Books you finished and just thought: "Well...that was shit"

[Something Amyss]

The first three were written by Drew Karpyshyn (the lead writer of Mass Effect), but this one was the first book of a newbie.

This should have been your first clue. The first three books were good specifically BECAUSE of Drew's work.

To actually answer the question:

-Eragon (Technically Eldest, because I thought the first was okay).
-Book 1 of the Hungering Saga. So bad I forgot its name.
-The Da Vinci Code
-Guilty Pleasures (Laurell K Hamilton). Horrible.

 

[Dead Seerius]

The third Narnia book The Horse and His Boy. After the utterly kick-ass Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, the Horse and His Boy left me broken inside. Horrible book.

 

[Cazza]

HAHAHAHA finished? I can barely get into great/good books. If it's shit I won't get to the end of that page when I decide it's bad.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The Serpent Club and Catcher in the Rye spring to mind. I realize Catcher is supposed to be an all-time classic but both of these suffer from protagonists so cynical and bitter at an admittedly crappy world around them that their first-person narration poisons any interesting developments in character or theme. Seriously, I'd rather have Yahtzee narrating his own life than these guys.

I've read some good movie novelizations like Dragonheart and Jurassic Park, but The Dark Knight was awful. Around the 150 page mark it was like the author had a page limit and realized he was up against it, so everything past the Joker's arrest is incredibly rushed and sloppy, about 95% dialogue without any creative additions or descriptors of anything or anyone.

 

[Furioso]

The House On Mango Street is one of the biggest pieces of garbage I have ever read.

Oh my god yes this piece of putrid shit, I still have no idea what it was even supposed to be, I mean, an entire chapter dedicated to someone tying their shoes for no reason, or buying a dress, I don't even think there was a story in there (and when I say "entire chapter" I mean a single, solitary, paragraph with a void of white space underneath it afterwards) Hell, our teacher actively thrashed this book, and when the entire class got together and filmed a group burning of our books the teacher gave us all extra credit

 

[panda_rune]

Eragon, full-stop. Read it as a kid and even then I thought it was awful. Tried to read the second book once, on the off-chance the author had improved between volumes. Couldn't make it past page 5.

 

[modularstar]

Two books spring to mind: Here Lies Arthur by Phillip Reeve, and Shade's Children by Garth Nix. Recently, i haven't bothered finishing books if i think they're shit, but these two are stuck with me because the authors are responsible for some of my favourite series of all time (Mortal Engines and the Abhorsen trilogy). My god were these two bad, not only because i expected better, but because i have no idea what the point of them was.

 

[Lectori Salutem]

So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish, the fourth book in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

This is point where the series jumped the shark in a huge way. The fifth book sucked aswell, but the fourth was especially infuriating due to the sudden and egregious shift in tone. Instead of surreal intergalactic adventures with humorous sci-fi concepts, the book takes place entirely on Earth and focuses on a dull love story. The romance is pretty much the entire book, with only the last chapters touching on anything remotely Hitchhiker-like. And the worst part is that the entire plot is essentially meaningless since the love interest introduced in the book isn't even in the next one!

Y'know, now that I think of it, the fifth book (Mostly Harmless) might be even worse. "Thanks for all the Fish" might have been boring read, but Mostly Harmless is like a straight up fuck you to fans of the series, and ends things off at a terribly. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy really should have stayed a trilogy.

With great sadness, this.
When I finished the last book I almost wondered when I accidentally changed series.

 

[Smallells]

Oh, and The Children of Men. I was intrigued by it's concept, all men on the planet becoming sterile, the end of the human race...and it was pathetically boring. The main character completely changed attitudes abruptly, and the ending...was just, pathetic, I mean, just dumb, and I didn't like any of the characters to boot.

I haven't read the book, but if you get the chance to see the movie, then I strongly recommend it. It is truly fantastic as a movie. I'll take your word for it as a book.

The ending of the Inheritance saga by Christopher Paolini was...AWFUL.

GRAH! THIS!!! SO MUCH THIS!!! I was confused some of the time (don't even get me started on the part where Roran assaults that first town or castle, or whatever it is) but I kept figuring that we were building up to a climax.
And then it ended.
I literally put the book down in shock at such an awful ending.
From the confrontation with Galbatorix onward, the book went downhill for me. Book? Series.
Seriously, fuck Inheritance.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Any book i've read in English 10 Honor this year. I was hearing so many good things about the books and after I finished them I'm just like 'That's it?!'

