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{{cleanup|Entries should be moved to the individual works' YMMV subpages (or separate Wall Banger subpages if there are enough examples). If the work doesn't yet have a Works page, remember that [[Works Pages Are a Free Launch]].}}
{{quote|''"Turns out the Stranges were hired by the park to see if the kids would reveal the secrets of [[Amusement Park of Doom|Horror Land.]] Since they were willing, they'll have to die. Um... what? So established TV personalities would be willing to get involved in the needlessly complicated murder of three children? I know most of these books contain their own internal logic and you can't really question plot motives, but this book is so brazen in its ineptitude that it makes the first ever case '''for''' illiteracy."''|'''Troy Steele''', ''[[Blogger Beware]]'', [http://www.bloggerbeware.com/2008/10/series-2000-13-return-to-horrrorland.html Return to Horrorland]}}▼
Did that book you were just reading [[Wall Banger
<!-- %%comment%%Examples within the following pages will be highly subjective. Read at your own risk, and if somebody rants about a show you like, please refrain from making {{Justifying Edit}}s. If they're wrong, just delete it. -->▼
▲
▲{{quote|''"Turns out the Stranges were hired by the park to see if the kids would reveal the secrets of [[Amusement Park of Doom|Horror Land.]] Since they were willing, they'll have to die. Um... what? So established TV personalities would be willing to get involved in the needlessly complicated murder of three children? I know most of these books contain their own internal logic and you can't really question plot motives, but this book is so brazen in its ineptitude that it makes the first ever case '''for''' illiteracy."''|'''Troy Steele''', ''[[Blogger Beware]]'', [http://www.bloggerbeware.com/2008/10/series-2000-13-return-to-horrrorland.html Return to Horrorland]}}
▲Did that book you were just reading [[Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)|make a funny sound when it hit the wall]]? If it didn't, you might want to skip over these pages.
'''Examples of [[Executive Meddling]] and [[Fan Dumb]] are not Wall Bangers. Such things should be posted on [[Executive Meddling|their]] [[Fan Dumb|own]] pages.'''
==
* [[Forgotten Phlebotinum|Side-Along Apparation.]] This is introduced in the sixth book so that Dumbledore could take Harry places ''via'' apparation. Even when you take into account that this is likely harder than normal
** Given the dangers of normal apparition and the added strain of doing a SAA, it's not ''that'' much of a Wallbanger. Most parents would prefer to go a bit out of their way to make sure the kids arrive in one piece. Then again, this is the ''Wizarding World'' we're talking about.
** Why didn't Dumbledore come up with alternate transportation? Harry Potter is perhaps the most important person in the Wizarding World in the sixth
** It says in the safety pamphlet in the sixth book that parents should practice side along apparition with their children.
*** It was a Ministry pamphlet. Supposed to be useless.
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*** Perhaps they're smart and know that not every Slytherin can turn out bad. Harry's been fed trash about the house from the moment he found out he was a wizard, but the kids who were sorted into Slytherin may have heard good things about it.
*** I believe it is heavily implied that Slytherin is kind of like the Masonic Masons of the Wizarding world. Just about anyone with any money or prestige that we have seen either come out of Slytherin or know someone connected to it - that famous proverb ''Its not what you know but who you know'' would be an excellent incentive to have a preference for it.
* In Book Five, Dumbledore reveals that he kept the prophecy hidden from Harry to preserve the boy's childhood. Seemingly fine and
** Dumbledore is the only person who can apparate or use portkeys within Hogwarts. Getting in and getting Sirius out would be trivial for him even if it's difficult for anyone else. And if he really needs an alibi, then he could just ask Hermione to give him the Time-Turner!
** Everything Dumbledore listed as 'why I didn't tell Harry' in that first year was only why he didn't tell Harry at the end of the year. Why couldn't he have told Harry earlier? Also, even if he didn't know Quirrel would die, had he considered what someone willing to ''slay unicorns'' might do to Harry?
*** Dumbledore has several flaws. One of them is caring for people so much that he tries to protect them long past the time they can stand on their own two feet.
*** And another is overconfidence; multiple times Dumbledore embarks on a course of action that would succeed only if every single one of multiple wild-ass guesses about what the enemy is going to do next ''all'' prove to be correct. Sometimes this works. And sometimes it doesn't.
* Dumbledore knew from personal experience what abusive magic-fearing Muggles could do to a child. He had Mrs Figg reporting to him about Harry's situation on a regular basis, so there's no way Dumbledore didn't know what was going on. So why the hell didn't he intervene? Simply receiving the Hogwarts acceptance letter scares the Dursleys into giving Harry his own bedroom, so it's not like it would have taken much effort on Dumbledore's part. The only time Dumbledore (who claims to love Harry enough to jeopardise his war strategy) directly does anything is when he knows he's dying, which implies that he just thought "Whoops, I should probably get round to that while I'm still breathing!" And in [[The Summation]] in ''Order of the Phoenix'', Dumbledore just handwaves it all as "a little thinner and hungrier than I had hoped". What the hell?
** An ironic effect of the books' noted journey into [[Darker and Edgier]] territory is that Harry's upbringing feels like less of a [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]], because [[This Is Reality]].
* The incredibly inconsistent power of the Elder wand. It is said to be so powerful that it makes you almost unbeatable in a duel; it is outright stated that most of its masters' deaths were because of their own incompetence or negligence (they were asleep, for example). The battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald is a notable exception because, although Dumbledore did the near impossible and beat the wand in a 1-1 duel, it is said to be one of the most fierce battles in history. Dumbledore only triumphed over the wand through sheer skill. Cut to the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. Voldie was beaten ''pathetically'' by Harry, who simply used a couple of spells students learn before the end of first year. Grindelwald possessed vast powers but is canonically stated to be weaker than Voldemort (and thus weaker than Dumbledore) nearly fight Dumbledore to a stand still. Harry, who is '''hundreds'' of times weaker than Voldemort by any measures not including The Power Of Love, defeated Voldie without any effort.
** Actually, that one is explained in text -- Voldemort is defeated so pathetically ''precisely because'' unknown to Voldemort Harry is the true Master of the Elder Wand, not him. That wand is so studly jones that it will let a 17-year-old kid with no real training beyond Hogwarts' basic curriculum take down the Dark Lord of the age, even if the Dark Lord starts out ''holding'' the Elder Wand.
* The British Wizarding government, it seems set up to fail. First, it seems complete controlled by a handful of people, to the degree officials can be more or less bribed in public. Secondly, it only has one branch and no forms of checks to it's power. It can throws people in jail without a trial. It can control almost all forms media and no one cares or objects. The government openly breaks its own laws and most people don't care. If Voldemort was more subtle, then he could taken over by being elected. No one would have noticed.
