Young Adult Book Reading Challenges discussion
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Worst YA books
Annalisa wrote: "Julia,Wine, crackers, nice breads :). Haha. I know what you mean. Too much and you can't take anymore. It's been several years since I read A Separate Peace, but I remember loving it. It's one of ..."
You know, I think you're right. I remember hating A Separate Peace when I was a kid. That the main character was such a jerk (especially at the end). I wonder how I would view it now, as an adult?
Shiver, Beautiful Creatures, and Gone were all on my poo list as well.As for "To Kill a Mockingbird", clearly it was well written, but just because it was well written doesn't mean it will appeal to everyone. I remember reading it and feeling as though I was being tortured. Doesn't mean the book was bad, I just didn't respond to it, like Catamorandi, I thought it was dull. But others may read it and be amazed. To each their own.
um, i personally really like the house of night, twilight, evermore, etc. i never really got into narinia or anything but since i can honestly say i didnt pay much attention to it, i wont rate it the wrost. id agree with those of you who say that gossip girl, it girls, cliques are the worst of the worst, just because cattiness like that is not something we need to be reminded of- and also, who lives like that?i have to add though, and someone touched base on this, that writing is a lot of work and its difficult to get published - we all need to respect the writing people put out there, despite our opinons of it.
Heather wrote: "Shiver, Beautiful Creatures, and Gone were all on my poo list as well.As for "To Kill a Mockingbird", clearly it was well written, but just because it was well written doesn't mean it will appe..."
Really? So is Gone not that great? I started Shiver, but I stopped when I found another book to read, and personally, Shiver didn't wow me. I know I should really finish it, but so far, its sucked the fun out of reading it for me.
Shiver was depressing with know hope of lifting spirits. The man charcters were so sad. I didnt finish it :(
Mimi wrote: "Heather wrote: "Shiver, Beautiful Creatures, and Gone were all on my poo list as well.As for "To Kill a Mockingbird", clearly it was well written, but just because it was well written doesn't mea..."
I really liked Gone, I loved the diversity in characters and I thought it would be a great book to have a discussion with students about. Will it be a classic? Probably not, but it was better written than other YA books I have read and a fun book to read if you like dystopic lit.
*sigh* I read this discussion board everyday and it is starting to make me depressed.
I know many books are not liked by readers, but to call them the WORST YA BOOKS really seems wrong. Some of the criticism is warranted, of course, but it seems like this should just be called the "Books I didn't like" discussion board...
(Sorry... had to share my feelings)
Kellee wrote: "*sigh* I read this discussion board everyday and it is starting to make me depressed.
I know many books are not liked by readers, but to call them the WORST YA BOOKS really seems wrong. Some of ..."
I had a similar feeling when 'To Kill a Mockingbird' note popped up under this heading - sacrilege! lol
I loathed-Twilight
-inkdeath
-hush, hush
-a few others i can't remember!!!
I LOVE
-Eragon/eldest/bristinger
-city of ashes/glass
-tomorrow when the war began (The whole series including while i live, incureable and circle of flight)
-the host (It was grate! MUCH better than the Twilight saga!)
-A few other i Can't remember!
Am I the only one under 20?i am only 12!
Tara wrote: "I really liked Gone, I loved the diversity in characters and I thought it would be a great book to have a discussion with students about..."I liked Gone by Michael Grant, too. I think the others were meaning that they didn't like Gone the third book in a trilogy by Lisa McMann.
I loved Gone by Michael Grant, but hated Gone by Lisa McMann.
Kellee wrote: "*sigh*
I read this discussion board everyday and it is starting to make me depressed.
I know many books are not liked by readers, but to call them the WORST YA BOOKS really seems wrong. Some of the criticism is warranted, of course, but it seems like this should just be called the "Books I didn't like" discussion board...
(Sorry... had to share my feelings)"
Amen!
I read this discussion board everyday and it is starting to make me depressed.
I know many books are not liked by readers, but to call them the WORST YA BOOKS really seems wrong. Some of the criticism is warranted, of course, but it seems like this should just be called the "Books I didn't like" discussion board...
(Sorry... had to share my feelings)"
Amen!
