Week 31: Progress Post

[Zaz, Mood Minion]

We are halfway done with Week 31! You read a book with bad reviews.

This discussion thread is solely for your progress. (Book discussions go in individual threads.)


What did you read this week?

Did you enjoy the book?

What is your rating?

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews?

[Francesca]

What did you read this week?
I read The Merciless by Danielle Vega .

Did you enjoy the book?
Yes I did enjoy it, actually. I didn't love it but I found it very entertaining.

What is your rating?
I gave it 3 stars.

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews?
The story is quite disjointed and a bit all over the place at times. It's not always completely coherent and some of it is a little bit cheesy.

[Danaë]

What did you read this week?
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

Did you enjoy the book?
No. Sometimes with a bad book, I can at least enjoy getting angry at plot holes or stupid characters, but this book was just dull.

What is your rating?
1 star.

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews?
There were a bunch of problems with the book in my opinion. First, since this is a sort of fanfiction, I think readers come to this book with expectations about how the characters we know from Pride and Prejudice will act in the situation presented. The characters she used came across as very flat. A lot of the most amusing P&P characters were left out completely, which was a shame as they could have injected some humor into the story. Then, you have a mystery which no one cares about. The characters couldn't seem to muster up any interest in the murder themselves, so no tension was passed to the reader. And overall the writing was clogged with info dumps and stilted dialogue.

[EllenZReads]

What did you read this week?
I'm getting a late start, but I'm reading Leaves of Grass

Did you enjoy the book?
I've read parts of it before, I've never read the whole book.

What is your rating?
I like what I've read so far.

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews?
I would imagine people found certain parts of it obscene or inappropriate, as it was originally published in 1855.

[Krysta]

What did you read this week? The Almost Moon

Did you enjoy the book? NO! It was terrible.

What is your rating? One star.

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews? If you have to force yourself to keep reading it, if its written badly, if you could write it better (and you're not an author).

[Zaz, Mood Minion]

What did you read this week? The Magicians

Did you enjoy the book? No, I would have stop after the 1st 100pages if it wasn't part of the challenge. Perhaps to enjoy it you have to consider it's a second (third?) degree humour or a satirical book?

What is your rating? One star!

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews?
3rd person point of view sexist (look the women in the breasts), uninteresting story (it's wonderful to read pages about being drunk...), the characters are supposed to be VERY smart but they have all the time stupid and boring discussions and the heroes are jerk (and I won't talk about the female oriented insults).

[Erica]

What did you read this week?
The Fountainhead

Did you enjoy the book?
Yes.

What is your rating?
5 stars

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews?
It was really long and deep, but I enjoyed the story.

[Jessica]

What did you read this week?
Catch-22

Did you enjoy the book?
Surprisingly, yes.

What is your rating?
3 (would have been higher if not for the problems below)

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews?
The biggest problem I had with it was the sexualization of ALL women characters (what little they have) and the nonchalant way all the characters spoke of rape and sexual harrassment. Extremely offputting, though one could argue that was important to Yossarian's epiphany in Rome, I don't think it was entirely necessary.
For most people, I could see the non-linear aspect of the story being a problem, about halfway through the book I started figuring out how things fit together and made sense.

[Jody]

What did you read this week? Lolita

Did you enjoy the book? No.

What is your rating? 1 very weak star.

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews? I think the less I say about this book the better - it gets me far too angry.

[Silvia]

What did you read this week?
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Did you enjoy the book? Yes, I did.

What is your rating? 3 stars

What parts, according you, are the biggest reasons for the bad reviews? This is the last volume of a very long series, a series that created expectations around a relationship that didn't finish well, that made us love some characters that just dissapeared in a very boring way, that just didn't finish the way everyone was waiting for... so that's why I think all the bad reviews. However I enjoyed reading it, although my expectations were not fulfilled either.