Be it a book, a coffee shop, or even a good doctor that you’re looking for, getting recommendations from people you trust can really make the search easier. Then there’s the online world, too, brimming with descriptions of first-hand experiences and reviews ranging from “the worst thing that has ever happened to me” to “highly recommend it”.
There’s no doubt that the internet can be a great place to look for certain recommendations, but that does not seem to ring true when it comes to books and TikTok trends. A content creator and an avid reader, going by the moniker ‘lonesomeliv’, has started a discussion about books people have read because they were hyped online but ended up being rather disappointing.
“I’ve read a lot of great books because of TikTok but as a general rule of thumb if it’s revered by a majority of people on here it’s going to be one of the worst books you’ll ever read,” lonesomeliv wrote in the description of her video that went viral and was viewed over 3 million times.
In the comments under said video, fellow readers shared what books that were revered by many on TikTok they found underwhelming at best. So if you want to see what might not be worth your while, scroll down to find them on the list below, where you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with a Professor of Cinema in the Division of Media Arts + Practice, Dr. Virginia Kuhn, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions.
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Dare I say Icebreaker... no plot, no character development, nothing interesting at all 0/10 book
I've never read this, but from the cover alone I already know that it's pretty fkn boring.
I'm a victim of Haunting Adeline. I couldn't help but cringe every time I tried to read it.
Reminders of Him made me realize there can indeed be an unbearable book.
Seeking to learn more about how people’s reading habits have changed over time and what role, if any, social media has played in it, Bored Panda got in touch with a Professor of Cinema in the Division of Media Arts + Practice, expert in writing composition and writing theory, Dr. Virginia Kuhn, who pointed out that people nowadays rarely opt for something lengthy.
“They've generally read fewer novels, though perhaps they are reading more short spurts,” she said, adding that this has a lot to do with social media scrolling and our reduced attention spans.
I’ll say it… I'LL SAY IT… A Court of Thorns and Roses.
YES. IT SUCKS! FINALLY SOMEONE AGREES!! All the romance is creepy and animalistic and non-consensual, it's awful. If you have the hots for any of the creepy d*ckheads in this book, go see a therapist pronto.
Twisted Love… I couldn’t even get halfway.
Read one chapter and cringed so hard I strained a muscle. Just say no.
Fourth Wing. There, I said it. Could not stand violet mentioning how short she was every 2 seconds
I liked the first book but stopped halfway through the second. The dragons are cool. The parts with Violet and the guy are basically bad porn.
According to the expert, the books that tend to trend online the most seem to be the ones that celebrities tout, “whether Reese Witherspoon or Oprah”.
“I have seen spoofs of people—typically young blonde, white women—who recommend books they have never read so I imagine if an 'influencer' is attempting to be high brow, they likely do this frequently. And then it spreads in a similarly uninformed way,” Dr. Kuhn suggested.
For everyone on here who told me to read Girl in Pieces, we have a personal problem.
it was far too 'boo boo poor me nothing good ever happens to me and everything is horrible all the time' I understand how it could be relatable for teenagers going through stuff, but it just rubbed me the wrong way
Shatter Me was not for me. I read better 'bad books' in Wattpad.
This book is a complete shithouse circus. Shame, too, because the idea could have been done well.
The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo.
I got halfway through that one and returned it to the library.
“For me, a good fictional book has a complicated plot structure and in-depth character development,” the expert said, discussing what makes a good book. “In a similar way, limited series and other televisual serials are akin to novels. While I used to stay up all night finishing a good novel, now I'll stay up to finish a good miniseries. Especially with shows such as Presumed Innocent, originally a book by Scott Turow that I devoured when it came out in the late 1980s; now I equally enjoy the David E. Kelly adapted series.”
VERITY
Throne of Glass. Don’t come for me! I know how you girls like to tussle. But it legitimately read like Wattpad. I barely got through it and can’t make myself read another one.
