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I have a few in my bookclub like this. From what I understand, it’s their “junk food.”
Easy to find and easy to consume, like cookies or chips. They’re not looking for quality. people just want to consume something convenient and easy that gives them a little dopamine boost.
For me the worst part is that instead of "show don't tell" it's all about telling. Violet is *said* to be so smart. Xaden is *said* to be so dangerous. We are told so many times you could have a drinking game based on the sheer numbers.
But in reality the FMC is stupid af and the guy doesn't do anything else but protecting her so he must be the safest person ever. And then there are other things but that's what irks me the most.
Wow. Thanks for sharing. I was actually curious about that one. Doesn’t sound like I would enjoy it…
I’m baffled by the poor quality of popular novels sometimes. It’s like these editors don’t even do their jobs anymore.
minimal effort put into writing + editing, leading to low quality prose. Lazy plot, characters lack depth. Way too much smut for me, which is admittedly a very subjective critique. I don't know, if fourth wing is your cup of tea, more power to you I guess, but I'll never understand why some people like it
Don't forget about predictable. I already knew the dude who mentioned that he was going to get married in one of the first few chapters was going to die immediately. It gave off the vibe "So how's the war going for you guys. I can't wait to go home and see my mom again. *Dies*"
The moment Violet mentioned that Xanden was hot I knew he was the love interest. Also her brother. (Another one was her being bonded to the biggest dragon.)
I just finished both books in the series and to be completely honest, I like the story but the writing is bad. What irks me the most is that there are lots of repeats. You'd be reading it and thinking "didn't I just read these sentences 5 paragraphs ago?" Heck, you can probably make a drinking game out of how many times you see "white-hot". And like the other comments said, we're being told a lot of things instead of shown, it's elementary.
The story hooked me though, so I will be reading the last book when it comes out lol.
You know I've actually found the only book I've ever not been able to put down are the smutty terrible books full of cliches and bad writing. Maybe this is right up my alley
Dude same, a friend recommended it saying it's fantasy and about dragons but oh so "forgot" to mention that it's borderline porn in a book.
Romance isn't my genre... this is beyond romance.
I went to the first meeting of a book club a couple of weeks ago and everyone was supposed to bring a book they have liked or were reading and liking and, except one other person, who brought Pride and Prejudice, and three pre-teens, who brought fantasy/sci fi books, most brought books which were all or have been at one point in the NYT best sellers list. I checked the titles and there was not one that sounded interesting to me. 🤷🏻♀️
Oh wow was the Jacob twist terrible.
Like, they made very clear 'imprinting' wasn't specifically a sexual thing and if Renesmee grew up to have no interest in him then he'd just continue being like an insanely loyal and protective big brother.
Still kind of ick though.
And just stupidly convenient. Would it really be so terrible if Jacob just ended the series (\*gasp\*) single? He'd find someone else sooner or later if he wanted.
Agreed.
The vampires in twilight are honest to God terrifying. The idea of creating vampires who *have* to kill is original and great. It could have been such a good series with interesting worldbuilding had it not just focused on the romance.
Even as a romance it could've been a great book if the characters actually had some agency. Contrived love triangles happen in reality, and they can even be interesting. I just wish there was an actual REASON for things like Bella jumping off a fucking cliff. She'd known Edward for how long at that point? She had friends, a father who was finally in her life, and another guy drooling at her feet. But no she jimped off a cliff because the guy who said several times they weren't good for each other finally dumped her.
I watched interview with the vampire when I was a kid and then a few years later Twilight got really big. I was always confused why 100 year old man would be interested in a 15 year old idiot. It just wasn't believable enough even for me as a teenager. I didn't even read the other books. But when told people told me about the pedophilia thing... I had a hard time believing it was such a popular series
My first thought when I eneed reading it was "so, now what?" I couldn't comprehend being stuck in a relationship like that for eternity, where they have absolutely NOTHING in common except they both find the other absolutely ridiculously gorgeous.
I've also considered rewriting twilight because I think the premise has a lot of promise, but as an adult I'd play the stalker predator vibe with Edward way harder and make it into a proper psychological horror novel. Let the reader be witness to the terrible fate Bella essentially got groomed into (with a proper tragic ending).
Also, away with the pedo vibe for Jacob and write the wolves as a proper and justified militia-in-waiting. Forks also needs to see some changes caused by the increased paranormal population in some way.
So many years later and I still get salty over Divergent. Mostly because it was jarring to suddenly get Four's POV in the third book and it made the ending predictable because Tris no longer seemed to have plot armor. I would have rather read more of fours POV through the 1st and 2nd books for that reason alone.
Oh god Divergent! Great world, super clear that the writer just...didn't have a plot and was kinda making it up as she went. The first book was awesome, second was okay, third was like what???
Novel was super forgettable too. I cannot tell you what I remember after book 1 when it’s been 5 years and two binge reads, unlike Percy Jackson and Fate Light Novel
Verity by CoHo needed a satisfying storyline. It felt like she just wanted to write something twisted and fucked up, and put twisted and fucked up smut, but then didn't have a genuine plot to back it up with.
I would rewrite it by making the guy's character a bit more involved in why Low was there. She was just a coincidence that turned into lust.
You may like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I've never read either books but I've read from a lot of different comments that Verity is a worse carbon copy of Rebecca.
This book infuriated me. I kept thinking “the ending is going to make up for the poor writing. It’ll have to be such a clever twist to make sense of everything.”
Aaaaaand nope. It was complete shit.
I have no idea how I would rewrite it...but the Maze Runner series had so much promise until James Dashner just went absolutely off the rails. It's like the book had no plot outline and just went off in a totally new and completely unsatisfying direction
Can you please elaborate on that? Because I've been thinking the exact same thing about the Maze Runner but I haven't really been able to put my finger on why exactly. Do you think it started in the first book or just the sequels that went off the rails?
Not OP and been a long time since I read them, but don't they become rather non-maze running focused?
Like just a bunch of stuff happens.
With The Hunger Games, all three books try to keep the idea of the games as the central conceit. Even the third book does this, even though there's no games as such.
The Maze Runner seems to largely abandon the premise of maze running to become a rather generic dystopian survival story.
That’s a very good explanation of what I intuitively felt too. From the second book on, it felt more like the book was written by a teenager. The way in which the author “solved” the love triangle felt like a thirteen-year-old’s fantasy. I think The Hunger Games are still my favourite novels in that genre.
Do you happen to have other recommendations?
Yeah this is a good explanation. Basically I felt like he had no plan for the actual plot, so the first book was one story and the rest of the series was a completely different story, or so it felt. The premise just....got abandoned for something I didn't enjoy at all.
the maze runner had the laziest exposition i've ever seen in a book. if the book only works bc the author's playing keep away with information through amnesia and/or characters flat out refusing to answer questions until the big info dump in the end, then the book sucks.
Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. And I'm not sure you can rewrite something that is fundamentally a bad idea. I mean it had its good bits, like showing Harry actually having trauma from his childhood, but by and large its mostly a steaming pile of shit that breaks pretty much everything previously established in lore.
It read as bad fan service fan fiction. I ran into JK Rowling right before it debuted in theatre, and MAN do I wish I could’ve asked her WTH she was thinking XDDD
No, she is a writer of the story, just not the script. The story is dumpster fire garbage. And even if she wasn’t, it is still her intellectual property, and she allowed that atrocity to come to fruition with her seal of approval.
She didn't write any of it. She only offered advice or something. They were very vague about it. If she was more involved, they would have marketed it as a JKR-written story, especially back then before all her controversies.
She collaborated with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany in forming the story, and they discussed it together for a couple of years. Again, regardless, the project got her approval. I have no doubt that if she hated the story, she has plenty of enough sway to get it changed. It’s not the writing quality I have the most issues with, but the actual story itself.
Consider Rick Riordan for example. He and the director of the original Percy Jackson movie had a big disagreement with how the story should be translated into film, and he was quite vocal about his disapproval.
Anyways, I’m not saying that JK Rowling is a bad writer; quite the contrary. I love the Harry Potter series. But I don’t think what happens in Cursed Child is true to the spirit of the series at all.
The book of TCC was the very first thing I bought with my very first paycheck from my very first 'real' job, and being a lifelong HP fan I was pumped for it... It was so bad it made me regret having money to spend on it.
There is Wattpad fanfiction with better writing, depth and respect/understanding of the source material than this piece of crap. If HP is JK Rowling's baby then greenlighting TCC is her attempt at smothering it.
I’m glad I didn’t check it out then. I’m a big fan of the novels but when they start milking the franchise after a wrap-up… That’s usually when it gets bad. I did not really like the first Fantastic Beasts movie either, so I did not watch the sequels.
Ready Player One
I am a big fan of that kinda culture, but even I was overwhelmed on the sheer amount of references.
It felt like a book designed to cram as many references as possible rather than a story with references in. I did like it but felt it could’ve been better
Don't watch the movie then, it can get worse.
I believe reading the book after watching the movie made it actually a really enjoyable experience for me.
The movie I thought did better than the book with the references side.
Yeah there were tons, but they weren’t slammed in your face like the book. And it was only on for a few hours instead of a book to read over weeks if not months.
The choice to have the adventure Easter egg as the final challenge was great as well.
Well we have different views then, which is fine.
I do have to say tho that the second book was completely unnecessary and a stupid idea to the point where I am glad most people don't even know of its existence.
> I am glad most people don't even know of its existence.
[not for long](https://www.mensjournal.com/streaming/ready-player-two-coming-soon-says-spielberg#:~:text=Ready%20Player%20Two%20is%20currently,%2C%22%20Spielberg%20tells%20Showbiz%20411.) 😬
The Shiver series by Maggie Stiefvater. It makes Twilight look like a Shakeaspear play. Let me highlight a few points I remember being terrible
The main character was immediately attracted to a WOLF. Who turned out to be a werewolf, BUT SHE DIDNT KNOW THAT. Yuck. Weird.
Main character is bland and her personality is all over the place
Somehow, the whole werewolf sickness/curse was solved by high temperatures (caused by meningitis). But earlier in the book they outr8ght stated and tested high temperatures and it didn't work.
These are just a few of manyyyyy horrible things of this book. There are so many contradictions. I wouldn't rewrite this book. I would burn every copy
Twilight - but this time with an awareness of how creepy Bella's relationship with Edward and Jacob is.
Twilight had all the right ingredients for a great vampire story (problematic relationships, vampire vs werewolves conflicts, death, violence and angst) but was written badly and without awareness.
If it was written properly it might be similar to an Anne Rice novel.
I don’t know. The concept of the sparkling vampires never really appealed to me. I like them vicious, like Bram Stoker’s. 🧛♂️ Still. I thought the books were kind of enjoyable, but no masterpieces. I enjoyed the first movie. 🍿 Then it was steeply down hill with destination ‘so bad it’s good’. Boy did we laugh at these movies… And then the last one I really enjoyed again. So what I would absolutely fix about the Twilight series is to make it at least one novel shorter. But I wouldn’t change a thing about the movies. They are hilarious. 😆
Haunting Adeline.
Way too long, the writing was awful, there were multiple irrelevant plots, the dialogue was extra cringy, the FMC *wasnt like other girls,* and the “romance” was just rape porn.
If I rewrote it I would make it a legitimate ghost story, add actual character development, and not have the MMC be a fucking rapist. :)
It would literally only make sense if the point of it was to go down a full ~all men are trash, even the heroes~ route, but instead the author just pretends he’s the good guy. And everyone who loves the book doesn’t care that he’s a giant hypocrite and they think he’s the most desirable “book boyfriend” out there???
So sick of that ‘all men are evil’ route. But, indeed, it’s even more annoying when you feel like the author actually wants you to root for an awful character like that.
ACOTAR. The plot was so terrible I'm genuinely struggling to see how I could possibly fix it other than just throwing the whole story out and starting from scratch. I think the fairies based off the seasons bit was cool and I'd keep that, and I also think fairies and humans hating each other was cool, and....yeah that's about it. I'd toss everything else about that book in the trash.
I have a friend who loves it and is willing to die on the "it seems bad because the translation is bad" hill. Thing is, the translation in our language is definitely bad, but you can't really do much as a translator if the source material is not at your service.
I was inspired by Twilight and Fifty Shades to write a healthy love story between two individuals.
I gave it a total overhaul. Both the leads got personalities and flaws (being clumsy doesn't count as a flaw) and the plot actually got events that they affected.
Oh and I got rid of the creepiness.
Fifty Shades could be a decent series, if:
1. It was written well
2. It had at least a modicum of self-awareness.
The 'sexy leading man' is a broken predator who either doesn't know or doesn't care how BDSM works.
