History SoBadItsGood / Literature

* ''Troll'' by Emma Clark takes everything that can possibly go wrong with self-published romance novels and cranks it UpToEleven. The result plays out almost like a bad erotic story as written by some creepy neckbeard IT guy, despite being [[MoustacheDePlume (supposedly)]] written by a woman. WebVideo/JennyNicholson discusses it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZMt87ZdUbw here]].

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''. You know that copypasta about the Christian U.S. Marine that starts with "A liberal Muslim homosexual ACLU lawyer professor ..."? Yeah, ''Victoria'' is like that but as a war novel novel. It's about a bunch of RatedMForManly {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s waging war on the forces of liberalism and political correctness - safe to say, the author feels strongly about his political views. He thinks everything in America was better in the 40s (including [[LuddWasRight technology]]). But to people who don't agree with him the book reads like an over-the-top self-parody. For example; in one scene our heroes dress up as medieval Crusaders and execute Marxist professors with Roman swords on live TV while monks chant ''Dies Irae''.

* ''Die Abenteuer des Stefón Rudel'' is a self-published sci-fi adventure novel by Stefan Knapp regarded by many as Germany's version of ''The Eye of Argon'' thanks to its awkward word choices, poor plotting, and abundant spelling and grammatical errors. But don't take our word for it - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz8ndSfX9K0 take hers]].[[note]]Video is in German[[/note]]

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''. You know that copypasta about the Christian U.S. Marine that starts with "A liberal Muslim homosexual ACLU lawyer professor ..."? Yeah, ''Victoria'' is basically that but as an entire MilitaryScienceFiction novel. It tells the tale of a bunch of RatedMForManly {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s waging war on the forces of liberalism and political correctness - safe to say, the author feels strongly about his political views. He thinks everything in America was better in the 40s (including [[LuddWasRight technology]]). But to people who don't agree with him the book reads like an over-the-top self-parody. For example; in one scene our heroes dress up as medieval Crusaders and execute Marxist professors with Roman swords on live TV while monks ''Dies Irae''.

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''. You know that copypasta about the Christian U.S. Marine that starts with "A liberal Muslim homosexual ACLU lawyer professor ..."? Yeah, ''Victoria'' is basically that but as an entire MilitaryScienceFiction novel. It tells the tale of a bunch of RatedMForManly RightWingMilitiaFanatics waging war on the forces of liberalism and political correctness - safe to say, the author feels strongly about his political views. He thinks everything in America was better in the 40s (including [[LuddWasRight technology]]). But to people who don't agree with him the book reads like an over-the-top self-parody. For example; in one scene our heroes dress up as medieval Crusaders and execute Marxist professors with Roman swords on live TV while monks ''Dies Irae''.

* So bad and eye-catching that you can't look away seems to be the business strategy of author Hunter Fox, whose titles include "A Billionaire Dinosaur Forced Me Gay" and "Big Foot's Side Piece".

Which will be remember’d for a very long time.''\\

* ''Troll'' by Emma Clark takes everything that can possibly go wrong with self-published romance novels and cranks it UpToEleven. The result plays out almost like a bad erotic story as written by some creepy neckbeard IT guy, despite being [[{{GIRL}} (supposedly)]] written by a woman. WebVideo/JennyNicholson discusses it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZMt87ZdUbw here]].

** There is a suggestion out there that Jamaica Layne is [[{{GIRL}} not a "her" but a "him"]], given the specifics of the writing. One might also speculate about the identities (or, as the case may be, ''identity'') of the anonymice who pop up to defend her (or his) works without substantive rebuttals to the criticisms made by the review.

* ''Literature/TheClique''. It's full of ProductPlacement, MostWritersAreAdults, and disturbing morals, and ''tries its hardest to sex up middle school age girls''. It has a ''huge'' fan base due to BileFascination. But warning: it's a ''massive'' trigger for bullying victims.
** To some, it's also funny (or possibly pathetic) because it's a blatant WishFulfillment fic for the author about the middle-school life she always wanted to have.

* The first 3 books in the ''Literature/{{Meg}}'' series by Steve Alten. Shallow characters and laughing at the laws of reality and probability abound. Jonas Taylor does many things when defeating sharks and villains that are so unlikely and insane that they are CrazyAwesome.

* ''Literature/TheClique''. It's full of ProductPlacement, MostWritersAreAdults, and [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop disturbing morals]], and ''tries its hardest to sex up middle school age girls''. It has a ''huge'' fan base due to BileFascination. But warning: it's a ''massive'' trigger for bullying victims.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse novel ''Literature/TheGloveOfDarthVader'' and its sequels are packed with {{Narm}}, {{Anvilicious}} {{Green Aesop}}s, and {{Written Sound Effect}}s (in a ''novel''!); inevitably, many readers enjoy them for it. That the writers in an interview defended the series by pointing to its popularity among students, a demographic notably fond of SnarkBait, suggests that they're in on the joke even if they originally weren't. These books were probably aimed at children, given the number of pictures and the painfully simplistic plots. 10 years later, though, they qualify for this trope.

