Hurts so Good

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Hurts so Good

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1A_musing
Modificato: Ago 13, 2006, 2:35 pm

OK, we're all enjoying bashing the plain awful and the classic awfuls, but are there some out there that are just so bad, so completely schlocky, that they are good?

I'd actually put The Da Vinci Code in this category - come on, can you get past the first chapter and still take the thing seriously? After that, don't you know you're in the middle of a "B" movie and its time to grab a beer and some popcorn and know the killer tomatoes are coming?

And, I have to say, this is the only way I can bring myself to appreciate Jane Austen - once she's just another bad masterpiece theatre episode, all accent and no substance, she's almost amusing.

2Hera
Ago 14, 2006, 6:01 am

Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie, every time. Terrible but stick to your hand until you finish them, damn their eyes. I daren't go near them; they are compulsive reading.

3kageeh
Modificato: Ago 14, 2006, 7:07 am

Schlocky? Trashy? Oh yes! Anything by that Conran lady who wrote Lace and Lace II, Jacqueline Susann (okay, I'll admit, her books rank with the classics), and sometimes Jackie Collins. Their books are awful but in a good, cleansing the mind, way. I used to like Danielle Steel for the same reasons but now she writes too many books and they're all the same. The best are the truly dreadful soap opera names for the characters.

4ForrestFamily
Ago 14, 2006, 9:00 am

Eric Lustbader's Ninja books - so very very bad but when I was thirteen and just waiting for the nuns at my boarding school to spring me reading such filth (they never did) they were so very very good.

5BoPeep
Ago 14, 2006, 9:25 am

Kageeh, I feel the same about Danielle Steel, but I still enjoy re-reading the older ones when I need to switch my brain off for a while. Haven't actually read any Shirley Conran although Lace got passed around school a few times... ;-) I read Lesley Pearse now for the same obvious-but-satisfying schlock romance reasons.

6kperfetto
Ago 14, 2006, 6:02 pm

As much as I love Joyce Carol Oates, most of the time I think her books are just slightly better than beach reads.

7gabriel
Ago 14, 2006, 7:57 pm

Well, I'm a little inclined to put Michael Crichton in this category- completely bereft of capable characterization, often incapable of inducing suspended disbelief (not normally a problem for me) and even unbalanced in pacing &c., nevertheless is often enough a fun read.

May I just note how much I object to Jane Austen being in this category.

8bibliotheque
Ago 16, 2006, 5:41 am

Virginia Andrews's first effort, Flowers in the Attic, is so bad it's good; the rest are just plain AWFUL.

9zenia
Ago 16, 2006, 6:37 am

Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire....there were a whole series of them and I was compelled to buy the lot.

10A_musing
Ago 16, 2006, 7:55 am

Ohh, those last ones look bad/good!

I love the ratings of some of these, with plenty of 2s and plenty of 5s. That's the mark of a bad/good book!

11kageeh
Modificato: Ago 16, 2006, 5:03 pm

Oooooh, ooooooooooh, I LOVED Flowers in the Attic and the sequel Petals on the Wind!! My neighbors and I passed them around until they practically fell apart. Of course, they were ridiculously insipid but absolutely enthralling. Then I read Joe Queenan's review of Flowers in the Attic in his wonderfully funny Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon and darn near choked to death laughing. Then I was ashamed :). But then V.C. Andrews died (or maybe she was always dead; who knows) and her granddaughter or some other relative put out a new book under her name every few months but I had stopped with the first two; nothing could compare to those.

12kageeh
Ago 16, 2006, 5:05 pm

You really targeted how to judge a good book, A_musing! I love that -- if it has plenty of 2s and 5s, it's a definite read. I must pass that around.

13doogiewray
Ago 17, 2006, 6:02 pm

By any literary standards, Tom Robbins books are complete rubbish.

I cannot, however, tell you how much I feel like a kid whose birthday is approaching everytime one of his books was about to be published.

He has always been my favorite Beach Read - he makes me laugh out loud at his completely outrageous characters (a spoon? a stick?) and unlikely plot twists (hippy finds the body of Jesus (hidden all these centuries, of course) in Vatican after an earthquake and steals it, taking it on tour across America).

His line from Still Life with a Woodpecker that proclaims "There are only two mantras in Life: Yuck and Yummm ... which one do YOU choose?!" was Life Altering (for me {grin!}).

