Books or movies you hate that seemingly every other person on the planet likes

[Bonnie G.]

Are there books or movies that everyone falls all over themselves adoring but that you hate? I thought of this reading a GFY post of 50SoG where people were gushing about "Sleepless in Seattle," which I DESPISED (also hated An 'Affair to Remember", on which it was based.) I also hated, hated, hated "The Notebook', and the two other movies I have seen which were based on books by Nicholas Sparks.

Off the top of my head books on my hate list which people adore are The Husband's Secret, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, and The Alchemist

Anyone else out there an outlier?

[Martha]

Hate is too strong of a word for mine, but the most recent one I have is divergent. I don't hate those books (though actually the last one really did blow) but I don't get why they're so popular because I find them soooooo unmemorable in terms of characterization and worldbuilding, they're just blah

[Lainie]

Oh I'm with you on One Thousand White Women, ugh!!

[Bonnie G.]

Lainie wrote: "Oh I'm with you on One Thousand White Women, ugh!!"

Good to have the company! The historical event was so interesting, but the storyline was awful, and sort of racist. One thing that really bugs me in historical fiction is when characters act like people would now, rather than in ways people would have behaved in the time period being depicted. This book was very guilty of that sin.

[Lainie]

Yes! And the language was so sloppy (regarding historic accuracy).

You've given me validation in feeling...suspect of Unbroken. I'll keep that off my list for now.

[Xinh]

This makes me very unpopular with a lot of folks but I CANNOT STAND anything by Jane Austen, but most specifically Pride & Prejudice.

And I was an English Lit major.

[[deleted user]]

Xinh wrote: "This makes me very unpopular with a lot of folks but I CANNOT STAND anything by Jane Austen, but most specifically Pride & Prejudice.

And I was an English Lit major."

I would like to take this moment to chime in with: What's up with English Lit/Writing majors being Austenophiles? I get that people like her, her books are charming and makes for good movie/tv adaptations, but why is she fetishized like she is particularly by Lit students? It seems like an odd choice.

[Alicia]

Bonnie - I definitely agree about The Alchemist! Although because I have a contrarian streak that makes me absolutely refuse to read whatever everyone else on the train is reading, I tend to miss out on the books that everyone else loves!

[Ginger]

Yes Bonnie! The Notebook (movie) makes me want to pound my head against a hard surface. I saw it once and thought it would never end! Because of that, I refuse to read—or see—anything by Nicholas Sparks.

[Claire-Dee]

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I didn't hate it but I just couldn't get through it. And I love love love everything about the Tudors and all the history surrounding that time. So you'd think I'd just gobble this up. The very stiff writing style just turned me way off. Others have told me to give it another chance but I just don't want to spend the time. Too many books to discover and adore.

[Claire-Dee]

Martha wrote: "Hate is too strong of a word for mine, but the most recent one I have is divergent. I don't hate those books (though actually the last one really did blow) but I don't get why they're so popular be..."

The third book made me crazy! The big reveal was so "huh?" That's where the author decided to take us?! Such a disappointment, and I know I'm in the minority.

[Martha]

Claire-Dee wrote: "Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I didn't hate it but I just couldn't get through it. And I love love love everything about the Tudors and all the history surrounding that time. So you'd think I'd just ..."

I liked Wolf Hall well enough, but I actually thought the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, was much better. The Anne Boleyn stuff in it is really interesting and Mantel also isn't quiiiiiite as bad about the weird literary device she has of only calling Cromwell 'he', so I feel like it's less confusing.

[Bonnie G.]

Alicia wrote: "Bonnie - I definitely agree about The Alchemist! Although because I have a contrarian streak that makes me absolutely refuse to read whatever everyone else on the train is reading, I tend to miss o..."

That is so funny! I live in the land of mandatory maximum fuel consumption now, but when I lived in NYC I was super conscious of what books I was seen reading on the train. I worked hard to keep my hipster cred on the daily ride from Park Slope to the Financial District. Left to read in my bedroom I think we can safely assume that I would have read neither Stendahl nor Turgenev, just to name a couple.

[Bonnie G.]

Ginger wrote: "Yes Bonnie! The Notebook (movie) makes me want to pound my head against a hard surface. I saw it once and thought it would never end! Because of that, I refuse to read—or see—anything by Nicholas S..."

Wise choice Ginger! I rarely learn from my mistakes so I have also seen Dear John and Nights in Rodanthe (all on cable, I have never paid for one of these stinkers), and I know this sounds impossible, but they were worse!

[Bonnie G.]

Xinh wrote: "This makes me very unpopular with a lot of folks but I CANNOT STAND anything by Jane Austen, but most specifically Pride & Prejudice.

And I was an English Lit major."

I can't back you up on this, P&P is one of my very favorite books and I find Austen's dry sense of humor charming and her quiet rebellion against limitations based on gender and class structure laudable, but I get flack for hating all things Bronte (that would be all the Bronte's, though I hate Emily's work the most), which I imagine is similar.

[Megan]

Martha wrote: "Hate is too strong of a word for mine, but the most recent one I have is divergent. I don't hate those books (though actually the last one really did blow) but I don't get why they're so popular be..."

I agree with this. I thought they were fine, but there was a lot of the worldbuilding that didn't actually make much sense in the end. And I just didn't find that I cared all that much about any of the characters. (view spoiler)[ So many people died throughout that I simply stopped caring since I figured there was no point in getting attached. One or two deaths of people we care about is effective. Killing off half the cast...not so much. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire-Dee]

Martha wrote: I liked Wolf Hall well enough, but I actually thought the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, was much better. The Anne Boleyn stuff in it is really interesting and Mantel also isn't quiiiiiite as bad about the weird literary device she has of only calling Cromwell 'he'..."

