Top 5 Wednesday: Books I Didn't Enjoy but Love to Discuss

Top 5 Wednesday is a group on Goodreads hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tome on Youtube.

So this week's Top 5 topic is books that we may have disliked or just didn't enjoy that we love to discuss.  Generally if I didn't enjoy a book there is a very clear reason for that and this is the reason I have a blog, is to discuss the reasons I did or didn't enjoy a book.  So here are some of my favorites to talk about.

So this book looks fun and cute enough right?! Turns out it pushes religion hard.  Now I don't really mind religion being a part of a book unless it starts to become an agenda pusher.  I couldn't even make it through this book and I ended up DNFing it only about half of the way through when The Book of Mormon was mentioned 6 times in a two page spread. It is a great example of what not to do with religion in a fictional book.

So I have been a loyal reader of Laurell K. Hamilton's for several years, but about 5 years ago when this book came out I stopped reading any of her books.  This was a great example of how an author needs to be aware that a series needs to be brought to a close.  This was book 22 in this series (which is now up to 25 and book 26 expected this year).  The story has started to repeat itself and while the characters did develop it has gotten to the point where they are so far from what I originally enjoyed that I don't want to be around them anymore. There are too many characters, too much internal drama and the conflicts are all starting to sound the same.  (It was the same for her other series, which I honestly enjoyed more but she seemed to have stopped caring about it and the characters and the last book I read was just intolerable). 

*** SPOILERS ****

I put up with this series for nearly a year, even though I disliked so much of it and was mostly bored (I know, it is not a popular opinion).  My biggest complaint with this book in particular is the lack of consequences. Yes there was loss, and the loss of a few of the characters I actually enjoyed but it was not high enough impact for the culmination of the series (and the level of evil power that was faced). 

**** SPOILERS ****

Along the same lines as Deathly Hallows, the lack of consequences in an epic battle against a staggering amount of evil is just unacceptable.  I did actually enjoy this book, definitely not nearly as much as the previous two books in the series, but maybe that made the issues in this book seem so much more glaring.  The complete turnaround of a couple of character's views also fed into big discussion points.

This is a book I wish I had read in high school (actually preferably college since my high school class lacked any ability to actually discuss or analyze a book), I so wish that I could have read it and discussed it with a group of people.  I really struggled to read this one, partly because I tried audio first and the format didn't work well, and I think that being able to discuss points and meanings would have added so much to my level of enjoyment.  I do think that a re-read will greatly increase my love for the book, but for now it is an appreciation for what was done with this story and subject.