The moment you realized that a book sucks.

[Catamount]

@Case Sensitive

Now the “They looked horribly like children.” bit has me more baffled than ever.

What, children don’t glow up in your neck of the woods?

[Lissa]

@Dung Beetle

I’ll nominate She’s Come Undone, by Wally Lamb.

I realized it sucked at the part where the narrator has her first lesbian experience (with a woman who talked her into it by saying, “Nobody cares about us fatties.”) Apparently, she decided to regret it immediately afterward, and while the other woman is still asleep, the narrator trashes her apartment, kills her fishes by pouring bleach into the tank, and leaves. WTF? If you don’t want to be a lesbian, fine, but what did this lady ever do to deserve that? I knew I couldn’t be sympathetic to the main character any longer, and sure enough, I hated her til the end.

There really wasn’t much to like about that book, but one bit of it stuck in my head.
Every time I do laundry I replay the scene in my head where the protagonist tells her dorm-mate Kippy about her mother’s death earlier that year:

“Wow, Dolores! I feel so close to you right now. Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, sure. Anything.”

“Would you wash a load of darks tomorrow?”

---

Not too long ago, I made a dash-and-buy at a bookstore to have something to read on a long car ride. I realized the book sucked around the middle of the first chapter when it became apparent that the characters’ relationship with God was a primary plot point. It was an inspirational novel disguised as historical fiction. (A trend I’m seeing more of, much to my disgust.)

@jjimm

Da Vinci Code: the first two words.

“Renowned curator…”

I actually address my curator at work with those words. Also, “Esteemed fount of wisdom.”

[Scissorjack]

@SpazCat

What, children don’t glow up in your neck of the woods?

Kids glow up so fast these days.

[Taran]

Usually when I hate a book, there’s no defining moment.

Sideshow by Sheri S. Tepper started out fine. The world seemed interesting enough, it had a connection to Raising the Stones, and I was sixteen so I missed all the unpleasant subtext. Then I ran smack into the siamese twin sex. Maybe something awesome happened in chapter four, but I’ll never know.

[JR_Brown]

@Miller

Lord Foul’s Bane. And the reader is absolutely not meant to forgive him. It would violate the purpose of the entire series, which is to write a high fantasy novel featuring a character with absolutely no heroic qualities. It’s like Lord of the Rings told from Gollum’s point of view.

I don’t care whether the reader forgives him, what pissed me off terminally (and I was around 11 when I read the thing), it’s that the girl forgives him instantly and, IIRC, falls in love with him and follows him around saying “it’s OK, really, it’s normal”… even as a prepubescent I could guess that’s not how a rape victim reacts.

JRB

[Harbinger_of_Courteous_Debate]

Conviction by Richard North Patterson. IMO, John Grisham can describe courtroom goings-on and other legal-y things in a manner that makes me want to read it. Richard North Patterson can not. Seriously, I didn’t think anyone had tedium down to a science until I read Conviction. And to top it off, the payoff you were expecting from the beginning DID NOT HAPPEN. The situation was exactly the same as it was at the beginning of the book, except the protagonist’s daughter now hated her.

I stopped slogging through it after about three months of sporadic reading when I realized that the book was going around in circles.
“He’s actually retarded! They can’t legally kill him, can they?”
"Oh, wait, the judge hates me and doesn’t believe our hero is challenged in ANY WAY. We need another way out… "
“Hey, he didn’t actually do it, and now the guy that actually did it took the Fifth for every question we asked about the murder! That’s like proof or something!”
“Aw, shit. Everybody hates our defendant and thinks we’re stoopid. At least we still have family…” NOT.

Ugh, I stopped reading and just flipped to the last page. The saga ended with a hackneyed description of somebody dying, proving that justice sucks or something. Honestly, the book had no point and I have trouble believing that anybody would find it remotely enjoyable.

I was happy to learn that my mother had checked a book my Mr. Patterson out of the library and had opened to find a note from a previous reader. Something along the lines of “This book is groin-stabbingly boring and stupid. For the love of God and all things holy, stop reading now!” w00t.