Mantel lost me with all the "he." Good to know the second book deals with Anne Boleyn. Sounds like it's worth a look. Thanks!

[Jen]

Hannah wrote: "What's up with English Lit/Writing majors being Austenophiles? I get that people like her, her books are charming and makes for good movie/tv adaptations, but why is she fetishized like she is particularly by Lit students? It seems like an odd choice."

Her work is pretty impressive from an academic standpoint. It may not seem like it now, but she was groundbreaking in many different aspects of her writing. While she might not have been appreciated in her lifetime, her use of irony, realism, and social commentary was masterful. And she was one of the first authors to use free indirect speech consistently as a technique along with Goethe and Kafka. But that really is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to studying her work. I can't fault anyone for not liking her stories, but her novels have major literary merit.

[Barbara]

Claire-Dee wrote: "Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I didn't hate it but I just couldn't get through it. And I love love love everything about the Tudors and all the history surrounding that time. So you'd think I'd just ..."

That's a 'me too' here. I was really disappointed, having loved everything else by her . But Wolf Hall, no. Like you, I didn't finish it and that is rare for me. So nice to know I'm not the only one!

[Elizabeth]

Both as a weekend reader and as a scholar, I like the Brontes and I love Austen. The "rivalry" between them is fascinating, though, and began with Charlotte Bronte herself. For those of you who don't know it, here's her criticism of "Pride and Prejudice," from a letter to the critic George Henry Lewes:

“I got the book and studied it. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common-place face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers—but no glance of a bright vivid physiognomy—no open country—no fresh air—no blue hill—no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses. These observations will probably irritate you, but I shall run the risk.”

So it seems to me that CB misunderstood JA's subtle brilliance (very well summarized by Yesknopemaybe) because it was so different from her own.

Elizabeth T

[Bonnie G.]

Yesknopemaybe wrote: "Hannah wrote: "What's up with English Lit/Writing majors being Austenophiles? I get that people like her, her books are charming and makes for good movie/tv adaptations, but why is she fetishized l..."

Thank you for saying that so well! I first read Austen in college in women's studies classes, the context being entirely social history. It was an interesting way to come at her cannon. (Spoiler: we were all big fans of Fanny Price.) I had not realized she was one of the first to use free indirect speech, nut now that you are saying that I am feeling it is time for a re-read of some of my favorites through a literary history lens.

[Bonnie G.]

Elizabeth wrote: "Both as a weekend reader and as a scholar, I like the Brontes and I love Austen. The "rivalry" between them is fascinating, though, and began with Charlotte Bronte herself. For those of you who don..."

That is fascinating! As mentioned, I am not a Bronte fan. There are many reasons I don't enjoy the work of any of the Bronte siblings, but chief among those reasons is the utter humorlessness and the penchant for melodrama. It surprises me not at all that Charlotte was so tone deaf to Austen's directness and wit.

[Alicia]

In my very very long list of books that I will one day write, there is one based on the Brontes where Charlotte has Münchhausen syndrome by proxy, caused by her early traumas, and kills her sisters.

[Bonnie G.]

Alicia wrote: "In my very very long list of books that I will one day write, there is one based on the Brontes where Charlotte has Münchhausen syndrome by proxy, caused by her early traumas, and kills her sisters."

LOL! I am happy to serve as a pre-reader.

[Barbara]

This lovely funny thread puts me in mind of the game they play in Joseph Heller's Good As Gold . You may remember it . You get points by confessing to a book you have never read which is in some way a bit shameful NOT to have read. Like a sociology lecturer not having read Das Kapital or a psychologist not having read Freud, or a English Litt. major never having read Shakespeare's sonnets. Anyway , you get the picture.
I mean that's quite funny in itself , but Bruce Gold's insufferable brother (the preferred son of their equally insufferable mother ) can not or will not play properly and keeps demanding points for not having read an encyclopaedia of Australian Impressionist Art, or a biography of some obscure African politician....

[Bonnie G.]

Barbara wrote: "This lovely funny thread puts me in mind of the game they play in Joseph Heller's Good As Gold . You may remember it . You get points by confessing to a book you have never read which is in some w..."

That is funny, Barbara. I guess my confession in this game is that I never read Good as Gold despite the fact that Catch 22 is one of my all time favorite books. I tried reading it a very long time back, more than 20 years ago, and stopped mid-book, which I rarely do. Maybe I would like it more now. Your post makes me think I would like it a lot,

[Barbara]

Points for you Bonnie! Especially if you don't finish it again.

[Bonnie G.]

Barbara wrote: "Points for you Bonnie! Especially if you don't finish it again."

LOL! I see what you did there!

[Ariana]

Xinh wrote: "This makes me very unpopular with a lot of folks but I CANNOT STAND anything by Jane Austen, but most specifically Pride & Prejudice.

And I was an English Lit major."

Another Austen detractor here. I've read several, and they're just SO BORING to me. But I do like movies based on her novels, so I think mainly I just don't have patience for her slow-moving stories without the accompanying visuals.

[Jen]

Alicia wrote: "In my very very long list of books that I will one day write, there is one based on the Brontes where Charlotte has Münchhausen syndrome by proxy, caused by her early traumas, and kills her sisters."

I would so read that!

[Alicia]

Sounds like my NaNoWriMo project has been decided!

[Elizabeth]

Alicia wrote: "Sounds like my NaNoWriMo project has been decided!"

Do it! Do it for Fug Nation!

My NaNoWriMo project looks as if it will be shepherding a dozen middle schoolers through the process. Fun until about day 4 when they realize I was actually serious that they write every day. (Kids get to set their own word goals, so it's not so hard IF they mean it.) But someday I will use the month to start my own bestselling romance series . . .