** But they're magic! If anything goes wrong, magic will fix it.
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** 4) Expanding off of 3), the fact that there was not only no provision for voiding the entry of someone suspected of tampering with the Cup, but apparently there was no provision in the rules for disqualifying an entrant at all. What sort of contest is it where the judges can't disqualify an entrant for suspected violation of a rule, any rule?
*** What's even stupider is that there ''is'' a rule stated to be forbidden for contest participants; "The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament." Harry could have gotten out of the contest at any time simply by walking up to Dumbledore and asking him for some tips. Likewise, Dumbledore could have gotten Harry out simply by handing him a crib sheet.
* The escape of Peter Pettigrew in ''[[
** Peter to not suggest the most reasonable course of action re: how to restrain him and take him to the nearby authorities even when Sirius is loudly announcing his intent to murder Pettigrew on the spot, despite having it firmly established that Peter is a total coward and would do or say anything to live five minutes longer.
** Them all choosing to rely on physical restraints to confine an animagus, despite Sirius being intimately familiar with how much that doesn't work (seeing as how he escaped Azkaban the exact same way).
** Compounding the above error by choosing, out of their entire party, the guy who is going to werewolf out in about five minutes and the kid with the broken leg to be the people in charge of keeping Pettigrew restrained.
** It seems that the author realized she wrote an end to her seven part series in the third installment and had to use an [[Only the Author Can Save Them Now|Only the Author Can Beat Them Now]] to get out of it.
* The fact that the Wizarding community never sought out the help of the Muggles to aid them against Voldemort. Look we can argue ''all day'' about whether a wand would beat a gun but at the end of the day Muggles have things such as fighter jets, tanks, cruise missiles, machine guns, superior surveillance and tracking abilities e.g. UAV's and satellites, superior communication, superior numbers and more importantly superior training. If we had deployed the air force during the Battle of Hogwarts it would have lasted five minutes. Oh and before anyone brings the whole ''secrecy'' argument into this; ''if'' the British Prime minister knows about the Wizarding World you can bet your life that the Pentagon is also fully aware of the existence of the Wizarding community. Or are we really supposed the believe that when the US President was briefed by the American Minister for Magic about the second war against Voldemort that he kept that threat a secret and didn't immediately start drawing up contingency plans to protect his country should the worst come to the worst? Hell it stretches credulity that the British PM wasn't doing the exact same thing given the fact that people like Fudge proved just how much of a threat to national security Wizards are. In a post 9/11 world we're generally suspicious of people that can accost our leadership in their own office.
** Quite apart from the fact that the entire series takes place in the 90s, and thus pre-9/11 (assuming that it even happens in the Potterverse...), it's quite likely that it was simply a matter of pride. While people like Dumbledore and Arthur Weasley may be fascinated by Muggles and their ingenuity, wizards tend to be A) largely unaware of most Muggle technology (and rubber ducks), and B) unwilling to believe that a Muggle could deal with a magical threat better than a wizard could, so even if they ''did'' realise the capabilities of a Muggle military, someone like Fudge would still think magic a better weapon. On top of this, there's no indication that any Muggles other than the British Prime Minister were given a heads-up - after all, Voldemort was only a threat to Britain at the time. Furthermore, the PM we see comes across as someone who ''would'' trust wizards to sort out the problem.
** There's also the matter of fear. If the wizards know Muggles can defeat the Death Eaters, that means they can defeat ordinary wizards, too, and if they've already taken down an evil force, what's to stop them taking down ordinary wizards? The wizarding world is stagnant, and JKR has said this is because of their fear and paranoia; they wouldn't turn to Muggles in a crisis like that and expose their vulnerability.
** According to [[Word of God]] The entire reason the wizarding community separated from the muggle one in the first place and created the Statute of Secrecy is because muggle weapon technology was starting to reach the point where muggles could effectively kill wizards. So, yes, not a huge mystery why the wizards don't want to invite muggles into their secret world to get even more practice at wizard-killin'.
== ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]'' ==
*
▲* In ''Eldest,'' Eragon realizes the preciousness of life and turns vegan, and then goes into battle and kills a bunch of soldiers. Apparently, life's only precious if it's on your side.
** This [[Fridge Logic]] problem is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Eragon himself in the next book, ''Brisingr.'' He notes that being zealously vegetarian isn't practical when you aren't living in a magical forest, and he gets constant nightmares from having to kill people in war (guilt finally catching up to you, Eragon?). Later in the same book, he gives up vegetarianism. He'd only gone veggie in the first place because killing meat was too easy for him to be spiritually satisfying...
** His nightmares usually consist of getting "a bad feeling," and then having Saphira enter his mind and make everything okay. It's not like his "nightmares" are used for [[Character Development]] or anything crazy like that.
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* The [[Artistic License Physics|misuse of ballistas]] in ''Eldest.'' They were firing the ballistas ''into combat'', guaranteeing massive friendly casualties. (Dear [[Christopher Paolini]]: they're called "'''siege''' weapons" for a ''reason.'') And then they ''lit the bolts on fire''. Newsflash: lighting arrows on fire has limited applications. Lighting ballista bolts on fire is not getting the concept of ballistas.
** Magic bolts. Move along, nothing to see here.
* The people of Carvahall overpowered a greater number of soldiers and Ra'zac in ''Eldest'' despite being commoners. (They ''did'' outnumber the soldiers ten to one and still lost a man for every one they killed, but still.) This section also established Roran as a [[
** Exactly-they outnumbered them ten to one and still had massive casualties. Plus they had the advantage of having a village to fill with traps and barricades and the like.
** The Ra'zac are supposed to be [[Elite Mooks]] and are implied to be unbeatable by a normal person in a fight. They didn't take part in the "battle" at Carvahall at all because they were swept away by the retreating soldiers.
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* Eragon decides not to free two slaves because he wants to use them to find the Ra'zac. (In practice: if the two slaves are taken while Eragon's taking a snooze in a safe place, then they'll know that the Ra'zac are in the cave they're near.) Naturally, the Ra'zac kill and eat the slaves. Eragon's response after he callously leaves these men for dead for his minor convenience?
{{quote|[[Moral Dissonance|"Gee, I wish I could have rescued them. Oh well, it was inevitable."]]}}
** This one is so bad that even the snarky but relatively composed Kippurbird of ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140216223056/http://eragon-sporkings.wikispaces.com/ Eragon-Sporkings]'' snaps and falls into a capslocked, frothing, incoherent rage punctuated by screams and smashing her head against the keyboard for six paragraphs.
