#book hater

[thechaoticreader]

Popular Books I Read and HATED

*Disclaimer: If you like any of these books, slay! I'm happy for you! These are just my own consumer choices, and imo negative book reviews are just as helpful as positive ones!*

This list is not long because I don't actively dislike many books that I read, and I have a very good sense of what I will and will not like, but there are some I had to read/were misled into reading so here we go:

1. Tender Is The Flesh

by Agustina Bazterrica

My rant review is above if you want more details but recently I've seen a few videos that articulate my feelings in a way that I couldn't before so im going to add a few reasons here that were not included in the original post:

It gave very Qanon and general antisemitic vibes: i.e blatant conspiracy made up by the "wealthy liberal elites" to encourage cannibalism for their own enjoyment (I know she's Argentinian however that doesn't mean im not allowed to get the ick from it)

Purposefully inaccurate depictions of meat industry and disrespect for farmers (context: im a vegetarian from farm country with a roommate who works in the cattle industry - Angus beef if you're curious - so im very familiar with the process and cannot say in good conscious that it is all bad -> just support local farmers <3)

world building makes little sense

COWS DO NOT EQUATE TO HUMANS NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO !!!!!!!!

the "disease" doesn't make sense (even if its made up who would believe it)

No themes were treated with the depth nor nuance they require (capitalism, feminism, veganism etc.)

I think thats all I haven't covered but this is the only book I have ever read where my hatred of it continues to grow with each day. I went out of my way and deleted it from my reader and get annoyed every time I see it. And for the record (because yes i'm salty) I didn't hate it because it was too disturbing, in fact I've read and loved worse and ive been an avid horror reader since I was (admittedly too) young. I hate it because there wasn't a well done story underneath the gore. I'll say it loudly for the people in the back GORY HORROR BOOKS STILL DESERVE A GOOD/INTERESTING STORY, especially if you want to try to put complex themes in it. If you cannot write a deep story but you're good at and enjoy gore, write yourself a lil 100 page splatter punk and we can all have a good time <3

Unlike with Tender Is The Flesh I don't have a ton of thought out critical reasons for the rest of these soooooo I'm going to give my highly subjective reasons -> I totally understand why some like them <3

2. The Handmaids Tale

by Margaret Atwood

hated the writing style

It didn't keep my attention

disliked the ending so much I actually threw it across the room <3

3. The Hobbit

by J.R.R Tolkien

hated the writing style

male centered fantasy is not my vibe

my ADHD cannot handle long incredibly descriptive sections in books -> I physically fell asleep multiple times while reading this book

honestly even with the movie I fall asleep every time

0/10 book I want to read

10/10 bedtime story

4. Lord of The Flies

by William Golding

hated the writing style

hated most of the characters (and not in a slay anti-hero way)

was forced to read it in high school and it single handedly sent me into a 4 year reading slump... I missed so many good books because of this and will forever hold a grudge

5. Romeo & Juliet

By William Shakespeare

I'm too jaded and gay to enjoy this -> every single character is so painfully stupid

tbh im just bitter that his (imo) better plays get less love than this one, its way over hyped

but I will give it points for boring me so much that I wrote my first fanfic (Romeo x Mercutio if you're curious ... no its not posted anywhere and it never will be <3)

sidenote -> Shakespeare plays I love incl:

Hamlet (duh im a depressed emo gay on Tumblr)

Macbeth (also duh, witches and female manipulator... need I say more)

Othello (a slow burn for the true crime girlies)

Measure for Measure (absolutely underrated, please please please look into this play -> I saw a production of it and it was incredible)

[sugarcoatednightshade]

thinking about how Humans Are Space Orcs stories always talk about how indestructible humans are, our endurance, our ability to withstand common poisons, etc. and thats all well and good, its really fun to read, but it gets repetitive after a while because we aren't all like that.

And that got me thinking about why this trope is so common in the first place, and the conclusion I came to is actually kind of obvious if you think about it. Not everyone is allowed to go into space. This is true now, with the number of physical restrictions placed on astronauts (including height limits), but I imagine it's just as strict in some imaginary future where humans are first coming into contact with alien species. Because in that case there will definitely be military personnel alongside any possible diplomatic parties.

