The Most Overrated Books of All Time, Ranked

(You’re not ready for this list, but we’re doing it anyway.)

Ah, the sacred cows of literature—those books everyone insists you must read, lest you risk exposing yourself as a lowbrow Neanderthal unworthy of polite society. These are the books that get assigned in school, pop up on every “Best Books Ever” list, and have legions of fans who will die on the hill of their greatness.

Well. We’re here to burn that hill to the ground.

Some books are massively overhyped, some have aged like milk, and others were never that good to begin with. Let’s get messy.

🚫 The Catcher in the Rye – “Shut Up, Holden”

Why It’s Overrated:

There are exactly two groups of people who love this book:

High school English teachers trying to convince you that rebellion is profound.
Men in their mid-forties who think being disillusioned makes them deep.

Here’s the thing: Holden Caulfield isn’t an insightful critic of society. He’s a whiny rich kid who spent an entire novel complaining about how the world is full of phonies—while doing absolutely nothing about it.

What You Should Read Instead:

Anything. Literally anything else.

📖 The Great Gatsby – “Daisy Never Loved You, Bro”

Why It’s Overrated:

The entire plot revolves around a guy who throws raging mansion parties because he’s simply too afraid to send a damn text (if phones existed). Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is pitiful, Daisy is a human red flag, and by the end, we’re left wondering if anyone in this book has ever had a single real conversation.

Yes, Fitzgerald’s prose is stunning, but you could summarize The Great Gatsby as:

Wealthy people suck.
Parties are fun.
Obsession isn’t love.
Gatsby simped too hard and drowned.

What You Should Read Instead:

If you want a book about the hollow pursuit of the American Dream, try Passing by Nella Larsen.

🐋 Moby-Dick – “Congratulations, You Read a Whale Manual”

Why It’s Overrated:

We get it, Herman. You really, really love whales. Unfortunately, we do not.

The first few chapters of Moby-Dick are actually pretty good—there’s drama, there’s a mysterious captain, there’s broody sailor homoeroticism. And then suddenly we’re knee-deep in an exhaustive dissertation on cetology.

If I wanted to know everything about 19th-century whaling, I’d Google it. Instead, we’re forced to wade through entire chapters that read like Wikipedia entries before we get to the actual plot.

What You Should Read Instead:

Try The North Water by Ian McGuire if you want an actually gripping novel about whaling (and murder).

📜 Wuthering Heights – “This Is Not Romance, This Is a Psychological Horror Story”

Why It’s Overrated:

If this book were released today, Heathcliff would be a villain in a psychological thriller. The only reason people pretend this is romantic is that Brontë wrote it in the 1800s.

Let’s recap:

Catherine and Heathcliff destroy their own lives and then go on to ruin the next generation, too.
Heathcliff digs up her corpse to hold her dead body.
Everyone is either abused, miserable, or dying.

And yet, for some reason, every goth English major thinks this is peak romance.

What You Should Read Instead:

If you want actual gothic romance, read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

⚡ Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – “We Don’t Claim This”

Why It’s Overrated:

Okay, we all love the original Harry Potter series (controversial author aside), but Cursed Child is fanfiction that somehow got printed.

Not only does it butcher every existing character, but the plot reads like a fever dream:

Voldemort had a kid?? (Excuse me?)
Cedric Diggory becomes an evil Death Eater in an alternate timeline? (No.)
Harry tells his own son, “Sometimes I wish you weren’t my kid.” (Sir??)

This book violates canon so hard it might as well be an alternate dimension.

What You Should Read Instead:

Just reread Prisoner of Azkaban and pretend this never happened.

🧛 Twilight – “I Watched You Sleep, and That’s Hot”

Why It’s Overrated:

Listen. We’ve all been through a Twilight phase. Some of us (me, in middle school) even owned the Team Edward t-shirt. But let’s be real:

Bella has the personality of wet cardboard.
Edward is controlling AF.
Jacob fell in love with an infant. (Never forget.)

The Twilight books are entertaining trash, but let’s not pretend they’re great literature.

What You Should Read Instead:

If you want actual gothic vampire romance, read The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez.

