What was your least favorite book of 2016 so far?

[Bonnie G.]

Books we hate, really hate, are as rare as books we love, maybe rarer. What books would you recommend your fellow GFY'ers avoid. (Also, this is a conversation, so feel free to stick up for books you liked.)

[Bonnie G.]

I will start. Hands down this year's winner is This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!. I LOATHED this book. I was actually getting angry when I listened to it. Here is my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Alicia]

People whose opinions I trust loved Fates and Furies but I didn't make it beyond page 15 or so. I could not get past the prose... it was too much. That was the first time I haven't finished a book in a long time.

[Katy]

I hated Fates and Furies too until I got to the last third and then I was SO glad I pushed through! It really does all come together I swear and it was worth it (to me anyway)

[Sophie]

I would like to unread Specimen Days, please.

[Katie]

My least favorite this year so far was The Bollywood Bride, which is so frustrating as it was a book club pick intended to show that Romance Novels had grown as a genre! It had good reviews! It was on Feminist To Read Lists!

It was lackluster in nearly every way.

[Bonnie G.]

I enjoyed Fates & Furries, but it didn't come together for me until the second half.

[Leah]

Ug ug ug Fates and Furies. Glad to see there are others who felt the same. I stuck with it well into the second half when it switches perspectives and actually hated the characters more as it went on, hard to believe as I disliked them pretty strongly from the beginning. I finally gave myself permission to quit. I was really bummed because this was one of those "big" books of 2015 I was really looking forward to and got so excited when it finally arrived from the library.

[Bonnie G.]

Oh, i definitely didn't like any of the characters in F&F. Many of my favorite books have no characters I like. I would not put F&F on my favorites list, I did like the book though.

[Lori]

I also hated the Fates and Furies, I was so disappointed, I really was not invested in any of the characters, and I gave up and did not finish the book. I really hate doing that but life is too short to waste on a book you are not enjoying.

[Bonnie G.]

Here is my review of F&F -- as you can see I was conflicted. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[Leah]

Bonnie wrote: "Oh, i definitely didn't like any of the characters in F&F. Many of my favorite books have no characters I like. I would not put F&F on my favorites list, I did like the book though."

I don't really have to like book characters in order to like a book (I loved Martin Amis' The Zone of Interest, for instance), but I agree with another poster above: I wasn't invested in any of them. I wasn't curious about what they'd do next. Frankly, they behaved like no people I've ever met--their motivations and actions seemed played like "types" and like useful points to advance the plot, not like real explorations of human emotions and choices. I thought the author's tone towards the male protagonist was snide/condescending (can't quite put my finger on it...) and fragile, golden-boy narcissist is not someone I want to spend much time with to begin with. I also never understood what he saw in her--that relationship made non sense to me and its theoretically the central point of the entire book.

Blech to F&F!

[Bonnie G.]

Leah wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "Oh, i definitely didn't like any of the characters in F&F. Many of my favorite books have no characters I like. I would not put F&F on my favorites list, I did like the book though."..."

I agree that the characters were representatives of types of people rather than fleshed out human characters, absolutely.

[Barbara]

Does a re-read count? Because I revisited Wuthering Heights recently and found it damn near unreadable.
I felt quite guilty about that.

[Ashley]

Right now I'm reading an advance copy of The Devourers and I really do not like it at all. The premise is cool (werewolves in India!) but the writing is fussy and overworked and it's SO GODDAMN SERIOUS. Luckily it's only 300 pages and I'm nearly halfway done, but it's a bad sign with a book this short when you can look at an entire page of mannered, obfuscating dialogue and think "I'd cut the whole thing."

[Pamela]

I'll take us into the gutter- the latest JR Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood book The Beast, I loved the rest of the series, good solid trashy reads but this was unreadable and I quit at the 5% point.

[Amy]

Bonnie wrote: "I enjoyed Fates & Furries, but it didn't come together for me until the second half."

Not to make fun of your typo, but Fates and Furries would have been a much better book!

I thought it was OK - it was a long slog through a story about people who were fairly repellent. But it wound up better than I expected.

[Ashley]

Not to make fun of your typo, but Fates and Furries would have been a much better book!