** If Eragon was a normal protagonist, then this would be less serious. But the book goes on and on about how wise, noble and just he is; it it clear that we are supposed to agree with everything he does. That is a major reason this is a wallbanger.
*** Okay, say Eragon freed the slaves. Where would they go? They have no money, no horses, and are miles from any city that wasn't Dras-Leona, where they would be recaptured. Also, the Empire would twig something was fishy, Murtagh and Thorn would come, capture Eragon and poof-there goes the last hope of the free people! Really worth it to temporarily prolong the lives of two people. As for Eragon being pushed as "wise, noble and just"? There is never anything to suggest that. Eragon is an idiot. As he should be considering he's a seventeen year old farmboy with the fate of the world on his shoulders...
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* One of the smaller bits of banged wall is Eragon's sexuality. Saphira reveals that he can only choose ONE person to be his mate for life. He isn't even allowed to date or to find out if he's gay. Nope! It's all based on [[Love At First Sight]].
* [http://eragon-sporkings.wikispaces.com/Brisingr_Four Keep in mind, Eragon's pants? Are still down.]
* The Varden's ''tactics'' during the final battle at Uru'baen. The city has a 300 foot tall wall around it (guess they got used to the lack of sunlight). For comparison, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121109183711/http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/images/201112/051609.jpg
==
*
** And [http://spectrumofmadness.blogspot.com/search/label/Twilight here]
*** And the grammatical ones [http://reasoningwithvampires.tumblr.com/ here].
*
** The explanation of why they sparkle doesn't help. [[Artistic License Physics|Their skin turns into a diamond-like substance that causes them to refract sunlight, but no other sources of light.]]
* In the first book, Edward admits that he was breaking into Bella's house every night to watch her sleep for the last few weeks even though he's constantly tempted to drink her blood. [[Stalking Is Love|She's]] ''[[Stalking Is Love|pleased]]'' [[Stalking Is Love|about his stalking]].
* The way [[Stephenie Meyer]] designed her vampires. They're so strong that they can shatter the skull of a human if they aren't careful when they move. They move so quickly that they can outrun cars. They are almost impossible to destroy. To top it off, most of them have little self-control. What do humans have that can combat this? A few people who have the ability to become wolves. That's it. There should be a severe shortage of normal human beings in Washington.
** There are no inherent negatives to being a vampire. Most stories give them at least one [[Weaksauce Weakness]]; and most of them make sure that there's still the need to drink blood, with the inevitable downward spiral into murder that this causes, making it difficult to be a ''good'' vampire. But in this book, that need is immediately dismissed by "Vegetarian vampire"
*** That whole "vampire with no weaknesses" thing springs from a much bigger problem that manifests in other ways. Namely, the author tells and doesn't show. She TELLS us Edward has to fight his vampire nature all the time, but we never really SEE that. We're TOLD the Volturi are implacable monsters that all other vampires rightfully fear, but they seem pretty lax about doing any enforcing. She TELLS us Edward and Bella have a love for the ages, but most of the time they're together one seems annoyed with the other over something, or all they talk about is how in love they are.
* In ''Breaking Dawn,'' [[Lolicon|Jacob imprints on Bella's newborn daughter]].
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*** Especially considering that becoming a Meyerpire means you're "frozen in time" from the moment you became sparkly. You'll never grow and mature from the point you were at for the rest of eternity. How could a child of a creature like that be growing extra fast?
*** Or growing ''at all?''
** Even giving Meyer the benefit of the doubt and agreeing that she never said that vampires couldn't mate with humans (and ignoring all the biological mess outlined above), it still makes no sense that none of the vampires even know that it's possible and that there's only one or two other half-vampires running around. Most of the vampires are bad
*** Hell, ''the resolution of Breaking Dawn'' centers around {{spoiler|an adult half-vampire showing up and mentioning his vampire father's building a half-vampire army}}! But that opens an entirely different barrel of rotten fish...
* The sheer excess of [[Mary Sue]] in both Bella and Edward's characters is enough to make them a [[
* Even the rabid fans have noticed the amount of [[Purple Prose]] in ''Twilight'' and its sequels. "Chagrin" can now be used when someone wants to make their prose all [[Buffy-Speak|purpley]], even if it doesn't make sense.
* In the first ''Twilight'' book, Bella repeatedly mentioned that she had already read everything on the reading list and done essays on the books. She repeatedly says how she got blank stares from the other students when she tells them her paper topics, and so forth. She might as well jump up and down and say, "Hey look at me! I'm smart and everyone else here is an idiot!" And the
** This is what happens when "Show Don't Tell" goes horribly wrong.
* He ''sucked out'' the ''vampire venom.'' Ouch.
* {{spoiler|There is NO FIGHT}} at the end of ''Breaking Dawn''. {{spoiler|The Volturi just WALK AWAY. The vampires that all other vampires are afraid of don't fight. There should have been a bloodbath, dammit.}}
** It might not have been so bad if there hadn't been a huge set-up describing {{spoiler|all the different vampires showing up to help and how they all had [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] powers and how they were all training}}
* The whole golden eyes thing never made sense. It was stated that vampires had red eyes because of the blood they drank from humans. The Cullens drink animal blood and have golden eyes. Does Meyer believe that animals have golden blood?
* [[Artistic License Geography|THE WEST COAST OF BRAZIL!]]
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** Given how Edward's stalking and obsessive behavior is supposed to be Meyer's epitome of romance, the sudden change in Jacob's behavior could be her molding him into someone she thinks is ''better''. Perhaps Meyer thinks his forcibly kissing Bella, and her realizing she loves him once he forcibly kisses her, is sweet and romantic.
* The only bodily fluid vampires have is venom. The wedding night should have been horribly painful, since semen is a bodily fluid. But no, it isn't; this is a young adult novel, which means that only attempted rape, pedophilia, stalking, and such is acceptable.
** Besides, [[Memetic Mutation|venom cocks]] are [https://web.archive.org/web/20110928094913/http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Venom_Cock a different novel].
* Bella is being carried everywhere like she's an infant. Seriously, if she's that clumsy, then she should start a comedy routine and make some money or something.
* The failure to provide more of Bella's background or what goals she had before she fell in love. We're only told about her classes so we can see how she's so much smarter than everyone else, and we only learn about her hobbies because Edward has Q&A sessions with her. She doesn't talk about any sort of career she wants before meeting Edward and only gets the desire to be a mother after she gets knocked up.
