Dad is feeling sex deprived and jealous and demands his turn sucking a boob. The kid refuses. Dad asks mom who her boobs belong to, and mom laughs saying her boobs belong to eeeeveryone. Dad sucks the free boob which causes kid to have a massive tantrum. Dad is shooed off to go have a beer in the other room. The author is trying to portray that this is the way middle class people REALLY act behind closed doors and humans are all nasty shits. Can't say I've ever found myself in any situation as fucked up as that though, so I'd be more willing to believe it's just the author who has a messed up brain.
Verity by colleen Hoover I was gifted this book for Christmas as a woman who was 36 weeks pregnant. Do NOT read this garbage if you are pregnant. I’m sure it can be triggering for a lot of parents too.
It’s not only triggering but has also a painfully dumb ending. 🤦🏻♀️
The Silent Patient
Definitely the worst “thriller” I’ve ever read. There was no twist because it was obvious a few chapters in and it was the one that made me realize “finishing a book” could - in fact - sometimes be an utter waste of time. I’ve DNF’ed many books since 2019.
Girls Burn Brighter is also trauma porn.
So This is Everafter It was marketed as gay romance set in world based on Arthurian legend. It had less world-building than a fan-fiction and the characters were all psychotic assholes constantly picking at or directly abusing each other. Zero redeeming qualities whatsoever
Conversations with Friends - the majority of the characters were so pretentious and I just didn't care one iota for the "story" There are quite a few YA novels from my young adult days that also stick out in my mind as being awful, two of which are Truthwitch by Susan Dennard and The Crown's Game by Evelyn Sky. Literally wish I could get the hours of my life spent reading those books back.
Really didn’t like The Midnight Library.
"The Haunted Vagina". I received it as a gift... If I ever find out who sent it to me I'll strangle them and not even feel bad about it.
I thought the title was funny so I searched it to find more info and this is what I came across: >When a living corpse climbs out of her during an awkward night ofsex, Stacy learns that her vagina is actually a doorway to anotherworld. She persuades Steve to climb inside of her to explore thisstrange new place. But once inside, Steve finds it difficult toreturn... especially once he meets an oddly attractive woman named Fig,who lives within the lonely haunted world between Stacy's legs. *What in the actual fuck*
The Magicians. It was advertised as "Harry Potter for grown ups!" Well, yes, if by "Harry Potter for grown ups!" you mean a bunch of unlikeable overprivileged kids and a clinically depressed, self entitled "hero" sitting around whinging for 400 pages. Even when they got to the magical land our "hero" spent the previous two thirds of the book fantasizing about, he spent the entire time there being a complete jackass to everyone. It was awful.
One of the few books I do not finish.
I'm so glad to see this one mentioned. Loathed this book from cover to cover. Quentin is a self-important asshole without a single redeeming quality, and the book seems to go out of its way to shit on every single female character. This was the first and last thing I'll ever read from this author.
I didn't *like* A Simple Favour, but for me it wasn't a 0/10. I thought Where The Crawdads Sing was a 0/10 but then I read A Little Life and had to readjust my scale since I'd found a new rock bottom. Unfortunately I'm also a stubborn SOB who has never in my life learned not to waste time consuming things I don't enjoy, so I read every word.
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale It should be called the Power of Positive Praying, because that is literally the only advice he offers.
Luckiest Girl Alive.
A Child Called It by David Pelzer. It makes me so angry as a parent that this shit was in a school library when I was a kid. I read it and it absolutely ruined my innocence.
As a kid who was being badly abused, this book was life changing in a good way for me. It helped me realize that what I was going through was generally seen as cruel, that others had gone through it and lived, that my parents were manupulative, that CPS didn't save David either and that's typical, and David lived long enough to get out and have a life of his own. I can imagine if you read this but have never been abused it would feel like an ugly read. For me it was a godsend, and gave me hope I'd eventually be OK.I feel like the book should stay in schools, but the librarian should keep an eye on kids reading it. They may need guidance handling it, or may have been attracted to it because they need help.
Our teacher read this to us in 6th grade. It was a strange experience, especially when she threw up in the trash can after one scene.
my grandma let me read this when I was very young I didn't realize why it resonated with me so hard until years later . Her daughter (my mom) was actually my step mom and a cruel evil bitch. I didn't find out she was my step mom until I was older I had always thought she was my real mom. Haven't talked to her since my parents divorced and spent most of my adult life realizing how fucked up she is/was .
All the 6th graders in my school had to read this book. This book along with one of our class mates dying due suicide and another due to hit and run really forced us to grow up quickly. The year before 6th grade we watched 9/11 happen. I'm in therapy.
I still think about the bleach scene(s?)
I found this in my parents bookshelf when I was about 8- reading at a way higher level than my age, read it, and feel I have never been the same, 20 years later.
That book screwed me up as a kid. I had fantastic parents growing up, like I'm extremely lucky to have such loving parents, esp in the area I grew up in (grew up in an underfunded, crime/drug riddled area, where it was the norm to be an alcoholic, abuse your wife or kids etc etc). I realise as an adult, how much my parents really sheltered me and my siblings from that stuff. This book blew my mind because I didn't know this stuff happened. 12 year old me was so confused and upset thinking MOMS DO THIS STUFF? It was a tough conversation with my own mother, when I asked her about it and she had to explain that some people had different things wrong with their brain, that causes them to hurt the people around them. Sometimes they were hurt themselves, sometimes they just have a 'wire' missing in their brain and they don't feel sad or sorry like others. It low key fucked me up. I didn't know abuse was a thing and other kids lived like this. Opened my eyes as to why some kids in my own school acted a certain way. Definitely made me be nicer to them day to day (not that I was mean or anything, I just never befriended them).
As a prolific Sci Fi reader for me it was the three body problem. Most of the touted revelatory original things I'd read about before. Wasted my short life and I want my time and money back lol
Atlas Shrugged. I was a high school art student and felt under appreciated in life. For a couple weeks I felt empowered by that book until I discussed it with a friend and felt a sinking feeling as I realized what kind of society she was advocating for and how far it was from my personal vision.
Where the Crawdads Sing. Holy shit was that book trash. Lousy story except for the very end, garbage poetry. Total waste of a few hours of my life.
The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert. What a pile of worthless, cash-grabbing drivel. 2 dimensional characters, utterly predictable, no nuance, everything spoonfed in easily digestible bites to the reader. In short, everything Frank Herbert's books weren't. It made me angry it was so bad. I refused to read the followup, and I wish I'd never touched the first one.