I think this is pretty self explanatory. Which book in your life was the biggest let down? Can be a classic, a literary darling, pop lit, YA, an obscure award winner no one has heard of. What book was built up the most for you only for you to read it and not get the appeal? And to encourage discussion, what specific aspect did everyone praise and you felt was lacking? This mostly comes down to pacing, characters, actions, detail. I tend to see books described as page turners or, “it grabs you from page one and never lets go”. Literally no book in my entire 30 years of reading books has grabbed me from page one. That’s not what books do, but it seems to get tossed around a lot.
I would have to say for me it’s A Court of Thorns and Roses. I feel tricked by the massive amount of positive reviews and universal praise. This felt like reading Twilight. I wanted to stop immediately once I learned the main character is perfect and everyone in her family is an asshole. I couldn’t finish it because it really seemed to be heading into Fifty Shades territory where the protagonist falls in love with an abusive psychopath. And all these reviews saying it sizzles and it’s sexy as hell, maybe if you have never seen or read a piece of erotic content in your life. It just feels like I cannot trust anyone’s judgement when this universally acclaimed book is so god awful. It’s not that it wasn’t even to my taste it just felt amateurish, like the first book the author ever wrote (which I think it was and it explains a lot of the problems).
Anyway, I’d rather hear what books more sophisticated bookworms couldn’t jive with instead.
by Tantra_Charbelcher