YA Books I Cannot Stand

May 2, 2017     erinthebooknut     Discussion

We all have this list, a pile of books we absolutely hate. Just thinking about them makes our nose wrinkle and the words “Oh don’t get me started,” come out our mouths at the very mention. I recently found myself falling down the youtube rabbit hole, watching video after video of people’s most hated books and I started thinking about my own list.

I should say before I begin, If you like these books this is no comment on you personally. Please don’t take it personally, these are just books that personally don’t work for me.

  1. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer- do I really need to give reasons here. Honestly this whole series makes me want to throw things but this one in particular is the worst of an already bad situation. Nevermind the shitty love interest, the awful writing, and the miserable characters but are you really asking me to read this terribly put together pregnancy story with a teenager falling in love with an infant? And don’t you even dare start in about how its platonic until she’s of age.
  2. Vampires of Manhattan by Melissa de la Cruz- Oh dear god no. Series reboots never work, and an NA series reboot of a YA series? How bout not. The characters don’t seem like themselves anymore, poor Oliver got the worst of that treatment, and it hardly felt like I was reading something from the same series, in the same world, or from any of the characters I recognized. Just….why? Why was this even needed?
  3. Crime and Punishment by Frydor Dostoyevsky- Never again will I touch this book. I had to read it for an AP English class and I seriously would rather do anything else. Read anything else. Watching bad children’s TV. ANYTHING other than read this book again.
  4. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke- I have never been more bored listening to an audio version than actually reading a book but that’s what happened here. Both versions are dull, the characters have nothing interesting or redeeming about them, and the book spends more time betting you over the head with the setting rather than spending time with the characters.
  5. Crossed by Allie Condie- Simple fact, nothing happens in this book. Seriously, nothing. Admittedly the first book isn’t great but it is entertaining, this one loses that crucial element so it becomes a slog to get through. To this day I fear reading the last boo in this series out of dread that it will be just as boring.
  6. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad- Another AP English book I wanted to throw across the room, thankfully though this one was short. Tiny even. But it was probably the most disliked book in the class.
  7. Defy by Sara B Larson- The premise for this book is really good actually. I felt like it had so
    much wasted potential, most of it on the awful love triangle. I spent a lot of time yelling at characters for making some really dumb decisions. I still want to continue the series to see if it gets better. Maybe I’m a masochist for pain. Even with as much hate as I have for this first book I believe there’s plenty of room for improvement.
  8. Fever and Sever by Lauren Desteffano- So this is another case of the first book being ok and the later books just dropping the ball completely. What even is this second book? The third is marginally better but that’s still not saying much. I think I finished them merely out of a need to find out how it ended but there was nothing satisfying about it, just sadness. Her other series is much better.
  9. Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare- This play is not romantic. Say it again for those in the back, it is NOT romantic. These are idiot teenagers who knew each other for a few days and made one stupid choice after another. Do not mistake this for romance, folks, it’s not meant to be.
  10. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson-I’ve never understood the hype over this book. I really thought it was mediocre at best. I thought the character was incredibly unlikable and had a hard time caring about her despite what she goes though.
  11. Of Poseidon by Anna Banks- If I had to read “ohmygoodness” one more time I was going to scream. I hated the way the main character spoke. She annoyed me to no end and I didn’t end up finishing the series.
  12.  An Abundance of Katherines by John Green- As far as I’m concerned there are only two good John Green novels, Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars. Past that, Paper Towns is passable and AAoK is absolute garbage. It’s like a bad mashup of Alaska and Paper Towns. If I’m honest it seems like Green was writing the same book over and over until TFIOS. He probably should have let it go with Alaska.
  13. Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susan Cokal- What did I even read? This book is massively unpleasant to read. Jewels in a guy’s genitals, some pretty graphic rape, all really unnecessary.
  14. The Young World by Chris Weitz- I found this book to be nearly unreadable. In fact I don’t think I even finished it. It made my head hurt and the characters were pretty insufferable.
  15. The Elite by Kiera Cass- AMERICA I HATE YOU! Really all of these books aren’t good but I read them anyway because they’re incredibly entertaining. Except The Elite. This whole book I was so frustrated with both America and the love interest. And Ash too! You all suck! Stop being stupid.
  16. The Program by Suzanne Young- So boring. This book put me in a slump for DAYS. I just can’t with the rest of the series.
  17. Summer’s End by Lisa Morton- Terribly researched, awfully written, unbelievably angering to read. This is one of the first books I ever reviewed on the blog.
  18. Salt and Stone by Victoria Scott- I really loved the first book in this series but this second book brought me up short. The writing was unbearable to read and I DNFed it at about 75 pages. There’s an entire part about wanting to lick a person like a Popsicle which both grossed me out and made me laugh at the ridiculousness of the sentence. What did I even read?

So everyone, what are your choices for most hated books you’ve ever read? Share them in the comments, I’d be interested to see them.

From my shelf toy yours,

Erin

2 responses to “YA Books I Cannot Stand

  1. Jana Washington

    HEART OF DARKNESS IS THE WORST BOOK OF ALL TIME! I have strong feelings about this. I had to read it twice and both times: absolute torture.

    Also, Thirst by Christopher Pike was absolutely awful. Worst written main character I’ve ever read.

    And this might be an unpopular opinion, but I do not like Danielle Paige’s writing. Dorothy must Die drove me crazy, and I tried again with Stealing Snow. I just can’t.

  2. Jana Washington

    Also, feel free to delete the first comment…only the second one counts. I accidentally pushed a button on this one….

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