I found Nothing but Blackened Teeth to be unremarkable, but not bad. I'm certainly puzzled by it's #1 ranking, and quite frankly surprised to find it on this list at all. Cows, on the other hand, I found revolting, and not enjoyable in the slightest. I guess it was structurally and grammatically well-written (meaning it wasn't unedited crap) which helped achieve it's desired effect, but it was so unpleasant to read that I feel like every minute I read it was wasted time. I am loathe to stop reading books once I've started, and I can count on one hand how many books I've abandoned partway through. Cows would have been one, but I was on a cruise. I was trapped. So I read it. At least it was a quick read.
I thought that Nothing But Blackened Teeth was a bit overwritten. It was condensed to a fault using some excessively complicated words. It had a wonderful concept and could have been really great if expanded on. I must say the cover is fantastic. I thought the Eric La Rocca was interesting. I started reading Everything the Darkness Eats but I had trouble with the printing on the black paper and had to give it up.
I'd have to imagine the Eric LaRocca one would be on my list as well if I i checked. I'd be one of those ratings bringing it down 😬 Was really intrigued by it when I read a little sample of the first few pages of the emails story. But when I read the whole thing i was pretty disappointed. Just not much to it. Same with the second story, didnt bother with the third.
@criminolly I am wondering if you might consider doing a connection to this video in your weekkly wrap-up. Specifically: You made some mention of why novel weren't that numerous in the "best book" list, and why you think some of the titles were on the "worst books" list when you rated them higher. I would like you to talk just a bit about how this might relate to GarbAugust. For example, if "trashy" books are "bad" quality, should we be surprised that they aren't on that list. You might use an example trashy book - one that is widely read (1000+ reviews) - but wasn't on the bottom. What does that mean - and might that encourage us to try out a few more for the GarbAugust event? Maybe it will encourage us to review our GarbAugust reads, especially when we truly love a title that could be misjudged. Just a thought. 🎉🚮
Things have gotten worse since we last spoke really disappointed me, I agree that it was not that disturbing, and worse I found it to be very boring. I don't think I finished the last story in the book. I often think good reads ratings are way overblown, but some of these probably deserved a bit of a higher score.
Putting the books aside: some of the most immature, unstable, and uneducated people I've ever met have been on GoodReads, so I wouldn't look into it too much.
What a great idea for a video! And I thought you did a great job managing to give these unfortunate titles a fair crack (most of which I hadn't heard of).
Cows is probably the worst book I've ever read. That being said, I do have Nothing But Blackened Teeth waiting on my shelf, but I can't imagine it (or almost any other book) being as pointlessly disgusting as Cows.
It isn't seriously gross it's like one spot near the end but it is pretty pretentious flowery writing not as in its bad but it can be a trek to read through in my opinion
re: Cari Mora. Im not a hannibal Lechtor fan but was aware of harris when I read this, as I read Red Dragon WAY too young, but never cared either way about Hannibal.... but I really did rate this as one of the worst books I ever read one of my very few 1 stars ever. The book I felt was a complete waste with a tacked on unsatisfying ending. A bad guy who was constantly described as doing horrible things but we never saw them and a wasted story about the cop Robles was so pointless that if they had just cut his scenes out you wouldnt even have known they were missing.... this was truly a bad book.
Probably the worst contemporary book I have read is "American Psycho". A critic said of it at the time that the only offense in it was to the English language.
I decided to read Nothing But Blackened Teeth despite the poor ratings and I actually liked it a lot too! I’m not sure why that of all books got slammed the way it did. My biggest problem with it was that there was no falling action, it just kind of ended, but the actual horror I thought was really well-done. I’m definitely a Nothing But Blackened Teeth apologist.
I must admit I am tempted to give Hogg a try. Even though it sounds like very heavy going. Does it contain animal cruelty though? I won't buy or read anything that I know has animal cruelty.
I DNF'd Cari Mora, I wasn't expecting Silence Of The Lambs but I also wasn't expecting to find it boring - it didn't feel like a Thomas Harris book to me.
If ‘The Street’ didn’t exist, Horror at Red Hook would probably rank as Lovecraft’s most explicitly racist story. If I’m going to be as generous as I possibly can be, and this is a stretch to say the least, I could say there’s some ok atmosphere in Red Hook, but that gets completely negated by the awfulness of its politics. ‘The Street’, however, has none of that. A less-than-worthless piece of work.