* The notorious 1969 hoax novel ''Literature/NakedCameTheStranger'', written by a team of journalists led by Mike [=McGrady=], was deliberately written horribly to ridicule American culture. Once the public was aware that the poor quality of the hoax was intentional it quickly became popular, proving [=McGrady=]'s theory - that American culture had sunken so low that [[SexSells anything sex-filled was seen as desirable]] - to be correct. After all, SexSells.

* The notorious 1969 hoax novel ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Came_the_Stranger Naked Came the Stranger]]'', written by a team of journalists led by Mike [=McGrady=], was deliberately written horribly to ridicule American culture. Once the public was aware that the poor quality of the hoax was intentional it quickly became popular, proving [=McGrady=]'s theory - that American culture had sunken so low that [[SexSells anything sex-filled was seen as desirable]] - to be correct. After all, SexSells.

* Theophilus Marzials's poem, "A Tragedy" is considered ''the'' worst poem in the English language. [[http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/bad/Marzials.Tragedy.html Read it out loud in your most Shakespearean voice.]]

* ''Literature/{{Ghost}}'', [[MemeticMutation better known as]] the "[[http://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html OH JOHN RINGO NO]]" book. It was written by Creator/JohnRingo letting his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego#Id Id]] run free in order to clear his head of the idea so he could get back to other works whose writing the idea was blocking. Much to his chagrin, a sample posted to the [[Creator/BaenBooks Baen's Bar forums]] resulted in an outpouring of support that demanded it be printed. RuleOfCool fully applies.

* The [[http://www.peltorro.com/examples.htm Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe]], who wrote about 80% of Badger Books' sci-fi output under so many pseudonyms and with such a rush to churn out nonsense before the deadline that nowadays even he isn't sure which books were his. He was a master of ''deliberately'' writing SoBadItsGood, since the Badger Books methodology made it difficult to write anything ''good'' good. He is associated with pages of blatant {{padding}}, plots based on barely disguised Creator/WilliamShakespeare or TabletopGame/{{chess}} games, more blatant padding, still more padding, a vague relationship to the [[CoversAlwaysLie cover picture, back cover synopsis and title]] he had been given (they never seemed related to each other), and yet more padding. Padding in large amounts! [[OverlyLongGag Unimaginable quantities of padding]]! (And so on...)

* ''[[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=608757 English As She Is Spoke]]'' is a famously SoBadItsGood ''phrase book'' from the 19th century. It's what happens when a Portuguese guy who doesn't know English but does know French decides to write a Portuguese-English phrasebook by means of a Portuguese-French and a French-English dictionary. Babelfish, before the Internet.

* Most, if not all, of the books written by Creator/AynRand. With the overwrought prose, AuthorTract all over the place, {{Anvilicious}} and [[AuthorFilibuster overly long speeches]] filling out [[{{Doorstopper}} overly long books]], protagonists pitted against [[StrawmanPolitical the most blatant and ridiculous collectivist stereotypes ever written]], all exposed with the uttermost seriousness, you could have a field day with her books. ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is generally considered the worst offender.

* Most, if not all, of the books written by Creator/AynRand. With the overwrought prose, AuthorTract all over the place, {{Anvilicious}} and overly long speeches, protagonists pitted against the most blatant collectivist stereotypes ever written, all exposed with the uttermost seriousness, you could have a field day with her books. ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is generally considered the worst offender.

* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfArchieReynolds''. Preteen boy goes about his everyday life, dealing with bullies, playing some harmless pranks with a girl, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and getting into danger dealing with criminals]]. That sounds pretty fun, doesn't it? The problem is in the execution. The kids act very weird for kids that age. A girl cracks an egg over Archie's head and calls him an "egghead." (And she's 12?) The boys act like GirlsHaveCooties or something, despite the fact that real boys and girls that age tend to be discovering each other. There's a lot of godawful repetitive writing. Sometimes the writing tells you something happens, then tells you why it happened, which even books written for younger kids don't do. All sorts of improbable things happen. It's hilarious.

* ''[[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=608757 English As She Is Spoke]]'' is a famously SoBadItsGood ''phrase book'' from the 19th century. It's what happens when a Portuguese guy who doesn't know English but who does know French decides to write a Portuguese-English phrase book by means of a Portuguese-French and a French-English dictionary. Babelfish, before the Internet.
* This is the basis of ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon'''s fame. This Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian style fantasy story is so horrendously written that it causes hysterical fits of laughter as your brain inevitably fails to reconcile the senseless drivel that constitutes this verbal abomination. Many gaming conventions hold "Eye of Argon" parties where players take turn reading it aloud, trying to see who can read it the longest while keeping a straight face (and correctly pronouncing all the bizarrely misspelled words as they are written).