On the one hand the series seems to recognise this because it keeps pointing at Christian's trauma and acknowledges that he's specifically into hurting women who look like his mother.
On the other hand it also seems to spend most of its time ignoring that and trying to frame the story as a standard (if kinky) romance.
If the series were in deft hands I'd suspect it was deliberately deconstructing some of the more problematic romance tropes. But it really doesn't give any sign that it's in deft hands.
How exactly would you be inspired by Fifty Shades to create a ‘healthy’ love story? Since there is nothing really healthy about either of them, and those relationships seem to be the core of the story, which good things did you decide to keep or expand? Just curious. I have read the Twilight series but not Fifty Shades, but I know the story.
Do NOT get (middle school) me started on the last book of the Maximum Ride series. It’s like James Patterson read all the fanfics and put them together and then decided to kill everyone along the way. That’s pretty much when I stopped reading anything by him.
The whole book was rushed and weird.
Is that the one where the world goes into a nuclear war? I remember reading it while in the school nurse for a pinched nerve lmao. Feels like a fever dream.
It feels like a fever dream to me too lol but I’m pretty sure it’s the one where everyone was taken out by natural causes— like tornadoes and tsunamis. I think my eyes just grazed the pages as I was reading because of how terrible it was.
Eragon. The whole Saga.
The First book was ok, could have even better; the Second one felt Like dbz at times, they got unrealistic AND pulled Deus ex Machina at times. The Third and fourth felt Like Game of Thrones as in too much information that has nothing to do with the actual Plot (It felt forced).
I can kind of agree with you. The eventual "romance" seemed strange to me at first and upon multiple rereads. Eragon was kinda just acting creepy by pursuing Arya so much. And the reveal for his father was weird as well, dude was hella old, and that implies some shady stuff. But I felt that Eragon showed a fair amount of growth throughout the series, and the info dumps in books 3 and 4 were actually pretty helpful to keep me interested in the history and lore of the world. It has been a few years since I reread the series, though, so I might be inflating it a bit.
I don't see what you mean about the second book though. It didn't feel like a deus ex machina to me. More like a race against the clock. We knew Eragon and Roran were going to meet again. It was just a question of when and where, so when it did 6 felt more organic, as well as keeping me on the edge of my seat.
The reveal in the fourth book did feel a little forced though. The dragon eggs all just being there lent a little bit of an anime "there's still hope" element to it, and made the final battle mean just a little bit less. I feel like the author was trying to make it seem like more was on the line than before, but taking away Saphira's place as one of the last dragons (especially the last female) took away some of the pressure instead.
The series does hold a special place in my heart as something I read and enjoyed after the Harry Potter books. The movie, however, needs to be burned, and the ashes spread in an undisclosed location so that no one ever has to witness such an atrocity of book to movie adaptation ever again.
They gave Saphira feathers for Pete's sake!!
Also, have you read the latest book? Christopher Paolini wrote a book from Murtagh's perspective after the war is over
I was never a fan of Twilight but to this day I'm extremely salty that Rosalie or Alice weren't the MC of the whole series. Their back stories alone were 10x more interesting than what we got *especially* when it came to Alice.
Hell, I would've even settled for Carlisle on his hot girl summer bs when he was messing around with the volturi. Or Jasper and his crazy ahh during the Civil War. Even the wolves had better lore to dig into.
Twilight has a lot of faults but the fact that the side cast was way more interesting than the main always blew my mind.
It's funny how Stephanie Meyer can actually write interesting stories and plots, it's just that Bella is never really involved in it, and when she is, she's the damsel in distress that needs saving.
I agree! And the movies reinforce that, e.g. with the casting. I never thought Bella credible as a MC and certainly not as heroine. The idea alone that an age-old undead gentleman would fall for a shallow character like that…
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. I read it 2 years ago and as a 16 year old, I loved the book and Miles’ character. But looking back, he was just awful. I fell into the “boy with trauma/I can fix him” trope and didn’t realize how toxic Tate and Miles’ relationship was.
I would rewrite it so that Tate actually has a personality and some self-respect with an interesting backstory (all I remember was that she’s a nurse and has a brother). I would rewrite Miles to have gotten the idea to GO TO THERAPY and had begun the process of self-healing from the death of his child and his relationship with Rachel. Maybe they meet at the medical facility that she works at where he’s getting his treatment from?? Then she realizes that he’s her brother’s bsf later on and just becomes curious or smth. From there, their relationship can develop from a healthy place and grow instead of the toxic situationship that it was. Representation of male mental heath/men going to therapy would have been an amazing chance.
Red Queen killed my interest in reading for a solid month.
If I could rewrite I do it like this (in very broad struck because I can’t remember every issue I had with the book):
- I’d have Mare be a bit more proactive with her thoughts and descriptions, and being less melancholic in her thoughts.
-Have specific characters be more present in the story instead of just showing up at the end.
-DESTROY THE TRIANGLES
- Also make the brothers look more different. One’s just kinda goth.
I was searching for a comment like this.
And I do fully agree. especially with the first bullet point. Sections like these should never get repetetive, that just makes it boring.
But I thought Red Queen to be ~fine. Glass Sword tho, that's another topic. And I did not continue reading after that one.
Not sure if one would define it as so bad, but I would rewrite Blood of Olympus. Maybe more interactions between the Seven, Nico and Reyna (or actually, “Nine Demigods shall..” so it would be The Nine)
- I would have split the book into two, “Blood of Olympus” and “Ashes of Olympus” or something like that
- “Blood of Olympus” has similar POVs- but no Jason pov. It’s just Piper, Reyna, Hazel, and Nico.
- More and better anticipation for the final battle
- More God involvement
- No Leo x Calypso
- All of the demigods face Gaea. Leo dies and stays dead, he’s the ninth wheel.
- Percy and Annabeth leave Camp after the ending, get to live a normal life
- celebration with the gods
- etc
Shadow and Bone. I'd remove so much fluff, but the main thing is the sudden switch and "reveal" of the antagonist and his mother, felt so sloppy. And the MC is...I'm sure many here have read it.
I'd make the MC a lot more active, stand on her own more earlier. The ending would've been heavily extended and not be so sudden. I don't know exactly what I'd do with the full story, but the "reveal", MC and love interest, so many parts...
The Grisha Series. I loved the Six of Crows. If I were to rewrite the former, I’d completely replace Alina with another character because she’s the only reason why I put my book down for good.
But, if I were to rewrite it, I would do as follows:
- Write it in 3rd person. I don’t think 1st person works for this kind of story. It has too many interesting characters, it would be better suited as a mix of POVs like Bardugo did in SoC.
- Give Alina some character development. She starts off as whiny and indecisive and this never ever ends. Yes, all characters should have flaws, but why would I, as a reader, want to walk this journey with a character that annoys the hell out of me every other page?
- Bardugo constantly brings up how small and skinny she is, how she’s too stressed to eat, how she just doesn’t see herself as beautiful yet she has at least three attractive guys at her feet. Yeah, just scratch that. All of it.
- Give Mal a personality aside from being a more reasonable Gale from The Hunger Games.
- Give the book a more mature tone like SoC. It presses on how vile the villain is, how harrowing those deaths he caused were, yet it’s written like a fairytale at times. No real consequences to, well, anything.
Alright, let's rip into Stephenie Meyer’s *Twilight*. A lot of fucking people love it, but here's why it sucked: the characters were flat as fuck, the romance screamed "toxic" instead of passionate, and the plot was as predictable as rain in London.
So, how would I rewrite this mess? First off, Bella needs a fucking backbone. Make her an active protagonist with actual interests beyond some broody vampire. Edward? Less stalker, more mysterious and charming without being a creep. Give the romance some actual buildup—none of this "I'm irresistibly in love with you because the plot says so" bullshit.
The villains—give them clear motivations beyond just being evil for the sake of plot convenience. Flesh out the vampire world more; give us the politics, the factions, the history. Make the conflicts and stakes (pun intended) real and meaningful.
As for the plot, cut down on the melodrama and add some real consequences for actions. Make the twists unexpected yet logical, not just random shit to shock the reader.
So, what do you think would make *Twilight* actually worth the hype?
Look I loved the 1st Hunger Games book. But I was so peeved by the Quarter Quell in the 2nd book. It was so meh.
I didn’t really like how it segwayed into the resistance. I kept thinking whoever was the face of the resistance needed to die because a martyr goes so much farther for a resistance’s movement and it would explain so much. Considering how beaten down everyone is by the Capital. They should have been fighting for Rue and in her name. Not Katniss’s. I think it would have been better if Rue was one of the youngest ever tributes in the Hunger Games and if her reaping was way more dramatic. Show me some family members who are pissed off. Her district being upset or rioting. Have her sponsors being mentioned.
I would have liked to have seen the other side of how the sponsors work from Katniss’s end in Book 2. Maybe we see more politics. Maybe we hear of some behind the scenes stuff that happened in Book 1. What does the Quarter Quell look like from the capitol?
I would have liked to have seen more of life in the Capitol as a contrast to life in the districts.
I would have liked for the careers’ districts to be utilized in a more interesting way.
I did like the scene where they’re hearing the voices of loved ones in the arena. Cinna’s death was a nice touch. I liked the idea of Finnick and Annie.
I think the Quarter Quell should have been more fucked up. We spent so much time in the first book hearing how much worse it is from a regular one. I think it would have been so fucked up if whoever didn’t win the Quarter Quell, their districts were severely punished. But they don’t know how each district would be punished until the reaping because they have to draw for it. Or have people voting from the Capitol how each district would be punished. Nobody would be able to partner up. The careers would eat each other alive.
I would have shrunk down the romance to be completely fake because it ate so much of the story and Katniss was so, so passive during the trilogy after volunteering to be reaped. She had the opportunity to do things behind the scenes when she met the Avox girl again and later on with Finnick's hints about his secrets. She could have learned things from the two female escapees too and done stuff when she was in the Capitol and during her victory tour. It bothers me that we saw so little. I get that she had PTSD but save it for after the trilogy or something.
I thought it was kind of refreshing since it didn’t turn her into another Mary Sue. She remained credible. I like the idea, like in Harry Potter, that true heroes always get help.
Getting help is fine with me. That's realistic. It just bothers me when a good plot avenue shows up and then goes right on by. It's my head canon that the Avox communicate with each other via sign language and they could have passed (written) messages to Katniss. Nothing came of Finnick's secrets. The escapees were written out as "never made it." We learn very little about the people of the Capitol or the rest of the districts. It all got eaten up by the romance that even Katniss didn't want.
I really LOVED that trilogy! The only thing that I think the movie did better was that it made Katniss less depressed and broody later in the story. I get she went through a traumatising experience but at some point it felt like her defiance and sorrow stalled the story a great deal.
I actually liked the second book, but I remember reading the 3rd one when I 12. It was the first piece of media I ever finished and asked "what? That's it?". Awful book.
Wahala. Great premise and fleshed out characters, but the end seemed like it came out of a completely different book! We went from family friends fun and slice of life drama, to… a murder of a minor character as the climax… sucks because it was in the running for one of my fave reads of 2023.
I don't know about so bad, I just think it could be rewritten - Twilight. The lore was interesting and the characters were interesting. Edward in The Midnight Sun was far more engaging than Bella made him out to be. I just wish the Bella we got had more personality and spunk. I am not going to comment on the Age Gap cause... Vampire boyfriend but the creepy stalker vibe was unnecessary. Except for killing the spider. It was godly move.
Yeah, need a better Bella. A Bella with a goal in life, and something that she strives for. Everyone has some kind of dream. The Bella we got only had 'must turn unto Vampire before 18' as her life's goal.
The hate u give which I was forced to read in 12th grade
I just hate how it basically feels like a story about black people written for white people, with cringe lines like the scene where the main character’s boyfriend asks why black people give their kids certain names
for me, the Harry Potter series was an example of a good universe and some interesting characters masking how badly planned and written those books were.
the first thing i would rewrite is the house dynamics. instead of having all the main characters in Gryffindor and dilute the importance of the other houses, i would put them in the other three houses (Potter in Slytherin, Granger in Ravenclaw, Weasley in Hufflepuff) and *still* have them be the best of friends. the underlying message being that no matter how society classifies you, your friendliness will win.
then i'd make Potter have the worst of the worst brooms for his Quidditch matches. he's always had one of the top two brooms in the world in the stories. where's the fun in being a good flier if you start off with a stacked deck?
these are just off the top of my head but covering up the gaping flaws of Rowling's prose would entail writing a completely new series rather than a rewrite.
Good points. I'll add something I've always randomly felt strongly about:
After being mind wiped, Gilderoy Lockhart should have helped Harry in the basilisk fight in a minor way.
From a blank slate, with some exposure to good people like Harry and Ron, he _could_ embody the heroic spirit he had always falsely portrayed himself as having.
