What's the worst book you've ever read?

[Mu]

A friend of mine recommended a book called Legacy by Cayla Kluver and while she adores it to death and finds zero flaws in it, the reviews I have read are 'wat' and the princess (main character) of this book is even more 'wat-tier'.

So what is the worst book you've ever read, and why?

 

[Razilin]

baldurs gate novelization by philip athans

because its NOtHING like the awesome game

 

[AetherDream]

I started to read the first Twilight book, I didn't make it far. I'm not sure if reading the first paragraph, closing the book and putting it down counts as having read it. But if it does, that is the worst book I have ever "read".

 

[SkyStar14]

The Sun Also Rises, because I cannot stand Earnest Hemingway's writing style. I tend to love older, more classic literature, so I assumed it would be a good read. Five pages in, I was certain it would do me no good continue, but I did want to give it a chance. Unfortunately, that reulted in a very frustrating few hours of reading.

 

[Quiet One]

I started to read the first Twilight book, I didn't make it far. I'm not sure if reading the first paragraph, closing the book and putting it down counts as having read it. But if it does, that is the worst book I have ever "read".

My ex-girlfriend had me read those books. I read all of them. My opinion? Not completely terrible, but I'll never, ever, read them again. Once was enough.

 

[Diana]

A romance ebook called "Lash" by Sam Crescent. The main female character is a robot with no personality and Stockholm syndrome, and the main guy is a freaking abuser. The portrayal of the biker gang is freaking stupid as hell. The writing mechanics are atrocious. And you see the words slurp and cream a MILLION times.

The book was so horrible I was actually pissed off and had to share it. >>;

The amount of MENTAL ABUSE that gets passed off as romance in this book was fucking SCARY. I am pretty sure the people that gave that book a good rating are either idiots or psychos. >:[

 

[Peter Feels]

A Song of Fire and Ice.


Deal with it.

 

[growl]

I don't read bad books often because I usually only have time for recommendations from friends. I also look at the reviews on Goodreads (ex. Iron Trials by two pretty good authors that many bad reviews have warded me off of).​

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There was one book that I thought had a lot of potential. It didn't crash and burn but sort of melted into a puddle like the wicked witch: Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari.​

​

It probably isn't that worst book I've ever read, but it's what comes to mind when I think of bad books. The author either tried too hard, or she didn't try at all. Ashes, Ashes was a YA mix of annoying characters, unrealistic survival details, melodramatic tropes, and absolutely unbelievable antagonists.​

​

The reasons for the "conflict", which had the potential to rise above the melodrama, made me want to throw the book against the wall.​

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

Fifty Shades of Grey, hands down the worst book ever.

 

[Aine]

I'm sure Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey will be mentioned a lot and it's not without reason as these books are legitimately terrible, but they still don't take the cake for me. Nope, the worst book I've ever read was Modelland by Tyra Banks. I... don't know what I expected. Okay, I knew it was going to be bad - I'm a literary masochist sometimes and I wanted to laugh at something - but I had no idea it would be so mind-boggling. Just so you know what levels of horrible I'm talking about, the models get superpowers like 'ThirtyNever' which will assure they'll never look older than thirty. Yep. Then there is the wonderful superpower of being able to sell products effectively. I bet Spiderman is green with envy right now.

 

[October Knight]

I'm gonna go ahead and assume you mean 'read all the way through' cause I've piked up a lot of books and gave up on them after a chapter or two.

The absolute worst book I've ever had to read was The great Gatsby. I only read it cause highschool. It was terrible. The characters were boring, the story was thin and bland and the dbag socialites whos lives you're supposed to care about are totally forgettable. There were SO many better books assigned during the hs English years...never could figure out why that one was on the menu. It was balls deep in suck.

Some people think it's a good book. A LOT of people think it's a good book.

 

[Dervish]

World War Z by Max Brooks.

Most pretentious garbage I've ever suffered through. I mean, I found myself disagreeing with the whole Zombie Survival Guide, but I was at least expecting a fun, if thoughtful, novelization that kind of fleshed out the little stories at the end of The Zombie Survival Guide. But nope, it was pretty goddamn insufferable and it marks one of those occasions where I'm all about book burning because it's worth more as kindling than entertainment.

I bought it much for the same reason that I bought American Idiot by Greenday, it was a critically acclaimed and very popular thing. I have since decided that critics are a bunch of idiots who ride the Choo Choo hypetrain to Nopeville.