 

[Kud]

Brave New World.

Never again...

 

[Vorpalrabbit]

The ending of The Hunger Games was particularly anti-climactic for me. You spend 2/3rds of the book detailing this event, and then BAM! Stupid plot twist!

The first two were alright in my opinion. But the third one makes me angry with the rage of a thousand suns.

 

[Superior Mind]

Well I read most of the Twilight saga if that counts. This is it wasn't a conclusion that "that was shit" but a constant feeling. Don't ask me why I decided to read the damn things, I think it was just to see if I could stomach them. I actually never got around to finishing the last one, got about half way. I'd read a few pages and have to put the book down to exclaim "seriously?" So insultingly stupid and so utterly deranged. Stephanie Meyer has some serious problems.

 

[Arsen]

I proclaim with absolute pride and reverence that I fell asleep seven times trying to read "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut. And I want to be a published author some day.

Could, not, make it, though. Bored me greatly.

 

[ImSkeletor]

The House On Mango Street is one of the biggest pieces of garbage I have ever read.

Oh my god yes this piece of putrid shit, I still have no idea what it was even supposed to be, I mean, an entire chapter dedicated to someone tying their shoes for no reason, or buying a dress, I don't even think there was a story in there (and when I say "entire chapter" I mean a single, solitary, paragraph with a void of white space underneath it afterwards) Hell, our teacher actively thrashed this book, and when the entire class got together and filmed a group burning of our books the teacher gave us all extra credit

You forgot the completely pointless rape scene that is never mentioned again. I really can't believe that book won AWARDS!

 

[FoolKiller]

I read all the Twilight books, because I thought I would read all of them before I start to bad mouth it so I could back it up with examples from the book.

DEAR GOD THEY WERE SHIT. Book number 4? WTF?! Nothing happens!

You are a stronger man than I... I could only through exactly 110 pages of the first Twilight before lobbing it at a wall and immediately rereading The Name of the Wind for the umpteenth time to remind myself that good literature, does in fact exist.

Now if only I would man up and get through the sequel. I don't like it when bad things happen to the main character

I suffered through the first two books. Her writing did get better but the first book was absolutely terrible. The pace, grammar, diction, and all other things related just didn't work. Then you finally get into it a bit around page 400, building for a climax and then we get blue balled by the book.

Spoiler: It ends like this...

Bella is being chased by the villain and gets knocked out. Unfortunately, the book is from first person so the battle between Edward and the villain is never explained except when she wakes in the hospital and Edward tells her that he took care of it.

 

[Jmp_man]

The third Narnia book The Horse and His Boy. After the utterly kick-ass Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, the Horse and His Boy left me broken inside. Horrible book.

I kind of felt the same way also about A Horse and his Boy... good thing it was really more of an "optional" read, eh? (As in doesn't relate to any of the main characters or touch on any of the main story... except Aslan somewhat).

The thing that really killed the series for me (besides the constant religiousness of the series as a whole) was the ending of the last book. If you read and understood what happened at the end of the final book you'd get what I mean.

Eragon, full-stop. Read it as a kid and even then I thought it was awful. Tried to read the second book once, on the off-chance the author had improved between volumes. Couldn't make it past page 5.

The first book was O.K. IMO. The second book however was crap... it's like Pawleni (I didn't spell that right. I admit it O.K.?) gave up and just said **** it and gave everyone and their mothers superpowers.

One series that I really couldn't get into was the Dragon Riders of Pern series. I don't know what it is about those books... I guess its something like... it tries hard to be hard Sic-fi. Dragons evolved from lizards that were bred by future generations of humans from earth, plus evil entity from outer space threatens to wipe all life on the planet. For some reason it didn't sit well with me combining these ideas with most fiction I'm used to. Meh.

 

[twohundredpercent]

If I start thinking a book is shit I usually just fling it across the room and stop reading it.

 

[Frenzy107]

Hmmm....well i'd have to say The Metamorphisis by Franz Kafka (I had to read it for school and it made no sense to me...but at least it was short), The entire twilight series (my GF made me do it...), and a couple books i read at my GMas house because i was bored (i forget their names).

But the best book i ever had to read for school was Eragon