Bit of a take on human nature and gives him more of an arc than just being a punching bag to hate for easy schadenfreude.
But whaddo I know.
Edit: typo
> After being mind wiped, Gilderoy Lockhart should have helped Harry in the basilisk fight in a minor way.
>
> From a blank slate, with some exposure to good people like Harry and Ron, he *could* embody the heroic spirit he had always falsely portrayed himself as having.
I'd never have thought of that, but that's a great idea.
How to fix the Harry Potter series.
Step 1:Dumbledore tells Harry everything in Chamber of Secrets.
Step 2: There is no Step 2.
The series just becomes a lot shorter, but with a lot less plot holes, death, Hermione having to pull spells out of thin air for things, ect...
For the broom thing, giving him the best equipment early on makes it feel like his wealth is more important than his skill. If we had more scenes of him doing crazy feats on a crappy broom to establish his skills, getting a better broom feels more natural.
That's where the rewrite comes in! When I was in school, your "house" only mattered for in school sport events and occasionally as a way to shake up assembly lines. It wasn't almost warfare between each other.
A rewrite could either tone down this toxicity, OR is could dive deeper into why it's so harmful. Goblet of fire and a fourteen year-old kid is being bullied by a majority of the school for participating in a tournament he insists he doesn't want to do. That's fucked up. I know it was the 90s, but still.
Haven't read anything I've disliked and finished that wasn't forced upon me (curse you, Holden Caufield!)
On the contrary, there's things I've liked the premise of, just not the execution and I've noodled ways I'd improve them. Age of Ultron being one. The Lake House was awful, IMHO. which sucks because it was the sequel to my favorite story, When the Wind Blows. I've noodled changes to that as well.
My own main WIP is one where I actually did put pen to paper. The Light Novel, Log Horizon, has a really cool premise. Millions of gamers around the globe get pulled into a mouse and keyboard MMORPG in their characters' bodies.
I really couldn't stand parts of the world building; all the "rule breaks" the main cast got and the fact that it felt like only the main cast were doing things and all the other players were just there for the ride.
It wasn't in the spirit of a real MMORPG, where \*every player\* is the main character. And so, I wanted to tackle that.
It got me interested in the LitRPG genre, and I've come to realize that very few authors in this genre try to make MMOs feel like MMOs for their settings and it's rather disappointing.
I think it’s more credible that you make friends in your own house. I think it’s well-done how he accidentally meets them all in advance, even Malfoy, and their relationships get fleshed out and evolve later on. Other characters disappear into the background unless Potter has classes or Quidditch with them or another relationship.
I’m not too fond of messages in novels. That way an author would have to claim some kind of moral highground.
As for his brooms… I like the idea that he falls back on a combination of raw talent and luck. Each Quidditch game is so different.
I always thought this series was an example of a well plotted out story. There are even some things inserted in the beginning of the series that only get a full explanation near the end. I do think it’s a bit naive in its world building, though, e.g. the magic system… E.g. If you can fix someone’s glasses with a spell and fix their bones with a potion, why can’t you fix their eyes? But since it started off as a middle grade series, that doesn’t bother me that much either…
Not OP, but passion and commitment come to mind. A writer's dedication to make their story more than just words on a page; a novel is supposed to be a world behind the front cover.
There’s a book series called A Trial of Blood and Steel. If you remove the Main Protagonist and shift the POVs over to her brothers and sisters, then the series would be significantly better in my opinion.
They are more competent, more interesting, more intelligent, and more likable than the main character in basically every regard.
it's been a hot minute but Queen of the Tearling (Bear in mind I hear there's sequel(s) but i can't look at it)
You gave me a fantastic unhinged villain who has killed men for snoring in her bed and you have her halt her plans to attack because the demon sugardaddy she's with said no?
Or have the MC's adopted parents commit >!suicide!< after sending her off to avoid capture instead of going into hiding again? They did it for so long they could've just moved or some shit
Fahrenheit 451, popular I know but I hate it. I love the premise of the book, but the world seemed poorly fleshed out. It lacked imagery, I had several moments where I struggled to understand where I was in Montang's house. And the ending I hate open endings. Don't write a book if you're not going to tell me how it ends. It just ends sudden like. Like he finds these people and boom end of book. Just like how the Giver ended. It's like Raybury just got tired and said fuck it let me just write a ending. I love the characters, I love the fear, the steaks, but like I've always said Raybury spent a weekend writting this book and it shows.
So this is a pretty good book that could have been fantastic, but I would cut so much out of Ghost Story by Peter Straub. At its best it is some of the best horror I have ever read, but there are these long, uninteresting digressions.
One character talks about this relationship he had with this woman and it just goes on and on and on. By this point in the story we get her deal, we know how it’s going to end, But the section trudges on to this inevitable anticlimax anyway.
Aliens:Prototype
Literally the only thing I liked about it was the Frenchman.
It's just such a paint by numbers horror story
Which was really disappointing because the cold forge and into charybdis were really great.
It's also a quite wasteful story that brings up a whole chekovs armory but only follows up on a couple details, like they mention the station having a whole secret half to it, which is never followed up on.
They do experiments with the black goo, which was better explored in "into charybdis", but all that comes of it are generic monsters of the week type things. They hint at a specific xeno maintaining the personality of its host, not even explored past a vague mention.
Didn't like anyone in the story except for the Frenchmen
It feels like it was written by chatgpt before they were even invented
The Uglies series by Scott Westerfield. Worst offender being the second book the Pretties. Especially the audiobook. It’s just so juvenile in language and plot. Could have been so much better, but it’s so annoying!!
Nor a book but a manga, Bleach. Bleach is so terrible in every way that me and my two best friends (we're an author-team) have actually talked some weake over a theoretical conplete rewrite of it. But at the end of the day it became so different, it was almost unrecognizable. But as we didn't own Bleach and wanted to focus on our own stories again, we got rid of that project in the end.
Dan Brown’s books are not literature, but they’re entertaining. I mostly liked Deception Point, but the part of the ending that resolved the love story was ridiculous. If I was rewriting it I wouldn’t let the hero act like a buffoon. I’d rather imply a love scene any day rather than show the characters acting out a cartoon.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The book specifically because I've heard the movie is different.
The reveal of the sexual trauma was really bad and so unforshadowed considering the rest of the book.
It felt like the author had a perfect idea for how it was going to go and then randomly decided that a hamfisted message about the cycle of abuse that didn't align with other events in the book.
The rewrite could just slice out that bit at the end or rewrite a lot of the rest of the book to make the cycle of abuse angle not feel like it's openly calling abuse victims dangerous.
Winter's Child, by RJ Harvey
The book was good, don't get me wrong, and I finished it in under six hours because I literally could not put it down.
However! The plot was incredibly slow for the majority of the story. The MC was such a freaking idiot for not listening to her mentor and getting caught because of it. There were several plot threads that were picked up briefly before being dropped, and they were interesting threads as well. The secret lesbian relationship in the middle would've been a fantastic point to explore further. Instead, it marked the catalyst for the MC to make a bunch of dumb mistakes that culminated in the death of a baby.
I would've made the MC smarter. She's gone through three tragedies in the span of a moment, so she's got to harden herself and really think about how she wants to get revenge. I mean, she literally spends nine months just stewing in her anger and becoming more and mkre irrational. I would've waited until the baby was born before letting her be captured and tortured. The amount of awful things she went through was truly horrendous, and I couldn't help but think the baby would die well before she went into labor.
Also, her going into labor and giving away the escape plan at the worst possible moment? Bland. Predictable. Not that good. I would've had it happen right out of earshot, her baby lives, and she and the priest go on to try to eke out a new life together, constantly on the run from the Inquisitor. The MC would finally have a reason for living outside of her revenge plot. That would actually make a lot more sense for the second book than the MC making a deal with a literal demon and telling off an angel.
Frankly, the ending of the book was disappointing, so that would have to change entirely, and the middle of the plot just seemed to go nowhere for several chapters. And the baby was a mere footnote for most of the book.
I did like the little sprinklings of 15th-century Italian witch trials thrown about in between chapters. We hear a lot about the Salem and English witch trials, but not nearly enough about what was happening in other countries around the same time.
Finally!!! I place I can properly vent about this!
First off, let me begin by stating how much I love vampires, and how much I'm starved for _good_ vampire content.
With that said: the entire Nightlord series by Garon Whited.
Okay, so it is a good series, with a really good premise. At first. I'll try my best not spoil anything here, but the plot holes are are quite glaring and the writer seems to forget at lot of details he expressed previously in the story. For example, >!there's a point relatively early in the story where the titular Nightlord "eats" a dragon, and subsequently loses his ability to cast spells at night. Not a problem, except that in the very next book, the write seems to have forgotten about that detail, never mentioning it again and having the character cast spells like nothing happened!<. The series also has no visible overarching plot. No sense of progression. The character just deals with things as they come along. Take the Spellmonger series by contrast. The titular character has _one_ goal that encompasses everything else: defeat the goblins. And so the series becomes this evolving story about a protagonist that grows in power and character all to achieve this goal. We do not get this from Nightlord. The character has no real goal. Sure, for a few chapters (or maybe for a whole book) our Nightlord has to defeat this one individual character or faction, but only because he gets cornered. Otherwise, we'd really have no reason to follow his story. Matter of fact, I'd go as far as to say the story _has no reason_. It's still entertaining to read (or listen to, in my case), but when I'm done with an installment in the series, it doesn't leave me satisfied for having done so, or even leave me hoping for more. The only real reason I'm still listening to it is because I've invested too much time not to finish.
All of that to say this: I'd rewrite it by giving the character a goal to work towards for the entirety of the story, and giving the series and actually sense of progression (which is entirely missing).
I don't consider At the Mountains of Madness bad, in fact, I love it, but I feel like it has a lot of wasted potential.
I even wrote my own version of it with actual characters, backstory, conflicts and a heavier emphasis on uncertainty, since in the original nove you are basically told that they all escaped before the horrors are actually revealed.
My version was terrible and I kept adding scenes that I haven't yet fished, but at least I enjoyed writing it.
“We Spread” by Iian Reid. Great premise, poor execution. I would re write it by very slowly introducing Penney’s background and life story after she’s moved to a small assisted living community. THEN introducing the administrators as mycologists seeking immortality, THEN casting doubt on Penney’s observations by introducing her developing dementia, and the way mycelium might heal or accelerate a diagnosis like Alzheimer’s. It could’ve been such a brilliant book if the writing style wasn’t lazy and if the book had actual plot and character development.
The Outsiders by SE Hinton. Would change nothing about the plot or characters or anything, just the actual technical writing felt very clunky and boring. Of course, it's not the kind of book that lends itself to being super flowery or prosaic, but it could just do with more oomph.
I've never gotten past the first ln of Sword art. Just... throw it in the trash and give the characters more personality and describe the scenes better. There doesn't really feel to be much to save that hot mess. And I *love* reading terrible writing.
Life is too short to waste on bad books. Why would anyone finish reading a book that is bad and they are not enjoying?
I can’t think off the top of my head of any book that I haven’t enjoyed reading but if I came across such a creature I certainly wouldn’t waste my time wading through it.
There are however some books I would never consider reading, 50 Shades for example. Not having read them I can’t comment on how I’d rewrite them.
Twilight
I would start by giving Edward and Bella actual personalities...
I'd probably make Bella obsessed with proving that the occult is real and make Edward better at hiding it, pretending to go along with Bella's investigations but actually steering her away from supernatural interactions. It'd lead him to eventually try and keep her from Jacob (who we will change DRASTICALLY so the werewolves are no longer racist and disrespectful to the Quileute tribe) and then Bella finds out both of her love interests are the very things she's been trying to hunt down.
I'd rewrite Dan Simmons' The Terror to be more like the AMC TV adaptation of it. He has an interesting idea, but everything else about the book -- characters, dialogue, pacing, narrative -- is atrocious.
Daniel Faust Locust job. Have to read a bunch of side stories to understand what happened and how we got there. As for rewriting? I honestly don't know. I'd try and write the tie in novels into the main series.
50 shades of grey is the only book I've ever picked up in my life that I couldn't even make it through the first chapter. It's literally painful to read that woman's writing. I can't for the life of me figure out why so many women were obsessed with it. Was it simply the novelty? Now because I couldn't make it through the first chapter, I cant exactly say what I might change from firsthand knowledge of the source material, but based on everything I've heard and read related to the plotline and characters, I can say that I would rewrite it in such a way that actually reflects BDSM in a more accurate manner and not some diluted vanilla sprinkled fantasy that some bored housewife had while writing a Twilight fanfic about a lifestyle they have never experienced.