Douglas

"In the end, only kindness matters."

14kmcquage
Ago 18, 2006, 3:52 am

I read so much terrible stuff that I should probably stay away from this message board... My personal favs are crap genre fiction. There is good fantasy and horror out there, but noooo. I have to read Laurell K. Hamilton. Every single book. Even after she started pretty much writing smut. And I love every tawdry minute I spend reading it.

15lampbane
Ago 18, 2006, 3:30 pm

Ooh, someone else who reads Laurell K. Hamilton! And mind you, I started reading her after she became a smut writer! Basically, I read a solicitation for the Merry Gentry books and decided that this was the Bestest Plot Concept Evar (tm). I've never seen a more perfect set-up for porn, honestly.

16lizvelrene
Ago 22, 2006, 5:55 pm

There is so much Bad Fantasy that fits this category. Endless ripoffs of LOTR and Star Wars can make for good trashy fun.

17lizvelrene
Ago 22, 2006, 5:55 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

18ExVivre
Ago 23, 2006, 10:02 am

The Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson prequels to Dune are dreadful on the literature scale, but I still snatch up the latest edition as soon as it comes out. I need my sci-fi fix, even if it's not good for me.

19seabear
Ago 29, 2006, 3:56 am

Matthew Reilly is definitely my guilty pleasure.

20LisaLynne
Ago 29, 2006, 12:29 pm

I would say that any of the recent Anne Rice books fall into this category. The first of the Mayfair Witches books were pretty good, but the recent ones are 400+ pages of trash.

I read all of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels, even though he hasn't had an original plot in ages. I suppose any series eventually starts feeding on itself, but sad, all the same.

21oracleofdoom
Ago 31, 2006, 8:03 am

LisaLynne, I loved the first few Vampire Chronicles, but I LOATHED the Mayfair books. I got through the first one, found it a bit draining (but then, so are her vampire books), began Lasher, and got to a certain instance between Michael and Mona, and then I put the book in my garbage can. It is the only book I have ever thrown away in my entire life!

22lohengrin
Ago 31, 2006, 9:38 am

Oracle, you didn't miss much. From what I have heard, the ending of that series was insanely bad. If I knew how to do the blacked out spoiler text thing, I'd say what it was.

23ExVivre
Set 1, 2006, 12:18 am

The ending of the Mayfair Witch series was extremely bad - because there was no ending. It was somewhere between "cliffhanger" and "sputtering to a halt," and you get the sense that Anne Rice even got bored writing it. I think she stuck Mayfairs in the Vampire Chronicles just to quiet people that were asking when the Mayfair sequel was coming out.

24jcarpentercc
Set 1, 2006, 1:30 am

Sorry, but I love Agatha Christie. And Jane Austen, for that matter. They were just dedicated people-watchers who described things/characters they saw in real life (okay, so maybe AC created some not-so-realistic situations to stick her people in...).

25jcarpentercc
Set 1, 2006, 8:39 am

And though most people talk about how brilliant they are, I really despise Hemingway and Steinbeck. Just too depressing.

26lohengrin
Set 1, 2006, 5:33 pm

jcarpentercc, I think you are in the wrong thread. ^^; Try the 'Awful Classics' thread! :)

27gilroy
Set 2, 2006, 7:11 am

I admit my guilty pleasures are the early Xanth books by Piers Anthony. The Puns are just too funny. Unfortunately, as the series wore on, so did the repeated puns until the just got too old.

28oracleofdoom
Set 3, 2006, 9:58 pm

I actually kinda liked the Mode series by Piers Anthony myself. I read them when I was in high school. I never tried Xanth.

29lohengrin
Set 3, 2006, 11:21 pm

I like the first three Aprentice Adept books by Piers Anthony, and the Incarnations of Immortality, as well. ^^

30gilroy
Set 4, 2006, 7:24 am

I had difficulty with the Mode series, though I own all the books.
Loved the Incarnations series, and am working to try to finish collecting that series.
The apprentice Adept books were good when the series ended, haven't gotten a chance to read the entire set yet. Will have to remedy that oversight...

31Bookmarque
Modificato: Nov 6, 2006, 8:13 am

All right. I'll cave. I really enjoy the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lee Child (touchstones a mess so I won't bother). No one would call them great literature, but I love them and buy each new installment as soon as it hits the shelves.