And I imagine that all interactions aliens have ever had up until this point have been with trained personnel. Even basic military troops conform to this standard, to some degree. So aliens meet us and they're shocked and horrified to discover that we have no obvious weaknesses, we're all either crazy smart or crazy strong (still always a little crazy, academia and war will do that to you), and not only that but we like, literally all the same height so there's no way to tell any of us apart.

And Humans Are Death Worlders stories spread throughout the galaxy. Years or decades or centuries of interspecies suspicion and hostilities preventing any alien from setting foot/claw/limb/appendage/etc. on Earth until slowly more beings are allowed to come through. And not just diplomats who keep to government buildings, but tourists. Exchange students. Temporary visitors granted permission to go wherever they please, so they go out in search of 'real terran culture' and what do they find?

Humans with innate heart defects that prevent them from drinking caffeine. Humans with chronic pain and chronic fatigue who lack the boundless endurance humans are supposedly famous for. Humans too tall or too short or too fat to be allowed into space. Humans who are so scared of the world they need to take pills just to function. Humans with IBS who can't stand spicy foods, capsaicin really is poison to them. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease, my god all the autoimmune disorders out there, humans who struggle to function because their own bodies fight them. Humans who bruise easily and take too long to heal. Humans who sustained one too many concussions and now struggle to talk and read and write. Humans who've had strokes. Humans who were born unable to talk or hear or speak, and humans who through some accident lost that ability later.

Aliens visit Earth, and do you know what they find? Humanity, in all its wholeness.

[swimmingclass1978]

"Jegulus shippers hate and objectify women!"

Babe half of us are lesbians and the other half are bi/pan/omni or other women loving options

Meanwhile you are mad bcz we don't make all of lilys personality being james' wife and harrys' mother? Mhm alright makes sense

#we love women

[tea-cat-arts]

Shen Yuan getting transported into pidw isn't "the system punishing him for being a lazy internet hater," but instead representative of "step 1 of the creative process: getting so mad at something you decide to go write your own fucking book" in this essay I will

[snow-in-space]

Billford is funny because Bill is a triangle.

Billstan is funny because it would never fucking happen, but it tries to happen. No matter how fake or forced or unpleasant or unwanted on both sides, it tries.

Bill wants to use Stan because he hates him and he’s not over Ford. Stan knows this and is very difficult about it (read incredibly mocking and/or disgusted depending on the day) and that only makes Bill work harder because he cannot lose to the worst person he’s ever met.

The ugliest and most rotten flowers ever tremble in Bill’s loathing fist at the doorway; he knows flattery doesn’t work on idiots, so he demands that Stan accept his advances because it’d be the only smart thing he’s ever done. Actually, he isn’t capable of being smart— Bill apologizes for lying— and while they’re being honest, this is still more about Ford who is smart than Stan who is insignificant and horrible. He ruins everything anyways, so he should just let Bill back into his superior copy’s— no, the original’s life already to do it even better. Let him inside already, you worthless meatbag.

Instead of the demon of his dreams, all Stan sees is a temper-tantrum-throwing, bubble-blowing baby at his front porch who’s almost funny in an annoying sort of way and actually didn’t this thing try to kill his family? Isn’t that his brother’s ex? Never mind. Stan closes the door and he turns on the TV and he’s old and he doesn’t have time to waste on boring people. Fun’s over. That screaming in the window is kind of awful. He turns up the volume and hopes it stops soon because his ears are bleeding.

Ford loves his brother and trusts Stan when he tells him not to go outside for a little while.

Bill’s hatred reaches new highs every day.

[wanderloveshater]

i dub thee beepers

🔺⚠️🔺

[aj-artjunkyard]

I’m all for Unreliable Narrator Apollo™ straight up misremembering myths instead of admitting to myself that Rick got a few things wrong

Lester!Apollo: demigods can be so weird and unpredictable! When that Clytemnestra girl murdered her husband simply because he made one tiny little human sacrifice to me… yikes, am I right?

