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Most Overrated Novel?

posted 8 years ago by fiatlux-1
15 replies | jump to latest

What's Your Vote For Most Annoyingly Overrated Novel?

Most people I know read this in high school (required reading), but it was not, in my high school:
"Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger.
Some loved it, some hated it in the reviews...and since so much fuss was made over it, I found a used copy....expecting it to be decent.

UGH.....I should have listened to some of the negative reviews! What a labored tale! The novel was more wordy than Henry James!
Unreadable. I tried several times....then gave up.

What novel gets your vote for Most Overrated?

I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus.
Didn't he discover America?
Penfold, shush.

[–] Hans-Wilhelm (1320) 7 years ago

For me "Moby Dick"
and
"Catcher in the Rye"

[–] moonphase9 (7) 7 years ago

Lol, I'm about to read Catcher in the Rye. I'm not American so have never had to read these American Classics in class which may be why I can enjoy them more. I read The Grapes of Wrath and really appreciated it, whereas a lot of Americans hate it and mention being forced to labour through it through school.

I read 1984 as a teen. I liked the beginning, became horribly bored partway through but persevered, and then was sucker punched by the ending. 1984 changed me. So I wouldn't ever want to battle through reading it again, but I do really appreciate it.

I used to like the Vampire Chronicles (i.e. Interview with a Vampire etc) as a teen, but I tried reading one as an adult and it was awful. All this purple prose :/ So I think Anne Rice is over-rated.

[–] bwriter2 (2) 6 years ago

I agree with you. When I was a teenager--of course I LOVED it. Picked it out of my personal library last year and re-read it and was just shocked at how much I disliked it. To me, it didn't hold up to the test of time.

[–] Kawada_Kira (7269) 5 years ago

Everything by George Orwell.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I haven't read that many well loved books, but for me it's "Dracula," which I hated the weird style of it being a collection of newspaper articles and diary outtakes. "Frankenstein" is another one. It's pretty obvious that "Frankenstein" was written by a teenage girl.

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 3 years ago

I loved reading Dracula. I loved the epistolary style. The depiction of Dracula, who doesn't show up a lot in the novel, is chilling. There are many great scary moments and the thrilling finale has never been satisfactorily filmed. It would make my top ten horror novels.

Frankenstein is not as polished but it's still an effective novel and raises some interesting ethical and moral questions.

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 3 years ago

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I liked it but the way this was hyped as an all-time great scary novel is to me very misleading. It's a decent psychological novel but nothing more. Stick with the Wise film. Much better.