The series starts with Relic and the most recent is The Book of the Dead. Probably the best one is Cabinet of Curiosities though. You could read it as a standalone novel, but then you'd be sucked in, too. They're written like overblown 40's radio or movie serials and are addictive.

32book_cat
Set 6, 2006, 12:20 pm

Bookmarque, I'm whole-heartedly in agreement with you. Sure, the "Pendergast" books aren't what you'd consider literature at its finest, but it sure is a fun read. Plus, the Pendergast character absolutely fascinates me. I really enjoy authors that can create interesting characters.

33Jebbie74
Set 6, 2006, 5:07 pm

I really hate to admit it but I think Sophia Kinsella and her Shopaholic series ranks up there. I don't normally read a lot of chic lit, but was coaxed into these and could barely put them down :)

34plaidgirl68 Primo messaggio
Modificato: Set 14, 2006, 1:32 am

LOVE Laurell K. Hamilton. No, she's not good, but she's so bad I love her! I'm currently re-reading all the Anita Blake novels, waiting for Danse Macabe to come up for me at the library (I'll occasionally buy her books in paperback, but I'm not spending the money for the hardbacks - I just get 'em from the library).

I also love most chick lit. Most of it is the same, but it's like candy - not particulary good for you, but so easy to grab and so hard to put away.

35kbvigour Primo messaggio
Set 24, 2006, 3:47 pm

Jodi Picoult is definitely on my list of guilty pleasures. Awful books that are essentially the same, but still enjoyable because they make me judge the situation myself.

36wyvernfriend
Set 30, 2006, 10:18 am

plaidgirl68 I have to agree with Laurell K. Hamilton, the books are getting worse (for me anyway) but they're compulsive reading. I've got a few hardbacks of hers but that's usually cause I picked them up for less than the cost of the paperback second hand.

37SimonW11
Set 30, 2006, 3:15 pm

No one has mentioned Christina Dodd
famouslly one of her romances had a three armed heroine on the cover.

http://www.christinadodd.com/castles.php

having once read one of her books I can confirm that she was capable of doing such a thing justice.

38richardderus
Modificato: Ott 1, 2006, 3:34 pm

I love Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver mysteries, and re-read them every few years. As my one-time lover once said, "Why do you bother with her? She only wrote one book!" I replied, "Yeah, I know...I just happen to like that book a lot." Is it prose for the ages? Good heavens, no! But it's fun, and it's cozy without being cloying or suffocating (like those ghastly Laura Childs Charleston tea shop mysteries, ooof!).

Oh, and then there's Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire books, continuing Anthony Trollope's fictional Chronicles of Barsetshire through the 1950s. Hooked, completely hooked, from Wild Strawberries (first one I read) through the last she published in what, 1960? Ah, the delights of Google...it was 1961, and the book(Three Score and Ten) was finished up by someone named Lejeune after the author died. It's truly awful writing...very pedestrian...but it's sheer, frothy fun for days when I feel despairing of humankind's future.

edited/typos

39circeus
Ott 8, 2006, 12:00 am

My guilty pleasure would be Heinz G. Konsalik.

40Xenalyte
Nov 2, 2006, 10:31 am

What Robbins book involved the mad bomber? I will never forget the line about cream of bomber soup.

41Xenalyte
Nov 2, 2006, 10:35 am

I remember being dissatisfied with the Xanth books after Dragon on a Pedestal or so. But up through at least Castle Roogna they're good reads, and the concept behind them is wonderful bubble-gum for the mind.

42doogiewray
Modificato: Nov 3, 2006, 4:25 pm

Hi Xenalyte-

Maybe you're thinking of Still Life With a Woodpecker (see my earlier message above - #13).

It also has the religion built around the Camel Cigarette pack that's worth the price of admission.

Anyhow, as I said earlier, Tom Robbins IS still my all-time favorite guilty pleasure. Funny coincidence, but I just ran into another copy of Jitterbug Perfume about two hours ago (I think I now have three copies of that book).

Douglas

"In the end, only kindness matters."

43chamekke
Nov 4, 2006, 12:28 am

Almost any of the Rei Shimura mysteries by Sujata Massey. Shallow and formulaic, and the heroine gets more annoying with each passing year, but... these books do make great bathtub reading!