Unpopular opinion: All Sarah J. Maas books are terrible. Can anyone prove me wrong?
The Fine Print! I was honestly so disappointed.
Expanding on the link between good books and TV series, Dr. Kuhn pointed out that some of the great nonfiction books have already been adapted for television and, in her opinion, this will continue. “Since television has moved to iPads and phones, people view [it] privately in the same way they used to read books.”
They made me buy Birthday Girl and I'm mad I wasted $19 on that.
Den Of Vipers. Absolutely terribly-written.
OH GOD NO... DON'T EVER READ THIS!! I won't give you all the details, but there's a chapter where some mafia dude shoves a knife up the lady's... you get the idea.
Manacled for me. A fanfic that is been super hyped up all over tiktok. I read it and it was very very hard to get through
Atlas Six. There, I said it. Hated it.
Spanish Love Deception. It was so bad!!! Like the enemies phase lasted 2 pages and so did I
Prince of song and sea. The plot was everywhere and the plot twist mermaid was the worst person
Dance of Thieves. I was so excited and then let so far down.
the worst is Crave. I managed to read this book for 15 minutes.
Caraval!! (Or any of Stephanie Garber’s books)
Cruel prince. I didn’t enjoy the style of writing, the pacing or the plot, the description was the icing on the cake for why i didn’t like it
DAISY JONES AND THE SIX TOO
Note: this post originally had 40 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I'm gonna keep calling you out on this, BP. Every new article that gets posted automatically has 30 upvotes. That's some shady sh**, BP.
Especially these pointless lists about movies, books and other stuff were someone just writes their opinion about something. And it's usually a list of items, where someone says "I didn't like it!" So what?
Load More Replies...Most of these don't even give a reason why. It's just "I didn't like it." Like, okay.... sucks I guess
Oh yes! I read the entire trilogy of 50 shades as I had no other reading material around. It got harder and harder to continue reading. I am bona fide into kinky stuff but thiese books almost made me feel ashamed.
Load More Replies...It could be this exact list. Just because these people liked it doesn't mean they're not good and underrated to other people.
Load More Replies...While many of these books have problematic relationships, that doesn't mean that the audiences are unaware of the fact. Keep in mind that a lot of people just like an easy - to - read, escapist story. Maybe some of them like to explore their fantasies through this medium of fiction as it's a safe space. The industry has realized this is a market for young (predominantly women) readers, and have satisfied it.
It did seem to me that this was an entire list of mostly that stuff. So first of all, "viral" where? And secondly, bad according to whom? Like, if you asked me, I hate all that stuff, but I dont read or give opinions on stuff thats not for me.
Load More Replies...I've read some of these. I didn't find them especially profound, and they didn't make me think. But are they supposed to? Many (most?) of them are modern romances. C'mon. They're trite and predictable by definition. It's like renting a romcom and expecting it to behave like a hard-hitting documentary. That's just not what it is, or what it's supposed to be.
For me the biggest book disappointment was "Da Vinci code". It was predictable. I mean, the super clever secret codeword "Sophia" (I think it was Sophia) is something I guessed about 50 pages before the main characters. And it was full of things like that. And overall, the book was not that great, I don't know why such a big hype was there about this one.
I came here to say pretty much the same thing. I struggled through it, but I don't need to read anything else by the same author. I'm convinced that if it wasn't for the controversial subject matter the book never would have seen the light of day.
