Talk about a book you dislike without saying the name of it

[LadyN]

Just for the fun of it. Also this means you can somewhat spoil it without actually spoiling it.
Remember:
No book titles
No real character names
Only genre, plot, and why you dislike it

Sci-fi dystopian with a very terrible romance between two MCs. Takes place several years in the future and teens from around the world will be trained and sent off to space to conquer planet. People will be eliminated every once in a while and one MC doesn’t want to be there (god they’re annoying) and tries to find reasons to leave. As story progresses they fall in love with other MC and are separated at the end. They have adult fun-time before leaving(they’re not legal-). Book 2 plot (based off the first chapter) is basically Among Us.

I dislike it because the romance was predictable (read the summary and predicted it immediately), a lot doesn’t make sense, and the whole book is exposition and build up with no climax or closure. When I was done reading it I felt very unsatisfied. The beginning was strong, middle was strong, end was weaker than my left knee.
And I despise one of the MCs. Like oh my goodness all they do is whine. They literally have a temper tantrum around halfway through the book.

What about you all? I know we all have that one book that we want to burn from our memory.

[Aeneas1]

An absolutely terrible badly written book about a dysfunctional family of superheroes.

[arxianfall]

1. Arabs in space, all high as a kite.
2. Obsession with towels

[Kelheor]

Fairy d*cks and everyone gets a dress from diamonds

[Llyrel]

Urban fantasy saga featuring an Incredibly Annoying Main Character™ and Draco in leather pants. Plot is basically a mishmash of other popular fantasy and sci-fi works. Main Character is supposedly worried about her house being destroyed by a monster and her mother disappearing, but the very first thing she can think of when she finds out is "BUT WHAT ABOUT MY CLOTHES" (and no, this isn't described as a symptom of shock, it's treated as an absolutely serious and legit concern).

After pages upon pages of pointless info-dumps about fantasy creatures that aren't even going to make an appearance in the book, MC proceeds to hate on the other female character (who gives her clothes) because she's pretty and that apparently makes her a b***ch. She also forces her gay brother to come out to her because "HOW COULD YOU HIDE THIS FROM ME" (oh, I dunno, probably because he's trying to protect himself from his homophobic family and also because you two just met, aren't exactly BFF and it's not like you did much to prove that you can be trusted with that sort of info?) + she uses her best friend to her own advantage only to abandon him when she doesn't need him anymore. The ending of the book features an "amazing" (/s) deus ex machina in which MC suddenly remembers that she likes to draw (we never saw her drawing before), which is apparently the source of her magical power.

The fun thing is that I don't even hate this book, I think it actually has a lot of good ideas in it (and the movies/series seem to fix some of the issues the book has, like the thing with drawing), but the overall rendition and the characters (especially the characters) were so... ugh.

[IndigoShirtProd]

@Kelheor I feel like I know what series you're talking about...

A generic mystery solved within the first few chapters. So generic in fact that I forgot what the story was about but I know it made me mad.

[DreamyPastel]

So in general I have a profound hatred of required reading in school - which is why I have barely read any books on my own within the past 8 years. But one book we had to read for school was the absolute WORST.
We had to read two books and do an essay on one and test on the other. The book I did the essay on was an easy read - not fun but was easy.
This next book was one of the most pointless things I've ever had the displeasure of reading. It was a coming of age story focused on an unlikeable, whiny teenage protagonist who hates the world. An overdone trope for sure that can be pretty good, but nothing new was done with it. Basically, main character doesn't do well in school and gets in trouble a lot cause he is rude to pretty much everyone and is a huge hypocrite. Partially his attitude is due to his past, but he rarely ever learns from his mistakes and is stubborn in his judgement.
It's 277 pages long. Which is pretty short but not when 70% of the text is just the character's thoughts. His thinking alone dragged on and on and on for no reason besides filler I think and sometimes wasn't even related to the story (which could add to a sense of realism but I could not care less about what he had to think about if it wasn't related to the plot).
Then I don't really know if he changed by the end of it? I know some main characters don't grow in stories which is generally fine and could add to the overall theme, but for such a rude character who seemed like he wanted to improve himself didn't change much at all. Seriously, I don't know why this book was required as part of our class besides that it is American literature. It was so useless - I think any other American literature book would've been better.
SO USELESS IN FACT that the test was ridiculously hard and asked about characters who only showed up in ONE PARAGRAPH. There was one teacher near the beginning of the book who was in two paragraphs, and it was a matching question where we had to match the name to the character. I'm not going to remember the name of such a minor character WHO HAD LITTLE IMPACT ON THE STORY. Reading up on some reviews for it, maybe it gets better with age - who knows - I was 16 when I first read it and, it was just so annoying. In general it has mixed reviews, but I cannot physically see myself being able to read this book again.
If I had just written the essay on this book, I would've had an easier time as other students said the test for the other book was way easier. I have a lot of feelings about this book, and my blood still boils every time I remember its existence.