** Hilariously, the hero of the "Knight Moves" is named Lord Verdigris. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdigris Verdigris]] is the green stuff that forms on copper, brass or bronze when its been exposed to the air or seawater for too long (think Statue of Liberty).

* ''Literature/LatawnyaTheNaughtyHorseLearnsToSayNoToDrugs''. Just plain hilarious. Very poorly written story of a horse who encounters other horses engaging in "drinking games" and "smoking games". The writing is not only bad, but repetitive. The illustrations are downright surreal; you just have to see the horse with a beer bottle in its mouth. Plus, this is probably the only children's book ever in which a horse actually [=ODs=] from marijuana! (Complete with illustration!)

* The notorious 1969 hoax novel ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Came_the_Stranger Naked Came the Stranger]]'', written by a team of journalists led by Mike [=McGrady=], was deliberately written horribly to ridicule American culture. Once the public were aware that the poor quality of the hoax was intentional it quickly became popular, proving [=McGrady=]'s theory - that American culture had sunken so low that [[SexSells anything sex-filled was seen as desirable]] - to be correct. After all, SexSells.

* [[http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Paranormal-Straight-Seduction-Story-ebook/dp/B00866SJ4E ''Now that I'm a Ghost I'm Gay'']] (lack of commas intentional). In addition to the slightly odd NSFW cover (as in, two naked men embracing and about to kiss), the book itself warns you for [[IncrediblyLamePun "a climax that will haunt your fantasies for days."]] "Haunt" is probably not a good word to use while advertising gay pornography, regardless of the amount of ghosts in it.

* The ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series was good in the beginning but has degenerated into So Bad It's Good. It was always meant to be light fantasy, but it got cheesier and cheesier as time went on. [[RunningTheAsylum Fans got more input]]; and the amount of species, hybrids, and ''puns'' in Xanth increased.

* [[http://www.amazon.com/Amish-Romance-Book-Boxed-Set-ebook/dp/B00GEJQ53W/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top Becca Fisher's]] awful amish romances are poorly researched, rely on [[SaidBookism Said Bookisms]] to a ridiculous degree, and are absolutely cringeworthy.

* The ''Literature/MaradoniaSaga'', a self-published book by teenage author Gloria Tesch, is in the running for the worst piece of fantasy literature to ever be offered for sale. It features poor editing, terrible formatting, inexcusable grammar and punctuation errors, nonsensical characters and plot, and ''plagiarism from [[Literature/TheBible the Bible]]''. All of these things would ordinarily doom a book to DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible status. But not in this case. Oh no, somehow it manages to go all the way around the scale again to ''hilarious!'' Be warned, though: trying to read this book will melt your brain. Please use protection and [[http://impishidea.com/spork/maradonia-sporkings-part-one amusing]] [[http://impishidea.com/spork/maradonia-and-the-seven-bridges-spork-part-one commentary]] to preserve your sanity. We don't want to be responsible for any mental damage.

* ''Die Abenteuer des Stefón Rudel'' is a self-published sci-fi adventure novel by Stefan Knapp regarded by many as Germany's version of ''The Eye of Argon'' thanks to its awkward word choices, poor plotting, and abundant spelling and grammatical errors.

* ''Llandor'', a fantasy novel by Louise Laurance. Features technology-is-evil rants by the main characters, [[AnimalWrongsGroup Meat-Eating Is Evil]] rants by the main characters, a FaceHeelTurn by a technology-loving meat-eater (he came from our world and just couldn't give them up, [[FelonyMisdemeanor the bastard]]), and ''weird'' morals ("fat people should expect and accept being bullied"). Thought hippie elves were created by Paolini? Wrong. Add a plot ripped from ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'' and ''Franchise/StarWars'', and you've got an [[SoBadItsGood entertaining novel]].

* The ''Literature/MaradoniaSaga'', a self-published book by teenage author Gloria Tesch, is in the running for the worst piece of fantasy literature to ever be offered for sale. It features poor editing, terrible formatting, inexcusable grammar and punctuation errors, nonsensical characters and plot, and ''plagiarism from [[Literature/TheBible the Bible]]''. All of these things would ordinarily doom a book to DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible status. But not in this case. Oh no, somehow it manages to go all the way around the scale again to ''hilarious!'' Be warned, though: trying to read this book will melt your brain. Please use protection and [[http://impishidea.com/Humor/528/maradonia-sporkings-part-one amusing]] [[http://impishidea.com/criticism/378/maradonia-and-the-seven-bridges-spork-part-one commentary]] to preserve your sanity. We don't want to be responsible for any mental damage.

* ''Troll'' by Emma Clark takes everything that can possibly go wrong with self-published romance novels and cranks it UpToEleven. The result plays out almost like a bad erotic story as written by some creepy neckbeard IT guy, despite being [[{{GIRL}} (supposedly)]] written by a woman. Jenny Nicholson discusses it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZMt87ZdUbw here]].