** Wait. Bella is the ''narrator.'' We only learn about her hobbies because Edward asks about
** This is topped off by Meyer making the Cullens an eternal fountain of wealth. They literally buy their way out of everything. What do characters like Esme do all day? She doesn't have to cook or fix
** This is taken [[Up to Eleven]] in ''The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner''. We know virtually ''nothing'' about Bree or Diego. All we find out is that Bree's father was abusive, her mom split, and she lived on the streets before being vampirized. On Diego, we just learn that he was from the ghetto and was nearly killed trying to avenge his brother's murder. On Freaky Fred, we actually learn ''nothing at all''.
* In ''New Moon,'' Bella [[Wangst
** Maybe it's partly because the Cullens threaten to drag her to the party they're throwing for her if she doesn't come and be a good sport of her own volition (and there's little doubt they mean it). Usually only Edward forces her to go along with his whims, but even Alice got in on it. Until Bella finally becomes a vampire, the Cullens treat her more like some kind of prized pet or favorite toy than Edward's One True Love.
** Bella whines about everything. In the first book, she whines about her father getting her a car. She whines about the weather. She whines about sharing a bathroom with her father. She whines about people being nice to her. Knowing Meyer, it's a failed attempt to make Bella "humble" and "modest."
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*** There is some [[Fridge Brilliance]] behind Carlisle's story: enough townsfolk could [[Zerg Rush]] a vampire and take him out (especially if he's weakened by hunger and already slowed down by carrying someone). And given that most predators in nature don't kill indiscriminately (and that a vampire attack would also result in creating additional competition for the remaining humans) it makes sense that vampires would only attack humans relatively rarely.
* Has anyone noticed that Carlisle runs the town's blood bank? Is it possible to embezzle from a blood bank?
** Easily. Blood banks discard blood all the time, for multiple reasons. All he'd have to do is slightly fiddle with test results or expiration dates and boom, perfectly legal on-the-books reason for 'losing' blood from inventory.
▲== The Sword of Truth ==
* The ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series has its ups and downs, but the eighth book, ''Naked Empire'', is reviled almost universally for its [[Author Tract|endless preaching]] and contrived plot.
* The tenth book, ''Phantom'', consists almost entirely of lengthy (two to
* ''Confessor'' has a doozy. One character delivers a monologue on how evil the Imperial Order is '''directly to the emperor''', who's been shown to [[Bad Boss|kill people for much less]], including interrupting his meals and because he was bored. The idea that she could deliver a three page-long lecture to him ''without his interrupting her'' stretches the suspension of disbelief to a ridiculous level.
** It also contains a recap of what happened to a city that the [[The Empire|Evil Empire]] conquered. This lasts at least one ''chapter'', possibly two, ''from the witness's point of view''.
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<!-- %% -->
* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series is a rather enjoyable [[Doorstopper]] series with a few frustrating views on the dynamics between men and women. This became much more than an irritation at the end of ''The Dragon Reborn'' when, upon hearing some female friends of his had been captured (by ''Black Ajah'' and a ''Forsaken''), [[Loveable Rogue|Mat Cauthon]] rides all the way to Tear, breaks into The Stone of Tear (a nigh impenetrable fortress), beats his way past many well armed guards and a High Lord to the prison cells, and breaks open the cell where they are kept, only to have the three [[Straw Feminist|powerful, self-assertive women]] tell him that they have everything in hand and give him the impression that he should be grateful to ''them'' for some reason. Books later, two of their friends [[What the Hell, Hero?|finally call them on this]] and ''force'' them to apologize, which they
▲== The Wheel of Time ==
▲* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series is a rather enjoyable [[Doorstopper]] series with a few frustrating views on the dynamics between men and women. This became much more than an irritation at the end of ''The Dragon Reborn'' when, upon hearing some female friends of his had been captured (by ''Black Ajah'' and a ''Forsaken''), [[Loveable Rogue|Mat Cauthon]] rides all the way to Tear, breaks into The Stone of Tear (a nigh impenetrable fortress), beats his way past many well armed guards and a High Lord to the prison cells, and breaks open the cell where they are kept, only to have the three [[Straw Feminist|powerful, self-assertive women]] tell him that they have everything in hand and give him the impression that he should be grateful to ''them'' for some reason. Books later, two of their friends [[What the Hell, Hero?|finally call them on this]] and ''force'' them to apologize, which they do -- with ''more'' veiled insults, looking the whole time at their friends for approval. Granted, they'd have [[Jerkass|behaved the same way]] if a ''woman'' had rescued them... but in these books, women only treat women that way if there isn't a male around.
* Elayne's treatment of Mat after she finds out about his (unwilling) relationship with Queen Tylin qualifies. Even after she finally realizes that ''he'' was the one forced into the relationship, she still mutters something about "[[Double Standard Rape (Female on Male)|exactly what he deserves]]." Yeah, Mat gets shafted like that ''a lot''.
** She outright mocks him for it. The entire Tylin storyline was stupid: it involves the "ruler" (she only controls Ebou Dar) of a weak nation basically raping Mat (one of Rand's lead Generals!) while everyone else does nothing but
* Mr. Jordan did remember that Egwene is not the whole White Tower, right? Sure, Egwene got a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]; but it ceases being awesome if you realize that it happens as the expense of the entire White Tower Aes Sedai. He didn't have to write Elaida as an insane moron just so Egwene could look good. He didn't have to write the Aes Sedai as incompetent channelers so Egwene could take all the glory. The Ajah heads came off like bickering children who have to have their hands forced before making even the most obvious right choice. In the entire Aes Sedai civil war, the only Aes Sedai presented as competent are Siuan, Egwene, and Verin.
* Egwene is captured when she sneaks into the White Tower using a technique that not only was thought long lost and somewhat mythical, but also is converting the harbor chain into the most valuable substance on earth. Yet, at first, everybody meekly accepts Eliada's insistence that Egwene be treated as less than a novice.
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* As entertaining as the work is, the Wheel of Time series has to be at least 60% to 70% [[Idiot Plot]]. Many of these people are [[Informed Ability|wise rulers, skilled diplomats, ancient and sage practitioners of magic, and tactical geniuses]] but more often than not act like their world is a giant Junior High with weapons.
▲== The Stephen King 'Verse ==
* The seventh book of ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, mostly because of the sudden switch to {{spoiler|[[Anyone Can Die]]. Eddie is killed by a random diseased guy, [[Magnificent Bastard|Randall Flagg]] is torn apart by the lamest villain in history, Jake is hit and killed by a ''minivan'', and [[And Your Little Dog, Too|even Oy]] gets killed by the lameass villain who shall go unnamed here. The [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Big Bad]], the Crimson King, turns out to be a demented old fart incapable of doing more than throwing grenades and yelling "EEEEEEEEE!".}} Oh, and the [[Shaggy Dog Story]] ending.
