What was one book you wanted to throw across the room- and why?

Submitted by UnfallenAdventure t3_11tud6j in books

It can be either in a good way- or bad. Was it because of the authors writing style? Or because of the characters?

What could have been changed? (if the book was awful)

Why did you enjoy the book, or what worked you up so much? (If the book was good)

Would you have recommended it someone else? Why or why not?

Did it have clichés or awful lines? What were they?

And please!! Long descriptions are encouraged- it’s helpful so everyone can learn!

For me personally it was the game of thrones series. I tried really really hard to read it- I couldn’t get past the several bouts of incest and the overly detailed gore.

I’ve got no problem with gore- but do you really need to write five paragraphs explaining the color of blood against snow? I would have thrown it against a wall, but I was on a road trip. I ended up being bored for 15 hours instead of reading it.

Edit: a mod asked me to edit it with my own response ✨

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knightfenris t1_jcktqrw wrote

I wanted to throw a book on the last twilight. The imprinting on Bella’s infant was too much for me. Say what you will about it, but like… nope. No thank you. Unnecessary, useless, stupid, weird.

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brevebelle t1_jclgvt4 wrote

LMAOOOO, I came here to comment about that book. I went to the midnight release at B&N, got the book, and went home to binge read. When I got to that part, I literally threw the book across the room and texted how pissed I was to the friend who went with me.

To this day, I've never finished that book.

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jcku50c wrote

I got a ton of spoilers on the movie version because I could never bring myself to read it.

When I found out about that- oh god you can imagine how much nope to that book I felt. 🥲

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CartographerAware412 t1_jckx91i wrote

English is my second language and I looked up what imprinting is, but it doesn’t seem to be bad. Can you please elaborate on why it was too much for you? I haven’t read that book or watched the movie.

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thebeautifullynormal t1_jckyv8w wrote

Imprinting generally is when a baby takes on someone as their parent figure. (Ducks are popular for imprinting on humans or other animals).

In the case of twilight it was used as an excuse for a grown man to fall in love with a baby. What's worse is that it is insinuated that they do get together and have children eventually.

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[deleted] t1_jcl6ko8 wrote

I actually think it's worse than that because there are other examples of werewolves imprinting on children like Quil Ateara V and while it is said that they will wait until their respective imprintee is old enough to consent to their relationship, SM heavily implied that they're destined to be drawn to the mothers of those respective children to explain Jacob's initial crush on Bella.

Ironically enough, I remember reading an amateur vampire erotica some years ago by an author named Yvonne Ray and there was something similar that happened between a 13-year-old pureborn vampire, Victoria Sinclaire (who was the youngest daughter of the protagonist Ethan Sinclaire) and his best friend, Mason's adopted vampire son, Jamie, who was around 19-years-old.

While I was initially squicked out by it, it was stated in text that Jamie was cognizant of his bond with Victoria and knew from the jump that it would be decades before either would be mature enough to make any decisions regarding their bond or even if they would choose to act on it. By later chapters, it was all but stated that Victoria could hear Jamie's thoughts due to her already advanced telepathy and had grown a crush on him which hinted that their bond was already developing.

An example of this trope done much better if you ask me.

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knightfenris t1_jcl0lrb wrote

It was twilight’s way of doing soulmates with werewolves. With a baby and a man.

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philosophyofblonde t1_jckwynu wrote

Untamed by Glennon Doyle. There is no redeeming quality. She’s a grifter and will eventually go the way of Rachel Hollis.

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Getmeasippycup t1_jclg6j1 wrote

I became suspicious of this book as soon as all the mlm, scentsy, doterra girls I know started waving it around like it was the holy grail.

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ElvenAngerTherapist t1_jcl45ey wrote

I read the novelization of the Red Riding Hood movie and the book ended abruptly with a page telling you that if you wanted to know how it actually ends you have to watch the movie or go to the website after the movie is released to read it. There was no warning that the book would do this and I was so annoyed that I literally threw the book and promised myself I would never watch the movie. I was so offended lol

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Jack-Campin t1_jclxlfw wrote

Fortunately with videos on the web they say "Watch till the end!" so you know not to start.