44Cecilturtle
Nov 5, 2006, 7:46 pm

Jebbie74, I must admit to the same guilty pleasure. I read the first two in a weekend (and I'm a slow reader) and couldn't wait to put my hands on the others. I'm now secretly awaiting the next one with trepidation... so much for the "intellectual" patina I like to project!

45reading_fox
Modificato: Nov 7, 2006, 10:22 am

Cussler all the dirk pitt novels. So easy reading, completely unbelievable without any depth on characters or scenary and comically bad villans who always leave enough spare parts around to build a tank A-Team style. I have finally weaned myself off them.

Lee Child isn't too bad, but again I've read far more of them than I ought.

Grafton her alaphabet series. repetitive plots and trite characters. I'm upto R and I'll probably buy all the way thorugh to Z, telling myself at every step she's not worth it.

And the worst/best Eddings 10 books in two series. not a single original idea. then he writes Belgarath which is the 10 books condensed into 1 volume for easy reading. And then gets his wife to help write Polgara which is THE SAME 10 BOOKS condensed slightly differently. The yet another six books with different characters' names. Still no new ideas or plots. one dimensional easy reading fantasy. Yes I own all 18.

46Morphidae
Nov 7, 2006, 10:33 am

The Eddings have always written as a team. It just wasn't until the later years that she got equal credit.

47rebekahn
Nov 22, 2006, 9:13 am

I have to confess a complete addiction to crime thrillers; the higher the body count the better. In fact, my grandmother (a particualrly bloodthirsty octogenarian) and I share them.

Anything by Val McDermid (although she's actually quite a good writer) Jonathan Kellerman or Patricia Cornwell is grist to the grisly mill. If we can buy them at an airport, mores the better.

48Precipitation
Nov 22, 2006, 11:12 am

I think the next Grafton book should be "S is for Stop Writing These Books."

49artisan
Nov 22, 2006, 4:21 pm

I'm waiting for "ZZZZZZZZZZZ", where she falls asleep while writing the book as I fell asleep reading the few I read.

50Sue.k.
Nov 23, 2006, 6:37 am

Back to the topic or Anne Rice; now i am a big fan, but i have to admit that some of her books i only have because im a collector. For example, The Witching Hour is boring me, im halfway, and ive had the book for almost 2 years. i just cant get myself to actually finish it.... very sad since i love her work so much.

51Bookmarque
Nov 23, 2006, 8:34 am

Sue.k - I'm with you on TWH - it was torture and I did not finish it either. When it came out, she was at her most popular period and I had been devouring her Vampire Chronicle novels, so I bought TWH. Oh the let down. I doubt I'll ever read it or another of her books now that the Vampire Chronicles have gotten so miserable. Blood and Gold had so much potential - finally, we were going to get Marius's story directly, but it's flat and uninteresting. Ditto for Pandora - the first time I read about her in Lestat, I thought what a great book her life's story would make, but the result was soap-operaish and repetitive. Bah.

52Hera
Nov 23, 2006, 8:52 am

I have to admit to reading Martina Cole's novels. They're trash of the first order. The subject matter is always the criminal underworld, dire abusive childhoods leading to repellent criminality in later life and women who are battered but not bowed. Awful, lurid, badly written and you need a hot shower afterwards to get rid of that grubby feeling due to the subject matter and poor narration. But once open, they stick to my hand and I will sit up through the night to finish them, much to my own self-disgust. Let's hope confession is good for the soul; I pray it means I won't pick another one up!

53Bookmarque
Nov 23, 2006, 10:39 am

I used to read Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series - they were fun, quirky and had interesting side characters (midgets and crossdressers and octagenarians, oh my!). But Stephanie's willfull dippiness and oft repeated blunders just blew the series for me and I didn't go beyond 9 or 10. The first few of them are hysterically funny and worth reading if you want a break from more serious fare.

54Sue.k.
Nov 24, 2006, 3:08 am

bookmarque - Maybe Anne Rice lost her touch when her husband got sick... But it still saddens me to say she has lost it, especially with this new "christ the Lord" book.I have nothing against the type of book, but coming from her...come on. How do you go from Vampires, dark lust, devils and erotica to Jesus. I dont see how she will keep her fans.....