** Oh, and you know about all those awesome [[Flash Back|flashbacks]] to the good old gunslinger days with shootouts and intense warfare left and right? It's not covered in detail.
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*** Stu wasn't ''completely'' alone, he had the dog with him. Tom's mental capacity is such that he could've been unsure if a man with a dog qualifies as "alone" or not, which adds enough uncertainty to further reduce the suggestion's potency.
== Other works ==
*
▲* [[George R. R. Martin|George RR Martin]]'s ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' series is a gritty, [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|realistic]] fantasy series set in the midst of a vicious civil war where bad guys frequently win and bad things happen to good people all the time. One scene from the third book ({{spoiler|The Red Wedding}}), a [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] scenario, caused numerous dedicated fans to do a Wall Banger... and often rush over to pick the book up and keep reading.
** The Wallbangerish nature of the Red Wedding didn't come from implausibility; if it had, then readers would not have retrieved the book. It just came from a feeling of wasted time. A variety of interesting characters and plot intricacies appeared to have been [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|thrown out all at once for the sake of a shock.]] Perhaps some of them have been picked back up. Other than the apparent pointlessness of that twist, that chapter was ''so good''.
** In [[Real Life]], people don't die when it's most dramatic, especially during war. In war, they mostly die when the enemy out maneuvers them. It's a no-win situation: it would have been a wallbanger if Tywin Lannister, [[Manipulative Bastard]] extraordinaire, did not take advantage of the {{spoiler|petty Lord Frey's indignation and use it to singlehandedly win the war without actually fighting it himself}}. That GRRM doesn't succumb to the [[Rule of Drama]] is a strength of the series, not a weakness.
*** GRRM was probably writing with this in mind. In one of his science fiction stories, "This Tower of Ashes" (written long before
* [[Ayn Rand]]'s ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' has a 90-page monologue on the evils of any system other than free-market capitalism. The rest of the book has its wallbanger moments, but that one makes you want to chuck the damn thing out a window.
** From a literary standpoint, how does it make any sense that John Galt's response to increasing collectivism in America (which he sees as bad) is to form what is clearly a union?
*** Unlike standard unions where everyone is a cog in the wheels of some organization or industry, the members of Galt's "union" are in different industries or professions and the leaders of those industries and professions (actual or, like the truck driver, potential). In short, that's no
*** Quoth The Question in ''The Dark Knight Strikes Back'':
{{quote|"You can't fight collectivism with collectivism, you Marxist '''twit'''!"}}
**** There's also this quote from Bakunin (referred also in article for [[wikipedia:V for Vendetta|V for Vendetta]] in [[Wikipedia|The Other Wiki]]):
{{quote|"Liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."}}
*** Imagine 1000 of the smartest persons in the world, from various professions, withdrawing their <s>control</s> services from the world. Given that the USA's population is around 300 million, and the world's is around 7 billion, we'd expect the world to muddle along practically unchanged. But then the sheer backwardness of the productive technology (of the good guys) in Atlas Shrugged is itself [[
* [[Carl Sagan]]'s ''[[Contact (Literature)|Contact]]'' has a [[Government Conspiracy]] cheat ending. Fortunately, [[The Film of the Book]] changed this.
* Nancy Stouffer's ''[[The Legend of Rah and the Muggles]]'' contains so many that the wall in question probably has a hole in it by now. In the intro alone, we have an [[Anvilicious]] rant about government corruption, a [[Unfortunate Implications|casual use of racist terminology]], a nuclear holocaust (did we mention that the book is [[Paranoia Fuel|aimed at primary school kids]]?), "radiation" used to refer to [[Artistic License Nuclear Physics|radioactive material rather than the energy it emits]], a cloud opaque to sunlight that lets moonlight through, seawater curing ''second- and third-degree burns'', and humanity [[Hollywood Evolution|evolving into ersatz Teletubbies in 500 years]]. And just to drive the Wall-Bangingness home, the author claims it was the inspiration for ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', solely due to the use of the word "Muggles".
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*** It should be noted that the impossible promotion and impossible headshot were from the ''[[Mary Sue|same character]]''.
* Similarly, the ''[[Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell|Splinter Cell]]'' novelizations (except Splinter Cell: Checkmate, which has a different author) because of massive [[Character Derailment]]. Sam Fisher turned from a gruff if likeable and extremely competent stealth operative with a love for his country into a [[Cluster F-Bomb]]-throwing, overtly sexual fool with an unrealistic dislike for the army (''why did he volunteer and/or stay then?'' would be the question) and a penchant for screwing up.
** Incidentally, the equally awful, written-by-the-same-author ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' novelization suffered from exactly the same problems, but the fandom as a whole, being generally mellow, welcomed it with open arms for being [[So Bad It's Good]] - even making [http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/miksamouse/chirstmasinjune.jpg image macros of the stupider lines]. (One possible mitigating factor is that the fans were already used to rolling with absurdity in the [[Video Game|games]] [[Wall Banger
* Philip Pullman's ''[[His Dark Materials|The Northern Lights]]'': This excellent, exciting story full of magic and mystery and suspense gets abruptly paused so the ''villain'' can [[Anvilicious
** And then there's [[Diabolus Ex Machina|the ending]], where we learn where Spectres come from and why Dust is in peril. Every part of it [[Ass Pull|comes out of nowhere]], and it's riddled with so many [[Plot Hole
** The beginning of ''The Amber Spyglass'' is just frustrating. So, Mrs. Coulter {{spoiler|kidnapped Lyra, and now Will followed her all the way to the cave where they are. Will tried a direct approach, which didn't go well because he was seen by Mrs. Coulter, and they exchanged about two sentences. After getting away, Will started to notice that he ''didn't'' want to hurt Mrs. Coulter, that he ''didn't'' want to put her in danger ''nor'' to punish her.}} Simply looking at her for a second and hearing a single sentence made the kid feel attracted to her. It ''doesn't matter'' how symbolic the scene is; it ''doesn't matter'' if this was to show that Will is growing up and contacting his sexual side; it ''doesn't even matter'' how unbelievably sexy Mrs. Coulter might be. None of this excuses that Will {{spoiler|put his most important companion in the entire journey}} in danger just because he saw a pretty lady who, unfortunately, is also a major villain. That nearly earns his unhappy ending.
* Wallbangery can happen if one sets out to read a controversial book just to see what all the fuss is about. [[Rule-Abiding Rebel|What was so controversial]] about ''[[A Separate Peace]]''?
