Worst Novel You've COMPLETED

[pdaaat]

Easily the fourth Twilight book.

[Sean M.]

It's already been mentioned as not being that bad but I hated The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Terrible writing shackled to a plot that gives up after the first chapter. How this sold bazillions of copies I have absolutely no idea. It is the literary equivalent of Coldplay.

[Jordan]

i thought of one!

one of the worst books i've read, from cover to cover is twilight. this was several months to a year before the first movie. my sister and i love vampire books and would trade recommendations often. she told me to read this book called twilight. she said she enjoyed it and that i should read it. well, i read it and i LOATHED it. it had no redeeming value what so ever. i can't imagine any horror fanatic, any romance fan or vampire fan liking this book, because its has niether horror, nor romance nor vampires. NOTHING happens. i read the goddam thing till the end, HOPING to see some action, ANY action. when the final confrontation happens, the point-of-view character GETS KNOCKED OUT and we don't GET TO SEE ANYTHING! ugh. i wanted to write an amazon review just to complain about the book and warn new readers, but then i found out how popular it was. i was too late.

-mike 

ps- i'm very happy for people who love the book. and i really don't mind the twi-hards, and i welcome all people of of all races, creeds and backgrounds into geek-dom. i just wish it were for better material. hopefully twilight will be the gateway drug that leads on to salem's lot and world war z... and so on.

It gets worse; the big final confrontation at the end of the last book, where all the good and bad vamps, their various allies, and the wolves are all about to fight.... and then everybody goes home.

[JimN]

It's already been mentioned as not being that bad but I hated The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Terrible writing shackled to a plot that gives up after the first chapter. How this sold bazillions of copies I have absolutely no idea. It is the literary equivalent of Coldplay.

Just curious: what did you mean when you wrote that the plot "gives up" after the first chapter?

Jim

[Sean M.]

Just curious: what did you mean when you wrote that the plot "gives up" after the first chapter?
Jim

I mean that Brown sets the scene reasonably (the set up in the Louvre is not that badly done) but the "plot" consists of [a) we have a problem b) here's the solution] repeated endlessly. As a result it seems disjointed and lacks a plot in that there is no consistent narrative thread.

The only upside in my purchasing of this book was that I bought it at Oxfam, so the money went to charity rather than Dan Brown's scrooge mcduck style money vault.   

[BlackDynamite]

It's already been mentioned as not being that bad but I hated The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Terrible writing shackled to a plot that gives up after the first chapter. How this sold bazillions of copies I have absolutely no idea. It is the literary equivalent of Coldplay.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you. Not terrible, but definitely bad, and waaay overhyped.
My nomination for this list would be the first Dexter novel, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. It was the basis for Season 1 of the TV show. It was a real letdown. The show is SO much better than the book.

[pdaaat]

It gets worse; the big final confrontation at the end of the last book, where all the good and bad vamps, their various allies, and the wolves are all about to fight.... and then everybody goes home.

Exactly. The ending read like it was written by a 10 year old girl.

[Jay Tomio]

Probably anything by Iain Pears. After reading his really interesting An Instance of the Fingerpost I thought, wow, here's a new author to dive into and as I went through his catalog I found he just completely busted his load on one novel, and just mailed it in the rest of the time.

[the other mike]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you. Not terrible, but definitely bad, and waaay overhyped.
My nomination for this list would be the first Dexter novel, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. It was the basis for Season 1 of the TV show. It was a real letdown. The show is SO much better than the book.

i agree with this. its the only dexter book i read, but i wouldn't call it the worst. it was entertaining, but kind of a let down compared to the show. the book itself reads like a standard thriller, and book-dexter is more out-and-out evil, where tv-dex is more ambiguous and more sympathetic.


-mike

[Lukeh]

Easily the fourth Twilight book.

The three leading up to this were good?

[pdaaat]

They were better.......