55SimonW11
Nov 24, 2006, 3:22 am

hmm do you think she will become her own unsegestion?

56Sue.k.
Nov 24, 2006, 3:30 am

What's worse is, will Anne Rice ever again wright anything worth reading!!!????

57CaraCuilleain
Nov 24, 2006, 8:23 am

I definitely have to chime in with the Laurell K. Hamilton comments, the merry gentry books are pure and simple feelty fairy porn .. and absolutely glorious for it.

Piers Anthony definitely gets a mention too, I rather liked the apprentice adept series when I was younger .. Incarnations of Immortality started out well, but faded towards the end ... the final book was much more a product of the person my friends and I have come to call 'pervy uncle piers' than the earlier man ... it read more like his 'why I should be allowed to do it with underage girls, please' screed than anything else.

58bookjones
Modificato: Nov 28, 2006, 1:53 am

Quote:
"What's worse is, will Anne Rice ever again wright anything worth reading!!!????"

Well Sue.k., for the purposes of this "so bad it's good" thread one can only hope so! For myself, I stopped reading Anne Rice at least 6 or 7 books ago when her writing became just plain sloppy and therefore insufferable and was no longer a simple guilty entertainment pleasure.

The only guilty pleasures I have been stoked about in the last few years are the Pride and Prejudice "sequels" (even the concept of which is just not right!) by Linda Berdoll. They are tantamount to being pseudo-Regency porn with an Austen veneer but that's what makes them saucy fun! If one pictures Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle's Darcy and Lizzy while reading them it makes for a cozy mental place to visit over a winter weekend.

59casiejeanne
Gen 8, 2007, 6:37 pm

I would like to second the vote for Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. They are fun, quirky and I can just turn my brain off and have fun.

60kuuursten Primo messaggio
Feb 13, 2007, 11:12 am

I'm not sure I could call Anne Rice an author who is so bad she's good; I just think she's flat-out bad. I stopped reading The Vampire Chronicles after the second chapter of Tale of the Body Thief. I realize I gave up early, compared to most, but I couldn't handle the sheer crap. I would recommend stopping after The Vampire Lestat, personally.

Her son, Christopher Rice, on the other hand, writes amazing crap!fiction. A Density of Souls isn't too bad, even if it is a little melodramatic, but The Snow Garden is awesomely grotesque. The ending is the best/worst part.

61Anlina
Feb 13, 2007, 12:47 pm

Questo messaggio è stato cancellato dall'autore.

62Anlina
Feb 13, 2007, 1:26 pm

I'll second (or third) Tom Robbins.

Eddings was the first author that came to mind when I saw this thread - so predictable and cliched, but still a really fun read. I found Pawn of Prophecy in the laundry room of my apartment building and after reading it promptly went out and bought the rest of the series, even though you could see what was coming by the end of the first chapter.

63Aquila
Modificato: Feb 13, 2007, 4:15 pm

I was twelve when I read Pawn of Prophecy, we read straight through the Belgariad and then waited eagerly for each book of the Mallorean to come out.

I think they are great, I know they are predictable and unbelievable, but I can still enjoy a reread. I bought the first book of the Elenium (The Diamond Throne? - waits for the Touchstone - yes it is), but by that stage could see right through the formula and gave it away to the girl who bought the next two, and haven't really read any of the series since.

I adored Enid Blyton, especially the Famous Five, as a child and I'm still collecting girls adventure, shcool and horse stories of those eras, which vary from total schlock to some really rather good ones. Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (sixty books in her Chalet School series), Ruby Ferguson (the Jill's pony series), the Pullein Thompson sisters (Josephine was probably the best writer of the three with some really good characterisations).

I also collect novelizations and tie-in books, which tend to be really bad (frankly I find a lot more fanfic more readable than the books people are paid to write about TV, movies and comics (and the comic novelizations are often the best of the bunch)). And every now and then you find a really good one.

And then there's the lesbian romance *g*

64Cien
Modificato: Feb 13, 2007, 6:59 pm

I tend to love YA literature even when it's the dumbest stuff I've ever read. An example: I kept up with Gossip Girl for the first four or five books in the series.

65theizz
Set 12, 2007, 2:07 am

Yes, the epitome of this style is The Da Vinci Code. I read it on an endless 12 hour train ride and it saved my life.

