"Most Overrated Book In History" — 24 Books That Didn't Live Up To Their Hype

    "The whole book was dryer than the Sahara."

    Elizabeth Cotton
    by Elizabeth Cotton

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Recently, I asked you to share the books that were way overhyped and fell short of your expectations. Here are some of the best responses:

    1. Ulysses by James Joyce

    Cover of "Ulysses" by James Joyce with river scene and bridge
    Wordsworth Editions

    "I say that as a Dubliner myself. I felt like I had to read it at least once in my life because it is regarded as a classic. After having read it, I think it's a case of everyone saying it's fantastic for fear of people mocking them. Meandering, plodding, didn't feel any connection with the characters, several hours of my life I will never get back. The only good thing is now, I can say I've read it, and I think it's rubbish, but that is based on actually HAVING read it."

    —frankreynolds

    2. Secrets of Isoria by Cristina Macari

    Book cover of "Secrets of Isoria" by Cristina Macari featuring an embossed golden seal with a rearing horse
    Cristina Macari

    "Written like a toddler, extremely over-used tropes and an annoying main character."

    —savorymoon41

    3. A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas

    A boxed set of 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' series by Sarah J. Maas with visible titles and ornate cover art
    Bloomsbury Publishing

    "I love me some fantasy, but my word, what a load of dross! I finished the first book and got about halfway through second before realising I did not care about any of them. Poorly written Fifty Shades of Fairy."

    —alixsmith

    "It’s so inconsistent too! Feyre is triggered by the colour red in the second book, except she just magically gets better. And she ran from Tamlin because he was abusive, but when Rhysand in the last book won’t let anyone touch her, goes half feral over her and knows her pregnancy is life threatening but doesn’t tell her it’s just fine and okay?"

    —fuzzycaterpillar0

    4. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

    Cover of "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway, featuring a woman in a nurse's outfit sitting beside a man in a hospital bed
    Macmillan Collector's Library

    "It's a book about men behaving terribly towards women but it's okay because apparently it's a love story."

    —ki123

    5. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

    Book cover of "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens with praise quotes and a tree silhouette
    Corsair

    "Everyone raved about it, but a lot of the same things kept getting repeated in the book. I was like, why do we keep hearing about her cooking grits? To name one thing. It was just boring."

    —harriets_rhapsody

    6. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

    Book cover of "It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover with floral design
    Simon & Schuster UK

    "I don't even think I made a third of the way through. I got the vibe that it was going to start basically glorifying domestic violence and had to stop."

    —wgolden130

    7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

    Cover of "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott featuring silhouette illustrations of the characters
    Hesperus Press Ltd

    "I revisited this book a few years ago and it was just so slow!"

    —radiantpunk19

    8. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

    Book cover of "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid, featuring a woman in a green dress
    Simon & Schuster UK

    "It's badly written, peak entry-level white feminism masquerading as something progressive. As a lesbian I can confidently say I don't feel even slightly represented by the WLW plot which so many people claim is ground-breaking!"

    —jealouspepper81

    "For your last point, from my perspective it wasn't about having a WLW relationship. It was about having a mainstream bisexual character. That's still relatively new in media and it's not something I had at all growing up. Is it a great work of literature? No. Is the relationship the most beautiful, earth-shattering romance of our time? No. But the book's very readable and it's the first time I picked up a bestseller I knew nothing about and found out the main character was bisexual."

    —kkat22

    9. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

    Cover of "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville showing a whale's tail above ocean waves with a full moon in the background
    Wordsworth Editions

    "Not only is it hard to get through but it's just so bloody boring. The first half reads like a Cetology textbook and the second half leading up to the climax ended with a whimper instead of a bang. For such a nautical focused story, the whole book was drier than the Sahara. To this day, I can't fathom why it's a classic."

    —ravenbard

    10. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

    Book cover with a disassembled airplane model representing the novel "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
    Vintage Classics

    "Most overrated book in history. What a repetitive, monotonous bunch of crap."

    —awkwardknight82

    11. Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling

    Bloomsbury Children's Books

    "I read the first one and snippets of the others. It was just painfully simplistic, static, uninteresting writing. I know the series is for kids but I regularly re-read kids series. I enjoy the Percy Jackson series which is also very simple stuff but it has flavour and flows much better. I didn't dislike the movies but the books were dull beyond belief."

