Worst book of 2012?

[charlatti]

Share your misery.

[charlatti]

White Glove War by Katie Crouch, the second in the Magnolia League trilogy, was very, very bad. The first book wasn't great, but it was entertaining. This one was just bad. (I ought to have known: She and her co-writer wrote a Slate article more or less saying YA writers have no standards.)

[secretlyevil]

I've read some really awful ones thanks to the free kindle books.

[duckduck]

Child of the Mist by Kathleen Morgan (Nook freebie)
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (yes, the actor... decent writer, but the story was boring as hell)

I would say those two were probably the worst that I completed. I quit on Master of the Universe (aka 50 Shades) a hundred or so page in-- when she sees the sex dungeon and gets the contract. I couldn't take it anymore. I also listened to about 20 minutes of The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson and gave up on that.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Dec 31, 2012 9:43:21 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

I've read some really awful ones thanks to the free kindle books.

Ditto this. Also, Wicked was one of the worst books I've ever read. That was a disappointment.

[pthermal]

The Casual Vacancy. I wanted to like it. I tried to like it. I couldn't even finish it.

[Deleted]

Dec 31, 2012 11:15:27 GMT -5 duckduck said:

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (yes, the actor... decent writer, but the story was boring as hell)

.

This makes me sad. H got it for me for Christmas. Here's hoping you're wrong

[Dusky]

The Selection by Kiera Cass. I'm not sure if it was the worst I read, but it was certainly the biggest disappointment. The world building was horrendous and I couldn't tolerate most of the characters.

[sporklemotion]

I'm going to have to go with 50 Shades of Grey. I usually don't finish books that I don't like (life is too short), but I did read to the end of that one.

[lemondrop]

My worst book that I read was Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. She's really just throwing a bunch of letters on the page at this point.

[secretlyevil]

Jan 1, 2013 9:38:05 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

My worst book that I read was Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. She's really just throwing a bunch of letters on the page at this point.

She should have stopped at five or something.


Sent from the app.

[duckduck]

Dec 31, 2012 19:33:29 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

Dec 31, 2012 11:15:27 GMT -5 duckduck said:

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (yes, the actor... decent writer, but the story was boring as hell)

.

This makes me sad. H got it for me for Christmas. Here's hoping you're wrong

If you're more into art than I am, you'll probably have a much greater appreciation for it!

[yourmom]

Jan 1, 2013 8:42:38 GMT -5 sporklemotion said:

I'm going to have to go with 50 Shades of Grey. I usually don't finish books that I don't like (life is too short), but I did read to the end of that one.

Everything about what you just said here is me as well.

[aurora]

Dec 31, 2012 16:02:43 GMT -5 pthermal said:

The Casual Vacancy. I wanted to like it. I tried to like it. I couldn't even finish it.

Interesting - I've heard lots of people say that it wasn't as good as HP (because what could be?) but haven't heard anyone else say it was this bad before. I am afraid to try it.

The worst one I finished in 2012 was The Friend Request by Alex Ford - a free Kindle book that made me swear off free Kindle books for the foreseeable future. (I probably wouldn't have finished it except I was reading it on an airplane so I was pretty much a captive audience.)

[aurora]

And...I forgot about IQ84. It was truly terrible and ridiculously long. I only finished it because so many people had said it was amazing, so I figured the ending must just blow everything away. Nope, just a complete waste of time.

[sporklemotion]

Jan 2, 2013 15:37:47 GMT -5 aurora said:

The worst one I finished in 2012 was The Friend Request by Alex Ford - a free Kindle book that made me swear off free Kindle books for the foreseeable future. (I probably wouldn't have finished it except I was reading it on an airplane so I was pretty much a captive audience.)

I actually read this one, too-- I had blocked it out, like I do most of the free Kindle books. Yeah, it was pretty terrible.

[msmerymac]

I think I read Wuthering Heights last January, which is possibly my most hated book of all time.

I have to say it - I could barely get through Outlander. I was hoping it would be a great epic series I could love, but I wavered between revulsion and ennui during the entire book.

[secretlyevil]

Jan 2, 2013 19:51:24 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

I have to say it - I could barely get through Outlander. I was hoping it would be a great epic series I could love, but I wavered between revulsion and ennui during the entire book.

It's like I don't even know you anymore!

LOL - that series is one that you either love or hate. I've never heard someone say, "eh, it was ok."

[magdala9]

Dec 31, 2012 16:02:43 GMT -5 pthermal said:

The Casual Vacancy. I wanted to like it. I tried to like it. I couldn't even finish it.

yup. It is rare that I don't finish a book, but I could not finish this.

[moreace01]

Jan 3, 2013 10:28:45 GMT -5 magdala9 said:

Dec 31, 2012 16:02:43 GMT -5 pthermal said:

The Casual Vacancy. I wanted to like it. I tried to like it. I couldn't even finish it.

yup. It is rare that I don't finish a book, but I could not finish this.

Same here. I think it was just really depressing. All of the characters were mean and awful. All around it was just a really ugly book. I got about halfway through and decided it wasn't worth my time.

The only other book I couldn't get through this year was Lit.
And I didn't care for Game of Thrones (the first one) or Insurgent (I really liked Divergent though).

[mel726]

Dec 31, 2012 9:43:21 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

I've read some really awful ones thanks to the free kindle books.

Same here.

[marytini]

These are all the ones I gave 2* to:

Anna Karenina
Jane Eyre
When It Happens
Little Bee
When We Get There
Bumped

[mrfkc]

I tried so hard to get into the Hunger Games Trilogy but couldn't. It's the only book I picked up this year and did not finish.

[nookworm]

50 Shades was terrible.
I also read Callum and Harper by Fisher Amelie because it was a goodreads rec. Awful.

[2curlydogs]

Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

[twiglette]

Jan 2, 2013 15:07:04 GMT -5 yourmom said:

Jan 1, 2013 8:42:38 GMT -5 sporklemotion said:

I'm going to have to go with 50 Shades of Grey. I usually don't finish books that I don't like (life is too short), but I did read to the end of that one.

Everything about what you just said here is me as well.

I'm in this camp too. I read all the Twilight books so I thought I could handle this... I was so wrong... Never made it past 100 pages or so.

[mrshandy]

I just finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. I started it in 2012 on vacation no less and I still couldn't finish it until yesterday. That's how little interest I had in it.

Ugh...it was pretty bad.

[IIOY]

Ditto State of Wonder. I just didn't care how it ended and nearly stopped reading it, something I never do.

I also just finished Gone Girl and for the life of me don't understand why it got rave reviews.

[dorothyinAus]

SuperChef:  Australia.

It was supposed to be a parody of the very popular MasterChef competition television show.  And in parts, it was funny, but it really wasn't a cohesive book in any form.  It was more a novel length parody magazine.  I was really excited to read it as it was written by one of DH's blogosphere/twitter/real life friends, but it was really a mess of book.  It could be worked into something better but this incarnation of the idea sucked big ones.  When I finished, all I could think was Padma telling it to "pack its knives and go."

[dulcemariamar]

Divergent: I dont understnad the hype. The writing wasnt that great and it made me miss The Hunger Games.

Live Through This: I hated the ending. I felt that the book was missing a chapter or two to close everything up.