I REALLY didn't like Schooled by Gordon Korban. It's about a kid that was homeschooled by his grandmother at an old hippie commune and is eventually forced to go to public school where he is considered weird and eccentric. I was homeschooled and have been really astonished at the lack of representation in the genre, but more importantly I've found the books in the genre that actually deal with that demographic to be insensitive and unrealistic. Homeschool students very rarily fall into the categories the general public believes they do and the perpetuation of the stereotypes through the current literature only increases the misinformation the public is fed on this group of students. What if every book portrayed public school students as gang members that smoke pot in the school bathrooms, ready to drop or be kicked out of school at any moment because of their deviant behaviors or failing grades? In the same way, homeschoolers are consistently portrayed as eccentric brainiacs or mucho-conservative Christians with backwards ideas about science and a chronic dependency on their parents. It's narrow-minded, stereotypical, and incorrect and it does a disservice to these students to continue supporting these stereotypes through literature. ::stepping off soap box::
Im under 20 but just by a lil lol im 19 20 in a few months. bye bye teen years :( HELLOOO ADULT HOOD WOOT WOOT! LOLLike I keep saying THIS IS A OPINION THREAD! Some of the books that are on this list are also on the BEST YA BOOKS thread because just because one person may call it the worst it may be the best to some people. For example I hated those Kelley Armstrong books about the girl that sees dead people and I hated the Glass Houses book about the Morganville Vamps but alloooot of people LOVE them. It was justnot for me.
Vampire Diaries was really good if you just get Twilight out of ur head and remember this book was written like almost 20 years ago. The new generation doesnt do much research before they are quick to call something a rip off. Ill also say once again that if these books were rip offs they would be ripped from the shelves for plagerism:) and havethe pants sued off of them.
Also and this is just my opinion once again plz peeps read a book for yourselves before you write it off as horrible its not fair to the Author or to yourself.I myself didnt want to read VD but i decided to buy the 6.99 first book (not the omni)and try it out for myself.
Ryan wrote: "I couldn't get into the first Vampire Academy book at all, though I didn't think it was badly written, it was just that the setting was too "high school" for me - everything seemed to..."Id def say give this another try! I had a hard time getting into the setting as well but once u get in the middle of the book it gets really good the 2nd book is even better. I think its one of those series the first book sets up for the events to come.
Maddie wrote: "Am I the only one under 20?i am only 12!"
Don't worry! I'm 12 too. ^_^
Mod
This is why I love this thread!
Denise wrote: "Tara wrote: "I really liked Gone, I loved the diversity in characters and I thought it would be a great book to have a discussion with students about..."I liked Gone by Michael Gra..."
Thank you so much for clearing that up. I have not read the other Gone yet.
i have a nominee for worst YA Tender MorselsConsider this a warning for all the lovers of Fairytale based novels; The book is a retelling of Snow White Rose Red and begins with the mother being molested by her father at the tender age of 12...and somehow manages to go downhill from there. There's a forced abortion, more incest, more rape, gang rape (for variety?),a bestiality love triangle, and then the final act of vengeance (which i will describe below for anyone who doesn't want it to be spoiled.) to make it worse the book doesn't seem to have a single point or moral the author doesn't somehow undermine. Might as well use the act of vengeance as my example:
Rape is bad right? The mother almost commits suicide after it but kinder spirits intervene and she is instead transported to an alternate reality where she can raise her daughters in peace and safety because all the bad people (read rapists) are no in this world and everyone that is are a bunch of sexless shells who will never cause her harm. This works for while but problems occur and eventually a sorceress is called in to fix things by pulling the mother and daughter out of the extra world and destroying it. They begin to live in the local town and the younger daughter starts pestering her mother about who her father is. Finally while alone in the sewing room the mother tells her about the violent gang rape and the perpetrators (who are still living in the town!) that led to second daughter's conception. While listening to this story the girl occupies herself by cutting out little men from felt and sticking pins in their groins. When the mother and daughter go to bed the little felt men begin to grow until they're the size of normal men and their pins have become massive red-hot metal phalli. They then proceed to run about town delightedly sodomizing the men that had raped the mother all those years ago. They're very vocal about their enjoyment making this the most detailed sex scene in the book. Dawn comes; the homoculi's rampages are made know to the whole town and the mom realizing what her daughter has done packs her off to train with the sorceress. No regret, no remorse, no fear of reprisal, just an "oh dear" as though all she had done was spill the sugar. So rape is bad, right? except that it gave the mom her daughters who are her reason for living and apparently makes a good tool for revenge. And do they even enjoy that revenge? No. It could have been any group of men; nothing to get excited over but the girl needs to be trained because if not she could do something bad like send violent creatures out in the world to harm and terrorize people...
I think the thing that disappointed me the most about the Evermore series, the Evernight series, and Fallen was that I spent a lot of time being drawn into the story and then when I reached the ends of the novels I was thinking, "That's it?" I didn't mind the cliffhangers so much...I don't know what it is, really. I guess I just expected the climaxes to be a bit...MORE. ? Does that make sense?
Polkweed wrote: "i have a nominee for worst YA Tender MorselsConsider this a warning for all the lovers of Fairytale based novels; The book is a retelling of Snow White Rose Red and begins with th..."
