The most well written book, though not necessarily your favorite

[Kell I Am]

OK, so I think that The Pelican Briefby John Grisham is the most well written book I've ever read. It is by no means my favorite book, not even my favorite book by Grisham, but I thought that everything about the writing was perfect.

Do you have a book like this on your bookshelf. One that isn't necessarily your favorite, but one that kind of set you back and made you think about the writing?

**Editing this to add, not necessarily a "classic" book either. Most of the classics are well written, that is why/how they became classic.

[Gerd]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, the writing is great.

The plotting was, IMO, meh. Taking a serious long time to get into gear and start making sense - I did enjoy the more condensed storytelling of the miniseries better.

[``Laurie]

The Song of Bernadette

Such a beautiful and lyrically written book.

[LauraW]

I am not a fan of what many people consider "great" writing. It often sounds stilted and artificial to me, as though it is looking in the mirror and admiring itself.

I like writing that pulls me in a doesn't let me go. This often goes hand in hand with my favorite books, so I am not sure I can separate "well written" from "favorite". Ender's Game would be one of these.

[Kizi180]

R. Lee Smith's: The Last Hour of Gann had a way to suck me in the story before I knew it was a DARK, disturbing scifi novel... and long so very long.
But every time I tried to stop reading the damn book, the way R. Lee Smith wrote stayed with me , the characters and events got me curious/ Intrigued and I kept reading it even though I HATED it. It was too dark for my liking and I hate, hate dark fantasy. but yeah the way she wrote it kept pulling me back to the book.

[Cycad]

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I read it for a book club, didn't expect to like it and loved it. I loved that the characters and actions stayed true.

[Pamela]

The Chosen, by Chaim Potok is the first to leap to mind. The Chosen

[Hannah]

So many! But many books that are well written become my favorites. Some highlights from my bookshelf:
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman (don't techinally own this but I loved it).
The White Raven by Diana Paxon
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Anything by Rosemary Sutcliffe
Anything by Robin Hobb
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

[Incog]

Alexa Codex Series by Jim Butcher
Godling Chronicles by Brian D Anderson
The Black Gate Chronicles by Phil Tucker

[Marie]

I am currently reading Jane Eyre. Though definitely not my favourite (Rochester seems creepy and Jane kinda spineless), even the boring parts are nice to read thanks to the beautiful prose

[Keith]

Cecilia Dart-Thornton is probably the author who best fits this for me; I love her very elaborate, deliberately olde-worlde fantasy writing, a style very few authors since Tolkien have been able to pull off. However, I don't rate her books as highly as those by other authors whose writing styles I love (like Neal Stephenson, Iain Banks etc.), because her plots have a bit of a tendency to meander and she gets a bit melodramatic in places, especially when writing romance.

[Sydney]

I think The Book Thief might have been my favourite book, writing-wise

[Kristen]

Ali Smith's There but For The is the first that comes to my mind.