Load More Replies...I've been holding this in for a while; Twilight, whe was way to sad and woe is me, also she was delusional and in the second (or third can't remember) book she through herself of a bridge so she could hallucinate her ex bfs voice and don't even get me started on Edward he's all like, 'I'm too dangerous'. It's giving 2000s emo. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
The other truly horrible novel I ever read (I wrote about Pilgrim's Progress on this thread) was the Turner Diaries. I had read Atlas Shrugged and found Ayn Rand to be perfectly evil, but a thrilling writer (except "Who Is John Galt," a two-hundred page chapter in which she rehashes her philosophy in case you missed it somehow). So I figured I'd read the next most hated book at the time. Big mistake. It read like a racist rant on a bathroom wall. The big surprise is that the final utopia is communist. (sorry, I don't care to protect you from spoilers when the book is this bad)I'd make reference to National Socialism here to describe the hate-filled racism, but I don't mean socialist; I mean communist. The guy apparently felt that once we get rid of all the minorities, whom he saw as universally stupid, lazy or money-grubbing, the white folk would have no need for religion, and all just happily share from those who can produce to those who have need. I was winding up for Mein Kampf and got Imagine at the very end.
(And if you're wondering, I have read the Little Red Book, Das Capital and all the craziness from across the political spectrum. From the far left, I actually thought Qadaffi's Little Green Book was the most intriguingly insightful... but not a novel.)
Load More Replies...OK, this is a wierd one, but "Pilgrim's Progress." I knew it was anti-Catholic, but so many Protestants I knew loved it so much, so I read it. I don't share Tolkien's disdain for allegory, but BESIDES the allegory, the writing was at about a third-grade level, which is all the more odd because so much of classic literature that's thought of as being FOR children or YA (Narnia, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island) is pretty high-level reading. No nuance, no character, nothing. Every character was ONLY the allegorical role and nothing else, about as spiritual as reading census data.
So on the completely opposite hand, any good book recommendations pandas? I need some new reading material :)
I haven't read most of them so, can someone explain to me why these books are not good? Is it because it's romance? Are they smutty? Is it because it's written by a woman? Is the story not good? Writing style? What is the problem? (Except for Collen Hoover, which I understand since she's mostly romanticizing abuse)
They're "not good" to someone. It's on person's (or a sect) of people's opinions. Read them and form your own. I've never read any of these because they're not the type of book I read
Load More Replies..."Life's a Witch" by Skylar Andra. No idea what possessed me to read this cold dumpster juice. But the romance scene involved the insertion of a chocolate bar in a place no chocolate bar should ever be.
All of this is ya. What do expect.The greatest story of all time?I know ppl are giving their opinion but its too much. The internet is ready to criticise anything these days jst because they could.
A huge majority of these were written by women. Just sayin' Any book recommended by Oprah is to be avoided. Here are some of my favorite authors; John LeCarre, TS Boyle, Philip Roth, Nick Tosches
I'm honestly a bit appalled by the number of comments about crossing things off the TBR list based on hearsay from a stranger online rather than on one's OWN opinion. Has independent thought and choosing for oneself stopped being a thing?
I have heard of only one of these, at least I think I heard of "Crave." I have read none of them. What a non-event of a thread.
I',m going to take this thread with a grain of salt as everyone has different tastes. Furthermore, more than half of these so-called reviewers didn't even give a freaking reason for why they didn't care for the book. Sometimes, I really loathe Goodreads.
It would be helpful if people said why they didn't like the book instead of just "I didn't like it" or "it's badly written". You are telling us nothing.
Okay it's aimed more at younger readers but the kotlc series I'd say. It started out well but then went downhill -- each book is thicker than the last, but also had less plot
Not one of those are on my list, maybe not my genre. Many of those are wannabee song of ice and fire, so allready a hard no, also lovestories are something i would not read even on an lonely island and then there is not much left
For me, the book I enjoyed reading the least was The Da Vinci Code. I get it's supposed to be a mystery novel, but holy c**p it was way too long, and had way too many plot points that didn't need to be there. It also didn't help that I had to read it for a school assignment, which took away from any enjoyment of the book.
"Mind Gap" was kinda readable, of the newer ones. Currently, fighting myself through The Satanic Verses, but it's kinda ... long. Not boring, but exhausting.
I found "The Satanic Verses" quite dull, but that's me. Anyone who enjoyed it, glad you did.