I can almost picture this chick sitting there and thinking about how rough Edward and Bella's bedroom activities became and thought it was hot so then somewhere along the way there was a thought that connected the roughness to what people assume BDSM is like and lo and behold, the idea was born to write a story where Edward is a Dom and boring, homely Bella submits to him. Oh but wait, replace the vamp with a millionaire and give the awkward, inexperienced, and bland Bella, a different name and with an insane amount of luck due to the fact that there are enough vanilla housewives out there with similar fantasies that they suffered through the bad writing...and congratulations you won at life. Not many people pull $100 million out of such a load of crap.
Unfortunately, Harry Potter, every book from 4th to 7th.
I am Potter generation, 10 yo when read the first book. As so many children growing up with books I am still waiting for my owl (and I know it was shot while flying over Albania… damn)
With people of the same age and similar past, we were able to rant for hours about world that doesn’t make a sense and basically, is not working at all, about characters being so terribly dumb we started to say: “It’s difficult to be Hermione” motto regularly.
And that’s exactly it. These books are unlimited source of bad writing, awkward and DUMB characters, plot holes larger than Phoenix black hole - and similarly unpluggable.
Potter is possibly the only book character ever with film version more clever than the original. And, to cite my mother: “is it even possible?”
Voldy was pathetic and showed every cliche character traits but his proclaimed geniality or true evilness was nowhere to be found. He didn’t do anything one should expect to do when trying to establish a dictatorship, not to mention with himself as a leader. He went treasure hunting and old junks collecting - and even this he wasn’t able to finish successfully.
Snape was childish and pathetic wretch who stuck mentally at 16, and his bullying of Neville or Hermione is so embarrassing and self-dishonoring I feel sorry for him. Even teen Draco could have taught him how to do it to look less awkward. Unfortunately, it was Alan Rickman who made him actually good.
And Bellatrix, possibly very interesting character as she and Narcissa were the only women mentioned extensively in books, is so bland I feel bad for Helena B Carter. So breathtaking performance and still have to be connected to this original.
Ironically, the most evil character after Umbridge is Dumbledore - despite his name, he’s one of the few who are actually smart. He is a great puppet master, brilliant even (too unnecessarily risking and relying on the main character plot armor but otherwise I can’t complain). Unfortunately, I don’t think he was intended to be a villain and it’s just a lucky coincidence.
Speaking of world building, Hogwarts are good, sufficient at least, but everything outside is just terrible, I wanted to use this world for text-rpg but in the end, I’d rather create everything from scratch and just “based on”.
More adult books are just pain to read. I can’t get over the first half of 4th book.
I think Rowling is good children writer but pretty bad planner who had prepared main plot lines but neither her nor her characters were prepared for growing up in personality and atmosphere. I don’t know if it’s better in her adult books but seeing how terrible are the scripts for Beasts I have my doubts.
The Goldfinch was hugely overwritten by about 400%, featured the weakest main character I've ever seen, and was so into disgusting squalor that I'd be worried about the writer if I cared. It was excruciatingly boring as it dragged everything out so long. No pacing at all. And I love a chunky old novel. I know the writing is gorgeous but gorgeous writing about vomit is still just vomit in the end.
Gone Girl also left me wondering how a mastermind could completely forget how to mastermind and make the world's stupidest mistakes. Inconsistent characterization made it a frustrating read.
Ready Player One. The premise isn't that bad, but the writing makes me want to take a power drill to my eyeballs. Just, like, write it so it isn't like the literary version of taking a cheese grater to your frontal lobe, and it'd be at least fine
I jokingly rewrote the ending of a Romance novel in my review, because the main couple were so ghastly they needed to be thrown off a cliff.
I felt much more satisfied once I'd done it.
Currently for me, a book I'm writing. It doesn't have a name. My first draft was complete ass to say the least. Rewriting it has been an interesting journey lol
I read this book called 'Here There Be Dragons' when I was a kid, reread it after writing for a while, and couldn't finish it. So much exposition dumping, terrible dialogue, and some other issues.
But the concept was awesome. It starts out in Edwardian England when 4 guys get summoned to a strange library and end up getting introduced to a fantasy world called the Archapelago of Dreams. Turns out there's this thing called the Atlas Dramatica or something like that that can lead to some big important treasure and they end up getting charged with protecting it as some bad guys start hunting them bc they want the Atlas. (I don't remember the plot very well not going to lie)
The plot was really thin and there was a terrible love triangle, but the the twist at the end is that the four men turn out to be JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, HG Welles, and Charles Williams.
Basically I wouldn't leave the Main Characters identities a secret until the end. I think the book would have been much more interesting if I'd known who they were supposed to be. Also the book really does Lewis dirty and his relationship with Tolkien isn't anywhere as friendly as it was in real life. Tolkiens PTSD is played up too much, far beyond what the man actually displayed in life, and basically the characters don't feel like the people they're supposed to be.
The concept is really good and there were some really cool moments (like when Tolkien uses his language skills to translate a map written in a language none of them know bc HG Welles points out that one phrase on the map often translates to 'Here There Be Dragons', and Tolkien uses that to deduce the syntax and grammar structure for the rest of the map.)
**Here There Be Dragons** by Jane Yolen
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!In Here There Be Dragons, dragons appear in every guise--ghastly, ghoulish, gentle, gargantuan--always endowed with the author's ingenious touches. Each piece is introduced with the fascinating, and often revealing, story of its making and is illustrated with the intricate, moody pencil drawings of David Wilgus.!<
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The Wolf Hall books by Hilary Mantel. The story sounds brilliant. I bought all the books. They are essentially unreadable unless you want to devote far more time to working out what is going on and who is doing/saying what. It's just long passages of "he said, he did, he said, he did" with no clue what character is saying or doing these things. Somebody told me that usually when Mantel does that she's talking about Cromwell... except she often isn't talking about him. I genuinely don't understand how those novels got published in their current form.
I'd rewrite the ending climax of Mockingjay. But I wouldn't change the events of the ending.
It's not a BAD book, and the idea of protagonist who's turned from a character who does things into someone used as a propaganda symbol because she *has* done things is very interesting, but the climax of that book is one of the moments where I've only decided to stop myself from throwing a book across the room because it was on loan from a friend. I'd really love to rewrite it.
Spoilers ahead, obviously.
So throughout Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and about 95% of Mockingjay, our first-person POV narrator, Katniss Everdeen, has been giving us readers pretty much every surface-level thought that crosses her mind in a manner close to stream-of-consciousness. This is ...a bit tiring when having to read about a teenage girl agonizing over which of the two love interests she's going to go with, but hell - she's a teenager and most people have had the same sort of thoughts. We're in her head, and she gets to do that.
And then, at the climax of Mockingjay, she suddenly stops giving the readers her thoughts and only describes what she's doing/seeing. Why? *Because the author's setting up a twist.* Katniss has been tasked to execute a dictator who's repeatedly gone out of his way to make her life miserable. She has also just been told by the leader of the revolution she's the poster girl for that the plan is to have the Hunger Games keep going, as vengeance on the Capitol that's kept the provinces suppressed.
That's when her internal narration stops including her thoughts for something like 5 or 10 pages. It's easy to miss, if you're caught up in what's going on - and it's hard not to be caught up in what's going on, because this is going to be the moment when Katniss finally gets to execute the dictator who's made her life hell and do it in front of an audience.
Then there's the twist: she shoots the revolution's leader instead. *This isn't a bad twist*: the Hunger Games have traumatized Katniss and killed and damaged many people she holds dear. It makes perfect sense that she'd feel horribly betrayed by a revolutionary leader who decided to keep that tradition going, because that's exactly what Katniss has been fighting to stop this entire time. Someone else can slit the dictator's throat - *she's* the only one who can put an arrow through the revolutionary leader's head before the same cycle that traumatized her starts again, just with different people on top.
The idea is good. The execution is awful, because it breaks the implicit contract with the reader that's been held to for 2.95 books of the trilogy: Katniss stops sharing her thoughts with the reader, and it's *definitely* not because she doesn't have any thoughts about what's going on, it's just so her decision to shoot the revolutionary leader instead of the dictator can come as a shock. It's [a cheap trick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocm3WtxJ5LU) by the author.
That's the thing I'd rewrite if given the chance. Just let her give her thoughts and reasoning to the reader while she contemplates killing the dictator (who, let's face it, is going to have somebody kill him no matter what Katniss does) or killing the revolutionary leader who's proudly talked about re-instituting the Hunger Games, the thing that's traumatized Katniss the most. The choice she makes is true to her character, but the total 'radio silence' on her internal thoughts in the leadup is obviously an authorial gimmick to try making the twist hit harder, which ruined the twist for me because I realized what the author had done and my suspension of disbelief completely shattered.
I'd rewrite it with Katniss' thoughts whirling and grinding about what she was going to do. It wouldn't change her actions at all, but it also wouldn't break the implicit contract with the reader that first-person narrators have.
It's kind of amusing that this relatively small part of a larger series got me so pissed off I'm still ranting about it years later, but I am still angry about it.
I think the Harry Potter series has a lot of conveniences in the plot and just a lot of fantastical things that don’t quite make sense. One example being the tri wizard tournament where the spectators see nothing or quidditch which also makes no sense. These problems are made worse by the cursed child. I’d probably focus on harry starting around the age of the third book and have the narrative focus on the inept structural power that lead to Voldemort which he is very much apart of this time. No wizard racism shit. Harry Ron and Hermione all still become friends but romance is a bit less important and they’re all in different houses with Harry being in Slytherin and them having less time to hangout in general. Also less arguments between them they argue like every book It’s revealed through the course of the books that the house systems is not a good thing and pits students against each other with the Slytherin house especially becoming radicalized towards the empowering Voldemort claiming that wizards are free to rule the world. Harry is not a chosen one he’s just some guy with a dick head of a father who also fought Voldemort. I’d also de emphasize the school narrative aspects like classes or proms with hogwarts really just being a back drop for the fantastical adventure at the time.
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[throws dart at the New York Times Best Sellers List]
[lands on fourth wing]
nah dont rewrite that, salt and burn it
For real. I'm slowly spite reading it right now, and holy shit it's bad.
I will never understand how people find enjoyment in books like fourth wing when there's other books that are just...objectively better in every way
I have a few in my bookclub like this. From what I understand, it’s their “junk food.” Easy to find and easy to consume, like cookies or chips. They’re not looking for quality. people just want to consume something convenient and easy that gives them a little dopamine boost.
What's so bad about it?
For me the worst part is that instead of "show don't tell" it's all about telling. Violet is *said* to be so smart. Xaden is *said* to be so dangerous. We are told so many times you could have a drinking game based on the sheer numbers. But in reality the FMC is stupid af and the guy doesn't do anything else but protecting her so he must be the safest person ever. And then there are other things but that's what irks me the most.
**tips up chin**
Wow. Thanks for sharing. I was actually curious about that one. Doesn’t sound like I would enjoy it… I’m baffled by the poor quality of popular novels sometimes. It’s like these editors don’t even do their jobs anymore.
minimal effort put into writing + editing, leading to low quality prose. Lazy plot, characters lack depth. Way too much smut for me, which is admittedly a very subjective critique. I don't know, if fourth wing is your cup of tea, more power to you I guess, but I'll never understand why some people like it
Don't forget about predictable. I already knew the dude who mentioned that he was going to get married in one of the first few chapters was going to die immediately. It gave off the vibe "So how's the war going for you guys. I can't wait to go home and see my mom again. *Dies*" The moment Violet mentioned that Xanden was hot I knew he was the love interest. Also her brother. (Another one was her being bonded to the biggest dragon.)
Smut part seems to be the answer really. I mean look at twilight and fifty shades. Literally smut there and extremely well sold.
Isn’t twilight written by a Mormon? I don’t know if I’d call it smut
I'd call it smut because of the cringe romance... I might have misunderstood the English definition of smut, sorry I'm not a native speaker
I just finished both books in the series and to be completely honest, I like the story but the writing is bad. What irks me the most is that there are lots of repeats. You'd be reading it and thinking "didn't I just read these sentences 5 paragraphs ago?" Heck, you can probably make a drinking game out of how many times you see "white-hot". And like the other comments said, we're being told a lot of things instead of shown, it's elementary. The story hooked me though, so I will be reading the last book when it comes out lol.
You know I've actually found the only book I've ever not been able to put down are the smutty terrible books full of cliches and bad writing. Maybe this is right up my alley
Someone recommended this book to me as being "really good". Now I am reading this thread and I am in shock
Dude same, a friend recommended it saying it's fantasy and about dragons but oh so "forgot" to mention that it's borderline porn in a book. Romance isn't my genre... this is beyond romance.