** No kidding. This troper has a copy of ''A Separate Peace'' that has the little "preview paragraph" on the back saying that the book "explores the depths of evil in a teenage mind". This troper read the book, expecting something akin to the awesome of ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'', and instead found a bunch of angst, mild-swearing, and general stupidity.
** You know you're not alone in something when they satirize it in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100317091838/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28619 The Onion]''.
* ''[[Literature/The Dreamers|The Dreamers]]'' series by David and Leigh Eddings is bad as a whole; but the last book, ''The Younger Gods,'' is particularly annoying. After four hundred-some pages of characters and situations lifted wholesale from Eddings' earlier, better novels, the story ends with {{spoiler|one of the creator-god characters going back in time and hitting the proverbial [[Reset Button]], ensuring that the entire plot of the series ''is [[Ret-Gone]].''}}
* [[William S. Burroughs]]' ''[[Nova Express]]'' is a wallbanger, not because something in the plot is stupid, but because it's a [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|completely incomprehensible, incoherent]] collection of words that one would be hard pressed to make any sense of whatsoever. The "plot" is literally four or five sentences spread in completely random places. There's a section of the book that's literally just a [[T. S. Eliot]] poem chopped up and rearranged.
** Can you really wallbang one of the most abstract, experimental books in modern English literature for being nonsensical? It's famously more mystic experience than novel, and I can't imagine why you even picked it up if that wasn't what you were looking for.
** Burroughs' thinly-fictionalized memoir ''[[Junky]]'' is one of his few books that make any kind of sense at all or attempt to tell a story. ''[[Naked Lunch]]'' is borderline-intelligible but needs to be read extremely closely to follow what plot there is.
* 99% of ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]'' is pure genius. Buffalo Bill's fatal [[Click. "Hello."]]? Not so much.
* The ''[[Anita Blake]]'' series was originally about a morally-healthy necromancer detective and her fight against mythical beasties in St. Louis. She eventually got into a funky [[Love Triangle]] with the leaders of the city's top Vampire and Werewolf clans; that was okay, since they themselves were not evil and would help her in her fight against their own kind...as long as the ones they were hunting was a legitimate threat against the humans or other creatures in the city. It helped flesh out her mission and made her realize the fine line between the normal, pedestrian critters that just want to live in peace and the true monsters in the world. The [[
** She also seems to forget that she is legally a U.S Marshal who probably shouldn't be getting too involved in vampire and lycanthrope politics. Of course the implications of a public servant helping armed factions and setting up defense treaties for these factions on U.S soil also never gets addressed.
* In another example of [[Video Game Movies Suck|Video Game Books Suck]]: the ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]] II'' [[Novelization]]. The main character is a stupid, unsympathetic thug who sleeps with any woman; [[The Eeyore|Xan]] - the intelligent cynic - died because he argued with a ghoul; the author did not get the point of Minsc being an [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[Boisterous Bruiser
** The [[Novelization]] of the first ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]]'' was horrific, too. Khalid is randomly killed off by an ochre jelly to free Jaheira to be the main character's squeeze, most of the game's [[Non-Player Character|NPCs]] aren't even referenced, and Xan was [[The Chew Toy|eaten by a giant spider]]. Evidently, [[Unexplained Recovery|he got better]], or at least well enough to die again.
* ''[[Earthsea Trilogy|Tehanu]]'' is okay for its first half because Ursula LeGuin is a good writer. Halfway through, things start to change. Certain members of the town disliked Tenar because she was an assertive woman; these were, of course, villains. In itself, not a big problem. Then, a [[Chekhov's Gun|Chekhov's Wizard's Curse]] activates, and Tenar unwittingly lures her (male) friend and adopted daughter into her enemy's trap. This enemy, however, had a prior history set against only her friend, not her. In a previous book in which her friend and that enemy had faced each other, the enemy was pretty much obsessed with not dying. That's about it. He never mentioned anything about women or how he regarded them at all. Ever. It wasn't an indirect attack against Tenar's friend via attacking her, nor was it a personal attack on her specifically. The enemy apparently just up and hated women in the twenty-five years since the novels last wrote about him. This was bad, but seriously, the ''worst'' part of it:
** {{
** LeGuin, brilliant as she can be, ''does'' have the worst time when she tries to "[[Author Tract|send a message]]". See: ''[[Changing Planes]]'', specifically the chapters "The Royals of Hegn" and "Great Joy". Most. Blatant. [[Author Tract]]. Ever. (This is sad, because "The Building" is freaking great.)
** And The Other Wind is even worse. In the first three books, the Dry Land is presented as a relatively dreary afterlife that's been there since as long as anyone can remember, a place that it makes sense to want to avoid except that doing so is messing with the laws of nature and has too many consequences. In The Other Wind, it's revealed that {{spoiler|it used to be a pleasant place for dragons only, but the earliest wizards stole it, but in the process [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|accidentally made it a dry land, and prevented humans from reincarnating, which was their former fate-after-death]].}} [[The Reveal|Dark secrets and lost knowledge]] like that are often a good plot device, but then LeGuin turns the Roke Wizards into [[Straw Character
* While the book as a whole was okay, the [[Novelization]] of ''[[Tom Clancy]]'s [[
** The Russians ''did'' just force the Joint Strike Force to [[Nuke'Em|drop a kinetic strike on Paris]], and the JSF had most of its forces overseas fighting the Russians on other fronts. The Canadian Prime Minister may have honestly believed the Americans couldn't save Canada, and the Russians in ''[[
** Given the interdependence of the Canadian and American economies and infrastructure, especially when it comes to energy and defense, the idea that the US would take "No" for an answer is laughable. That goes double when American bases are destroyed. If they refused after that, then America would treat ''them'' as the enemy.
* Every time [[Piers Anthony]] takes up one of his previously "finished" universes, Walls shall be banged. While ''[[Xanth]]'' may have become a [[Hurricane of Puns]] with panties thrown in, the [[Apprentice Adept]] series suffered much much worse. In particular: the unexplained alteration of the totems of Adepts Green, Tan, and Yellow, in the second "trilogy". When we first met Green in ''Juxtaposition'', he used mystic gestures and hand signs to work his magic. When he re-appears in ''Out Of Phaze'', he's a fire mage. (Apparently, Anthony remembered the scene where a wall of green flame warned Stile and Lady Blue off his territory, and didn't look further). Tan's Evil Eye had been shown to be capable of damn near anything as long as he had direct line of sight on his target. In ''Out Of Phase'', it's shown to be mind control and nothing but. (Damn good mind control, mind you; but he had to make eye contact and could only zap one person at a time). Yellow, who was the potions mistress of the Adepts, suddenly gets a [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|demotion]] to controlling animals (her secondary niche in the original trilogy... and she used potions to do it).