The same Apollo 2,000 years before, sending a 3rd volley of plague arrows straight into the Greek camp: Agamemnon when I get you. When I get you Agamemnon. Agamemnon when I get you

[yrsonpurpose]

Nicholas Galitzine talking about the connection between Mary & George and Red, White & Royal Blue

[arson-09]

Tamlin is actually such an underrated character in acotar. Because of feyres very biased narrative she forces readers to ignore the complexity of his character and man. its sad

Tamlin is a character who is genuinely GOOD at his core. He changed so much of the spring court for good, eliminating slavery within the spring lands and mortals having more protection. Hes a morally good character that made a few mistakes and is boiled down to just those mistakes. Locking feyre in the house and the magical/emotional blow up, which are both pretty decent fuck ups (i dont think siding with hybern fully counts as he was a double agent all along and tamlin was decently justified in thinking feyre was being kept against her will. lets be fr here) and even after he’s extremely fucked over by the nightcourt, his lands and court burned to shit, he still saves rhysand. Saves rhysand and tells feyre to be happy, even when he has every reason to NOT do that!

Hes a character that clearly holds himself to a higher standard. throughout acotar he puts lucien and feyres safety above his own, even sending feyre away when she was the only one who could save him. Even though what he did to her wasnt great its not completely irredeemable, rhysand did much worse things to feyre and other people but hes living his best life while Tamlin seems to find himself unworthy of being a person (acosf wheres hes been in beast form for roughly over two years) hes a perfectionist who now doesnt even think he deserves anyone because he accidentally hurt the people he loves most.

Sjm accidentally created a beautifully rich and morally righteous character who is so extremely fucked by the narrative. Which doesnt even work half the time as sjm cant seemingly commit to making him a full villain (seemingly by accident again she gave him quite a reasonable explanation to everything he did ‘wrong’ but still chooses to make him a punching bag)

If Tamlin was genuinely a morally evil character he wouldnt have NEARLY the amount of fans as he does. Hes a character that requires the minimum amount of media literacy and comprehension to understand and i LOVE him.

[literallymikewheeler]

its always "i love you" and never "'you're not leaving me here alone,' i say. because if he dies, i'll never go home, not really. i'll spend the rest of my life in this arena, trying to think my way out."

[vivicendium]

the convo between edward and jacob in eclipse is a great adaptational addition. i love how edward is like “tbh if the circumstances weren’t what they are, i might’ve actually liked you and wanted to be friends” and jacob is like “if the circumstances weren’t what they are i’d still think you’re a huge loser :/“

[redhoodie1723]

“Harry, however, had never been less interested in Quidditch; he was rapidly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy.”

I just KNOW HBP Ron was SICK and TIRED of Harry

[killbilled]

The Rings of Power + parallels ripping off Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy

"About four, five years ago, they asked if I would be interested in it,” [Peter Jackson] says. “So I said, ‘Have you got the scripts yet?’ Because I know how hard the scripts were to write for the films, and I didn’t know the people writing their scripts. They said, ‘Oh no, we haven’t got the scripts yet, but as soon as we do, we’ll send you the scripts.’ So I was waiting for the scripts to arrive, and they never did.” [..] Amazon Studios responded to Jackson’s comments with the following statement: “In pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films. We have the utmost respect for Peter Jackson and The Lord of The Rings films and are thrilled that he is looking forward to watching The Rings of Power.” --"Peter Jackson Says Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV Series Ghosted Him" The Hollywood Reporter

[madeofjules]

She's so tired of him 😭

[daughter-of-lethe]

Nessian 🖤

Art credit: Artonia.hoefs

[fdelopera]

LMAOOO Xiran Jay Zhao is now complaining on Tumblr that they have a "smear campaign" against them.

Give me a fucking break.

Xiran. My dude. There is no "smear campaign." You have been harassing Jews online, encouraging your HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of followers to harass Jews online, blaming everything on (((Zionists))) (aka Jews), and using the "blood libel" canard against Jewish people. (See the above screenshot.)

You posted that screenshot to your Tumblr, Xiran. That's where I found it. You were PROUD of accusing a Jew of "blood money," which is the same accusation that Christian Church Fathers used against Judas, and is the accusation used against us Jews when Christians blame us for "killing Jesus."

Christians used to yell "Christ-killer" at me when I was younger. You are doing the same thing.

JEWS HAVE BEEN MURDERED BY THE MILLIONS FOR THAT ACCUSATION OF "BLOOD MONEY," XIRAN.

And now you are being called out for antisemitism.

That is not a "smear campaign." That is Jewish people calling you out for your BLATANT Jew-hate.

FUCK YOU.