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jcl4h4g wrote

Oh gosh. How long was the book? I would have been furious.

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ElvenAngerTherapist t1_jcl7e8p wrote

I think it was pretty short, to be fair, like a couple hundred pages. Thankfully I'd borrowed it from the library. I can't imagine being someone that actually paid to read a book with no ending lol

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Feisty_Incident_3405 t1_jclvwzo wrote

Actually a genius postmodern technique that illustrates how the stories never actually end. We'll carry them on in our minds and speculate our own ideas of what the ideal ending could've or should've been.

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lucia-pacciola t1_jcmcbc8 wrote

> Actually a genius postmodern technique

Yes, exactly!

> that illustrates how the stories never actually end. We'll carry them on in our minds and speculate our own ideas of what the ideal ending could've or should've been.

Oh. Never mind.

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Milorii t1_jcl7c0w wrote

The last Divergent book. I think I may actually have thrown it when I read it back in middle school. Such a terrible ending.

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jcl90ch wrote

Oh- I was thinking about reading the books myself (I know I’m far behind the times 😅)

Maybe I shouldn’t 💀

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teastainedcarpet t1_jctpn11 wrote

honestly, read the first one, the second if you really want to, and imagine an ending yourself instead of reading the third. It's quite enjoyable like that, honestly.

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Getmeasippycup t1_jclg9xv wrote

I knew someone else would feel this!! Genuinely one of the worst endings ever.

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lucia-pacciola t1_jcl8sud wrote

A Storm of Swords. The duel between Clegane and Oberyn was the last time I let GRR play Lucy and the Football with me.

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Getmeasippycup t1_jclgkx1 wrote

I am going to preface this by saying I don’t enjoy open ended endings. So for me- the handmaids tale, and the giver. Great reads but the ends make me infuriated. I also recently watched The Lobster, and if I could have thrown a movie I would have.

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MDiggy_ t1_jckv0of wrote

Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Spoilers below.

>!The main character's mom caused a global famine with her gene editing technology by accident due to unintended side effects... And the main character's goal through the book is to prevent somebody else using the same technology to edit genes because he's worried about the unintended side effects that they can't predict...!<

>!But when he saves the day and stops them, he takes the technology and uses it to edit the entire global population himself! But wait, it's okay because he only edited people to be more empathetic, so he doesn't have to worry about any unintended side effects! Because he had good intentions!!<

When I think of bad endings to books I've read, this will always be at the top of my list. And I've read a lot of Stephen King.

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SoothingDisarray t1_jclagfr wrote

I'll respond with a "good" throwing a book across the room so this isn't just a hate thread.

For me it was the Virgin Suicides, which I read many years before the movie came out so it was more of an unknown novel back then. (It was a popular literary novel upon first publication, so I'm not saying it was truly unknown, just less so.)

I really loved (and still do love) that book. But it's a complex narrative voice, the first person plural, and it's the voice of all the boys of a town, now adults, looking back on these girls they were obsessed with. It's a really interesting way of writing, just a little bit creepy, but also sad, because the narrative "we" voice is writing from adulthood, reminiscing about their youth.

So throughout the book I was thinking why are they so obsessed, still obsessed after so many years, in many ways their lives ruined by this obsession. But it's "they" because there is no clear narrator. It's all of them.

And then I got to the climactic scene and I was so... mad. Mad that the titular event pretty much took a whole town with it. It was beautiful and infuriating to me.

The movie, for what it's worth, was also very good. But in the end I feel like the movie was about the girls and the book was about the boys. Which makes sense. It's hard to capture that first person plural narrative voice in a film.

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jclaxlu wrote

Wow that sounds amazing. Do you have the author?

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SuccotashCareless934 t1_jclezki wrote

Jeffrey Eugenides.

Virgin Suicides is decent, but Middlesex by him is absolutely fantastic.

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SoothingDisarray t1_jclhakx wrote

I loved Middlesex (it reminded me a lot of Salman Rushie's books). For me, though, Virgin Suicides is that perfect rare gem of a book that doesn't have any real analogues. I read Virgin Suicides when much younger and it impacted me in this unexpected emotionally resonant way. It's hard to step outside oneself when judging books!

