Do NOT read "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire.
No matter how much you like the musical- which I hear is much better, even though overrated.
The book was horrendous. I still have not gone to see the musical- though I listened to the soundtrack- simply because the book was that awful.
I didn't care for the book either. I've never seen the musical, but I like folktales and stories based on them (which I think
The Wizard of Oz counts as), so I thought I would give it a try. Also someone gave me the book as a present as she really loved it. I couldn't finish it. It was just weird, in a very slow and opaque way, and I didn't really understand what was happening a lot of the time.
Personally I was okay with
Twilight--I've read all the books and own all the movies. But, as an adult, I like inappropriate vampire stories. I could see how it would be disturbing to have an actual teenage girl read the books and think it should all be taken seriously. I really thought Bella was going to turn out to have a brain tumor or something, though, and that would explain her hallucinations, the voices she heard, her bizarre behavior, etc.. The final book just took it all over the top into enjoyable Crazytown. But again, I think you have to be reading it with a smirk.
I didn't care for
A Series of Unfortunate Events. I couldn't finish the first book because to me, it was just... a bunch of horrible things happening to innocent kids. I mean that's exactly what it was billed as, but I just couldn't find that entertaining. Same with
Redwall--I knew it was about a bunch of anthropomorphic animals who have battles, but then I started reading and it's like, "It's a bunch of animals getting hurt and killed! No!"
For a while
The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen was popular--kind of
Gossip Girl but in the 1890s Gilded Age New York. The books are beautiful and fat, with lush ballgown-clad girls on the cover. But all the characters were very self-centered, even the "good" ones, and I felt there was just so much distance from all of them, I couldn't connect with any. Then you had the good girl in a secret physical relationship with a servant, and she wasn't the least bit worried or angsty about that--it just kind of lost all credibility at that point for me. Like it was so unbelievable in the setting that I actually thought it was a setup for a dream sequence or something.
I have to put in a plug for Philippa Gregory (
The Other Boleyn Girl, etc.). I have read a lot of her books and have several more in my stack to read. They always follow the same pattern: partway through, I realize I hate all the characters, and wonder if I should keep reading. Then I remember I always have this reaction to her books, and I should just sit back and enjoy the characters getting their comeuppances.
I didn't care for the classics
A Wizard of Earthsea or
A Wrinkle in Time. To me they were both more talk than action, lots of vague philoso-babble, not much character development.