[afayewrites]

Hoo boy, let's see what my lowest-rated stuff on Goodreads is...

• Boring, pretentious slog of a "spiritual awakening" book that felt a smidge appropriative and very much just a mouthpiece for the author's spiritual beliefs. Tried it for my Dad. Couldn't finish it.

• That last "great" adapted dystopian YA. You know the one--no understanding of how DNA worked at all. Anything else and I'll definitely give it away

• Classic I had to read for AP Lit; took me ages to finish because it was both boring as hell and also just really uncomfortable; took place in Africa yet pretty much used any characters that weren't the white leads as props.

• Graphic novel about a lesbian romance with a nasty age gap. Left no impression on me besides mild disappointment that the creepy behaviour was never called out.

• The one where I got excited because, "Hey, an autistic lead! I'm autistic!" and like three chapters in the autistic child violently murders a cat.

• The one written by a serial plagiarist who seemingly has a thing for incest.

• Bonus: all the ones that were mediocre YAs with underwhelming plot twists and/or creepy age gaps for no damn reason.

[NickRowler]

A print out of cringy chats/texts from 2006 of three of the most unlikable teenager girls. And it will teach every teenage reader that if you don't like that your parents moved to a new State for their job, just run away on a Greyhound Bus. No consequences at all.

[DNoble]

one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy series of all time, massive sprawling epic spanning over a dozen books, rivaling ASoIaF in popularity.
And yet the first book is the most bland, rote, by-the-numbers chosen one story, with a villain who is literally just satan by another name, and plot beats so uninteresting and overdone that I can't remember a single one of them. I unironically fell asleep listening to the ending of the audiobook. Like main character is getting his big chosen one power up and has a glowing sword that shoots a giant laser beam at a demon to save the world or some shit, and I passed out in the middle of it because I could. not. care. less.
How in the actual fuck this franchise not only continued for 14 installments, but is also now getting a big-budget TV adaptation will forever confuse and frustrate me.

[Lensing]

One of the most famous, classic, german books.
I picked it up because I wanted to impress a girl I liked who recommended it to me.
I can´t tell you what the book is about because I gave up after struggling to read
4 pages and not understanding anything because I´m not smart enough

[Stargazer31]

A series of long, boring books, in which a woman with all the personality of a brick randomly goes back in time because of some Scottish stones, doesn't question it at all and marries the first guy in a kilt she sees (who turns out to be a wifebeater, but this is portrayed as romantic for some dumb reason).
She then runs away to France, then America, then she tries to justify the transatlantic slave trade, and then telepathically communicates with the loch ness monster.
Why this thing has a TV series is beyond me. The writer confirmed that the love interest was just a ripoff of a Doctor Who character (however, if they were to meet, the Doctor Who character would kick the love interest's arse.)

[Calandria]

There is one in which they even made a movie, about a detective who, to identify a murderer, manipulates his environment and people in a cruel, selfish and even bloody way. This could be a good premise for some, if it weren't for the fact that in the end ... nothing happens.

[system]

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.