Eugenides hasn't written much after his first two literary darlings. I couldn't really get into The Marriage Plot and that's his only other novel since 1993. I hope to read more by him one day!

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MadJuju t1_jcl22qs wrote

I threw As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner across the room on the final page. Say what you will, but Faulkner is a master at creating a slimy sleazebag, the likes of which I hope to never to meet despite being utterly believable

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Cum_se_Cum_sa t1_jcm7tuq wrote

NEVER LET ME GO-Kazuo Ishiguro I felt as though I’d been trapped in a dorm room with a bunch of teenagers who just happened to be “created” to be organ donors. WTF? Then they go on a road trip. Just shoot me. Graduate to a pre donor, pre care giver dorm. It never got any better nor developed a single redeeming story line, literary quality: nice cover. Toss it way in the corner.

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McDungusReloaded t1_jcl4hmv wrote

Norwegian Wood by Murakami, by the end of that book I was so mad with every single decision the main character made

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kn777 t1_jcssj34 wrote

Finally, someone else who thinks the same as me.

The main character is infuriating in this book!!! I wanted to throw them across the room.

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jl9011 t1_jcld204 wrote

The Atlas Six was very disappointing for me, especially because I got hooked on the sample then bought the book and it tanked immediately after that first 10%. Definitely wanted to throw it against the wall

My biggest issue with it is that there’s not one but two characters that are the “I’m so arrogant and cool but I’m going to join because it’s a fun game for me and I’m bored” types, one that tries to seduce men around her (incredibly cliche) and the other who is just unlikeable. If you write characters that aren’t even interested in the plot, why would the reader be interested in the plot! Not only does it make them not relatable, it doesn’t give us any reason to root for them. Annoys me so much when authors forget that main characters need motive, the best driving force for a plot is desperation

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SuccotashCareless934 t1_jcleth8 wrote

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. MY GOD.

Dual narrative. One part - Nao, a Japanese school girl - had a really interesting narrative; the other, a Canadian author called Ruth (really? she had to name the character after herself?) found Nao's diary washed up and was reading it, in between doing all sorts of dreadfully tedious things with her dull, dull partner.

The ending launched into some weird metaphysical dream sequence, and then Nao's section abruptly stopped. It was obvious why, but the fact that I'd wasted so much of my time slogging through the monumentally monotonous 'Ruth' sections to then have zero closure with the 'Nao' sections made me want to hurl it across the room. I was in a cafe when I finished this book so alas could not, but rather swiftly donated it to a second-hand bookshop.

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avidreader_1410 t1_jclzy0f wrote

Okay, this is not about me throwing a book across the room but how a thrown book led to an award winning series.

There was a woman named Virginia Lanier -poor and with a modest education, but a voracious reader. I heard that when they published that list of 100 great books, she already read 98 of them. Anyway, one day she got so disgusted with a book she threw it across the room and told her husband she could write better, so he said, "Why don't you?" The result was the first in her "bloodhound" series, "Death in Bloodhound Red" about a woman who trains bloodhounds for search and rescue. It won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Lanier was 65 when it was published.

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ZubLor t1_jdbqrrj wrote

I love Lanier! I never met anyone else familiar with her books. I pestered our poor reference librarian for months trying to find out when her next book would be out, only to find out Ms. Lanier had died.

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avidreader_1410 t1_jdcaomf wrote

Yes, Lanier had chronic health problems - I think she died around '14. I did hear that her books had been optioned for a series and then stalled out which is a shame because that's a series I'd watch.

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TinyAd280 t1_jcm7p78 wrote

"Cujo" by Stephen King. I did throw it across the room and to this day have never finished it. I was totally furious that he killed a character . . . let's just say there was no reason for this person to die. The story was basically over at that point.

In his defense, King said that he doesn't even remember writing that book, because he was so drugged up during that time.