Yikes!! That sounds like nothing I have on my reading pile at the moment - I just read a review which said this retelling had added some guts to the original story, sounds like it added a little more than that....
I too was horrified at Tender Morsels, but must admit, though terrifying in subject, it was very well written. The pictures created by the author are still vivid and it's been three months since I read it. I can barely remember anything about Fallen and I read it two weeks ago. I cannot imagine what about TM said YA to reviewers. It was a very strange book. The bear stuff was especially weird.
Kelly wrote: "I too was horrified at Tender Morsels, but must admit, though terrifying in subject, it was very well written. The pictures created by the author are still vivid and it's been three months since I ..."i didn't even think it was well written. i don't have a problem with difficult subject matter in YA but this thing had so many plot holes and contradictions on top of the strong content i had a hard time figuring out what was going on. it's almost like the novel was written by several people who would write a few chapters then pass it on to someone else.
wow I know what to say about that one hahaha ... laugh it off maybe?
I'm throwing out another one because what bothered me the most is kind of different.Malice is a combination of novel and graphic novel and it fails at both. The writings clunky, the characters are one-dimensional, and the plot is very predictable. But what bothered me most about this thing was the money they obviously spent publishing it. From the cover to the pages the whole thing was one slick package; I wish the publishers had decided to put this much investment int a better series.
Polkweed wrote: "I'm throwing out another one because what bothered me the most is kind of different.Malice is a combination of novel and graphic novel and it fails at both. The writings clunky, t..."
MALICE is sort of like a Goose Bumps book for slightly older readers and I can understand why you might not like it, Polkweed. (To me it's more MG --middle grade-- than straight YA)
And the only book I've read recently that I really didn't like was The Transall Saga. It's by one of my favorite authors too: Gary Paulsen. Boys apparently love it.
Malice would be better if it was as edgy as Goosebumps; it was just too tame even for a younger age group. I've never understood the existence of a middle grade subgroup. The high school-middle school division is already fairly arbitrary; why drag reading levels into it?
Polkweed wrote: "Malice would be better if it was as edgy as Goosebumps; it was just too tame even for a younger age group. I've never understood the existence of a middle grade subgroup. The high school-middle sch..."Librarians started the push for a MG sub-group for YA when YA started having more F-bombs and orgies ;) It used to be that YA was suitable for younger kids who were advanced readers, and that's certainly not true now.
As a mom, I'm all for it.
Polkweed wrote: "I'm throwing out another one because what bothered me the most is kind of different.Malice is a combination of novel and graphic novel..."
My boy students are really enjoying Malice, actually.
Pam wrote: "Polkweed wrote: "Malice would be better if it was as edgy as Goosebumps; it was just too tame even for a younger age group. I've never understood the existence of a middle grade subgroup. The high ..."I can understand that. They could just put the more racy content into adult lit but then how would they sell those trashy gossip girl things?
Kellee wrote: "Polkweed wrote: "I'm throwing out another one because what bothered me the most is kind of different.Malice is a combination of novel and graphic novel..."
My boy students are re..."
This boy is liking it too. At 47. Malice (so far, half way through) is conspicuously devoid of bf/gf stuff. Everyone is just friends.
Gosh I hate the forest of hands and teeth. It was the worst thing that i ever read! The pace is so S L O WThe girl is always complaining, I dont want to spoil anything...It was a good story with possible potential, but DANM the author didnt know how to use it.
Hush HUsh i have never read it and I dont have intentions to do it. The summary says enough! It is just a twilight a-like book and honestly i am kind of tired of Vampires, Werewolves and fairies these days just too many books about them...
I dont like wicked lovely either, I mean the story was so interesting that that was what kept me going, but the style of writing was AWFUL...I might read or NOT the second one. I dont know if i want to put up with that narrative again.
Valeria wrote: "Gosh I hate the forest of hands and teeth. It was the worst thing that i ever read! The pace is so S L O WThe girl is always complaining, I dont want to spoil anything...It was a good story with ..."
I agree! There seems to be enough vampires, werewolves, and fairies in circulation right now. I understand liking some of the books about them that were original, but now it seems like the plots are being just tweaked in one area and they call it a whole new book.
I am all in for a good, original, exciting vamp/wolf book but recently I can't get away from their cheesy, overused plots
Valeria wrote: "Gosh I hate the forest of hands and teeth. It was the worst thing that i ever read! The pace is so S L O WThe girl is always complaining, I dont want to spoil anything...It was a good story with ..."
Read the Dead-Tossed Waves. It puts The Forest of Hands and Teeth into perspective.
Katie wrote: "Evermore the first book from the immortal series was just so horrible, load of words just thrown together. It was the possibly the worst book I'd ever read."
