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Chatterbox: Blab About Books

Good Books that you Don't like for Weird Reasons
here you can...

here you can put the names of super good books that for some reason, you don't like.

submitted by Darkvine
(May 16, 2022 - 2:45 pm)

Please don't kill me, but: Percy Jackson. I'M SORRY! I really liked those books when I was 10, but now...they're very white and kind of stereotypical, and I do still appreciate them cause they're kind of what got me into mythology, but I don't really like action-packed books. I like a book where the characters have time to relax and actually get to know each other. I understand why a lot of people like them, though. :P

To be honest the rest of the books I don't like wouldn't be considered "super good" so that's probably the only one I have. 

submitted by Lupine
(May 16, 2022 - 11:07 pm)

OOOOO yay another person who doesn't like Percy Jackson books!

I think they're probably better than a lot of recently published novels and series, although I haven't read them, but if you compare them to other classics they're not anything great. I feel the same way about Harry Potter too. The characters aren't that interesting, ad there just isn't that much point to them beyond the action.

submitted by Poinsettia, notPercyJLand
(September 17, 2022 - 8:12 pm)

TW: spoilers for Harry Potter but if you're reading this I'd assume you've already read the books

OK, as an ex-potterhead, I totally agree with this. Some aspects were pretty good, but there were a lot of super problematic things as well as just boring writing. First of all, what the heck was Cho Chang? Like, the stereotypes in the name alone are just... *sighs* There were a bunch of other racial stereotypes as well. Second of all, I think that the romance between Ginny and Harry was terribly dull. I feel like JK Rowling put it there because she didn't want to come up with a new love interest so late into the series which I get, but still. Ginny? Seriously? Third of all, it might just be me but Harry was a pretty unlikable protagonist, but Ron was worse. Also, I feel like JK Rowling calling Dumbledore queer AFTER the series was finished was honestly just queerbaiting.

*exhales* Heh thanks for reading this Harry Potter rant lol. I didn't know I had all of this unresolved Harry Potter rage still in me :,)

submitted by CelesteOfTheGoldMoon
(September 23, 2022 - 7:08 pm)

I agree. I still love HP since it was my childhood & I can still appreciate the good writing, characters, and plot, but there are definitely some unexcusable problems. One thing that really annoys me is the depiction of Dudley (and other fat characters), because it's so shamelessly fatphobic. I do like Ginny x Harry pretty well, and Ginny's one of my favorite characters, but I think the way it came about was gross. Like, Harry being in love with her in 6 was just him being super aggressive and jealous, which was not exactly a healthy depiction of love. And I don't like the fact that he just kissed her without asking when they weren't even dating yet. I've grown to kind of like Cho, since she is a strong female character (just cause she cries doesn't mean she's weak. She has more emotional maturity than Ron & Harry combined). But I feel like JKR could have done 5 minutes of research to find a real Chinese first name instead of making something up.

But I do still like the series. xD

submitted by Lupine
(September 29, 2022 - 9:01 pm)

I'm not sure how I feel about the HP books. On one hand if you asked me a year ago what my favorite book/book series was I would have exclaimed "HARRY POTTER!" and then ranted my head off. But I've learned some alarming things lately. J.K. Rowling has said some very bad things about transgender people and put a lot of steriotypes in her books. So now I just don't read them anymore.

submitted by Piano Man, age 12, nowhere
(November 3, 2022 - 2:42 pm)

Same. All my friends see to love HP, but from the very start all I saw were a bunch of issues shambling around in a rough amalgamation of a book series. Plus I've heard that Jk is super hateful towards the LGBTQ+ community, even if she claims to support us. I don't want to have anything to do with that.

submitted by Jaybells, Lost in the Universe
(November 20, 2022 - 12:45 pm)

Yeah, I don't really like HP very much. To be fair, I've only read the first 4 books (the 3rd was my fave, but meh), and I read thew 4th in like, 3rd grade. I stopped after the 4th 'cause someone had died in it, and I didn't like that. Although, I am reading a series that basically most of the characters (pretty much all that I like other than maybe 5-7) die, so......

I also don't like Heidi (the first 5 pages were too boring to continue); Cricket In Times Square (read half of it, but also too boring); Despite not actually having read The Trumpet of the Swan (and I have two copies of it, somehow), I don't wanna read it, so. Meh on The Land Of Stories, actually. I don't like Hatchet, although apparently it's (somewhat) widely liked. The plot was fine, sure, but I think the writing could be improved. It was just kinda boring for me. It also didn't help that I was reading this spindiddly book at the same time (Hatchet was for school) that was super well written. 
I'm sure there are other books on my list for these, but I can't think of them rn.

submitted by Rainbow, age Guess. , Mystical Fog, She/they
(October 8, 2022 - 5:08 pm)

I feel very similar about a lot of fantasy nowadays--that they are just too action-packed and I can relate. After a while, everything just got really cliché and I stopped reading nearly all fantasy series. So I've sort of taken a refuge in books that have more character development and aren't as centered on plot.

 

submitted by Lyric, age 13, deep in thought
(September 23, 2022 - 7:36 pm)

Same! I don't read a lot of the really popular fantasy anymore. But I've found a lot of slower, more developed fantasy books that I really enjoy.

submitted by Lupine
(September 29, 2022 - 9:02 pm)

Yeah I tried Percy Jackson; it's just not my thing...

submitted by Piano Man, age 12, nowhere
(November 3, 2022 - 2:35 pm)
submitted by top
(May 16, 2022 - 11:08 pm)

top

submitted by Poinsettia
(September 19, 2022 - 7:23 pm)

Wait.. people don't like percy jackson and harry potter? 

yay!

 

I don't like percy jackson because... I read the first chpter of the first book, and I just didn't like it.

I don't like HP because they've made Harry tooo powerful, and the storyline is flat.

 

submitted by clueless, age confused, not my real CB name
(September 25, 2022 - 7:02 pm)

I don't really like anything by E. Nesbit.

particularly The Wouldbegoods, or Five Children And It.

i know they are old-timey books, but they don't really have any plot. i've read a lot of old books that are better than E. Nesbit ones. 

submitted by Darkvine
(September 26, 2022 - 8:23 am)

I started reading an E. Nesbit book once (I think it was about a castle? not sure what it was called) and it was okay, but then I got to a scene where the characters needed to make some money so they set up an act at a faire that involved pretending to be an Indian snake charmer/fortune teller/magician. The characters were white. They painted their faces brown and everything. I was disgusted and did not keep reading.

submitted by Lupine
(September 29, 2022 - 9:03 pm)