Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Were Hard For Me To Read

Hey, y'all! This is my first ever TOP TEN TUESDAY post and I'm super excited to join in the fun! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish. Today's theme is all about books that are hard to read for whatever reason... subject matter, obnoxious characters, poor writing, boring, hits too close to home emotionally, whatever the case may be. In no particular order, here are my choices:

1. Gone by Lisa McMann
Gone is the third book in the Dream Catcher Series and in my opinion, it is one of the worst endings to a trilogy I have ever read. Seriously. I wanted to chuck the book at the wall several times throughout it and the ending? Ugh. Just ugh. I will never read that series again now that I know how craptastic the ending was and that's a real shame because the first two books were good! *smh*

2. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
I know that these books have become a phenomenon and middle-aged women all over the country are panting in anticipation of the upcoming movie, but I just don't get it. Christian Grey is abusive and damaged but hey, he makes a load of money so let's ignore all of that! I know that by the end of the series, Christian has really grown and changed but I'd have been out the door way before we ever reached that point.

3. The Lovely Bones by Alive Sebold
Talk about depressing... now that I'm a mama, and even before, books about the deaths of children and teens bothered me. Same with animal cruelty, it's just really hard for me to go there. While this book is beautifully written, it's just too sad for me and I know I'll never crack the spine of it again. Ever.

4. I Swear by Lane Davis
As a high school counselor, books about bullying really hit home for me. It saddens me that young people feel that there is no better answer than taking their own lives and it kills me how very cruel, mean, and heartless some kids can be to one another. I knew this book would be hard for me going in and then couple that with a disgusting and hate-worthy character in Macie, the main mean girl, and this book pissed me off, rubbed me the wrong way, and made me really, really sad.

5. Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala
Another trigger topic for me is domestic violence and abusive relationships, especially when the victims are teenage girls. It saddens me so much that some young girls, and women, allow themselves to be treated this way. I pity the sense of helplessness and hopelessness that they must feel to continue to remain in such damaging relationships. This book ended strong though with a positive message of hope, I just don't think I would ever want to read it through again.

6. Miracle by Elizabeth Scott
This book has SO MUCH potential but there were two things that killed it for me. The first was a true struggle to connect emotionally with Megan, the main character. I just could not get there with her for some reason. The second was Megan's parents who made me want to climb into the book and smack them around a few hundred times because they were just clueless about how to help her. Drove me (and the counselor inside) absolutely insane.

7. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
I love the Game of Thrones series but this book, the fourth book, was a total snoozefest. It dragged by soooo slowly and when a book is that freakin' large, dragging means you could be reading it for weeks! And that's exactly what happened to me, it took me over 7 weeks to finish that book. You know something is wrong when that's the case.

8. Midnight (The Vampire Diaries: The Return) by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries series was never by any means literary genius at work, but they were entertaining reads that kept me engaged and interested. However, The Return series just went downhill as it went along, and this third book was utter rubbish. Getting through it was painstakingly awful and while I don't agree with the higher ups' choice to continue the series with a ghost writer, I can kind of understand why they decided they didn't need any more installments written by Smith.

9. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Again, the Twilight Series is hardly a literary classic, but I was quite invested in the story and was a proud Team Edward member. (Gosh, remember those days?!) Breaking Dawn, however, was a total disappointment in how it ended and then there's the awful and disgusting birthing scene. Ew. And don't get me started on the creepy imprint.

10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Yes, it seems insane that this would pop up on a list of books that I mostly didn't like or that hit an emotional cord with me. This book is here for an entirely different reason... this was hard for me to read because I never, ever wanted Harry Potter to end. Finishing the book was bittersweet in that I loved it and loved the ending and loved knowing what all happened to the characters I was so invested in... but then it was over and that was so sad. I'll admit there were tears. Potterhead for life. Always.