Seriously, fuck World War Z. I'm pretty sure most of Max Brook's survival tips would get people killed and his lack of knowledge of a LOT of things is perturbing, and that isn't even my problem with his writing. You practically get choked out by the air of smugness that oozes from each of those pages like some kind of douchey mustard gas.

 

[Quiet One]

I'm sure Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey will be mentioned a lot and it's not without reason as these books are legitimately terrible, but they still don't take the cake for me. Nope, the worst book I've ever read was Modelland by Tyra Banks. I... don't know what I expected. Okay, I knew it was going to be bad - I'm a literary masochist sometimes and I wanted to laugh at something - but I had no idea it would be so mind-boggling. Just so you know what levels of horrible I'm talking about, the models get superpowers like 'ThirtyNever' which will assure they'll never look older than thirty. Yep. Then there is the wonderful superpower of being able to sell products effectively. I bet Spiderman is green with envy right now.

Good lord! Why didn't you just eat a bowl of razor blades if you wanted to suffer?!

And @Diana some of those plot points sound like they could be good for a better book, but arranged in the order you describe...yeah that sounds horrible.

I sadly don't have anything to really add after Twilight because it's the only book I've ever read at the request of someone else. Otherwise I'll go to a library or bookstore, finger through books, and I know I've found a good one if I'm still sitting next to the shelf with it an hour later. Any bad books usually bore me after the first page.

 

[SkyStar14]

I'm gonna go ahead and assume you mean 'read all the way through' cause I've piked up a lot of books and gave up on them after a chapter or two.

The absolute worst book I've ever had to read was The great Gatsby. I only read it cause highschool. It was terrible. The characters were boring, the story was thin and bland and the dbag socialites whos lives you're supposed to care about are totally forgettable. There were SO many better books assigned during the hs English years...never could figure out why that one was on the menu. It was balls deep in suck.

Some people think it's a good book. A LOT of people think it's a good book.

I quite liked The Great Gatsby; in fact, it was a real challenge to put it down once I'd started. The characters, at least in my view, were actually quite rounded out, and I think the rich-people-have-problems-too idea was kind of refreshing, since so many books portray wealthy people as perfecty contet with their lives. Still, @October Knight, its interesting to hear a different viewpoint.

 

[LunaValentine]

<.< >.> Might be a bit unpopular of an opinion....but.......Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I find the style lazy, confusing, and a cop out of a book. it's classified under "Time Travel" as a genre but it doesn't really have anything to do with Time Travel. It's more or less memories all shuffled about. it's a "Tralfamadorain" novel?! Really? That's your excuse Kurt? It's weak and you know it. It's "A collection of short messages that the author picks out and believes to be important. It's meant to be read all at once (all the pages are read at the same time) to get the story" Give me a break. Even Oryx and Crake was better. Kinda a weak book for post apocalyptic but dammit it made sense! (Okay....I don't know if it's 'weak' per say but it was a very eh book.)

 

[Quiet One]

Most of the books I've had to read for school haven't been all that bad. I'd usually read through it twice before the class was done with it once. I agree with @Gaileth about The Great Gatsby, and another I was surprised to include was Great Expectations. But in my Folklore/Fantasy class in college I hated Tehanu.

I understood the writer was making a social comment in it about gender equality, but it seemed more like it was encouraging the idea of women being inferior. And the notion that if someone is disfigured they deserve it?! SERIOUSLY?!

I'm actually very sorry I didn't think to bring this up sooner. Tehanu is part of a series that thanks to that one book I'll never read.

 

[Aine]

Good lord! Why didn't you just eat a bowl of razor blades if you wanted to suffer?!

Look, I don't know. I just have these weird urges sometimes :D I finished it only through sheer willpower. That, and the horrible purple prose was pretty funny sometimes. It was overflowing with sentences like this:
"May your clothes click, your hair shimmer, your face glimmer, and your stride glide." :D

 

[Dervish]

Most of the books I've had to read for school haven't been all that bad. I'd usually read through it twice before the class was done with it once. I agree with @Gaileth about The Great Gatsby, and another I was surprised to include was Great Expectations. But in my Folklore/Fantasy class in college I hated Tehanu.

 

[Quiet One]

Oh wow. Charlie Sheen in a mullet doesn't like a literary classic. I'm gonna have to rethink all my book choices now.

 

[Admiral Merry]

Book called Babička (Grandma). Its supposed to be one of the most important books of Czech literature and you have to read it in order to pass High School, BUT ITS SO BLOODY BORING. It has 500 pages and on these 500 NOTHING happens. I had a stone in my hand while reading it and that stone turned into dust before I even managed to get read a half of that ****.