📚 To Kill a Mockingbird – “The Book That Every School Assigns, But No One Questions”

Why It’s Overrated:

Before you grab the pitchforks, hear me out.

Yes, To Kill a Mockingbird is a powerful story about racial injustice. Yes, it’s an important book. But maybe it’s time we stop treating it as the definitive book about racism.

The white savior narrative of Atticus Finch is outdated, and Harper Lee’s attempt to complicate his character with Go Set a Watchman only made things worse.

What You Should Read Instead:

Try The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for a modern take on racial injustice.

Are We Right? Absolutely.

Listen, reading is subjective. If one of these books is your absolute favorite, good for you. But some books have been put on a pedestal for so long that we forget to actually ask if they’re any good.

We’re all for literary appreciation, but some books just aren’t worth the hype. Maybe it’s the forced symbolism, the insufferable characters, or the fact that we all had to pretend to love them because our high school English teacher said so.

Either way, we’re about to ruffle some very fragile, tweed-clad feathers.

Let’s get into it.

ROUND 2 – More Overrated Books

PS: a few of these are repeats from above but with fresh takes. Because we have thoughts.

🚨 The “I Can’t Believe This Is Considered a Classic” Tier 🚨

📖 The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

At some point, every angsty teenager has read this and thought, Wow, Holden really gets me. And then you grow up and realize Holden is insufferable. He complains about everything, thinks he’s better than everyone, and does absolutely nothing for 200 pages. Call it “profound” all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s just a rich kid whining about how life is so hard.

🐳 Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)

A guy holds a grudge against a whale for, like, 600 pages. That’s it. That’s the book. 80% of it is just detailed whale anatomy. You could replace entire chapters with National Geographic articles, and no one would notice.

🦵 Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

Ayn Rand had one idea and spent a thousand pages screaming it into your brain. If you loved this book, you either majored in economics or you run a Twitter account that says things like “hustle culture is king.” The characters aren’t people; they’re just mouthpieces for capitalism, and frankly, no one talks like that in real life.

🤡 The “Fake Deep” Tier 🤡

🐠 Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

“Is the tiger real? Is it a metaphor?” Who cares. This book is basically a philosophy student trying to sound profound at a party. The entire thing reads like it’s begging you to say ‘wow, so deep’ while you secretly check how many pages are left.

📜 The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

Yes, we know. It changed your life. But did it? Or did it just tell you vague things about “following your dreams” that your mom could have cross-stitched onto a pillow? This book is basically a fortune cookie that went on for 150 pages too long.

🌅 The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

Yes, it’s bleak. Yes, it’s minimalist. But did we actually enjoy reading it? If I wanted to feel this empty, I’d just scroll through Zillow listings I can’t afford.

😴 The “Not Bad, Just Boring” Tier 😴

🦆 The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

Hemingway once said, “Write the truest sentence you know.” What he failed to mention is that it should also be interesting. This is just an old guy talking to himself about a fish. The fact that this was required reading should be considered a human rights violation.

🐖 Animal Farm (George Orwell)

Yes, it’s an important book. Yes, it’s a political allegory. But let’s be real: It’s just a bunch of animals yelling about communism. We all understood the point in chapter two, yet here we are, still reading about pigs giving speeches.

💀 Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)

There’s gothic romance, and then there’s “everyone in this book needs therapy immediately.” Cathy and Heathcliff don’t love each other—they just enjoy making each other miserable. I get why the Brontës were writing like this (Victorian repression, bleak Yorkshire landscapes, etc.), but my God, these people need hobbies.

🔥 Honorable Mentions: Books That Are Overrated but Still Kinda Fun 🔥

The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) – It’s just rich people making bad choices, but at least the drama is top-tier.
Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) – It’s objectively bad, but also? Iconic. We wouldn’t have Fifty Shades of Grey to make fun of without it.
A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara) – We get it. Pain is profound. But also, maybe let the characters have a good day once in a while?
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) – Love it or hate it, but it’s literally just rich people navigating social awkwardness.
Dune (Frank Herbert) – The first 100 pages feel like a grad student’s sci-fi thesis defense. But hey, at least there are giant worms.