Hey Pandas, What Was The Worst Book You Have Ever Read?

I have two:

The Divergent series
And The Darkest Mind

I read the first book of the Divergent series, it was decent, but I got to Insurgent and I couldn't stand it. Probably because it felt like it was trying too hard to be dark

As for The Darkest Minds, same reason. I'm all for characters having powers and s**t but it felt like it was trying too hard to be dark and knock off The Hunger Games

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

I picked this up at a thrift shop as I tend to gravitate toward older works and vaguely recalled the title. This is a controversial novel from the 1950s narrated by a paedophile. Holy hell.

I thought it would provide some psychological insight that would give the reader something to think about, almost sympathize with the main character's situation. It did not deliver.

The entirety of the novel was just a prisoner recalling his paedophilic escapades without remorse. The writing itself was not bad, but if someone could find any point or meaning behind this drivel, I would gladly hear it.

Unfortunately, I like to read a book to the end, even if it's not promising. Given the age of the book, it began falling apart in the extended amount of time I suffered through it. I gradually recycled the pages falling off along the way. This is one of those novels that you could just put down, over and over again.

I finished the book on a beach and defiantly burned the last page. Threw the remainder into the recycling bin in hopes thay no one else would ever have to read this copy of Vlad's vicarious fantasies.

TLDR: a paedophile's manifesto, tossed out, probably recycled into toilet paper

Most "devotionals". The ones for girls talk mostly about Marriage and bearing kids. The ones for boys are mostly towards getting a job. They also immediately assume all people want to have kids with the opposite gender. They don't consider asexuals, gays, or trans either

anything by Joyce Carol Oates. Why would someone think up that sick weird stuff and write it down

Dead Witch Walking. Hands down, never again.

The cloud atlas, was lost almost immediately, just couldn’t get into it

After.
Terrible representation of what love should look like.

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I slogged through the first 100+ pages, and the only thing I remember is a crazy chase after a stray dog. Everything in the book is so over-described, reading it is like swimming in molasses.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

The main character is a complete jerk that you can't help but hate. He's basically guilt-tripped into befriending a girl with terminal cancer. The main character seems more concerned with focusing on his simultaneously self-deprecating yet obliviously arrogant self than actually forming emotional connections with the reader or, AHEM, the girl that is literally dying.

I think the author was trying to make the book relatable to high schoolers/young adults? But it just comes off as trying way too hard.

All romance novels. They're just not my kinda thing.

“May the best man win” by some a*****e. Basically, judging by the blurb I assumed it would be a cute trans love story involving neurodivergence.
The trans guy character is sexist as hell, and the book acknowledges how screwed up it is, they just don’t do anything about it???
The autistic character was portrayed mostly okay, until the trans boyfriend literally threatened to tell the whole school that he had autism to ruin his reputation. How f****d up is that? The worst part is that they get back together three chapters later.
There is a lesbophobic comment claiming that all lesbians are TERFS. You could have explained what TERF means without bringing lesbians into this. Not to mention, many of us are trans and non-binary.
The main character(trans bf) is a genuine jerk to everyone. And the other boyfriend literally tries to set a school on fire after comparing d**k sizes with his ex.
Oh! I forgot to mention, the only character of color is this Asian girl who is the epitome of stereotypes. All of it,
-100/10, screw this book

Most of Jane's Austen books. I find them really corny and boring.

Issue probably is that I read Brontë's sisters' novels prior.

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, I couldn't put this book down. I live just outside Detroit and it takes place in Grosse Pointe and Detroit. I have read it many times. Excellent book!

The Little Prince. Had to suffer it in high school. Almost put me off reading.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Couldn’t finish it. One I did finish and hated? Anna Karenina. Spoiler Alert. I was glad she got hit by the train.

'IT'. wasn't badly written, I just didn't like how it sexualized kids. movie slays tho.

My brother just was assigned a book for class called “shadows of war” it was utterly horrendous and I couldn’t find anything to salvage from it lol

(I suck at explanations so please forgive my horrible explanation of why I hate the books)

The Infinity Cycle series (YA series btw) by Adam Silvera. Other books by him may be good (haven’t read them), but this one is not. The third book isn’t even out yet and there are bad reviews for it on Goodreads. All the characters but one are uninteresting and annoying. Brighton, the main characters brother, is the one of the most unlikable characters in the history of books. I want to shove flaming bamboo under his fingernails, rip his teeth out with rusty pliers, I hope he gets stung by murder hornets, and then dies alone, only to be tortured in the fiery pits of hell. The main character, Emil is so spineless I want to slap him in the face. I get that he doesn’t want to fight and all, but he needs to grow a pair and actually do something. Wyatt is just… there. He seemed to appear to just create a love triangle between him Emil, and Ness. Ness was the only character in the books I truly liked. He should end up with Emil.

The world building is okay I think, but the characters are awful.

I'm a voracious reader, and I've read many, many classics that I adore - they're classics for a reason, right??

I know I'll catch some flak for this, but I got about a quarter of the way into Moby D**k and stopped. It's the only time I've ever not finished a book I've started. The exhausting descriptions of the whaling industry that went on and on... I just couldn't take any more. I hated it. Perhaps someday I'll try to conquer it, and it will become my great white whale. Don't hold your breath, though.

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass. As it was something I had to study, I started to read it but threw it away within a chapter. I tried again. This time it went whizzing out the window into a thunderstorm and a large puddle.