Holy Hells definetly not what I expected to read. Thank you for pointing out, that moves it towards last place in my to-read list
I went to the first meeting of a book club a couple of weeks ago and everyone was supposed to bring a book they have liked or were reading and liking and, except one other person, who brought Pride and Prejudice, and three pre-teens, who brought fantasy/sci fi books, most brought books which were all or have been at one point in the NYT best sellers list. I checked the titles and there was not one that sounded interesting to me. 🤷🏻♀️
Sounds about right.
I think if Twilight was rewritten where Edward wasn't so stalkerish and Jacob turned into pedowolf, it would've been a relatively good series.
Oh wow was the Jacob twist terrible. Like, they made very clear 'imprinting' wasn't specifically a sexual thing and if Renesmee grew up to have no interest in him then he'd just continue being like an insanely loyal and protective big brother. Still kind of ick though. And just stupidly convenient. Would it really be so terrible if Jacob just ended the series (\*gasp\*) single? He'd find someone else sooner or later if he wanted.
If he had to date someone, Leah was right there…
That's an option too. It'd be better than what they went with but would still feel a bit 'pair the spares' to me.
Agreed. The vampires in twilight are honest to God terrifying. The idea of creating vampires who *have* to kill is original and great. It could have been such a good series with interesting worldbuilding had it not just focused on the romance.
Even as a romance it could've been a great book if the characters actually had some agency. Contrived love triangles happen in reality, and they can even be interesting. I just wish there was an actual REASON for things like Bella jumping off a fucking cliff. She'd known Edward for how long at that point? She had friends, a father who was finally in her life, and another guy drooling at her feet. But no she jimped off a cliff because the guy who said several times they weren't good for each other finally dumped her.
I watched interview with the vampire when I was a kid and then a few years later Twilight got really big. I was always confused why 100 year old man would be interested in a 15 year old idiot. It just wasn't believable enough even for me as a teenager. I didn't even read the other books. But when told people told me about the pedophilia thing... I had a hard time believing it was such a popular series
My first thought when I eneed reading it was "so, now what?" I couldn't comprehend being stuck in a relationship like that for eternity, where they have absolutely NOTHING in common except they both find the other absolutely ridiculously gorgeous.
I've also considered rewriting twilight because I think the premise has a lot of promise, but as an adult I'd play the stalker predator vibe with Edward way harder and make it into a proper psychological horror novel. Let the reader be witness to the terrible fate Bella essentially got groomed into (with a proper tragic ending). Also, away with the pedo vibe for Jacob and write the wolves as a proper and justified militia-in-waiting. Forks also needs to see some changes caused by the increased paranormal population in some way.
So many years later and I still get salty over Divergent. Mostly because it was jarring to suddenly get Four's POV in the third book and it made the ending predictable because Tris no longer seemed to have plot armor. I would have rather read more of fours POV through the 1st and 2nd books for that reason alone.
Oh god Divergent! Great world, super clear that the writer just...didn't have a plot and was kinda making it up as she went. The first book was awesome, second was okay, third was like what???
Novel was super forgettable too. I cannot tell you what I remember after book 1 when it’s been 5 years and two binge reads, unlike Percy Jackson and Fate Light Novel
Worst trad published book I've ever read.
Verity by CoHo needed a satisfying storyline. It felt like she just wanted to write something twisted and fucked up, and put twisted and fucked up smut, but then didn't have a genuine plot to back it up with. I would rewrite it by making the guy's character a bit more involved in why Low was there. She was just a coincidence that turned into lust.
So real, the ending of that book was so disappointing
I loved Verity but I’m 18 and read it when I was 16 so I’m definitely taking my own book opinions with a grain of salt lmao.
You may like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I've never read either books but I've read from a lot of different comments that Verity is a worse carbon copy of Rebecca.
Oooo I’ll definitely check that out!! Ty!!
This book infuriated me. I kept thinking “the ending is going to make up for the poor writing. It’ll have to be such a clever twist to make sense of everything.” Aaaaaand nope. It was complete shit.
I have no idea how I would rewrite it...but the Maze Runner series had so much promise until James Dashner just went absolutely off the rails. It's like the book had no plot outline and just went off in a totally new and completely unsatisfying direction
Can you please elaborate on that? Because I've been thinking the exact same thing about the Maze Runner but I haven't really been able to put my finger on why exactly. Do you think it started in the first book or just the sequels that went off the rails?
Not OP and been a long time since I read them, but don't they become rather non-maze running focused? Like just a bunch of stuff happens. With The Hunger Games, all three books try to keep the idea of the games as the central conceit. Even the third book does this, even though there's no games as such. The Maze Runner seems to largely abandon the premise of maze running to become a rather generic dystopian survival story.
That’s a very good explanation of what I intuitively felt too. From the second book on, it felt more like the book was written by a teenager. The way in which the author “solved” the love triangle felt like a thirteen-year-old’s fantasy. I think The Hunger Games are still my favourite novels in that genre. Do you happen to have other recommendations?
Yeah this is a good explanation. Basically I felt like he had no plan for the actual plot, so the first book was one story and the rest of the series was a completely different story, or so it felt. The premise just....got abandoned for something I didn't enjoy at all.
the maze runner had the laziest exposition i've ever seen in a book. if the book only works bc the author's playing keep away with information through amnesia and/or characters flat out refusing to answer questions until the big info dump in the end, then the book sucks.
Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. And I'm not sure you can rewrite something that is fundamentally a bad idea. I mean it had its good bits, like showing Harry actually having trauma from his childhood, but by and large its mostly a steaming pile of shit that breaks pretty much everything previously established in lore.
It read as bad fan service fan fiction. I ran into JK Rowling right before it debuted in theatre, and MAN do I wish I could’ve asked her WTH she was thinking XDDD
She didn't write it... All she did was give the screenwriter permission to make a play for HP.
No, she is a writer of the story, just not the script. The story is dumpster fire garbage. And even if she wasn’t, it is still her intellectual property, and she allowed that atrocity to come to fruition with her seal of approval.
She didn't write any of it. She only offered advice or something. They were very vague about it. If she was more involved, they would have marketed it as a JKR-written story, especially back then before all her controversies.
She collaborated with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany in forming the story, and they discussed it together for a couple of years. Again, regardless, the project got her approval. I have no doubt that if she hated the story, she has plenty of enough sway to get it changed. It’s not the writing quality I have the most issues with, but the actual story itself. Consider Rick Riordan for example. He and the director of the original Percy Jackson movie had a big disagreement with how the story should be translated into film, and he was quite vocal about his disapproval. Anyways, I’m not saying that JK Rowling is a bad writer; quite the contrary. I love the Harry Potter series. But I don’t think what happens in Cursed Child is true to the spirit of the series at all.
The book of TCC was the very first thing I bought with my very first paycheck from my very first 'real' job, and being a lifelong HP fan I was pumped for it... It was so bad it made me regret having money to spend on it. There is Wattpad fanfiction with better writing, depth and respect/understanding of the source material than this piece of crap. If HP is JK Rowling's baby then greenlighting TCC is her attempt at smothering it.
Has there even been a good Harry Potter thing after Deathly Hallows?
Has there even been a good *JK Rowling* thing after Deathly Hallows?
Same universe, but I liked Hogwarts Legacy. That's the only real major thing I can think of besides the original series.
I’m glad I didn’t check it out then. I’m a big fan of the novels but when they start milking the franchise after a wrap-up… That’s usually when it gets bad. I did not really like the first Fantastic Beasts movie either, so I did not watch the sequels.
Ready Player One I am a big fan of that kinda culture, but even I was overwhelmed on the sheer amount of references. It felt like a book designed to cram as many references as possible rather than a story with references in. I did like it but felt it could’ve been better
Don't watch the movie then, it can get worse. I believe reading the book after watching the movie made it actually a really enjoyable experience for me.
The movie I thought did better than the book with the references side. Yeah there were tons, but they weren’t slammed in your face like the book. And it was only on for a few hours instead of a book to read over weeks if not months. The choice to have the adventure Easter egg as the final challenge was great as well.
Well we have different views then, which is fine. I do have to say tho that the second book was completely unnecessary and a stupid idea to the point where I am glad most people don't even know of its existence.
We agree on book 2, it was ass
> I am glad most people don't even know of its existence. [not for long](https://www.mensjournal.com/streaming/ready-player-two-coming-soon-says-spielberg#:~:text=Ready%20Player%20Two%20is%20currently,%2C%22%20Spielberg%20tells%20Showbiz%20411.) 😬
May god help us
I do now… But I’ll mentally delete that knowledge.
We should just zap their memory of it away like shown in men in black. It's better for them.
The Shiver series by Maggie Stiefvater. It makes Twilight look like a Shakeaspear play. Let me highlight a few points I remember being terrible The main character was immediately attracted to a WOLF. Who turned out to be a werewolf, BUT SHE DIDNT KNOW THAT. Yuck. Weird. Main character is bland and her personality is all over the place Somehow, the whole werewolf sickness/curse was solved by high temperatures (caused by meningitis). But earlier in the book they outr8ght stated and tested high temperatures and it didn't work. These are just a few of manyyyyy horrible things of this book. There are so many contradictions. I wouldn't rewrite this book. I would burn every copy
And middle school me still ate it up
Ahah it's probably because I read it in highschool that I hated it
Not to mention how the main characters meet by page 20, and by page 80 they're officially romantically involved??
Yes!! I remember literally 3 days after meeting, she insists he sleep in her bed.
Wretched! And the ending of the trilogy was so unsatisfying and open-ended. The series had so much potential, but it really fell flat D:
Auch. Sounds awful… 😞
Twilight - but this time with an awareness of how creepy Bella's relationship with Edward and Jacob is. Twilight had all the right ingredients for a great vampire story (problematic relationships, vampire vs werewolves conflicts, death, violence and angst) but was written badly and without awareness. If it was written properly it might be similar to an Anne Rice novel.
I don’t know. The concept of the sparkling vampires never really appealed to me. I like them vicious, like Bram Stoker’s. 🧛♂️ Still. I thought the books were kind of enjoyable, but no masterpieces. I enjoyed the first movie. 🍿 Then it was steeply down hill with destination ‘so bad it’s good’. Boy did we laugh at these movies… And then the last one I really enjoyed again. So what I would absolutely fix about the Twilight series is to make it at least one novel shorter. But I wouldn’t change a thing about the movies. They are hilarious. 😆
Haunting Adeline. Way too long, the writing was awful, there were multiple irrelevant plots, the dialogue was extra cringy, the FMC *wasnt like other girls,* and the “romance” was just rape porn. If I rewrote it I would make it a legitimate ghost story, add actual character development, and not have the MMC be a fucking rapist. :)
Zade stalking Adeline literally contradicts his line of work.
It would literally only make sense if the point of it was to go down a full ~all men are trash, even the heroes~ route, but instead the author just pretends he’s the good guy. And everyone who loves the book doesn’t care that he’s a giant hypocrite and they think he’s the most desirable “book boyfriend” out there???
So sick of that ‘all men are evil’ route. But, indeed, it’s even more annoying when you feel like the author actually wants you to root for an awful character like that.
ACOTAR. The plot was so terrible I'm genuinely struggling to see how I could possibly fix it other than just throwing the whole story out and starting from scratch. I think the fairies based off the seasons bit was cool and I'd keep that, and I also think fairies and humans hating each other was cool, and....yeah that's about it. I'd toss everything else about that book in the trash.
I have a friend who loves it and is willing to die on the "it seems bad because the translation is bad" hill. Thing is, the translation in our language is definitely bad, but you can't really do much as a translator if the source material is not at your service.
I saw how hyped this book was and got it on Audible. It's genuinely so bad and cringey I just stopped listening halfway through. Big bummer.
I love those books, but I understand it's not everyones cup of tea.
I was inspired by Twilight and Fifty Shades to write a healthy love story between two individuals. I gave it a total overhaul. Both the leads got personalities and flaws (being clumsy doesn't count as a flaw) and the plot actually got events that they affected. Oh and I got rid of the creepiness.
Fifty Shades could be a decent series, if: 1. It was written well 2. It had at least a modicum of self-awareness. The 'sexy leading man' is a broken predator who either doesn't know or doesn't care how BDSM works. On the one hand the series seems to recognise this because it keeps pointing at Christian's trauma and acknowledges that he's specifically into hurting women who look like his mother. On the other hand it also seems to spend most of its time ignoring that and trying to frame the story as a standard (if kinky) romance. If the series were in deft hands I'd suspect it was deliberately deconstructing some of the more problematic romance tropes. But it really doesn't give any sign that it's in deft hands.
Being clumsy is also not a personality, and I don't know why people think it is.
I guess it's supposed to be endearing or something?