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** While we're talking about "Incarnations" - everyone's relationships for the first three books are forced, contrived, or rape-based. Zane hooks up with Luna because Luna's dying dad's last will was that they hook up. Norton and Orlene hook up because Orlene's husband's postmortem wish was that they get Orlene pregnant. Niobe and Cedric have a forced marriage while he was still a minor; she fell in love with him only after he rescued her from a gang-rape. What's-her-face the "liberated feminist" and Samurai (yes, a Japanese martial artist NAMED Samurai. Argh, that ALONE is a wallbanger!)...he practically rapes her. It turns out he's accepted a deal from Satan to bomb the UN; the payment is a martial arts technique to painfully, slowly cause a victim's organs to fail. When Fate shows up to talk Samurai out of it, he immediately assumes she's a prostitute - what other reason can a woman have to speak to a man? Naturally, she calls him a pig, and so he tries to rape her on the spot. She escapes to a public place, throws a flowerpot at his head, and gets away. He says that, because she dishonored and embarrassed him, she owes her virginity as payment. They bring in War to beat Samurai fairly in combat to pacify him, AND War agrees to teach Samurai the fatal technique instead of Satan. Samurai STILL demands her virginity. She agrees. And the next day, has "a flush to her face that might have been love". BOOK TO WALL.
* Regrettably, Elizabeth George finally did it in ''With No One As Witness''; about three-quarters into a readable (if coincidence-heavy and bordering on the Thomas Harris) installment in the [[Inspector Lynley]] series, {{spoiler|Lynley's (pregnant) wife}} [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|gets shot and winds up brain-dead on a respirator]]; what's more, the shooting turns out to have been ''completely unrelated'' to the case at hand, or to anything other than a borderline [[Author Tract]] on the horrors of gang violence among disenfranchised youth. Moreover, the rest of the book is derailed by the [[Wangst|angstfest]]. At least it wasn't {{spoiler|Havers}}.
* [[Enid Blyton]]'s fiction may have been popular when it was written, but much of it contains a LOT of stuff that would be [[
** ''Hurrah for Little Noddy'', the second of her [[Noddy]] books. Noddy has been working at the local garage to earn money. On his last day there, he forgets his hat and goes to collect it at night. At the garage, he witnesses goblins driving off with all the cars that were stored there. Problem: the garage owner, upon discovering all his cars are gone, accuses Noddy of theft and uses Noddy's hat as 'evidence' that the little wooden man committed the crime. It never occurs to him or to Mr Plod that Noddy couldn't have stolen EVERY SINGLE car from the garage by himself. Book, wall. Wall, book.
** Another example occurs in ''Well Done, Noddy!'' Big Ears gets into an accident which ruins his bicycle, and Noddy decides to save up and buy him a new one. He receives a request for some delivery work, and off he goes to collect some sacks and take them to Red Goblin Corner. Unfortunately, he wasn't supposed to take the sacks, and Mr. Plod fines him as punishment. There's one ''HUGE'' problem with this: Noddy was given the request by Mrs. Tubby Bear, whom he trusts, who in turn received the message from a goblin. Mr. Plod KNOWS that goblins love mischief, and he KNOWS that Noddy had no reason to doubt Mrs. Tubby. But he acts as though Noddy deliberately stole the sacks, when in truth the only thing the little nodding man can be accused of is being tricked! What makes this frustrating is the ending: Noddy manages to catch the goblin, and makes that goblin create a new bicycle for Big Ears. Now, if Mr. Plod had dropped the [[Idiot Ball]], then he could have staked out the goblin alongside Noddy; the ending would be the same! NOTHING justifies Plod's actions, not even [[Values Dissonance]].
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** Things end on a thrilling cliffhanger as the heroine realises - putting together several reasonably well-hidden clues throughout the book - that she may be the secret hidden descendant of Jesus that the villain is searching for. The cliffhanger is pretty awesome in a [[Guilty Pleasures|schlocky kind of way]]; the Wallbanger is the resolution, in which [[Designated Hero|Robert Langdon]] simply pooh-poohs this moments later. That is NOT the way to resolve a cliffhanger. Oh, and if you do bear with the book after that? The heroine {{spoiler|[[Suetiful All Along|turns out to be the descendant of Jesus after all]]!}}
** The big mystery that is Leonardo's backwards writing. The book tries to smooth over the reveal with lots of [[Lampshade Hanging]] about how "Wow! It was so obvious! And scholars like us should have picked up on it right away!" Yes, it was, and yes, you should have. I mean, come the fuck on.
** In Dan Brown's ''[[Angels
* ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Huckleberry Finn]]'' does this when Tom Sawyer comes back in the end. The book's momentum screeches to a crashing halt so that [[Mark Twain]] can spend several chapters running down classic romances such as ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo (novel)|The Count of Monte Cristo]]''.
** [[Ernest Hemingway]] calls attention to this in his book ''[[The Green Hills Of Africa]]'', and calls the last bit of Huck Finn "cheating". Blame it on chronic writer's block.
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*** He couldn't have ended with the "I'll go to hell" speech? <sigh>
** I liked the ending. Well, I hated what it did to Huck, but it was a good comparison about what Tom was doing (the same as he acted in all his books) with what Huck had become. Huck had grown up, while Tom had not. You want to reach out and slap the idiot. I would have much preferred it if Huck had given up entertaining Tom and gone off to properly rescue Jim after two or three days, and then Tom deliberately messed it up for drama. The rest plays out as is up to Jim saving Tom's life. As it is, we have the hero of the book taking backseat to the most EVIL actions of the entire book. While all the other villains had motives and reason, Tom was torturing Jim [[For the Evulz]].
* Pretty much any [[Warhammer
** [[Never Live It Down|Backflipping Terminators.]] That is all.
* The children's book series "[[Replica]]" after book 10. It started out as a decent [[Follow the Leader]] to ''[[Animorphs]]'' with an intriguing premise and backstory (a young girl learns she's one of 12 genetically engineered clones with superior abilities, and she's being hunted by an evil organization). After about book 10 though, it almost completely derails into [[Wall Banger
* Not even dictionaries are immune! ''The American Heritage Dictionary Fourth Edition'' defines [[Anime]] as "a style of Japanese animation characterized by a bright, stylized art, futuristic settings, violence, and sex." [[Sarcasm Mode|Because every anime is]] [[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]], ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (anime)|Transformers Robots in Disguise]]'', ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', ''and'' [[Bible Black]].