I have totally been calling it Fates and Furries in my head since I first heard of it :D

[AnneS]

I don't loathe many books but I want the time back that I spent reading "The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair." I don't know why I bought into the hype. It was so incredibly awful. I'm not sure where the author, he's French, got his view of Americans because he's clearly never met any.

Barbara, I hate Wuthering Heights. I suffered through it in high school and have never picked it up again. I feel guilty about that. I should give it another try. Then I think, if Cathy and Heathcliff drove me crazy at 15, I'm sure it would be worse 20+ years later.

[Bonnie G.]

Barbara wrote: "Does a re-read count? Because I revisited Wuthering Heights recently and found it damn near unreadable.
I felt quite guilty about that."

I have always disliked WH. I don't understand at all why it is beloved. Even weirder, why does anyone consider it romantic?? I am not sure if that assuages your guilt, but if hating WH makes you a Philistine, you have company.

[Bonnie G.]

Amy wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "I enjoyed Fates & Furries, but it didn't come together for me until the second half."

Not to make fun of your typo, but Fates and Furries would have been a much better book!

I thou..."

LOL Yes, Fates and Furries would be great! A werewolf version of this story would be compelling.

[Alicia]

Bonnie wrote: "I am not sure if that assuages your guilt, but hating WH makes you a Philistine, you have company.

..."

I'm with the Philistines.

[Barbara]

Alicia wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "I am not sure if that assuages your guilt, but hating WH makes you a Philistine, you have company.

..."

I'm with the Philistines."

Bonnie wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Does a re-read count? Because I revisited Wuthering Heights recently and found it damn near unreadable.
I felt quite guilty about that."

I have always disliked WH. I don't underst..."

Thanks chaps, I feel nicely vindicated in Philistinism .

[Alicia]

I think Me Before You has been my least favourite book of the year so far... sorry!

[Lauren]

Storm Front was by far my least favorite book this year. It came recommended by a librarian after I returned the Waterfire Saga, a series of YA books about mermaids. So, yeah, I can see why she thought I might like this. There was a wizard as a main character. But what I enjoyed about the YA series was the creativity of the world Donnelley creates. Yes it's filled with teen angst. Yes the dialogue is often terrible, but the warring clans of mermaids, the mythology and culture all make it a worthwhile read. In the first novel of The Dresden Files, there are very few moments where I found relief from the poor writing, flat main character and charmless dialogue. It was a soulless bestseller, the kind that might be worth reading on the beach, but only when People magazine or Cosmopolitan doesn't hold your attention.

[Lisa]

Alicia wrote: "I think Me Before You has been my least favourite book of the year so far... sorry!"

Me too. I looked at how many one-star reviews I've given so far in 2016 and Me Before You was the only one.

[Alicia]

Lauren wrote: "Storm Front was by far my least favorite book this year..."

Dresden is a very slow-build series. After about the third book it really begins to hit its stride - although I totally appreciate that 3 books is a huge commitment to a series you weren't enjoying.

[Margaret]

I speak as a person who has read and loved every book by Bill Bryson but I could not make it through The Road to Little Dribbling. He's tipped over into get off my lawn you whippersnappers territory.

[Bonnie G.]

That is how I always feel about Bryson, like the return of Andy Rooney, but all my friends love his work.

[Margaret]

I've read A Walk in the Woods at least three times and I really enjoyed The Lost Continent. If you want to give him another chance try the earlier books.

[Bonnie G.]

Margaret wrote: "I've read A Walk in the Woods at least three times and I really enjoyed The Lost Continent. If you want to give him another chance try the earlier books."

I have tried I'm a Stranger Here Myself and A Walk in the Woods. I think its just a bad match of book and reader. I confess that I often don't care for books that others love, see eg, Girl on the Train, The Help, The Night Circus, Tell the Wolves I'm Home, A Piece of Cake, and anything by Malcolm Gladwell or Jenny Lawson.

[Peggy]

That seems to be the consensus on The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain. I've read (and reread) everything he's ever written, but this one was a slog. It's one thing to find humor in your surroundings, but TRtLD went beyond sarcasm into petty meanness. I'm thinking Mr. Bryson needs to stay home and, as Margaret suggests, chase people off his yard.