Yeah, “Things Have Gotten Worse” is a victim of its own hype. If it hadn’t been recommended to me as “one of the most effed up, disturbing, twisted books you’ll ever read” I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. As is, it’s an… acceptable horror story with an interesting enough style and format, but it definitely doesn’t go as far as its reputation would suggest. Truly one of the books of all time.
Weird that my "worst" book (Black Mad Wheel) is still a 3.27 which is "above average" in my opinion. All the books on my DNF are 4+ 😂 I know I've read quite a few clunkers. Must not have logged them.
I was not a big Cassandra Khaw fan after reading Nothing But Blackened teeth and The Salt Grows Heavy BUT I attended a book club where they spoke on their writing process and it was simply captivating. They have synesthesia to some degree, and they explained how this often influences the way language feels almost more like a texture than a tool for them. Easily one of the best author's I have ever heard speak - really changed my opinion of their work quite drastically!
I'm still not sure what Samuel Delany was up to with "Hogg". Repulsive subject matter aside, it's well written and horribly gripping. If he was hoping move society's tolerance needle a bit, I'd say he probably managed it. If it were possible to have selected memories removed from my brain, I think "Hogg" is one I'd opt for.
I found Nothing but Blackened Teeth to be unremarkable, but not bad. I'm certainly puzzled by it's #1 ranking, and quite frankly surprised to find it on this list at all. Cows, on the other hand, I found revolting, and not enjoyable in the slightest. I guess it was structurally and grammatically well-written (meaning it wasn't unedited crap) which helped achieve it's desired effect, but it was so unpleasant to read that I feel like every minute I read it was wasted time.
I am loathe to stop reading books once I've started, and I can count on one hand how many books I've abandoned partway through. Cows would have been one, but I was on a cruise. I was trapped. So I read it.
At least it was a quick read.
I liked Nothing but Blackened Teeth quite a bit but we are alone in that hahahaha
I thought that Nothing But Blackened Teeth was a bit overwritten. It was condensed to a fault using some excessively complicated words. It had a wonderful concept and could have been really great if expanded on. I must say the cover is fantastic.
I thought the Eric La Rocca was interesting. I started reading Everything the Darkness Eats but I had trouble with the printing on the black paper and had to give it up.
I'd have to imagine the Eric LaRocca one would be on my list as well if I i checked. I'd be one of those ratings bringing it down 😬 Was really intrigued by it when I read a little sample of the first few pages of the emails story. But when I read the whole thing i was pretty disappointed. Just not much to it. Same with the second story, didnt bother with the third.
@criminolly I am wondering if you might consider doing a connection to this video in your weekkly wrap-up. Specifically: You made some mention of why novel weren't that numerous in the "best book" list, and why you think some of the titles were on the "worst books" list when you rated them higher. I would like you to talk just a bit about how this might relate to GarbAugust. For example, if "trashy" books are "bad" quality, should we be surprised that they aren't on that list. You might use an example trashy book - one that is widely read (1000+ reviews) - but wasn't on the bottom. What does that mean - and might that encourage us to try out a few more for the GarbAugust event? Maybe it will encourage us to review our GarbAugust reads, especially when we truly love a title that could be misjudged. Just a thought. 🎉🚮
Things have gotten worse since we last spoke really disappointed me, I agree that it was not that disturbing, and worse I found it to be very boring. I don't think I finished the last story in the book. I often think good reads ratings are way overblown, but some of these probably deserved a bit of a higher score.
Agree completely about Horror at Red Hook. Lovecraft at his worst.
Putting the books aside: some of the most immature, unstable, and uneducated people I've ever met have been on GoodReads, so I wouldn't look into it too much.
Ha! Yeah well it is on the internet
I haven’t read any of these but it is always interesting to see what books rank low. 😊💙
What a great idea for a video! And I thought you did a great job managing to give these unfortunate titles a fair crack (most of which I hadn't heard of).
Cows is probably the worst book I've ever read. That being said, I do have Nothing But Blackened Teeth waiting on my shelf, but I can't imagine it (or almost any other book) being as pointlessly disgusting as Cows.
