“An anonymous publishing insider (no really)” has written an opinion piece for The Times of London detailing what’s wrong with five acclaimed novels “you shouldn’t be bothered to read.” After dismissing Alice Sebold‘s The Lovely Bones as “emotional porn” and “relentless in its sentimentality,” the mysterious player-hater goes on to dis Jane Austen, Irvine Welsh, Monica Ali, and John Boyne, the latter of whom is scorned for writing his concentration camp story The Boy in the Striped Pajamas such that “it is impossible to know who the intended audience is.”
So let’s open the field up to the American publishing insiders—strictly anonymously, of course. What’s the book you’d warn everyone off? (James Frey is already off the table because that’s too easy, but if you’ve got a bone to pick with Augusten Burroughs, speak now!)