UK Literary Luvvies

Status
Thread locked. We start a new thread when they have over 1000 posts, click the blue button to see all threads for this topic and find the latest open thread.
1 Sort by date Sort by reaction score 2
jenmarks said:
Ooh if anyone has recommendations of well-written page-turners, I'm here for those! A couple of mine:

The Secret History
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
My Sister The Serial Killer
Based On A True Story
Click to expand...

if you liked the secret history then i’m assuming you’ve also read the goldfinch (which is donna tartt’s masterpiece imo and one of my favourite books ever) - in that sort of writing style i would also strongly recommend a little life (though very hard going!)

BostonFernGreen said:
I love this thread.
My main gripe with this horrible avalanche of mediocre-bad books is that it makes searching for my next read SO hard.

I love a page turner but it has to be high quality and I feel that’s been lost because The page-turner market is full of stuff that is borderline unreadable.

There is a serious talent to writing escapist, relatable novels but in my view that genre was dismissed as chick lit and standards dropped in favour of all the fluff surrounding releases like evenings with the authors, podcasts etc.
Click to expand...

fully agree with this - i feel like “booktok” has a lot to answer for too, i hate seeing “as seen on tiktok” on a book and blame it entirely for the completely inexplicable rise of colleen hoover, who objectively just isn’t a good writer.
 
LaBlonde said:
if you liked the secret history then i’m assuming you’ve also read the goldfinch (which is donna tartt’s masterpiece imo and one of my favourite books ever) - in that sort of writing style i would also strongly recommend a little life (though very hard going!)



fully agree with this - i feel like “booktok” has a lot to answer for too, i hate seeing “as seen on tiktok” on a book and blame it entirely for the completely inexplicable rise of colleen hoover, who objectively just isn’t a good writer.
Click to expand...

Haha I HATED A Little Life. Another one that made me burst out laughing when something awful happened.

The Goldfinch is great. For intelligent thrillers I rate Ruth Ware and Sabine Durrant.
 
Mbella said:
Haha I HATED A Little Life. Another one that made me burst out laughing when something awful happened.

The Goldfinch is great. For intelligent thrillers I rate Ruth Ware and Sabine Durrant.
Click to expand...

i loved it, but have agreed with everything bad i’ve ever heard someone say about it - it’s a weird one for me 🤣

i sadly missed the “page turners” part of that post so sorry @jenmarks i don’t think i’ve recommended page turners at all oops 🤦🏼‍♀️
 
I read The Goldfinch years ago and have such amazing memories of it. It was one of those heatwave summers and I'd just finished my uni exams so naturally was on top of the world :ROFLMAO:
That twist with Boris and the painting had me SHOOK when I first read it.
I should really re-read it! I can't bring myself to watch the film adaption in case they've ruined it because it's one of my favourite books!
 
queenamber said:
I read The Goldfinch years ago and have such amazing memories of it. It was one of those heatwave summers and I'd just finished my uni exams so naturally was on top of the world :ROFLMAO:
That twist with Boris and the painting had me SHOOK when I first read it.
I should really re-read it! I can't bring myself to watch the film adaption in case they've ruined it because it's one of my favourite books!
Click to expand...

honestly, don’t - the film takes away everything that made the book wonderful! though it should always have been something like a hbo miniseries rather than a film imo, it was never going to be contained in a single movie.

everything else aside, it’s one of the most beautiful descriptions of grief that i’ve ever read.
 
StatusWoe said:
I've never read How to Fail, but my friend did. She said it was one big humblebrag despite the misleading tite.
Click to expand...
i read it, she basically moans about being privileged for most of it and bigs herself up bragging about how many friends she has. nothing felt particularly authentic or moving. she's not even that good of a writer, she got this far because of connections.
 
I thought Magpie was hyped beyond belief, it seems every female writer in the thriller genre is trying to recreate a sub par version of girl on a train and gone girl. None have managed it so far and shoehorning a twist that you can see a mile off doesn’t help. The ending of Magpie was dire.
 
I agree, I thought Magpie was terribly written! So full of cliche and unbelievable characters. Some of the (unnecessary) description felt like it had been taken from advertising copy somehow - just no depth or soul to any of the writing. I felt like the IVF and infertility stuff especially had been lifted from reading other people's experiences of it and felt very clichéd, despite her own relevant experiences. There were even basic factual errors relating to pregnancy and fertility. I thought the handling of mental illness was also poor and stereotyped.
 
notthefullshilling said:
I agree, I thought Magpie was terribly written! So full of cliche and unbelievable characters. Some of the (unnecessary) description felt like it had been taken from advertising copy somehow - just no depth or soul to any of the writing. I felt like the IVF and infertility stuff especially had been lifted from reading other people's experiences of it and felt very clichéd, despite her own relevant experiences. There were even basic factual errors relating to pregnancy and fertility. I thought the handling of mental illness was also poor and stereotyped.
Click to expand...

The mother in law character was so lazily written and clichéd. Magpie has a good twist about a third of the way through and then she clearly had no idea what to do with the rest. Should have been a novella.
 
I read The Secret History earlier this year and loved it. I thought the second part lagged compared to this first though. I kept thinking of Brideshead Revisited, only more murderous and less English. 😝 Will add The Goldfinch to my TBR.

LaBlonde said:
fully agree with this - i feel like “booktok” has a lot to answer for too, i hate seeing “as seen on tiktok” on a book and blame it entirely for the completely inexplicable rise of colleen hoover, who objectively just isn’t a good writer.
Click to expand...

Yup, totally agree with this. I've read one 'as seen on tiktok' book that I really enjoyed but the others have been either average or bad. I'm all for light, escapist fiction but the writing still has to be decent otherwise it stops being entertaining.
 
Dawn O’ P has a book club and interviews authors for which she reads their books. So I think she prolly does read.

I don’t mind her books, I can’t remember a thing about them when they’re done though. Also wasn’t she accused of being a bully in an Amazon review of Paper Planes in which the protagonist is bullied or something. I found that quite off putting. I find her fascinating rather than actually liking her. What a show off.

Mhairi Mcfarlane is the best of the best in her genre. Plus she’s got a brilliant non thirsty non preachy online presence. She’s funny as duck. She also doesn’t seem to do blurbs and isn’t part of the same ole same ole love in.
 
Status
Thread locked. We start a new thread when they have over 1000 posts, click the blue button to see all threads for this topic and find the latest open thread.
Back
Top