    —lacjiba

    12. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

    Cover of "A Clockwork Orange: Restored Edition" by Anthony Burgess, featuring an orange circle on a white background
    Penguin Classics

    "It has a certain reputation, in part because of the liberties taken with the Kubrick film. I can see it's supposed to be going for a dystopian, beware-the-youths vibe, but it doesn't capture the way adolescents (even adolescents in the 60) behave, so it comes off more like a Baby Boomer complaining about Gen Z."

    —lobsterlemonlime

    13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

    Cover of "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte with stylized title, author's name, and illustration of a house and trees
    Wordsworth Editions

    "I'm 150% convinced you have to be of a certain age to read and enjoy this book. It's like 19th century Twilight. I tried to read it in my 20s and couldn't see how Heathcliff (who is a raging a*hole) has stuck in our cultural consciousness as a dashing romantic hero."

    —lobsterlemonlime

    14. Verity by Colleen Hoover

    Book cover of "Verity" by Colleen Hoover with text and spiderweb design
    Sphere

    "Everyone raved about it and I hated it the whole way through. So predictable and cringe. And I'm a sucker for fast reads and best sellers!"

    —silverlamp17

    15. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

    Book cover of "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn with critical acclaim quotes
    Weidenfeld & Nicolson

    "It did not work for me. Or any of the similar books that followed. I was into it until the BIG TWIST and then lost interest. Didn’t live up to the hype."

    —lizaboutthebhouse

    16. One Day by David Nicholls

    Book cover for "One Day" by David Nicholls featuring a man and woman embracing
    Hodder & Stoughton

    "I loved his other books that I read so I was excited to read it. I hated it. Long, drawn out drivel with a random 'twist' slapped in the middle which seemed unnecessary, followed by a few chapters of crap after."

    —heidivicki

    17. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osmond

    Book cover of "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman with critical acclaims and a silhouette of a person and dog
    Penguin

    "I love a mystery and normally love the twee Agatha Christie style murder mystery book, but honestly I could not understand why everyone loved it so much. I didn't think the characters were that enjoyable to read about and the actual murder was pretty dull. I tried the sequel just in case I jumped the gun a bit, but it was just as boring and I never finished it!"

    —10000reasons

    "Totally agree. It was way longer than necessary with too many plot lines. Really disappointing read."

    —lizaboutthebhouse

    18. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

    Book cover of "Tender is the Flesh" by Agustina Bazterrica, with critical acclaim quotes
    Pushkin Press

    "I read it and just didn’t get it. Everyone talks about how horrifying it is but it was written in such matter of fact technical language it seemed like it was just describing everything rather than telling a story."

    —fuzzycaterpillar0

    19. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

    Cover of "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger with title and author's name
    Penguin

    "Holden Caufield is such an a*hole and keeps on using 'goddamn' and 'phony' excessively. (I think I even had a running tally of how many times he said those words)."

    —goosethekitty

    20. Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

    Book cover with title "Yellowface" by Rebecca F. Kuang, featuring graphic of stylized eyes
    The Borough Press

    "Given the amount of hype, I was bored and disappointed."

    —clare1283

    21. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Cover of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald with art deco style design
    Wordsworth Editions

    "I know it's often regarded as the greatest American novel, but I hate that book. I normally despise people who burn books, but I could maybe get behind burning it."

    —markh63

    "I also hated that book with a passion. Exceedingly BORING. I had to read it for school, and I gave up about half way through. I think the only book I hated even more was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

    —thebeeskneazles

    22. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

    Boxed set of 'The Mortal Instruments' series by Cassandra Clare, featuring angelic imagery
    Walker Books

    "I only got through half the series before I gave up. They just bored me to tears."

    —beananddog

    23. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkein

    Boxed set of 'The Lord of the Rings' books, featuring a close-up of a character holding a sword
    Harper Collins

    "It's unbearably dull, with gratuitous scenic descriptions that go on for PAGES, not to mention the exhausting poetry."

    —orenlevko1

    "So. Much. Walking."

    —alixsmith

    "I loved the story but genuinely I skimmed through a tremendous chunk of it."

    —purpletruck35

    "It's self-indulgent waffle."

    —sweetelf57

    24. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

    Book cover of "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov with an illustration of a person reading
    Penguin Classics

    "I couldn't finish it, got a small way into it and it was so uncomfortable I had to stop."

    —noimpillagingeverybody

    "Yeah it's definitely an uncomfortable read."

    —fireferret19

    Do you have anything else to add? Let me know in the comments below!

    Additional thumbnail credits: NBC / Nickelodeon / Buena Vista Pictures Distribution