Worst HF you've ever read

JMJacobsen · Post by **JMJacobsen** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 12:25 am

Now I know Misfit has a great list of these, but I'm curious about the rest of you....what's the worst HF you've ever read and why?

For me it was One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus. I simply could not get past the disgusting premise of sending the dregs of post-Civil War women out west to marry/pro-create with the Native Americans to assimilate the "savages." I was offended on so many levels.

This is followed closely by The Favored Child, by Philippa Gregory, where she took the incest theme to entirely new and yukky levels.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 12:28 am

Gregory's "The Other Boleyn Girl", I read it and then promptly threw it at my wall and her "The Queen's Fool", I skipped large segments of it, but since it wasn't my book, I couldn't toss that one at the wall.

SM

Tanzanite · Post by **Tanzanite** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 1:02 am

Dublin (also published as The Princes of Ireland) by Edward Rutherford - couldn't finish it. Followed closely by Rosalind Miles book Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 1:27 am

Recently, Pillars of the Earth. I am sure there were others but I have by this time erased their memory from my mind.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 1:46 am

Oh dear, my reputation for that wall bangers list continues to grow

I'm with Ash, Pillars of the Earth is tops.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 1:47 am

[quote=""Misfit""]Oh dear, my reputation for that wall bangers list continues to grow

I'm with Ash, Pillars of the Earth is tops.[/quote]

You have no idea Misfit! I actually mentioned wallbanger on the forum for Booksfree and explained what it meant and a few people said that they liked the term and some started to use it as well!

SM

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 1:51 am

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]You have no idea Misfit! I actually mentioned wallbanger on the forum for Booksfree and explained what it meant and a few people said that they liked the term and some started to use it as well!

SM[/quote]

Well, I'm finally a trend setter, although I can't take credit for it, I stole it from another commenter or two somewhere on amazon

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 3:14 am

1,000 white women is on my list and on my shelf. One day I will read it...

For me it would have to be The Luxe. A HF novel for teens that takes place in 1899 but somehow the author decided not to be bothered with the way people acted back then so we had a lot of teens sleeping with each other.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 4:06 am

If it's really bad, I don't finish it. I try not to remember it at all. Usually over the top gross or perverted sex scenes will get me to ditch a book pronto. This does not mean that I want books to avoid difficult subjects, but there are ways to write them that are tactful and serious and other ways that remind me of conversations in the military that I had to listen to because I was stuck in the same barracks... mostly for shock value.
Pillars of the Earth got chucked at the first one of those.

Poorly researched history and just downright lousy writing will lose my interest pretty fast, too. I can stand a mediocre book with good history getter than good writing with poor research. I know I'm in the minority there.

pat · Post by **pat** » Wed September 17th, 2008, 4:33 am

I read one about HenryVIII. It was so bad I cant even remember the title or author! I dont think I got to the first quarter of the book before I gave up. There was so much that was wrong in the story, and it was so poorly written! If it wernt a library book, it would have been a wallbanger too!