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HugoNebula t1_jcok1ms wrote

King doesn't remember writing the book these days (that may be his age as much as anything), but he recalled it well enough in interviews at the time, just after Cujo was published. Regarding that scene specifically, he relates writing it and shocking himself (King, as you may know, doesn't write detailed outlines for he books, just writes it as he goes) and just sitting there, thinking it over. Eventually, he decided to carry on and see where that plot point took him.

I think it makes the book—the entire thing seems to be a critique of the destruction of the nuclear family and a treatise on karma.

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thegardenstead t1_jcmagvx wrote

I found Babel by RF Kuang unforgivably pedantic and ploddingly written. Could not finish it.

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Unnecessaryloongname t1_jcnaurn wrote

I threw a book off a boat once because I got sick of the bad guys rape girl to give plot point to hero.

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jcni6dj wrote

Woah! Off a boat?! That’s next level. But honestly I’d probably do the same- using women being abused or killed shouldn’t be the motivation of the main character

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sonoquipercaso- t1_jcoewhw wrote

I think that "It starts with us" need to being throw from my home to AN OTHER HOME, because (spoiler) when Lily and Atlas were doing sex, literally Lily spray MILK IN ATLAS'S FACE! Here I scream, and more than 3 houses listen me :')

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HotpieTargaryen t1_jckt4cu wrote

Every book in the god damn Malazan series. Stop introducing characters!

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vivahermione t1_jcl16ey wrote

There is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset. Originally, I was so excited to read a forgotten classic of the Harlem Renaissance, but at the end, >!Peter told his ambitious fiancé, Joanna, that she'd have to give up her stage career to stay home and raise children. She basically shrugged her shoulders and said, "OK". And this was after she spent years overcoming the prejudices inherent in the theater business at that time!<. I would've thrown the book across the room, but that would've meant destroying my Kindle, and it wasn't worth that.

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kinkas911 t1_jcl7us9 wrote

Well i did but because it was really good and also really sad at the end and i really felt it. Its from a Portuguese, so only Portuguese speaking people would know. The book is “Pianista de hotel” the author is Rodrigo Guedes de Carvalho.

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jcl9bj4 wrote

Interesting! What made it so emotional?

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kinkas911 t1_jcldovo wrote

The story goes around some characters each one with their story and each one with dreams and desires that they can’t achieve (medics, psychologists, musicians and a bartender all intertwine).

All of the stories intertwine and all with really raw and sad details. For lack of a better explanation, you read in a beautifull way the rotten desires and rotten core values of reputable people.

But for me the sad part was in the end of the book were the main character realizes the full extent of his psychological problems and realizes the degree of the fantasy relationship he created.

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Mehitabel9 t1_jcle3p0 wrote

Vanity Fair, and I did actually throw it across the room when I finished it. It was assigned reading for a college class, so I didn't have the option of just not reading it. If I had, I would have just put it down and gotten on with my life.

Why did I hate it? Well, this was a long time ago, but as I recall --

  • I was studying 19th century British fiction at the time, and my reading list included Dickens, the Brontes, etc. In my humble opinion, Thackeray is a second-tier writer compared to [at least some of] his contemporaries, and he was just suffering by comparison. You can't read Bleak House one week, Vanity Fair the next, and not notice a difference.
  • Becky Sharp sucks. Period, the end.
  • I didn't like anyone else, either.
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mitkah16 t1_jclhejp wrote

Mine would be Harry Potter 7… And latest “the book of night” by holy black

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Ealinguser t1_jclwzup wrote

Londonstani by Gautam Malkani. It's got one of those fashionable plot twists close to the end. The problem with that was if you had managed to like the book up until then, which I had, despite it not being the easiest read, the plot twist invalidated everything you'd previously liked about the book.

For the sake of being smartarsed, spoil your story. No wonder it's less popular than the publishers hoped.

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AstronautPowerful670 t1_jcmmp8w wrote

I actually threw the final Eragon book across the room when it came out. The whole make the final villain feel feelings so he offs himself just pissed me off.

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BoxedStars t1_jcsly0o wrote

Lol, I noped out of those books far sooner. They're so thin and boring, with little of any real importance happening in them. Seriously, The Space Merchants, a novel not even 150 pages, has more plot than the first three books of Eragon.