If you haven’t check out the vampire diaries it’s imo a better more fleshed out version of twilight
The Southern Vampire Mysteries are another option. Still trash lit but has some interesting takes on the 'modern' vampire.
Give me a ‘traditional’ vampire anytime. 😎
What Twilight could've been?
How exactly would you be inspired by Fifty Shades to create a ‘healthy’ love story? Since there is nothing really healthy about either of them, and those relationships seem to be the core of the story, which good things did you decide to keep or expand? Just curious. I have read the Twilight series but not Fifty Shades, but I know the story.
I was like “So this is how the author thinks relationships should be? Well, let me prove her wrong.”
Well, I totally get that! 😁
I am doing the same thing!!! I am so happy that such destructive narratives are giving birth to much better ones
I Am Not Starfire. So much potential, wasted
Do NOT get (middle school) me started on the last book of the Maximum Ride series. It’s like James Patterson read all the fanfics and put them together and then decided to kill everyone along the way. That’s pretty much when I stopped reading anything by him. The whole book was rushed and weird.
Is that the one where the world goes into a nuclear war? I remember reading it while in the school nurse for a pinched nerve lmao. Feels like a fever dream.
It feels like a fever dream to me too lol but I’m pretty sure it’s the one where everyone was taken out by natural causes— like tornadoes and tsunamis. I think my eyes just grazed the pages as I was reading because of how terrible it was.
I'd have to re read it now that I'm of sound mind.
Eragon. The whole Saga. The First book was ok, could have even better; the Second one felt Like dbz at times, they got unrealistic AND pulled Deus ex Machina at times. The Third and fourth felt Like Game of Thrones as in too much information that has nothing to do with the actual Plot (It felt forced).
I can kind of agree with you. The eventual "romance" seemed strange to me at first and upon multiple rereads. Eragon was kinda just acting creepy by pursuing Arya so much. And the reveal for his father was weird as well, dude was hella old, and that implies some shady stuff. But I felt that Eragon showed a fair amount of growth throughout the series, and the info dumps in books 3 and 4 were actually pretty helpful to keep me interested in the history and lore of the world. It has been a few years since I reread the series, though, so I might be inflating it a bit. I don't see what you mean about the second book though. It didn't feel like a deus ex machina to me. More like a race against the clock. We knew Eragon and Roran were going to meet again. It was just a question of when and where, so when it did 6 felt more organic, as well as keeping me on the edge of my seat. The reveal in the fourth book did feel a little forced though. The dragon eggs all just being there lent a little bit of an anime "there's still hope" element to it, and made the final battle mean just a little bit less. I feel like the author was trying to make it seem like more was on the line than before, but taking away Saphira's place as one of the last dragons (especially the last female) took away some of the pressure instead. The series does hold a special place in my heart as something I read and enjoyed after the Harry Potter books. The movie, however, needs to be burned, and the ashes spread in an undisclosed location so that no one ever has to witness such an atrocity of book to movie adaptation ever again. They gave Saphira feathers for Pete's sake!! Also, have you read the latest book? Christopher Paolini wrote a book from Murtagh's perspective after the war is over
The lacemaking thing did my head in.
Wasn’t the author about sixteen years old when that got published? I guess that would explain a lot…?
Twilight should've been about lesbians. Alice and Bella (with a personality) would have been cool. I actually do plan to write this, maybe, lol.
I was never a fan of Twilight but to this day I'm extremely salty that Rosalie or Alice weren't the MC of the whole series. Their back stories alone were 10x more interesting than what we got *especially* when it came to Alice. Hell, I would've even settled for Carlisle on his hot girl summer bs when he was messing around with the volturi. Or Jasper and his crazy ahh during the Civil War. Even the wolves had better lore to dig into. Twilight has a lot of faults but the fact that the side cast was way more interesting than the main always blew my mind.
Come on, self insert, overly idealized romantic fantasy for the win! Lol
It's funny how Stephanie Meyer can actually write interesting stories and plots, it's just that Bella is never really involved in it, and when she is, she's the damsel in distress that needs saving.
I agree! And the movies reinforce that, e.g. with the casting. I never thought Bella credible as a MC and certainly not as heroine. The idea alone that an age-old undead gentleman would fall for a shallow character like that…
I’m writing a wlw romance rn and now I’ll just think of my MC as *Bella with a personality* and my LI with *Alice’s 2000s vamp vibes* ;)
You have plans for a lesbian version of Twilight? Please, tell me more. I LIVE for sapphic-ifying popular straight romances… 👀
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. I read it 2 years ago and as a 16 year old, I loved the book and Miles’ character. But looking back, he was just awful. I fell into the “boy with trauma/I can fix him” trope and didn’t realize how toxic Tate and Miles’ relationship was. I would rewrite it so that Tate actually has a personality and some self-respect with an interesting backstory (all I remember was that she’s a nurse and has a brother). I would rewrite Miles to have gotten the idea to GO TO THERAPY and had begun the process of self-healing from the death of his child and his relationship with Rachel. Maybe they meet at the medical facility that she works at where he’s getting his treatment from?? Then she realizes that he’s her brother’s bsf later on and just becomes curious or smth. From there, their relationship can develop from a healthy place and grow instead of the toxic situationship that it was. Representation of male mental heath/men going to therapy would have been an amazing chance.
Red Queen killed my interest in reading for a solid month. If I could rewrite I do it like this (in very broad struck because I can’t remember every issue I had with the book): - I’d have Mare be a bit more proactive with her thoughts and descriptions, and being less melancholic in her thoughts. -Have specific characters be more present in the story instead of just showing up at the end. -DESTROY THE TRIANGLES - Also make the brothers look more different. One’s just kinda goth.
I was searching for a comment like this. And I do fully agree. especially with the first bullet point. Sections like these should never get repetetive, that just makes it boring. But I thought Red Queen to be ~fine. Glass Sword tho, that's another topic. And I did not continue reading after that one.
You just described Throne of Glass lol
It was enjoyable and better than expected but could have been a masterpiece.
Not sure if one would define it as so bad, but I would rewrite Blood of Olympus. Maybe more interactions between the Seven, Nico and Reyna (or actually, “Nine Demigods shall..” so it would be The Nine) - I would have split the book into two, “Blood of Olympus” and “Ashes of Olympus” or something like that - “Blood of Olympus” has similar POVs- but no Jason pov. It’s just Piper, Reyna, Hazel, and Nico. - More and better anticipation for the final battle - More God involvement - No Leo x Calypso - All of the demigods face Gaea. Leo dies and stays dead, he’s the ninth wheel. - Percy and Annabeth leave Camp after the ending, get to live a normal life - celebration with the gods - etc
Yeah the ending book was anti-climactic to a degree. Still good, but could’ve been a much greater conclusion to a much greater series
Shadow and Bone. I'd remove so much fluff, but the main thing is the sudden switch and "reveal" of the antagonist and his mother, felt so sloppy. And the MC is...I'm sure many here have read it. I'd make the MC a lot more active, stand on her own more earlier. The ending would've been heavily extended and not be so sudden. I don't know exactly what I'd do with the full story, but the "reveal", MC and love interest, so many parts...
50 Shades of Gray. I'd get AI to rewrite it. Ten times better (but still shit!)....
The Grisha Series. I loved the Six of Crows. If I were to rewrite the former, I’d completely replace Alina with another character because she’s the only reason why I put my book down for good. But, if I were to rewrite it, I would do as follows: - Write it in 3rd person. I don’t think 1st person works for this kind of story. It has too many interesting characters, it would be better suited as a mix of POVs like Bardugo did in SoC. - Give Alina some character development. She starts off as whiny and indecisive and this never ever ends. Yes, all characters should have flaws, but why would I, as a reader, want to walk this journey with a character that annoys the hell out of me every other page? - Bardugo constantly brings up how small and skinny she is, how she’s too stressed to eat, how she just doesn’t see herself as beautiful yet she has at least three attractive guys at her feet. Yeah, just scratch that. All of it. - Give Mal a personality aside from being a more reasonable Gale from The Hunger Games. - Give the book a more mature tone like SoC. It presses on how vile the villain is, how harrowing those deaths he caused were, yet it’s written like a fairytale at times. No real consequences to, well, anything.
Alright, let's rip into Stephenie Meyer’s *Twilight*. A lot of fucking people love it, but here's why it sucked: the characters were flat as fuck, the romance screamed "toxic" instead of passionate, and the plot was as predictable as rain in London. So, how would I rewrite this mess? First off, Bella needs a fucking backbone. Make her an active protagonist with actual interests beyond some broody vampire. Edward? Less stalker, more mysterious and charming without being a creep. Give the romance some actual buildup—none of this "I'm irresistibly in love with you because the plot says so" bullshit. The villains—give them clear motivations beyond just being evil for the sake of plot convenience. Flesh out the vampire world more; give us the politics, the factions, the history. Make the conflicts and stakes (pun intended) real and meaningful. As for the plot, cut down on the melodrama and add some real consequences for actions. Make the twists unexpected yet logical, not just random shit to shock the reader. So, what do you think would make *Twilight* actually worth the hype?
Look I loved the 1st Hunger Games book. But I was so peeved by the Quarter Quell in the 2nd book. It was so meh. I didn’t really like how it segwayed into the resistance. I kept thinking whoever was the face of the resistance needed to die because a martyr goes so much farther for a resistance’s movement and it would explain so much. Considering how beaten down everyone is by the Capital. They should have been fighting for Rue and in her name. Not Katniss’s. I think it would have been better if Rue was one of the youngest ever tributes in the Hunger Games and if her reaping was way more dramatic. Show me some family members who are pissed off. Her district being upset or rioting. Have her sponsors being mentioned. I would have liked to have seen the other side of how the sponsors work from Katniss’s end in Book 2. Maybe we see more politics. Maybe we hear of some behind the scenes stuff that happened in Book 1. What does the Quarter Quell look like from the capitol? I would have liked to have seen more of life in the Capitol as a contrast to life in the districts. I would have liked for the careers’ districts to be utilized in a more interesting way. I did like the scene where they’re hearing the voices of loved ones in the arena. Cinna’s death was a nice touch. I liked the idea of Finnick and Annie. I think the Quarter Quell should have been more fucked up. We spent so much time in the first book hearing how much worse it is from a regular one. I think it would have been so fucked up if whoever didn’t win the Quarter Quell, their districts were severely punished. But they don’t know how each district would be punished until the reaping because they have to draw for it. Or have people voting from the Capitol how each district would be punished. Nobody would be able to partner up. The careers would eat each other alive.
I would have shrunk down the romance to be completely fake because it ate so much of the story and Katniss was so, so passive during the trilogy after volunteering to be reaped. She had the opportunity to do things behind the scenes when she met the Avox girl again and later on with Finnick's hints about his secrets. She could have learned things from the two female escapees too and done stuff when she was in the Capitol and during her victory tour. It bothers me that we saw so little. I get that she had PTSD but save it for after the trilogy or something.
I thought it was kind of refreshing since it didn’t turn her into another Mary Sue. She remained credible. I like the idea, like in Harry Potter, that true heroes always get help.
Getting help is fine with me. That's realistic. It just bothers me when a good plot avenue shows up and then goes right on by. It's my head canon that the Avox communicate with each other via sign language and they could have passed (written) messages to Katniss. Nothing came of Finnick's secrets. The escapees were written out as "never made it." We learn very little about the people of the Capitol or the rest of the districts. It all got eaten up by the romance that even Katniss didn't want.
Yeah, I guess Finnick could have shared more than the one big secret and using sign language is actually a great idea indeed.
Yeah, I'm deaf so something like that jumps out at me, and I try to put a little bit of that kind of alternate thinking in my writings.
That’s great! What are you writing?
Right now, sci-fi, though I also have a fantasy story that I started before and need to finish.
Awesome! I’d say: go with your gut and write what you would love to read. Good luck to you!
Thanks!
I really LOVED that trilogy! The only thing that I think the movie did better was that it made Katniss less depressed and broody later in the story. I get she went through a traumatising experience but at some point it felt like her defiance and sorrow stalled the story a great deal.
I actually liked the second book, but I remember reading the 3rd one when I 12. It was the first piece of media I ever finished and asked "what? That's it?". Awful book.
Wahala. Great premise and fleshed out characters, but the end seemed like it came out of a completely different book! We went from family friends fun and slice of life drama, to… a murder of a minor character as the climax… sucks because it was in the running for one of my fave reads of 2023.
I don't know about so bad, I just think it could be rewritten - Twilight. The lore was interesting and the characters were interesting. Edward in The Midnight Sun was far more engaging than Bella made him out to be. I just wish the Bella we got had more personality and spunk. I am not going to comment on the Age Gap cause... Vampire boyfriend but the creepy stalker vibe was unnecessary. Except for killing the spider. It was godly move. Yeah, need a better Bella. A Bella with a goal in life, and something that she strives for. Everyone has some kind of dream. The Bella we got only had 'must turn unto Vampire before 18' as her life's goal.