I AGREE! Hated that book. I only read the first one, didn't even want to read the next ones.
Okay, my two least favorite YA books are:1- Evermore by Alyson Noel. I've seen several people mentioned this one already. It was just so... stupid! I mean, I just really didn't like it. It was so weird, too.
And
2- Wake by Lisa McMann. I was SO disappointed by this book. I had really looked forward to reading it. The premise was so cool. Here's what a Goodreads friend wrote about it, and she puts it into words way better than I could: Well, I have to say I was kinda disappointed. I thought this book sounded like it had a really good concept. And it did; the idea was really interesting. But the thing is, I felt like it never quite reached its potential. The plot and characters needed a lot more development. It seemed like more of a first draft of a novel than the final product. Plus, the writing style drove me crazy; it seemed that the author could hardly even bother to write in full sentences sometimes. I got so sick of all the fragmented sentences. Sure, fragments are fine if you use them every once in a while for effect -- but using them EVERY OTHER SENTENCE? That's just a bit annoying. So over all, I thought it was okay, and it had potential. It just could've been pulled off a lot better.
What do you guys think? :)
"Wake" is actually one of my favorite YA books, but I can understand why it would not be up to everyone's taste. The writing style is very peculiar. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I love it:)
Many people are probably going to start screaming me, but honestly LOOKING FOR ALASKA is one of the worst books I've read. I hate the way John Green presents all that drinking and smoking as something "everybody does." And I never felt anything for Alaska. THE DEAD AND THE GONE (MOON #2)would be somewhere next on the list. It was nothing compared to LIKE AS WE KNEW IT. The main character, Alex, is one of the most unbelievable and infuriating main character ever and I didn't care much for him.
I haven't read Looking For Alaska, but I really really didn't like An Abundance of Katherines. I was really surprised, because it seemed like a book I'd like and I'd heard nothing but good things about it.
Cool thread! It makes me go back and rethink my previous ratings. Thank goodness I don't review books for a living!! hahaI used to enjoy The House of Night series but after some time and after reading several of them, they tend to make me a little crazy! I want to smack some of the characters. I will say Tempted was better written than the previous ones.
Anything by Amanda Marrone - not good. I've only read two but those were just not good.
And, some may disagree but I didn't like The Luxe at all. It seemed like Gossip Girl just in another time period. I tried to read the second one but couldn't make my way out of chapter one.
Denise wrote: "I haven't read Looking For Alaska, but I really really didn't like An Abundance of Katherines. I was really surprised, because it seemed like a book I'd like and I'd heard nothing but good things a..."I didn't like Abundance either. I liked how the main character kept making anagrams, but the rest was a waste of time.
I actually really enjoyed Alyson Noel's Immortal series and the Kelley Armstrong books! Um, Vampire Diaries used to be a good read for me, but the third book or whatever just really bored me. I'm in love with Vampire Academy, though. But I agree with those who say that the Dream Catchers (WAKE,FADE,GONE) really sucked. I hate the writing style!
I like this thread. It's really interesting to see what other people don't like.Personally, I did not like The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I really wanted to like it but I didn't realize it was a zombie book. HATE zombies!
I couldn't stand the House of Night books after Chosen - it was fluffy fun before then, but then Zoe just got annoyingly ridiculous.I wasn't a big fan of Laurie Halse Anderson's Twisted & Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere (which I expected something very different from), but I just think they weren't my type of books.
&, like many others, I thought Twilight was awesome a few years ago. Today? Not so much. =)
I have a hard time coming up with a book I 'hate'. But I really disliked Laurie Halse Anderson's "LIAR", and Gary Paulsen's "TRANSALL SAGA". The latter was like a poorly done Conan book. (And I generally love Paulsen). Anderson's book was just boring with too much teen angst and hand-wringing.
Katie wrote: "Evermore the first book from the immortal series was just so horrible, load of words just thrown together. It was the possibly the worst book I'd ever read."
Now I love this book : ) thought it was great but the 2nd one just not as good.
Alicia wrote: "I'm going to have to nominate Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. Both have been hyped, and the characters are on a whole flat."I don't think it lives up to the hype as great literature, now vampire dairies I enjoy as a fast read, and twlight introduced me to the whole vampire paranormal scheme. I found the Van Legacy series by De cruz better reading .
Young Adult Book Reading Challenges
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Incarceron (other topics)Sapphique (other topics)
Reached (other topics)
Matched (other topics)
Crossed (other topics)
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Emma Bull (other topics)Terri Windling (other topics)
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Wine, crackers, nice breads :). Haha. I know what you mean. Too much and you can't take anymore. It's been several years since I read A Separate Peace, but I remember loving it. It's one of those books I like though that I can see people disliking because it's told from the POV of an unsympathetic character.