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lillykat25 t1_jcn8rm3 wrote

The Crucible. I read the play a few years ago and I loved it but I will never read it again. The character of Abigail is so well written and I hate her so much that the main emotion I get through reading it was anger. I wanted to throw the book across the room when it ended because I was furious at Abigail and the story as a whole.

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sakuranbaby t1_jcntxyq wrote

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney. I don't think I liked a single character, which isn't good when there's no plot to keep me interested otherwise. They were all so pretentious.

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Inquisitor_DK t1_jcpcgzf wrote

A good example: The Collector by John Fowles. I empathized with the male MC's way of thinking because I could see how his upbringing could lend itself to his particular mindset, and while the female MC was a bit snooty at times, she was so utterly helpless despite trying every trick she knew to escape that I was definitely rooting for her the whole time.

And then I got to the end where the lesson the male MC learned from his time with her was >!to kidnap another woman but this time be more cruel.!< I wanted to scream at him because at that point there was no empathy left for him, he was deliberately choosing to be the most selfish bastard possible. Great book. Great characters. Still wanted to strangle the dude.

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BoxedStars t1_jcsljc3 wrote

Lol, did that this morning. David Drake is a highly questionable writer, if all his books are written like Bird of Prey. So often he'll describe a character saying something or making an expression, and then in the next sentence he explains the meaning behind the expression. Things to the nature of "he smiled. This was an emotionless, reflex-like smile, not a true show of emotion." So. Often. Uggghh....

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kn777 t1_jcsstu5 wrote

In Cold Blood, brilliantly written in parts, but I found some of the creative liberties it took pretty infuriating.

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MuskratSmith t1_jdpi44f wrote

King’s Pet Sematary. When I got about 6 pages from the ending I read it over a trash can because I never wanted anybody subjected to such crap. Loved the Stand, the Shining, and Green Mile was literature. Also one of only 3 movies I’ve walked out on. Pointless malevolence.

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Informal-Area4577 t1_jcl03wm wrote

Wolf Hall because I desperately wanted to read it and couldn’t. I have read so much of that genre but I could not get into the writing style after several attempts. Drove me nuts.

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Ealinguser t1_jclxieb wrote

Never managed to understand the title. Wolf Hall is the Seymour home, nothing to do with Cromwell or Anne Boleyn.

And it did take me a surprisingly long time to read. And I've been procrastinating about the sequels for years.

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YAOI_GOD t1_jcli9u2 wrote

Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life

It's far from my most hated book, but I viscerally remember the moment I wanted to fling it across the room - I was already hating the story "Seventy-Two Letters," a bad Victorian steampunk pastiche with cartoonishly English names and dialogue, and Chiang wrote that a character "raised his eyebrows." (The horror!)

I had been previously traumatized by a friend's recommendation of Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire, in which Mr. Sando raises a character's (primarily Kelsier's) eyebrows literally every ten pages because he is either unable to write engaging dialogue and character interactions, or because he must write so quickly to meet his readers' insatiable appetites that he cannot slow down to do so. The intrusion of Sandersonian prose in a collection that was supposed to represent the artistic potential in contemporary SFF enraged me, and though I suppressed the urge to fling the book (it was borrowed from an alleged friend), I put it down in disbelief and, later that night after finishing the collection, composed a tweet thread recounting my harrowing experience.

anyway I'm done taking book reccs from my friends or primarily sff readers cause it ain't working out. peace be upon y'all

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jclld8a wrote

Funny enough, I'm currently reading a Brandon Sanderson book. I don't hate it, but it's not the greatest sci-fi I've read, and certainly not the best YA. It's the Skyward series- and while I prefer adult books these days, it's nice to have an easy YA read.

I would say it follows unsurprising patterns- girl is special. Girl is angry at bad guys. Girl realizes the bad guys aren't really the bad guys- instead it's the government. Girl get friends to try to take down government with special abilities. So, not terrible- just nothing surprising yet. But if you're right about his other book- I think I'll keep it on my list of books to avoid.

