When searching for the next great book to read, our yummymummyclub.ca bloggers read reviews, judge books by their covers, spend hours on goodreads, and of course, use social media. The best thing about our friends (and people we don't even know!) on Facebook and Twitter is that they will tell us the truth. They will tell us exactly what they loved about the last book ("Oh, you absolutely must read this book. Make sure you have lots and lots of tissues on hand, though!"), or what they absolutely could not stand ("I had to stop reading this one. Snoozefest!"), or what they just didn't think lived up to the hype.
We asked our bookish bloggers for a little of their honesty. We wanted them to tell us the books that they just didn't think lived up to the hype; the ones that they really don't recommend.
We want to hear from you. What books did *you* feel just didn't live up to the hype?
This was, by far, the fan unfavorite around here. At least six of our bloggers were unimpressed with this series.
"I will admit that I never actually finished the first book but I got 3/4 of the way into it and was so BORED I couldn't stand it. My husband loves to tell people I was bored by the sex in the book—says it's a boost for his manhood!"
"I was bored out of my mind too. And the whole instant orgasm from a boob feel made me roll my eyes!"
"It was 50 Shades of Boring for me. Hated the two characters, so underdeveloped. If people are buying into it for the juicy parts they would be better off saving their money and just watch porn to get in the mood. Seriously!"
"Bad writing and bad erotica!"
"I really hated The Shack. To me it was the worst piece of fake spiritual dreck. As I read it all I could think of was bad TV movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. Waste. of. Time."
"I think I just needed some more meat. I actually liked the movie way more than I liked the book. Maybe it's because the book was written for kids? I don't know. I really wanted to love it."
"I have to be 100% honest, even after reading the first book, it was very hard for me to accept the plot involving kids killing kids. I think because of that I had reservations about it before I even started to read it, but as I read it the feeling just became stronger. I found it enormously sad, depressing and as a parent, heartbreaking to imagine children in a society like the author portrayed. I don't care if the plot was fiction, science fiction fantasy, whatever, I hated it. I also felt the plot was weak—nothing took me by surprise and I could guess the outcome of each conflict that happened. Every. Single. One. On the upside, some parts of the book were extremely well written, I'll give it that. I could visualize the characters and thought they were woven very well into the story, and the point of view of the main character Katniss was very well written. I didn't gain anything at all by reading this book, other than to try and the question to myself about why the book was so popular. And I still am not sure."
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo took too long to get interesting. Like, more than 200 pages. Too much sandwich-eating and introducing of unimportant characters."
"Och, Dragon Tattoo. So much backstory. So much sandwich eating. So much every-female-falling-into-bed-with-author (er, I mean protagonist). And did anyone really believe the girl was actually dead?"
"I found it kind of pointless and rambling (almost boring at times, in terms of forward plot movement) filled with unsympathetic characters who made incomprehensible decisions, and an ending that was both ludicrous and highly frustrating (no comeuppance for the pedophile/serial killer? Come on!). It's a shame, because the premise had so much potential—it was a great idea, just wish it had been a better STORY."
"This book won a Pulitzer Prize and I hated every single second of it!"
"If I had to read one more long boring description of a freaking sand dune, I was going to shoot myself!"
"I have tried to read this book—several times. I just can't get into it, no matter how hard I try. I even went out to get the one with Ralph Fiennes on the cover, thinking that might do the trick. But alas. No. I'm basically Elaine Benes."
"I hated Sarah's Key. Read like a bad Harlequin Romance. Too bad because the subject matter was interesting and important."
"Ugh. This one really, really annoyed me. Holocaust fiction is a genre in which I am very well-read. My grandparents were survivors—it's very dear to my heart. But this one? The entire sub-plot that took place in the present annoyed me to tears. The protagonist was completely unlikable. I didn't care about her entire storyline, which unfortantely, was half of the story. I wish they had just focused on the part that took place during World War II. It would have been a thousand times better."
"Worst book I've ever read! So many people liked it."
"Wanted to throw it against a wall more than once. Irredeemable protagonist, exploitation of terrible, terrible situations—political, personal, rape, lost children, innocence sacrificed—for the sake of the story but absolutely no redemption, learning, perspective. Fucking hated it. WORSE was that my teenager was assigned the book in her advanced English class. So I got to discuss heart-wrenching inexplicable horrors and rape of little boys over my dinner table."
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