I’ll go with the low-hanging fruit: Mein Kampf. I’ve read it, cover to cover. As a piece of propaganda, it’s good. As an example of good writing? Absolutely not (though I will admit I have only read it in translation). Oh, and the whole fascist, racist, and generally shitty worldview of the author that he infuses into the text. And the fact that the author is literally Hitler. You 5-star that book? You’re a Nazi. Period. And as a Jewish person, I don’t look too kindly on them.
Ready Player One
Elaborate.
Not only is it just poorly written garbage, but it’s also racist and misogynistic. It reads like middle school fanfiction where everyone stands up and claps after a shitty come back. Which is a scene that literally happens in the book. The completely weird and random atheist rant that was shoe horned in, the lists on lists of just absolutely random 80s pop culture references, and wade is an absolutely insufferable MC. It’s just….bad. The world is super interesting it’s just unfortunate we’re all stuck with this shit story inside of it. I can’t believe Spielberg read this and was like “excellent. Let’s make an equally terrible movie”
It isn’t racist or misogynistic. It has a diverse cast and multiple strong female characters. It doesn’t do or say anything even remotely sexist. It does include a problematic trope around dating, but it’s something a lot of socially underdeveloped teenagers do.
Yikes
I know a teen that absolutely LOVES Ready Player 2. Talks about it constantly. I didn’t have the heart to tell the kid that they probably need to tone it down a bit.
I’ll forgive teenagers a bit tbh, I loved some questionable shit as a kid. Its the adults that bug me, like you can like things that’s fine but if you’re gunna name that as your favorite book ima need you to engage some critical thinking