It isn't seriously gross it's like one spot near the end but it is pretty pretentious flowery writing not as in its bad but it can be a trek to read through in my opinion
re: Cari Mora. Im not a hannibal Lechtor fan but was aware of harris when I read this, as I read Red Dragon WAY too young, but never cared either way about Hannibal.... but I really did rate this as one of the worst books I ever read one of my very few 1 stars ever. The book I felt was a complete waste with a tacked on unsatisfying ending. A bad guy who was constantly described as doing horrible things but we never saw them and a wasted story about the cop Robles was so pointless that if they had just cut his scenes out you wouldnt even have known they were missing.... this was truly a bad book.
Probably the worst contemporary book I have read is "American Psycho". A critic said of it at the time that the only offense in it was to the English language.
I thought it was a pretty entertaining read. Bit overrated though. I think Fight Club is massively overrated as well.
i haven't read it but i thought the film while well acted and the music was good the film itself was terrible. i've also never read Fight Club either
I decided to read Nothing But Blackened Teeth despite the poor ratings and I actually liked it a lot too! I’m not sure why that of all books got slammed the way it did. My biggest problem with it was that there was no falling action, it just kind of ended, but the actual horror I thought was really well-done. I’m definitely a Nothing But Blackened Teeth apologist.
I must admit I am tempted to give Hogg a try. Even though it sounds like very heavy going. Does it contain animal cruelty though? I won't buy or read anything that I know has animal cruelty.
I honestly don’t remember. There’s so much human cruelty it kind of blots everything out
@@CriminOllyBlog I will give it a swerve then. Thanks.
I DNF'd Cari Mora, I wasn't expecting Silence Of The Lambs but I also wasn't expecting to find it boring - it didn't feel like a Thomas Harris book to me.
It’s still sitting on my shelf looking at me, but I haven’t taken the plunge.
If ‘The Street’ didn’t exist, Horror at Red Hook would probably rank as Lovecraft’s most explicitly racist story. If I’m going to be as generous as I possibly can be, and this is a stretch to say the least, I could say there’s some ok atmosphere in Red Hook, but that gets completely negated by the awfulness of its politics. ‘The Street’, however, has none of that. A less-than-worthless piece of work.
How do I get my books to you?
Hey. There’s a link to all my contact details in the description of each video
@@CriminOllyBlog Thanks! I was on my phone and didn't see that!
Yeah, “Things Have Gotten Worse” is a victim of its own hype. If it hadn’t been recommended to me as “one of the most effed up, disturbing, twisted books you’ll ever read” I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. As is, it’s an… acceptable horror story with an interesting enough style and format, but it definitely doesn’t go as far as its reputation would suggest. Truly one of the books of all time.
Yeah I just couldn't help feeling it needed to keep going and get really crazy
Weird that my "worst" book (Black Mad Wheel) is still a 3.27 which is "above average" in my opinion. All the books on my DNF are 4+ 😂
I know I've read quite a few clunkers. Must not have logged them.
I was not a big Cassandra Khaw fan after reading Nothing But Blackened teeth and The Salt Grows Heavy BUT I attended a book club where they spoke on their writing process and it was simply captivating. They have synesthesia to some degree, and they explained how this often influences the way language feels almost more like a texture than a tool for them. Easily one of the best author's I have ever heard speak - really changed my opinion of their work quite drastically!
Lol, all of Thomas Harris's books are published after a long lull. He's not exactly a prolific author, is he?
Um, not shocked, not surprised. I do really enjoy Eric LaRocca. I was waiting to see one or two other books that I know you didn’t rate highly. 😂
I've never enjoyed "Horror at Red Hook." No surprise that one has few fans.
I'm still not sure what Samuel Delany was up to with "Hogg". Repulsive subject matter aside, it's well written and horribly gripping. If he was hoping move society's tolerance needle a bit, I'd say he probably managed it. If it were possible to have selected memories removed from my brain, I think "Hogg" is one I'd opt for.
I think I’d go for that selective memory removal procedure too
Hey can you review my book? It's not done yet, but I can send you the first eleven pages..
I found Blackened Teeth to be.... yeah, bad, but like.... #1 worst book on GR bad (It also is my #1 worst! honestly shocked!)? not by a mile.
Very interesting list
Lovecraft is awesome.
Only one I've read is Nothing But Blackened Teeth.
I might have liked it if it hadn't been a novella.
💚🖤
I would put 'The 39 Steps' on there. God I hated that.
1
I think I'm doing rather well here not to post a comment about my deep loathing of both H.P.Lovecraft and his writing....
... Oops.