Think with me now. Think about the worst book you ever read.

I am not talking about bad editing or bad formatting.
I do not refer to dull descriptions or boring prose.
I also am not necessarily talking about the book that contained content which went against your morals.

But you just hated it. It made you feel almost sick to read it. You either suffered through until the end, or put the book down, never to look at it again.

What made the book bad?
How can you, and we, learn from it and write stories our readers will love?
Share---but please, please do not tell us the name or author of the book. That is unnecessary degrading, and online, too. I don't want anybody to get into legal trouble.

I have a book in mind, and I think what made me hate it was the main character. I did not empathize with her. I could not identify with her. I didn't even like her!
Your reader must like something about the main character, otherwise the whole story is doomed.

The book I read was very slow! And the MC was not likable at all, he was just a plain snob and very full of himself.
Another one I read gave me false ideas about the Bible which is never good! (I read it when I was younger a lot younger)
Ana

(good idea not to mention any names. )

The book that I'm thinking of depressed me. It was the end of a trilogy, and by this time, the author had some very well developed characters, and nearly all these characters died pointless, ungrieved deaths by the end of the book. The plot line was lost in all of the killing and murdering, and the book ended with a sense of unfinished business, and extreme fear. I found it disturbing, not a book that one would revel in reading. I learnt from it that, from now on, every character I kill will have a good cause, and good reason for being killed. I don't want to waste the lives of my characters, no matter how good/bad they are.

They committed my pet peeve! No wonder you did not like it, Aussie! How awful.

If that's the one I'm thinking about, there was never any way for that to end happily.

-------------

Well, in one series the characters seemed to be flat and static, or maybe it was because they lived to the idealized Christian life-style, in regards to gender purpose, and always seemed so do-goody. If it was a medieval chivalrous adventure, it wouldn't bother me so much. It wasn't. The characters were teenagers in modern America fighting assassins in chain-mail.
What can we learn? Readers empathize easier with characters they can relate to, not an ideal version.

There was a book which I read which I was quite looking forward to, at first. It closed out an excellent trilogy (Hmm...maybe we're thinking of the same book Shawn ), and promised to be at least passing good.

Well, it wasn't. I think the main flaw of the book was that it presented a scenario of the world's end through a specific world-view: modernism. It might have sounded all horrifying in the time it was written, but it quickly dated the book and the terrible ending which the author wrote of simply bored me.

(As a matter of fact, my dad read this book to my mom years ago and she fell asleep during the climax )

Secondly, the book did not have the same MC as the first two. In fact, the MC of the first two was barely in the third one. This kind of pulled it away from the series and left me without any specific character to hinge on to.

eru

Yeah, I think you probably know it... (I could get in trouble for these sentiments over this specific book) I don't suppose the book could have ended happily, but it could've ended with two things that it didn't: Justice, and hope. I would have like at least a smidge of hope as opposed to the fearfulness.

*is now horribly curious about Bush, Varon, and Eruheran's trilogies; whether they're really all the same*

Not using names is a good idea, but it's going to drive me insane.

The worst book I read lately was just rather pointless. The title promised some kind of controversial theme, but the title was never justified. It was just a boring reference meant to be sensational. The book felt like it had no point. There was drama and tension but none of it made sense. My dad read the book before I did and warned me it was lame, and then kept repeating I told you so when I ranted on and on about it. Because right up until the end I thought it would all come together... and it never did. Infuriating.

I'm with Katie, this is driving me insane!

When I was but a wee lad... I read a poorly written series. I nowadays look back, the writing makes me puke! The story line was bad, the characters were poorly formed, the writing in general was bad, editing; bad... They were overall bad books.

The book I am thinking of was started with much promise. However, it was very poorly ended. The author had written about this character 'til the reader felt very close to the character; then, abruptly, the author seemed to change the plot and ended the story too quickly, leaving several things open and unexplained. The ending was unsatisfactory; the character thus seemed different and changed somehow. I was very disappointed with the book.

The series I'm talking is different that BushMaid's series. The ones she's talking about is amazing.

Ok, forget I said anything... *scurries off*

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, Aussie. And he doesn't necessarily even know what one you are talking about. You were vague.

Okay! We're getting some good ideas about what not to do.

I'm smiling at the "mysterious trilogy" dilemma.

It's one of the series you either love it or hate it.

Ope... sorry! I missed the "don't say the name" rule thing... sorry!

Ooh, you were skimming, weren't you, Namor.
Don't worry about it, since you've fixed it now.
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