Disappointing reads

I’ve been upping my reading game these past couple of years, but that also means that not every book you read is one you enjoy. These are books that I read from cover to cover, but that I somehow still didn’t rate too highly. I’m not a high rater to begin with: I don’t want to taint my star rating by randomly distributing 5 stars to each book I like. Books I like get a 4 star rating. Books that impress me or that I love get a 5 star rating. These all received a meagre 1 or 2 star in my book.

Disappointing reads

Some of these books I read a while ago, but I believe I do have full reviews on all of these. You can find those initial reviews by typing the title into the search bar on your right. That way you can easily navigate specific reviews. If you are curious to read some of my book reviews in general, you can also search for book reviews in general. I mostly do them once a month now, so there should be plenty for you to find.

Stephen Fry – More Fool Me

I’ve read quite a few books by Stephen Fry, including the prequels to this third installment of his autobiography. I really enjoyed the first two. This one, however, felt a little lackluster. It lacked Fry’s usual wit and linguistic prowess and I just didn’t find this part of the story all that compelling. It mostly felt like a book that had to be written, rather than one that was written with joy.

Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl

This book was so hyped up that I went in with high expectations. I hated it. I found the dialogue dragged on, the action was lackluster and the suspense only so-so. It didn’t help that I predicted what the clue of this story was all the way at the beginning of the book. To me, this was transparent, unrealistic and obtuse. I liked roughly 75 – 100 pages in the middle of the book and the rest felt like fodder.

Graeme Simsion – The Rosie Project

Another book that is recommended a lot. This comedy about how an autistic man falls in love with the Rosie from the title and the moments this ensues sounded really enticing. After reading this I felt like it uses autism to generate all the comedic effect in this book. And while funny at times, it sort of feels like laughing at someone else’s expense. It made me feel uneasy to say the very least.

Lewis Carroll – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

Maybe this book worked in the late 19th century but to me this book was just one hulk of frustration. I found it difficult to plow through the oodles of made up language, the archaic social structure Alice grows up in and her snotty attitude. Alice is not a nice person and seemed to be more of a self-entitled little brat. Combine that unlikable character with a confusing, nonsensical plot and I was just at a loss most of the time. Which is probably the point of the book, but it just frustrated me to no end.

Veronica Roth – The Divergent Series

How to kill a good series 1.0: make the final book in your series so decidedly different from the first two installments that your reader can only think: WTF?! the entire time while reading. So to be fair, the book featured in the picture isn’t the one I’m griping about. No, that honor would befall Allegiant: the third and final book in the series. This entire book is off: the characters behave differently from the other two books, none of it makes sense and the almost religious Messiah like ending to the book felt contrived (and that is just putting it mildly).

What books did you find disappointing?