Oh, I'm so glad some one else has been seduced by Pride and Prejudice rip offs! I haven't bought one yet, but I spent 3 hours reading a P & P from Darcy's perspective book in my local book store cafe. I would have read longer, but a cute bookish boy tried to pick me up by asking what I was reading (btw- a terrific pick up line). I'm taken and happy, but I still turned bright red at being caught being a total girl reading trash with an English ascent. I remember stammering something about not being responsible for what my estrogen made me do and ran off to buy the popular science book I came to the store for.

66MathildaCat
Set 12, 2007, 8:59 am

I secretly love the Marian Keyes novel Sushi For Beginers. I lent it to someone and didn't get it back so I bought another copy.

I am so ashamed of myself for reading it, it's pure chick-lit, complete with a happy ending!

I've read some of her other novels but they don't quite come up to this standard.

67Nickelini
Modificato: Set 12, 2007, 10:52 am

I'm surprised to see Tom Robbins on this list, because I see his books on university reading lists occasionally. I can't say that about anything else mentioned here (except Jane Austen books, whick clearly don't belong). I thought it was considered that he Had Something To Say. I've never picked up one of his books, so I don't know. But he's on my (long) to-read list.

(edited for atrocious grammar)

68beatlemoon
Set 12, 2007, 9:49 pm

I also throw in a vote for Flowers in the Attic!! This book is the literary equivalent of a cult classic or maybe a soap opera. The crazy grandmother, the greedy mother, the mostly dead grandfather! The jealousies, the lust, the anger, the manipulation - but so cheesily done!

I first read it when I was eleven, borrowed from my best friend. Loved it so much I bought it with my allowance, then took the sequels out of the library. I was halfway through the second book when my mother decided to see what I was reading - and then took them all back to the library while I was at school! One of the very rare times she censored my book choices. In the end I took them out of the library one at a time (conveniently across the street from the school) on my way home and then just left them in my backpack and read them during lunch and whatever free time I could steal during class.

69Damiella
Nov 5, 2007, 9:05 pm

I'll just go for anything in the 'overly dramatic-quasi-SF-written in a week at most' genre.

One of my favourites (don't know if I've mentioned it in a different thread - as I say it is my favourite) concerned a post-apocalytic US in 1986, main character able to alter his appearance just by thinking about it - so of course he was an agent for a secret organisation.

And then one of my favourite scenes from these books - he comes across a group of Chinese (I think) playing ping pong with grenades under Washington. Unfortunately I think I lost it in one of my moves so I can't re-read to refresh.

From the above, vote for Flowers in the Attic & sequels - definitely - first read it in high-school while on holidays. I must be unusual in that my parents didn't forbid me from reading it - I was even encouraged to do so - strange that, then again they prob knew it was just one of my 'moods' and that it'd pass.

Piers Anthony - I remember when I got the first Incarnations of Immortality - loved them - never actually got around to finishing the set though. David Eddings the same - I've still got most of his books (23 I think looking at the bookshelves - yes I bought The Rivan Codex) but haven't really read them for years

Still, I must admit my ultimate 'so-bad-it's good' 'guilty pleasure' author has to be Sharon Green - I know that I'll be cheered up by how the bad guys get it if nothing else.

70Morphidae
Modificato: Nov 6, 2007, 9:48 am

>69 Damiella: I love Green's Terrillian/warrior series. Talk about guilty pleasure!

71panaranjado
Nov 6, 2007, 2:11 pm

Horribly improbable adventure/ archeology novels crack me up. James Rollins is great for that. In Excavation, just when you're thinking things can't get more ridiculous, he plays the "Horde of Giant Albino Cave Tarantulas" card. I was blissed out for weeks.

72mrsradcliffe
Nov 7, 2007, 4:26 am

Guity as charged for reading Laurell K. Hamilton's Guilty pleasures
It was terrible but also compelling!

I have to object to Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton being in this category though as they are both marvellous story tellers.

I'd probably also put Mike Ripley in here for his Angel PI series, although I love them so much I've almost read them all.

73Darrol
Nov 12, 2007, 1:34 pm

Maybe awful is putting is a little strongly, but I found Tess Gerritsen's novels annoying, and they did not live up to promise. I kept hoping that the medical themes would be more insightful. And in Life Support and Body Double there was a little of this. But I will keep reading her, but I have or will pass them on.