Top 5 Fiction Books I Didn't Like

I've done a lot of "Best of-" type lists for the books I've read, but this month, I'd like to get a bit more critical. You see, while there's a lot of good stories to read out there, there's also a lot that are...too put it lightly, less enjoyable. Or outright bad. And part of being a reader is going through books you're not fond of, sometimes to the point of finishing them, as I did for every book I've included here. So today, I'm going through the top five fiction book I didn't enjoy.

A few disclaimers before I start. First, just because a book ends up on this list doesn't necessarily mean I consider it bad – number five certainly isn't – just that I didn't enjoy reading it. If you like any of these, that's great! Second, while I expect to be more snarkier than usual for this list, none of this should be taken as mockery of the authors, just criticism toward their works. No one sets out to write a bad story, and these people should get credit for doing their best.

All of this is my opinion, so feel free to disagree! Oh, and spoilers for the works of:

Robert Louis Stevenson

*Erin Hunter*

Kathryn Lasky

*Bernard Palmer*

*Charles M. Sheldon*

The ones in asterisks have the heaviest spoilers! Oh, and snark warning from here on out. Let's go!

5: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: Starting with the one book on this list that is definitely good, just not for me. While this story, focused on a young man in the 1750s who is – you guessed it – kidnapped, is considered one of the author's best works, I don't have fond memories of reading it.

I read it for school, which usually got me off on a bad foot, as I was reading a book out of obligation rather than a genuine desire to read it. Then again, that applied to To Kill a Mockingbird, and I enjoyed it, so maybe it would be the same here. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

As with certain classics I've read, like A Tale of Two Cities, I remember a lot of it being very wordy and hard to follow, which didn't gel well with my then-undiagnosed autism. I had to read a chapter per day, which usually took me over an hour, and once I got to the book report, I looked up the plot online to help me write it. As I've realized over time, if I'm trudging through a book I'm not enjoying, I usually can't recall the story details afterward.

A classic, but not for a brain of my frequency.

4: Shifting Shadows by Erin Hunter: While the first three books in the Bravelands series are my favorites from the Erin Hunter team, the fourth book turned me off from the rest of the series. The third book finished with the death of a fantastic villain, and once he was gone, I was worried about where the series would go. Unfortunately, it wasn't in a good direction.

The stories of the three main characters went off the rails. For the elephant Sky, one of her friends is revealed out of nowhere to have a dark past. For the lion Fearless, he leaves his pride because he's intimidated by his sister's mate and distraught over the recent revelation of his real father. For the baboon Thorn, he's destined to become the next leader and guide for Bravelands. These aren't bad premises on paper, but they're not handled well. The past of Sky's friend comes out of nowhere even though he's been around for two previous entries, and Fearless leaving his pride is very out of character considering all he did to get one in the first three books. But Thorn's story was the most disappointing.

There's a lot of interesting angles it could have been approached. Thorn could've been hesitant because the previous leader – also a baboon – was a tyrant and the animals would see another one in a tainted light because of that. But no, he doesn't bring that up, and he's in the wrong because he's supposed to take up the role because...because...B-CUZ DESTINYYYYY! While it'd be interesting to see any character from an Erin Hunter book challenge the path they're supposedly supposed to take, that wasn't done here, and that's a real missed opportunity considering there's two more books after this that could benefit from that sort of drama.

And for the overarching plot, a new group of villains are revealed out of nowhere, the Spirit-Eaters, who devour the souls of any animal they meet. While they're kinda scary, they don't hold a candle to the previous villain. He was a manipulative tyrant who rose to power over the dead bodies of the leaders who came before him and had all the animals wrapped around his finger, while the new villains are basically...running around and offing people. Not an upgrade.

The later Bravelands arcs have had three books instead of six, and from my experience with the series, I can see why.

3: The Journey by Kathryn Lasky: If you read my post about my history with the Guardians of Ga'Hoole franchise, this one won't be a shocker to you. If you haven't read it, then first of all, please do (https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...), but I'll give you the short version here.

I have a bit of a history with the Ga'Hoole franchise involving both the movie and the books. While I wanted to enjoy them, they ended up as more of a mixed bag for me, with positive aspects (The atmosphere!) and negative (The pacing...). But when I got the the second published book in the series, I took a long break from it before I picked it back up, feeling obligated to finish it. I forced myself to read until the end, which would be the last time I ever did that sort of thing. I didn't enjoy the book at all after I resumed reading it, and to this day, I can't remember much about it.

Sorry for the rather short entry after the meaty one above, but the thing about these sort of books is that I can't recall the specific aspects I didn't enjoy, just that the experience in general was drab. To avoid that, I have a policy for books I send to the DNF zone: The page I stop reading at is 100 - my age. I like this method because it stops younger readers from being too impulsive, while older readers don't spend too much time on works they don't like.