(Although, I am on Skyward book two of three- I can't be sure if there's a twist or anything interesting. But one thing I am sure of is that those covers are really pretty- and the only reason I bought them in the first place)

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YAOI_GOD t1_jclpknf wrote

loll don't take my word on it I'm hoity toitier than a lot of folks and everyone values different things in their reading. if you're in the market for some easy to read fantasy entertainment you'll probably get along with his books well enough and he's competent enough. just not my market

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Dazzling-Ad4701 t1_jco3dtu wrote

i've heard all kinds of people talk about this urge and thought it was a myth. until i met the writings of sigmund freud.

i picked up a sort of taster-pack volume of some of his essays from some thrift store 50 cent table. on the premise that i'm all grown up now, i've been a rock-solid feminist for 25 years, freud holds no terrors for me. i also thought the kind of lunacy people attribute to him must be another myth.

well, it is not. some of what i read was kind of interesting - i didn't realise, for instance, that there was ever a time when people might not realise dreams are an outgrowth of whatever is bothering us. but when he went sideways and started to haver, oh lord. it wans't even especially misogynist. my outrage was 100% logical.

i've never felt such a (repeated) urge to yell "what?? no it isn't!"

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e_crabapple t1_jcky5dc wrote

Not a "book", but these karma-farming r/books hate-threads are pretty throwable.

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jckym1p wrote

Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to be a hate thread. I’m in the process of writing my first book, and I wanted to see what to look out for. So it’s not for karma or anything- I have plenty of that. And it’s not for upvotes. I just want to hear what gets on people’s nerves when reading.

Do you have a book that follows the question?

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yarnnthings t1_jclakmy wrote

I cannot stand books that add on action verb phrases without a conjunction. I don’t think I’ve ever DNF a book, but I came close with Kristen Hannah due to this even though I liked the overall plot. I’ve seen it since in other modern writers.

Example: She bent down, reached for the terrible book she threw.

She walked to the balcony, opened the door.

Then she turned for the fireplace, chucked the book inside.

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everywhereinbetween t1_jclqaml wrote

not a complaint, but an observation

.. hi I never noticed this action verb without a conjunction thing before, and/but i now cannot unsee

OMG NEW POTENTIAL NERDY LANGUAGE BOOK PEEVE 🤩🤣🤪

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[deleted] t1_jcl884p wrote

Wuthering Heights.

The atmosphere was wonderful (gothic!), and I was keen on learning how the characters would change and grow over time.

They didn't. By the end, Catherine was still an insufferable child, but in adult form, and so was Heathcliff. But he tacked on 'abusive monster' to his roster of unlovable traits. It felt like I had nobody to root for until the last quarter or less of the story.

That is a long time to wait to have a character who didn't create their own misery, blame everyone else for it, and hurt everyone around them. And that be simply who they were.

(Edit: to clarify, Heathcliff had a raw deal in his early life and was mistreated by people while he grew up. He was primed to be a character you could empathize with. But he was so mean, so cruel, so deliberately monstrous that it overcame how sorry I felt for him, and the grace I might have given him.)

I finished the book and it took me a good few seconds to talk myself out of forcefully throwing it into the trash.

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yarnnthings t1_jclfkzz wrote

Interesting. I loved this book because it was so relatable and realistic in its toxicity. I agree in most books you want character growth, but I think the growth here was replaced with the addition of generations, and it allows me to see how that toxic generational cycle passes on. Heathcliff doesn’t start out toxic. He’s just an orphan who actually goes through a favored phase.

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Sumtimesagr8notion t1_jcm7tty wrote

I don't really see any of the stuff you listed as a bad thing. I love Wuthering heights for all of those reasons

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bigtimephonk t1_jclokdq wrote

Rhythm of War. He wants to start the book with another DBZ fight, fine. I know it's futile, it's too early in the book to beat the super strong enemy. Keep reading. An airship appears. Fine. He spends a while explaining exactly how it works (boring, removed me from the narrative) and it's just an absolutely terrible idea. The series was already on thin ice, but I hated this idea, it soured me on the book as a whole, and it was the final nail in the coffin for the series.

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