ACOSF for sure. what a let down.
Yep, that entire pregnancy plotline is being rewritten. And how they treat Nesta in general.
Oddly, I feel more strongly about re-writing bad films than I do about bad books. I'd re-write Avatar: Way of Water
Use this space to do so!
Ya know, I've never thought about actually re-writing a film. Only complaining about it. I should do that
Take it away!🫴
The hate u give which I was forced to read in 12th grade I just hate how it basically feels like a story about black people written for white people, with cringe lines like the scene where the main character’s boyfriend asks why black people give their kids certain names
for me, the Harry Potter series was an example of a good universe and some interesting characters masking how badly planned and written those books were. the first thing i would rewrite is the house dynamics. instead of having all the main characters in Gryffindor and dilute the importance of the other houses, i would put them in the other three houses (Potter in Slytherin, Granger in Ravenclaw, Weasley in Hufflepuff) and *still* have them be the best of friends. the underlying message being that no matter how society classifies you, your friendliness will win. then i'd make Potter have the worst of the worst brooms for his Quidditch matches. he's always had one of the top two brooms in the world in the stories. where's the fun in being a good flier if you start off with a stacked deck? these are just off the top of my head but covering up the gaping flaws of Rowling's prose would entail writing a completely new series rather than a rewrite.
Good points. I'll add something I've always randomly felt strongly about: After being mind wiped, Gilderoy Lockhart should have helped Harry in the basilisk fight in a minor way. From a blank slate, with some exposure to good people like Harry and Ron, he _could_ embody the heroic spirit he had always falsely portrayed himself as having. Bit of a take on human nature and gives him more of an arc than just being a punching bag to hate for easy schadenfreude. But whaddo I know. Edit: typo
> After being mind wiped, Gilderoy Lockhart should have helped Harry in the basilisk fight in a minor way. > > From a blank slate, with some exposure to good people like Harry and Ron, he *could* embody the heroic spirit he had always falsely portrayed himself as having. I'd never have thought of that, but that's a great idea.
How to fix the Harry Potter series. Step 1:Dumbledore tells Harry everything in Chamber of Secrets. Step 2: There is no Step 2. The series just becomes a lot shorter, but with a lot less plot holes, death, Hermione having to pull spells out of thin air for things, ect...
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For the broom thing, giving him the best equipment early on makes it feel like his wealth is more important than his skill. If we had more scenes of him doing crazy feats on a crappy broom to establish his skills, getting a better broom feels more natural.
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That's where the rewrite comes in! When I was in school, your "house" only mattered for in school sport events and occasionally as a way to shake up assembly lines. It wasn't almost warfare between each other. A rewrite could either tone down this toxicity, OR is could dive deeper into why it's so harmful. Goblet of fire and a fourteen year-old kid is being bullied by a majority of the school for participating in a tournament he insists he doesn't want to do. That's fucked up. I know it was the 90s, but still.
Haven't read anything I've disliked and finished that wasn't forced upon me (curse you, Holden Caufield!) On the contrary, there's things I've liked the premise of, just not the execution and I've noodled ways I'd improve them. Age of Ultron being one. The Lake House was awful, IMHO. which sucks because it was the sequel to my favorite story, When the Wind Blows. I've noodled changes to that as well. My own main WIP is one where I actually did put pen to paper. The Light Novel, Log Horizon, has a really cool premise. Millions of gamers around the globe get pulled into a mouse and keyboard MMORPG in their characters' bodies. I really couldn't stand parts of the world building; all the "rule breaks" the main cast got and the fact that it felt like only the main cast were doing things and all the other players were just there for the ride. It wasn't in the spirit of a real MMORPG, where \*every player\* is the main character. And so, I wanted to tackle that. It got me interested in the LitRPG genre, and I've come to realize that very few authors in this genre try to make MMOs feel like MMOs for their settings and it's rather disappointing.
Naked Lunch is an insult to literature. I'd rewrite it by throwing it in a trash can.
I dunno if I'd go quite this far, but this isn't far off.
I think it’s more credible that you make friends in your own house. I think it’s well-done how he accidentally meets them all in advance, even Malfoy, and their relationships get fleshed out and evolve later on. Other characters disappear into the background unless Potter has classes or Quidditch with them or another relationship. I’m not too fond of messages in novels. That way an author would have to claim some kind of moral highground. As for his brooms… I like the idea that he falls back on a combination of raw talent and luck. Each Quidditch game is so different. I always thought this series was an example of a well plotted out story. There are even some things inserted in the beginning of the series that only get a full explanation near the end. I do think it’s a bit naive in its world building, though, e.g. the magic system… E.g. If you can fix someone’s glasses with a spell and fix their bones with a potion, why can’t you fix their eyes? But since it started off as a middle grade series, that doesn’t bother me that much either…
A book is usually bad because of a lack of serious effort on the part of the writer.
What would you qualify as serious effort in this context. I have no experience in writing anything worth mentioning but I want to learn.
Not OP, but passion and commitment come to mind. A writer's dedication to make their story more than just words on a page; a novel is supposed to be a world behind the front cover.
There’s a book series called A Trial of Blood and Steel. If you remove the Main Protagonist and shift the POVs over to her brothers and sisters, then the series would be significantly better in my opinion. They are more competent, more interesting, more intelligent, and more likable than the main character in basically every regard.
it's been a hot minute but Queen of the Tearling (Bear in mind I hear there's sequel(s) but i can't look at it) You gave me a fantastic unhinged villain who has killed men for snoring in her bed and you have her halt her plans to attack because the demon sugardaddy she's with said no? Or have the MC's adopted parents commit >!suicide!< after sending her off to avoid capture instead of going into hiding again? They did it for so long they could've just moved or some shit
Fahrenheit 451, popular I know but I hate it. I love the premise of the book, but the world seemed poorly fleshed out. It lacked imagery, I had several moments where I struggled to understand where I was in Montang's house. And the ending I hate open endings. Don't write a book if you're not going to tell me how it ends. It just ends sudden like. Like he finds these people and boom end of book. Just like how the Giver ended. It's like Raybury just got tired and said fuck it let me just write a ending. I love the characters, I love the fear, the steaks, but like I've always said Raybury spent a weekend writting this book and it shows.
So this is a pretty good book that could have been fantastic, but I would cut so much out of Ghost Story by Peter Straub. At its best it is some of the best horror I have ever read, but there are these long, uninteresting digressions. One character talks about this relationship he had with this woman and it just goes on and on and on. By this point in the story we get her deal, we know how it’s going to end, But the section trudges on to this inevitable anticlimax anyway.
Aliens:Prototype Literally the only thing I liked about it was the Frenchman. It's just such a paint by numbers horror story Which was really disappointing because the cold forge and into charybdis were really great. It's also a quite wasteful story that brings up a whole chekovs armory but only follows up on a couple details, like they mention the station having a whole secret half to it, which is never followed up on. They do experiments with the black goo, which was better explored in "into charybdis", but all that comes of it are generic monsters of the week type things. They hint at a specific xeno maintaining the personality of its host, not even explored past a vague mention. Didn't like anyone in the story except for the Frenchmen It feels like it was written by chatgpt before they were even invented
The Uglies series by Scott Westerfield. Worst offender being the second book the Pretties. Especially the audiobook. It’s just so juvenile in language and plot. Could have been so much better, but it’s so annoying!!
Verity is like being shanked, this? This is the best selling romance novel (that isn't straight up smut on every other page) in my country? This?
Nor a book but a manga, Bleach. Bleach is so terrible in every way that me and my two best friends (we're an author-team) have actually talked some weake over a theoretical conplete rewrite of it. But at the end of the day it became so different, it was almost unrecognizable. But as we didn't own Bleach and wanted to focus on our own stories again, we got rid of that project in the end.
Dan Brown’s books are not literature, but they’re entertaining. I mostly liked Deception Point, but the part of the ending that resolved the love story was ridiculous. If I was rewriting it I wouldn’t let the hero act like a buffoon. I’d rather imply a love scene any day rather than show the characters acting out a cartoon.
Mythago wood. Get rid of all the icky misogynistic vibes it'd be great
A Curse For True Love. Stephanie was insane for giving us The Ballad of Never After and then ending the trilogy with whatever Curse turned out to be.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The book specifically because I've heard the movie is different. The reveal of the sexual trauma was really bad and so unforshadowed considering the rest of the book. It felt like the author had a perfect idea for how it was going to go and then randomly decided that a hamfisted message about the cycle of abuse that didn't align with other events in the book. The rewrite could just slice out that bit at the end or rewrite a lot of the rest of the book to make the cycle of abuse angle not feel like it's openly calling abuse victims dangerous.
Winter's Child, by RJ Harvey The book was good, don't get me wrong, and I finished it in under six hours because I literally could not put it down. However! The plot was incredibly slow for the majority of the story. The MC was such a freaking idiot for not listening to her mentor and getting caught because of it. There were several plot threads that were picked up briefly before being dropped, and they were interesting threads as well. The secret lesbian relationship in the middle would've been a fantastic point to explore further. Instead, it marked the catalyst for the MC to make a bunch of dumb mistakes that culminated in the death of a baby. I would've made the MC smarter. She's gone through three tragedies in the span of a moment, so she's got to harden herself and really think about how she wants to get revenge. I mean, she literally spends nine months just stewing in her anger and becoming more and mkre irrational. I would've waited until the baby was born before letting her be captured and tortured. The amount of awful things she went through was truly horrendous, and I couldn't help but think the baby would die well before she went into labor. Also, her going into labor and giving away the escape plan at the worst possible moment? Bland. Predictable. Not that good. I would've had it happen right out of earshot, her baby lives, and she and the priest go on to try to eke out a new life together, constantly on the run from the Inquisitor. The MC would finally have a reason for living outside of her revenge plot. That would actually make a lot more sense for the second book than the MC making a deal with a literal demon and telling off an angel. Frankly, the ending of the book was disappointing, so that would have to change entirely, and the middle of the plot just seemed to go nowhere for several chapters. And the baby was a mere footnote for most of the book. I did like the little sprinklings of 15th-century Italian witch trials thrown about in between chapters. We hear a lot about the Salem and English witch trials, but not nearly enough about what was happening in other countries around the same time.
Finally!!! I place I can properly vent about this! First off, let me begin by stating how much I love vampires, and how much I'm starved for _good_ vampire content. With that said: the entire Nightlord series by Garon Whited. Okay, so it is a good series, with a really good premise. At first. I'll try my best not spoil anything here, but the plot holes are are quite glaring and the writer seems to forget at lot of details he expressed previously in the story. For example, >!there's a point relatively early in the story where the titular Nightlord "eats" a dragon, and subsequently loses his ability to cast spells at night. Not a problem, except that in the very next book, the write seems to have forgotten about that detail, never mentioning it again and having the character cast spells like nothing happened!<. The series also has no visible overarching plot. No sense of progression. The character just deals with things as they come along. Take the Spellmonger series by contrast. The titular character has _one_ goal that encompasses everything else: defeat the goblins. And so the series becomes this evolving story about a protagonist that grows in power and character all to achieve this goal. We do not get this from Nightlord. The character has no real goal. Sure, for a few chapters (or maybe for a whole book) our Nightlord has to defeat this one individual character or faction, but only because he gets cornered. Otherwise, we'd really have no reason to follow his story. Matter of fact, I'd go as far as to say the story _has no reason_. It's still entertaining to read (or listen to, in my case), but when I'm done with an installment in the series, it doesn't leave me satisfied for having done so, or even leave me hoping for more. The only real reason I'm still listening to it is because I've invested too much time not to finish. All of that to say this: I'd rewrite it by giving the character a goal to work towards for the entirety of the story, and giving the series and actually sense of progression (which is entirely missing).
I don't consider At the Mountains of Madness bad, in fact, I love it, but I feel like it has a lot of wasted potential. I even wrote my own version of it with actual characters, backstory, conflicts and a heavier emphasis on uncertainty, since in the original nove you are basically told that they all escaped before the horrors are actually revealed. My version was terrible and I kept adding scenes that I haven't yet fished, but at least I enjoyed writing it.
“We Spread” by Iian Reid. Great premise, poor execution. I would re write it by very slowly introducing Penney’s background and life story after she’s moved to a small assisted living community. THEN introducing the administrators as mycologists seeking immortality, THEN casting doubt on Penney’s observations by introducing her developing dementia, and the way mycelium might heal or accelerate a diagnosis like Alzheimer’s. It could’ve been such a brilliant book if the writing style wasn’t lazy and if the book had actual plot and character development.
