To explain, during college’s 2019 fall semester and 2020 fall semester, I took a couple of classes. They are Reading for Writers. I should point out that I have to take the course twice to get a Certificate in Writing in college. Along with the Portfolio class, this class has a sizable queue line, which was why I couldn’t retake it for the spring 2020 semester.

I brought this up because, as stated in the class’s name, I have to read a book or, on a rare occasion, some short stories within a week or so and tell the teacher my thoughts on it. I consider some books, such as Battle Royal by Koushun Takami and The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes, excellent books. Others, I do not. Those books I despise.

Now, if you love those books, it’s OK. After all, we all have different tastes. In fact, I’m pretty sure some of you don’t like the novels I enjoy, and I’m OK with that. All that matters is that we don’t force each other to like books and such that we won’t want anyway. So, without further ado, let me list the books I have to read for class that I despise and why.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.
If there was a definition of overrated in science fiction books, this would be it. Won multiple awards, including the Hugo and Nebula Reward, highly acclaimed by critics, and even ninth on the TIME’s top ten fiction books of 2009. And yet, I felt nothing but despise for it.

The core reason why I hate the book story is the writing style. Now, I know any writers among you know of ‘Show, Don’t Tell,’ correct? But, unfortunately, this book is that to the extreme. If you open up the book, you will find yourself lost without anything explained. For example, what are these springs, and why are they used as an energy source? What are these calorie companies? Why should I care about Jaidee Rojjanasukchai? Heck, why should I care about any of these characters when I don’t know who they are?

In short, after a few chapters of seeing scenes with no explanation on what is this kind of world this is and why, I gave up and read through Wikipedia for answers. And to be blunt, if I need to check on another site to figure out the story of your world, then your storytelling sucks. Let the reader be engulfed in the world, not be watching from a window or a screen.

And it’s not as if we don’t see our characters’ thoughts because you do. They’re just as filtered with limited information on who they are and their motivations, which is only apparent when I looked on Wikipedia. Really, the only character that I find myself invested in is the titular windup girl, Emiko, because she is a left-behind slave forced into servitude by a sex club. And, while it’s just a personal point to me, even after turning thirty, I still get discomfort by sex, nudity, and the like.

Another problem I have is that while it’s listed as a bio punk science fiction book, it’s pretty much a dystopian book. Dystopian is a genre that I don’t enjoy too well, which I’ll explain later. But from that alone, don’t expect a happy ending.

I also read a short story, The Calorie Man, by the same author, though it’s more tolerable since, while it has leaned heavily into showing, it does explain the world better than the book.

The Beast of Cretacea by Todd Strasser.
Before explaining why I hate this book, let me go back to the book that I enjoy, The Legacy of Heorot. It’s a science-fiction retelling of Beowulf, where a colony on a newly christened planet, Avalon, found itself attacked by a reptilian alien species they dubbed the grendels. Yes, the characters are in many ways self-aware that they are in a retelling, but with some differences. For example, unlike Beowulf, who is meant to be an idolized hero and later ruler, Cadmann Weyland is a flawed man. He is a soldier in a society of scientists. He is cranky, especially with how careless and dismissive his fellow colonists are. He gets injured during a fight against one of the grendal. And when he finally got vindicated that threats were lurking around, he bailed on the colony to start his own home. It took months for him to forgive them, and he still refused to rejoin them even in the end. Though it’s hard to blame him considering what happened, it’s clear that he has some flaws. And that, plus more, makes this an excellent book that I highly recommend.

As for The Beast of Cretacea, it’s a science-fiction retelling of Moby-Dick and a poor one at that. In fact, even calling it a retelling is a lie since most of the plot is original. It’s a classic American novel poorly wrapped around a terrible story. And while all of the characters have the same names from Moby-Dick, none of them, especially Captain Ahab, have their original characterization and nuances. Moby-Dick, if you don’t know, is about Ahab hunting for the titular Moby Dick from the viewpoint of Ishmael, even after fate gave him every reason to turn back. Yet, this book is more about Ishmael, his past and his adventures, while the Ahab plot is just there.

To be fair, Moby-Dick wasn’t just about Captain Ahab’s quest since it’s also about whaling and such. And yet, everyone remembers the Ahab plot since it’s such a Shakespearian tragedy, where a man as great as him fell because of his fatal flaw after ignoring every reason to turn back. It felt hollow in this book since we barely get to know him or Starbuck. Plus, it ends with a twist full of fridge logic that it’s just dumb.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
I know. It’s another beloved book that won multiple awards, such as the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and got adapted numerous times, the most prominent being the 2017 Hulu TV Show. Heck, even my teacher of that class considers it his personal favorite (after being forced to read it three times by his classes). But, unfortunately, I don’t like this book.

One of my biggest problems is with the dystopian angle, something that I mentioned back in The Windup Girl, and it’s time for me to explain my issue with it. My problem is that, once you get down to it, a good chunk of dystopian novels is that they’re pretty much misery-induced satire. To explain what I mean, I don’t see them as stories in a traditional sense (exposition, rising action, climax, etc.), but a dark parody of the world, especially in a political sense. So, for example, a third of Nineteen Eighty-Four is a satire of Stalinist Russia, with the plot only opening up at the second part. Brave New World is a satire of capitalism, precisely the mass-producing kind where even the citizens are mass-produced. The Windup Girl is a satire of capitalism, though more in the vein where corporations rule what is left of the world, with foods genetically engineered so that you cannot reproduce them on your own. And The Handmaid’s Tale is a satire of religion, particularly the misogynistic kind.

If you like dystopian novels, that’s cool with me. In fact, I even listed one of my favorites, Battle Royale, which left the satire part of it in the background. Just that, to me, they don’t feel like genuine novels most of the time. In fact, I enjoy Brave New World more than Nineteen Eighty-Four since that has a more traditional story structure. Again, it’s just the satire part of it dominating the plot that off-puts me.

I also have a distaste of misery kind of story. Now, I don’t have a problem with dark narratives. But I don’t like misery for the sake of it. That and sex, which is why, no matter how acclaim they are, I’ll likely never read any of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin or go past the first episode of Game of Thrones.

I also don’t like main characters who are there to be bounced around with no control of their path. Now, I do get it when it’s the beginning of a story, but it gets less and less tolerable as it goes on. And the thing that will make me flip a table is when, at the end, when the characters have a chance to prove themselves, they get bailed out of it. Of course, that isn’t to say that is what happened in this novel since it ended ambiguously, but it’s still annoying. In fact, the book ended just when it could’ve gone on exciting paths. As such, I can’t help but despise it.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
Imagine this. You take the worse element of The Beast of Cretacea that it’s a pseudo-retelling of a classic American novel. Then you combine it with the dystopian world from The Handmaid’s Tale. What do you get? This book. Do I need to explain why I hate this book since I did a thorough job on those two?

Well, there is one thing I can add, specifically which American novel retelling it is. It’s The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And, to its credit, it is a more honest retelling than The Beast of Cretacea. Yet, it still wasn’t enjoyable. Even my teacher admits that it’s a discounted version of The Handmaid’s Tale. In fact, after a few chapters, I pretty much broke and instead skimmed as fast as I could, checking on Wikipedia to see anything I missed, and instead read through 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. I highly recommend that over When She Woke.

That’s pretty much it for books that I despise. And, if you read any of those books and love or at least enjoyed them, I have no issue with you. After all, you should read what you love. In fact, if you have any books that you hate or feel are overrated, please share.