2: Danny Orlis and the Ordeal at Camp by Bernard Palmer: A book you haven't heard of from a Christian Fiction series you also probably haven't heard of that was published from the 1950s to the late 80s. This series is filled with adventure/mystery stories centered around the title character, which sounded similar to me to The Boxcar Children, so when I came across a few early editions of these books, I wanted to know what they'd be like.

In the start, the title character and his friend decide to take two kids they're watching over to a Bible Camp in Canada for the entire summer. One of them, Linda Penner (More on her later), doesn't want to go, but they make her go anyway. She goes to camp and finds some other kids to hang out with. They get lost, one gets attacked by a large bird after messing with her nest, he gets injured, and the group are taken in by a group of Natives who tend to his wounds before the group is found by their caretakers. Once all of that is over, they go home.

The plot structure was off, to say the least. There wasn't really a sense of rising action or tension, and there wasn't a climax either. And when the group are taken in by the Natives, the characters emphasize that these people have never heard of Jesus. Is the point of this book just to raise awareness about certain tribes who've never heard of Christianity? If so, you can do that by making some pamphlets and handing them out to inform people. The only reason to put that message to a book is to tell a good story, which wasn't done here.

But when I think back to why I didn't like this book, the biggest reason has to be how the character Linda Penner is treated. She's made out to be a brat for not wanting to spend her entire summer at a Bible Camp, and one of her caretakers says the reason she's so upset is because she hasn't converted to Christianity.

(Judging from what I've seen from another book in this series, Danny Orlis Goes to School, it seems atheists and unbelievers tend to be portrayed as jerks. Yo, God's Not Dead movies, I found your grandpa.)

But really, I sympathize a lot with Linda. I didn't enjoy a lot of my time at church camps, and she said that she had miserable experiences at camps too. Why would she want to spend her entire summer at one? Summer break should be a time to do a variety of fun things, like going to the movies, hanging out with your friends, nights at the skating rink, and swimming. But for this girl, all of that was taken away by her guardians without giving her a say. And when she gets upset, they go and lecture her about not adopting their faith, which just comes off as self-righteous to anyone outside of this book's narrow demographic.

But as much as I didn't enjoy this book, there's one more that's a fair bit more deserving of the number one spot.

1: In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon: If you haven't heard of this book, you still might have heard of the phrase it coined, "What would Jesus do?" In it, a group of people decide to live as Jesus lives.

While I do think this book's message is one worth exploring (Though I'm not the biggest fan of how it was explored in the story – more on that later), I'll say it again: The only reason to put it to a book, rather than making it the subject of a sermon or church study course, is to tell a good story. While this book may have been wildly popular in the past and still sees some success today, it's more read for its message rather than its literary merit.

In my opinion, it doesn't have any.

The plot hardly ever has any tension, but rather alternates through a variety of characters with bland stories. At one point, the story switches settings, but then it just goes on with the same stuff as before with a different cast. It's not very influential to the overall plot, which is about the main characters trying to shut down a saloon in their town.

The reasons I didn't enjoy it are a mix of all the reasons I didn't enjoy any of the books above. Overtly wordy? Yes. Required to read for school? Yes. Weak villains? Yes. Lack of tension? Yes. Bad plot structure? Yes. Message before story? Absolutely yes. And character I wasn't supposed to sympathize with? Jasper Chase.

I was interested in the writer Jasper's story, as when I was reading the book, I was starting my writing efforts for the first time. But he wasn't given a lot of attention, and when he did, I wasn't satisfied. He was treated as wrong for deciding to publish his next book despite it not having any religious messaging to it, and I've got a fair bit to say about that.

Just because a piece of media isn't explicitly Christian doesn't mean it bad by Biblical standards. Just look at the parable of The Good Samaritan; it doesn't mention God at all, it's just about a man getting help from someone who was labeled as an enemy by his culture. It's message – that doing good should transcend race and class – isn't even one espoused solely by Christianity, but it's still a godly story not because it's explicitly religious, but because of its virtuous message. So when Jasper decides to go forward publishing his book – which the story mentions isn't in conflict with Christian teachings – he shouldn't be treated like the bad guy for it!

But even though there were specific parts of this book that stood out to me, it still ended up in my memory on the same level as Kidnapped and The Journey. That meaning, my experience reading it was so draining that I ended up with no memory of how the overall story went. It was that bad. And for that, it's my number one pick.

*****

I've been working on the first draft of a new project recently, and I've been struggling through a lot of it. But as I was revising this, editing out the crummy parts and revising what I could, it reminded me just how much the first draft isn't about getting it right, but getting it written. The real magic comes in the revising phases, and that feeling you get when you type up something great is what makes it all worth it!

(Some of these books really could've used another draft, too. You agree?)