Load More Replies...It seems that all the books were written by women...what gives???
Two worst books I've read: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Marina Lewycka) and If On A Winter's Night a Traveller (Italo Calvino). I finished the former but hated it, and I couldn't make it all the way through the latter. The only interesting thing about IOAWNAT is that it's written in the second person. An interesting idea, but not enough to turn it into a full novel.
I tried reading the wikipedia entry on IOAWNAT, it sounds… complicated. :p
Load More Replies...The ratio of female (pen) names to male or unknown is interesting. Does this have anything to do with intended audiences, TikTok?
60+ yo male. Avid reader. Want to get this out of the way by saying that far and away my favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird. That being said, I avoid modern female writers like the plague.
I'm gonna keep calling you out on this, BP. Every new article that gets posted automatically has 30 upvotes. That's some shady sh**, BP.
Especially these pointless lists about movies, books and other stuff were someone just writes their opinion about something. And it's usually a list of items, where someone says "I didn't like it!" So what?
Load More Replies...Most of these don't even give a reason why. It's just "I didn't like it." Like, okay.... sucks I guess
Oh yes! I read the entire trilogy of 50 shades as I had no other reading material around. It got harder and harder to continue reading. I am bona fide into kinky stuff but thiese books almost made me feel ashamed.
Load More Replies...It could be this exact list. Just because these people liked it doesn't mean they're not good and underrated to other people.
Load More Replies...While many of these books have problematic relationships, that doesn't mean that the audiences are unaware of the fact. Keep in mind that a lot of people just like an easy - to - read, escapist story. Maybe some of them like to explore their fantasies through this medium of fiction as it's a safe space. The industry has realized this is a market for young (predominantly women) readers, and have satisfied it.
It did seem to me that this was an entire list of mostly that stuff. So first of all, "viral" where? And secondly, bad according to whom? Like, if you asked me, I hate all that stuff, but I dont read or give opinions on stuff thats not for me.
Load More Replies...I've read some of these. I didn't find them especially profound, and they didn't make me think. But are they supposed to? Many (most?) of them are modern romances. C'mon. They're trite and predictable by definition. It's like renting a romcom and expecting it to behave like a hard-hitting documentary. That's just not what it is, or what it's supposed to be.
For me the biggest book disappointment was "Da Vinci code". It was predictable. I mean, the super clever secret codeword "Sophia" (I think it was Sophia) is something I guessed about 50 pages before the main characters. And it was full of things like that. And overall, the book was not that great, I don't know why such a big hype was there about this one.
I came here to say pretty much the same thing. I struggled through it, but I don't need to read anything else by the same author. I'm convinced that if it wasn't for the controversial subject matter the book never would have seen the light of day.
Load More Replies...I've been holding this in for a while; Twilight, whe was way to sad and woe is me, also she was delusional and in the second (or third can't remember) book she through herself of a bridge so she could hallucinate her ex bfs voice and don't even get me started on Edward he's all like, 'I'm too dangerous'. It's giving 2000s emo. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
The other truly horrible novel I ever read (I wrote about Pilgrim's Progress on this thread) was the Turner Diaries. I had read Atlas Shrugged and found Ayn Rand to be perfectly evil, but a thrilling writer (except "Who Is John Galt," a two-hundred page chapter in which she rehashes her philosophy in case you missed it somehow). So I figured I'd read the next most hated book at the time. Big mistake. It read like a racist rant on a bathroom wall. The big surprise is that the final utopia is communist. (sorry, I don't care to protect you from spoilers when the book is this bad)I'd make reference to National Socialism here to describe the hate-filled racism, but I don't mean socialist; I mean communist. The guy apparently felt that once we get rid of all the minorities, whom he saw as universally stupid, lazy or money-grubbing, the white folk would have no need for religion, and all just happily share from those who can produce to those who have need. I was winding up for Mein Kampf and got Imagine at the very end.
