Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 20:55     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:All these threads of book recommendations have me wondering if any of you have been disappointed in any acclaimed books. I saw on the thread about life changing books that a lot of people loved The Happiness Project. I didn't but my comments are mostly about overrated fiction. It seems like every year there is a celebrated book that comes out that is either just OK or downright awful. Fates and Furies comes to mind.


I tried two Ta-Nehisi books, and found both myopic, narcissistic and childish.

Not a third chance.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 20:52     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:LOL The Happiness Project was such BS! Gretchen Rubin had tons of free time and money to devote to what made her happy, OF COURSE she was able to up her happiness. Such a joke.

I seriously loathed Hillbilly Elegy and will never understand how it got so much play. It actually has a great premise except JD Vance is a hack who couldn't manage a meaningful deep dive into his thesis statement, and it kind of fell apart when he admitted he personally had been raised in middle class Ohio with a nurse mom who made 80k in the early 90s. A more capable writer could have made it something worthwhile but Vance isn't that writer.

I really dislike most ~plot twist~ chick lit. Liane Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, etc.

Celeste Ng is incredibly overrated as well.


I felt the same about Hillbilly Elegy. So overrated.


+1. I leafed through the book at B&N (it's pretty thin!) and was amazed that it had been on the bestsellers' list for weeks! Poorly written and banal.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 20:40     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:Ones that have been mentioned that I agree with:
The Nest
The Circle
Fates and Furies
any and all Franzen

Haven't seen mentioned yet but I despised:
The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles)
The Sword of Shannara
C (Tom McCarthy)
Hull Zero Three (Greg Bear)
How to be Both (Ali Smith)

Disagree on A Little Life, I thought it was amazing (and, pp, the tortured main character's name is Jude, not Julian)


A fantastic book and rightfully on most lists of the 100 best novels of all time
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 20:24     Subject: Books that you found overrated
The Lovely Bones terrified me. I could not, and still cannot, deal with the scene where her mom is calling for her from the yard next door. And then the story went so far downhill from the middle on. A ridiculous resolution regarding her relationship.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 20:19     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Ones that have been mentioned that I agree with:
The Nest
The Circle
Fates and Furies
any and all Franzen

Haven't seen mentioned yet but I despised:
The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles)
The Sword of Shannara
C (Tom McCarthy)
Hull Zero Three (Greg Bear)
How to be Both (Ali Smith)

Disagree on A Little Life, I thought it was amazing (and, pp, the tortured main character's name is Jude, not Julian)
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 19:57     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Eat Pray Love. God, what a load that was. I heard the author interviewed on Diane Rehm years ago, walked in the room as the radio was playing the interview, not knowing who the subject was, and was repelled immediately by her then trying-to-sound like a 22 year old voice among other things. I just can't stand her, or the book.
+1


+2

+3
She's a good writer, in the sense that you don't notice at first what a truly selfish, self-centered person she is.


That was actually one of the first things I noticed in the very beginning of the book. The rest was ruined because I really disliked her from the beginning.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 15:16     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Eat Pray Love. God, what a load that was. I heard the author interviewed on Diane Rehm years ago, walked in the room as the radio was playing the interview, not knowing who the subject was, and was repelled immediately by her then trying-to-sound like a 22 year old voice among other things. I just can't stand her, or the book.
+1


+2

+3
She's a good writer, in the sense that you don't notice at first what a truly selfish, self-centered person she is.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 15:14     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:LOL The Happiness Project was such BS! Gretchen Rubin had tons of free time and money to devote to what made her happy, OF COURSE she was able to up her happiness. Such a joke.

I seriously loathed Hillbilly Elegy and will never understand how it got so much play. It actually has a great premise except JD Vance is a hack who couldn't manage a meaningful deep dive into his thesis statement, and it kind of fell apart when he admitted he personally had been raised in middle class Ohio with a nurse mom who made 80k in the early 90s. A more capable writer could have made it something worthwhile but Vance isn't that writer.

I really dislike most ~plot twist~ chick lit. Liane Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, etc.

Celeste Ng is incredibly overrated as well.


I felt the same about Hillbilly Elegy. So overrated.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 13:00     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Love this thread! I hated these books that so many seemed to love:
Gone Girl
Girl on a Train
Fates and Furies
California
Me Talk Pretty One Day
The Circle
A Confederacy of Dunces
Beloved (Toni Morrison)
The Shack
The Slap
Underworld
White Teeth
Bonfire of the Vanities
Love in the Time of Cholera
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Devil in the White City
Julie and Julia
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 10:12     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Anything by Cormac McCarthy


Really? All the Pretty Horses? The Road? Wonderful books.


The Road was depressing as hell. I had to read it in extremely small doses.


doesn't mean it is "overrated" does it? That's what the OP is asking.


I found both to be pointlessly and unrelentingly bleak, and his weird punctuation affected and annoying. It took me out of the story and made it difficult to tell who was saying/thinking what.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 10:06     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Anything by Cormac McCarthy


Really? All the Pretty Horses? The Road? Wonderful books.


The Road was depressing as hell. I had to read it in extremely small doses.


doesn't mean it is "overrated" does it? That's what the OP is asking.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 10:04     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Anything by Cormac McCarthy


Really? All the Pretty Horses? The Road? Wonderful books.


The Road was depressing as hell. I had to read it in extremely small doses.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 10:00     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Small Great Things. Heard it was not a typical Jodi Picoult book, but no it was just as poorly written as the rest of her books.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2018 00:05     Subject: Books that you found overrated
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Eat Pray Love. God, what a load that was. I heard the author interviewed on Diane Rehm years ago, walked in the room as the radio was playing the interview, not knowing who the subject was, and was repelled immediately by her then trying-to-sound like a 22 year old voice among other things. I just can't stand her, or the book.
+1


+2


I completely agree with you, but the crazy thing is that The Signature of All Things (her next book) was really great! It's like two different authors.
Anonymous
Post 01/01/2018 22:51     Subject: Books that you found overrated
The Passage by Justin Cronin: Predictable pastiche of PC detritus
The Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan: Sad when there was such potential there to flesh out some interesting characters, it read like Bret Easton Ellis