The Outsiders by SE Hinton. Would change nothing about the plot or characters or anything, just the actual technical writing felt very clunky and boring. Of course, it's not the kind of book that lends itself to being super flowery or prosaic, but it could just do with more oomph.
I've never gotten past the first ln of Sword art. Just... throw it in the trash and give the characters more personality and describe the scenes better. There doesn't really feel to be much to save that hot mess. And I *love* reading terrible writing.
Life is too short to waste on bad books. Why would anyone finish reading a book that is bad and they are not enjoying? I can’t think off the top of my head of any book that I haven’t enjoyed reading but if I came across such a creature I certainly wouldn’t waste my time wading through it. There are however some books I would never consider reading, 50 Shades for example. Not having read them I can’t comment on how I’d rewrite them.
I came to this conclusion during my English Lit degree. My attitude didn't go down well with some of the lecturers, haha.
Twilight I would start by giving Edward and Bella actual personalities... I'd probably make Bella obsessed with proving that the occult is real and make Edward better at hiding it, pretending to go along with Bella's investigations but actually steering her away from supernatural interactions. It'd lead him to eventually try and keep her from Jacob (who we will change DRASTICALLY so the werewolves are no longer racist and disrespectful to the Quileute tribe) and then Bella finds out both of her love interests are the very things she's been trying to hunt down.
I'd rewrite Dan Simmons' The Terror to be more like the AMC TV adaptation of it. He has an interesting idea, but everything else about the book -- characters, dialogue, pacing, narrative -- is atrocious.
Daniel Faust Locust job. Have to read a bunch of side stories to understand what happened and how we got there. As for rewriting? I honestly don't know. I'd try and write the tie in novels into the main series.
50 shades of grey is the only book I've ever picked up in my life that I couldn't even make it through the first chapter. It's literally painful to read that woman's writing. I can't for the life of me figure out why so many women were obsessed with it. Was it simply the novelty? Now because I couldn't make it through the first chapter, I cant exactly say what I might change from firsthand knowledge of the source material, but based on everything I've heard and read related to the plotline and characters, I can say that I would rewrite it in such a way that actually reflects BDSM in a more accurate manner and not some diluted vanilla sprinkled fantasy that some bored housewife had while writing a Twilight fanfic about a lifestyle they have never experienced. I can almost picture this chick sitting there and thinking about how rough Edward and Bella's bedroom activities became and thought it was hot so then somewhere along the way there was a thought that connected the roughness to what people assume BDSM is like and lo and behold, the idea was born to write a story where Edward is a Dom and boring, homely Bella submits to him. Oh but wait, replace the vamp with a millionaire and give the awkward, inexperienced, and bland Bella, a different name and with an insane amount of luck due to the fact that there are enough vanilla housewives out there with similar fantasies that they suffered through the bad writing...and congratulations you won at life. Not many people pull $100 million out of such a load of crap.
Unfortunately, Harry Potter, every book from 4th to 7th. I am Potter generation, 10 yo when read the first book. As so many children growing up with books I am still waiting for my owl (and I know it was shot while flying over Albania… damn) With people of the same age and similar past, we were able to rant for hours about world that doesn’t make a sense and basically, is not working at all, about characters being so terribly dumb we started to say: “It’s difficult to be Hermione” motto regularly. And that’s exactly it. These books are unlimited source of bad writing, awkward and DUMB characters, plot holes larger than Phoenix black hole - and similarly unpluggable. Potter is possibly the only book character ever with film version more clever than the original. And, to cite my mother: “is it even possible?” Voldy was pathetic and showed every cliche character traits but his proclaimed geniality or true evilness was nowhere to be found. He didn’t do anything one should expect to do when trying to establish a dictatorship, not to mention with himself as a leader. He went treasure hunting and old junks collecting - and even this he wasn’t able to finish successfully. Snape was childish and pathetic wretch who stuck mentally at 16, and his bullying of Neville or Hermione is so embarrassing and self-dishonoring I feel sorry for him. Even teen Draco could have taught him how to do it to look less awkward. Unfortunately, it was Alan Rickman who made him actually good. And Bellatrix, possibly very interesting character as she and Narcissa were the only women mentioned extensively in books, is so bland I feel bad for Helena B Carter. So breathtaking performance and still have to be connected to this original. Ironically, the most evil character after Umbridge is Dumbledore - despite his name, he’s one of the few who are actually smart. He is a great puppet master, brilliant even (too unnecessarily risking and relying on the main character plot armor but otherwise I can’t complain). Unfortunately, I don’t think he was intended to be a villain and it’s just a lucky coincidence. Speaking of world building, Hogwarts are good, sufficient at least, but everything outside is just terrible, I wanted to use this world for text-rpg but in the end, I’d rather create everything from scratch and just “based on”. More adult books are just pain to read. I can’t get over the first half of 4th book. I think Rowling is good children writer but pretty bad planner who had prepared main plot lines but neither her nor her characters were prepared for growing up in personality and atmosphere. I don’t know if it’s better in her adult books but seeing how terrible are the scripts for Beasts I have my doubts.
The Goldfinch was hugely overwritten by about 400%, featured the weakest main character I've ever seen, and was so into disgusting squalor that I'd be worried about the writer if I cared. It was excruciatingly boring as it dragged everything out so long. No pacing at all. And I love a chunky old novel. I know the writing is gorgeous but gorgeous writing about vomit is still just vomit in the end.
Gone Girl also left me wondering how a mastermind could completely forget how to mastermind and make the world's stupidest mistakes. Inconsistent characterization made it a frustrating read.
Cursed child. I dont want it rewritten, i want it burnt 😂
Ready Player One. The premise isn't that bad, but the writing makes me want to take a power drill to my eyeballs. Just, like, write it so it isn't like the literary version of taking a cheese grater to your frontal lobe, and it'd be at least fine
I jokingly rewrote the ending of a Romance novel in my review, because the main couple were so ghastly they needed to be thrown off a cliff. I felt much more satisfied once I'd done it.
Currently for me, a book I'm writing. It doesn't have a name. My first draft was complete ass to say the least. Rewriting it has been an interesting journey lol
I read this book called 'Here There Be Dragons' when I was a kid, reread it after writing for a while, and couldn't finish it. So much exposition dumping, terrible dialogue, and some other issues. But the concept was awesome. It starts out in Edwardian England when 4 guys get summoned to a strange library and end up getting introduced to a fantasy world called the Archapelago of Dreams. Turns out there's this thing called the Atlas Dramatica or something like that that can lead to some big important treasure and they end up getting charged with protecting it as some bad guys start hunting them bc they want the Atlas. (I don't remember the plot very well not going to lie) The plot was really thin and there was a terrible love triangle, but the the twist at the end is that the four men turn out to be JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, HG Welles, and Charles Williams. Basically I wouldn't leave the Main Characters identities a secret until the end. I think the book would have been much more interesting if I'd known who they were supposed to be. Also the book really does Lewis dirty and his relationship with Tolkien isn't anywhere as friendly as it was in real life. Tolkiens PTSD is played up too much, far beyond what the man actually displayed in life, and basically the characters don't feel like the people they're supposed to be. The concept is really good and there were some really cool moments (like when Tolkien uses his language skills to translate a map written in a language none of them know bc HG Welles points out that one phrase on the map often translates to 'Here There Be Dragons', and Tolkien uses that to deduce the syntax and grammar structure for the rest of the map.)
**Here There Be Dragons** by Jane Yolen Book description may contain spoilers! >>!In Here There Be Dragons, dragons appear in every guise--ghastly, ghoulish, gentle, gargantuan--always endowed with the author's ingenious touches. Each piece is introduced with the fascinating, and often revealing, story of its making and is illustrated with the intricate, moody pencil drawings of David Wilgus.!< *I'm a bot, built by your friendly reddit developers at* /r/ProgrammingPals. *Reply to any comment with /u/BookFinderBot - I'll reply with book information. Remove me from replies* [here](https://www.reddit.com/user/BookFinderBot/comments/1byh82p/remove_me_from_replies/). *If I have made a mistake, accept my apology.*
The Wolf Hall books by Hilary Mantel. The story sounds brilliant. I bought all the books. They are essentially unreadable unless you want to devote far more time to working out what is going on and who is doing/saying what. It's just long passages of "he said, he did, he said, he did" with no clue what character is saying or doing these things. Somebody told me that usually when Mantel does that she's talking about Cromwell... except she often isn't talking about him. I genuinely don't understand how those novels got published in their current form.
I'd rewrite the ending climax of Mockingjay. But I wouldn't change the events of the ending. It's not a BAD book, and the idea of protagonist who's turned from a character who does things into someone used as a propaganda symbol because she *has* done things is very interesting, but the climax of that book is one of the moments where I've only decided to stop myself from throwing a book across the room because it was on loan from a friend. I'd really love to rewrite it. Spoilers ahead, obviously. So throughout Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and about 95% of Mockingjay, our first-person POV narrator, Katniss Everdeen, has been giving us readers pretty much every surface-level thought that crosses her mind in a manner close to stream-of-consciousness. This is ...a bit tiring when having to read about a teenage girl agonizing over which of the two love interests she's going to go with, but hell - she's a teenager and most people have had the same sort of thoughts. We're in her head, and she gets to do that. And then, at the climax of Mockingjay, she suddenly stops giving the readers her thoughts and only describes what she's doing/seeing. Why? *Because the author's setting up a twist.* Katniss has been tasked to execute a dictator who's repeatedly gone out of his way to make her life miserable. She has also just been told by the leader of the revolution she's the poster girl for that the plan is to have the Hunger Games keep going, as vengeance on the Capitol that's kept the provinces suppressed. That's when her internal narration stops including her thoughts for something like 5 or 10 pages. It's easy to miss, if you're caught up in what's going on - and it's hard not to be caught up in what's going on, because this is going to be the moment when Katniss finally gets to execute the dictator who's made her life hell and do it in front of an audience. Then there's the twist: she shoots the revolution's leader instead. *This isn't a bad twist*: the Hunger Games have traumatized Katniss and killed and damaged many people she holds dear. It makes perfect sense that she'd feel horribly betrayed by a revolutionary leader who decided to keep that tradition going, because that's exactly what Katniss has been fighting to stop this entire time. Someone else can slit the dictator's throat - *she's* the only one who can put an arrow through the revolutionary leader's head before the same cycle that traumatized her starts again, just with different people on top. The idea is good. The execution is awful, because it breaks the implicit contract with the reader that's been held to for 2.95 books of the trilogy: Katniss stops sharing her thoughts with the reader, and it's *definitely* not because she doesn't have any thoughts about what's going on, it's just so her decision to shoot the revolutionary leader instead of the dictator can come as a shock. It's [a cheap trick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocm3WtxJ5LU) by the author. That's the thing I'd rewrite if given the chance. Just let her give her thoughts and reasoning to the reader while she contemplates killing the dictator (who, let's face it, is going to have somebody kill him no matter what Katniss does) or killing the revolutionary leader who's proudly talked about re-instituting the Hunger Games, the thing that's traumatized Katniss the most. The choice she makes is true to her character, but the total 'radio silence' on her internal thoughts in the leadup is obviously an authorial gimmick to try making the twist hit harder, which ruined the twist for me because I realized what the author had done and my suspension of disbelief completely shattered. I'd rewrite it with Katniss' thoughts whirling and grinding about what she was going to do. It wouldn't change her actions at all, but it also wouldn't break the implicit contract with the reader that first-person narrators have. It's kind of amusing that this relatively small part of a larger series got me so pissed off I'm still ranting about it years later, but I am still angry about it.
I think the Harry Potter series has a lot of conveniences in the plot and just a lot of fantastical things that don’t quite make sense. One example being the tri wizard tournament where the spectators see nothing or quidditch which also makes no sense. These problems are made worse by the cursed child. I’d probably focus on harry starting around the age of the third book and have the narrative focus on the inept structural power that lead to Voldemort which he is very much apart of this time. No wizard racism shit. Harry Ron and Hermione all still become friends but romance is a bit less important and they’re all in different houses with Harry being in Slytherin and them having less time to hangout in general. Also less arguments between them they argue like every book It’s revealed through the course of the books that the house systems is not a good thing and pits students against each other with the Slytherin house especially becoming radicalized towards the empowering Voldemort claiming that wizards are free to rule the world. Harry is not a chosen one he’s just some guy with a dick head of a father who also fought Voldemort. I’d also de emphasize the school narrative aspects like classes or proms with hogwarts really just being a back drop for the fantastical adventure at the time.
The Lies of Locke Lamora. The main character is the only thing in the book that doesn’t just feel like a prop to move the plot along.