(And if you're wondering, I have read the Little Red Book, Das Capital and all the craziness from across the political spectrum. From the far left, I actually thought Qadaffi's Little Green Book was the most intriguingly insightful... but not a novel.)
Load More Replies...OK, this is a wierd one, but "Pilgrim's Progress." I knew it was anti-Catholic, but so many Protestants I knew loved it so much, so I read it. I don't share Tolkien's disdain for allegory, but BESIDES the allegory, the writing was at about a third-grade level, which is all the more odd because so much of classic literature that's thought of as being FOR children or YA (Narnia, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island) is pretty high-level reading. No nuance, no character, nothing. Every character was ONLY the allegorical role and nothing else, about as spiritual as reading census data.
So on the completely opposite hand, any good book recommendations pandas? I need some new reading material :)
I haven't read most of them so, can someone explain to me why these books are not good? Is it because it's romance? Are they smutty? Is it because it's written by a woman? Is the story not good? Writing style? What is the problem? (Except for Collen Hoover, which I understand since she's mostly romanticizing abuse)
They're "not good" to someone. It's on person's (or a sect) of people's opinions. Read them and form your own. I've never read any of these because they're not the type of book I read
Load More Replies..."Life's a Witch" by Skylar Andra. No idea what possessed me to read this cold dumpster juice. But the romance scene involved the insertion of a chocolate bar in a place no chocolate bar should ever be.
All of this is ya. What do expect.The greatest story of all time?I know ppl are giving their opinion but its too much. The internet is ready to criticise anything these days jst because they could.
A huge majority of these were written by women. Just sayin' Any book recommended by Oprah is to be avoided. Here are some of my favorite authors; John LeCarre, TS Boyle, Philip Roth, Nick Tosches
I'm honestly a bit appalled by the number of comments about crossing things off the TBR list based on hearsay from a stranger online rather than on one's OWN opinion. Has independent thought and choosing for oneself stopped being a thing?
I have heard of only one of these, at least I think I heard of "Crave." I have read none of them. What a non-event of a thread.
I',m going to take this thread with a grain of salt as everyone has different tastes. Furthermore, more than half of these so-called reviewers didn't even give a freaking reason for why they didn't care for the book. Sometimes, I really loathe Goodreads.
It would be helpful if people said why they didn't like the book instead of just "I didn't like it" or "it's badly written". You are telling us nothing.
Okay it's aimed more at younger readers but the kotlc series I'd say. It started out well but then went downhill -- each book is thicker than the last, but also had less plot
Not one of those are on my list, maybe not my genre. Many of those are wannabee song of ice and fire, so allready a hard no, also lovestories are something i would not read even on an lonely island and then there is not much left
For me, the book I enjoyed reading the least was The Da Vinci Code. I get it's supposed to be a mystery novel, but holy c**p it was way too long, and had way too many plot points that didn't need to be there. It also didn't help that I had to read it for a school assignment, which took away from any enjoyment of the book.
"Mind Gap" was kinda readable, of the newer ones. Currently, fighting myself through The Satanic Verses, but it's kinda ... long. Not boring, but exhausting.
I found "The Satanic Verses" quite dull, but that's me. Anyone who enjoyed it, glad you did.
Load More Replies...It seems that all the books were written by women...what gives???
Two worst books I've read: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Marina Lewycka) and If On A Winter's Night a Traveller (Italo Calvino). I finished the former but hated it, and I couldn't make it all the way through the latter. The only interesting thing about IOAWNAT is that it's written in the second person. An interesting idea, but not enough to turn it into a full novel.
I tried reading the wikipedia entry on IOAWNAT, it sounds… complicated. :p
Load More Replies...The ratio of female (pen) names to male or unknown is interesting. Does this have anything to do with intended audiences, TikTok?
60+ yo male. Avid reader. Want to get this out of the way by saying that far and away my favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird. That being said, I avoid modern female writers like the plague.