** [[All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles|At least they didn't bring up the]] [[Naughty Tentacles]]...
* Robert Newcomb's [[Chronicles of Blood and Stone|The Fifth Sorceress]], a book some say may be worse than the [[Inheritance Cycle]], has [[Wall Banger
** The funny thing is, the book's characterizations and ideas are internally consistent. The villains weren't [[Straw Feminist
* ''[[Dexter]] in the Dark.'' The events of this book bring in forces that had not been hinted at before and are barely hinted at later.
** That bit seems to have been written out of the series by editor fiat, due to fan backlash.
*** It's a shame too. With a more ambiguous, [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]] ending, it could be a fascinating storyline.
* ''[[The Draka]]'' novels by [[S.M. Stirling]] has this. [[The Evil Empire|An empire spanning Africa and the Middle East]] [[Villain Sue|conquers all of Eurasia]] [[Did Not Do the Research|with technology far too advanced to be there]]; the rest of the world acts like retards and does nothing when they could and should have. [[Idiot Plot|That's the plot in a nutshell.]] Do the math.
** An Alternate History site [https://web.archive.org/web/20120215010450/http://www.alternatehistory.com/gateway/analyses/Drakaproblems.html points out the problems of the timeline here] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20010303073909/http://www.alternatehistory.com/gateway/timelines/Alternatedraka.html provides a somewhat more plausible one here]. Some of the details still don't make sense even in the proposed alternate version but at least it does have a firmer grasp on history.
* [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ninth [[Circle of Magic]] book, ''The Will of the Empress''. [[Trailers Always Spoil|The book summary on Amazon.com]] says that {{spoiler|Daja is gay. Daja}} comes out in this book, but it gets precisely one slightly awkward conversation and is never mentioned as even a ''possible'' negative by ''anyone'' ever again. Regardless of your views on homosexuality, it's jarring that in this series, which has tackled gender relations, race, the role of nobility, gang violence, ''selling female children as slaves'', drug addiction, and a few other controversial issues, where even minor characters tend to have a wide diversity of opinions, one of the leads being a lesbian seems [[Suddenly Sexuality|pastede on yey]].
** {{spoiler|Thom and Roger, another couple in the Tortall books, and Rosethorn and Lark in the Circle books,}} are all [[Word of Gay|gay couples]]; excluding scenes with {{spoiler|Daja}}, there's exactly one scene that mentions homosexuality at all. In that scene, one person insults another by implying that he engages in homosexual behavior; Kel is wtf because "some men prefer other men and some women prefer other women," and it is not an issue where Kel grew up. Pierce's treatment of the issue is a pleasant change except for the 'pastede on yey' bit you speak of. In the [[Word of Gay]] thread on Pierce's forum, she mentions that she wanted one of the Circle four to be gay, but had trouble deciding which: her choices were [[Butch Lesbian]] (Daja), [[Lipstick Lesbian]] (Sandry), [[Does Not Like Men]] (Tris, though she also hit that with Lalasa), and [[The Casanova]] with a string of [[The Beard|beards]] (Briar, who was already established as a flirt, and [[Have I Mentioned That I Am Heterosexual Today|there's a better trope name, isn't there?]]).
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** [[Gainax Ending|The ending]] has also polarized the fans of the series: some find it to be [[Left Hanging|too enigmatic]] and [[What Happened to the Mouse?|inconclusive]].
* For those of us who were able to get into the ''[[Stardoc]]'' series at all...{{spoiler|[[Tsundere|Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil Torin]] marrying [[Jerk Sue|Duncan Reever]]}}. Or at least {{spoiler|taking him back after all the [[Kick the Dog|dog-kicking]] and [[Heel Face Revolving Door|heel-face-flipflopping]] he does in ''Endurance''}}.
** Just when we thought it was getting better: if it wasn't the entire [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] sequence, the last book—what with {{spoiler|[[
* ''[[The Vampire Chronicles]]'' became this when Lestat 'found God.'
** Goddamnit, Anne Rice, [[Creator Breakdown|chose your perspective on religion and stick with it!]] (I was going to say that 'there's only so many times you can back-track before you have to pretend you never wrote the books' but she already did that...)
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** When Joshua Calvert and his crew find the Artifact they were searching for, Calvert asks, "How do I use this thing?" {{spoiler|He is told, by the thing in question, "You ask".}} Fitting in its way, but startling nonetheless.
* Yes, ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' have already done this, but ''Legends of [[Dune]]: The Butlerian Jihad''. It's not worth reading twice because at least 75% of the elements in the original novel are forced by the narrative to come into existence in less than a decade. Melange. Shields. Atreides. Harkonnen. The first flickers of high-speed [[Casual Interstellar Travel]]. The Bene Gesserit. Seriously, are the authors playing [[Chubby Bubbies]] with Duneiverse elements?
* The novel ''[[
** The last card contained the easiest tasks. While the other ones sent our main character to distant places to diverse, usually hard-to-understand tasks, the last one was basically solved this way: {{spoiler|"you, get a job. You, talk to your daughter. You, dance with me".}} End. So much for the "greatest challenges", huh?
*** Just because they were accomplished with easy actions does not mean they are easy tasks. When's the last time you convinced someone to change the way their life was going?
*
*
** Er... Wasn't that the point...?
*** The [[Discworld]] series is a ''parody''. When he decided to write a book about a woman sneaking into the army, did you think he'd just stop at one or two?
**
*** That's debatable. The two plots really have little in common besides
**
**
*
**
** The next one is in the book, ''Doomwyte.'' The villains are a flock of crows and their reptile allies. The actions of the heroes cause their cave to collapse; at the same time, a huge, insane viper is going berserk inside the cave and has killed most of them. The survivors, mostly reptiles, run for the exit and run into a "heroic" pack of mice and shrews who were on their way to confront them. The book explicitly states that the reptiles are just trying to get to the exit. The mice ''slaughter'' them.
** From ''High Rhulain'': There is a scene in which, after the heroine kills a rat, she appears shaken and explains that she doesn't enjoy killing. Her father ''yells at her'' for this dislike of killing, and it is attributed to her being young and stupid. Her father also ruthlessly pursues a small group of rats who are probably in their early adolescence, hell-bent on killing them because there is a small chance they might attack Redwall. ''Three or four rat kids''.
** From ''Triss'': You know who [[Evil Albino|Princess Kurda]], is, don't you Triss? The [[God Save Us From the Queen|black-hearted princess]] whose father murdered your father and enslaved your family? The person who killed old
*** Another [[Wall Banger]] in that book is that Triss's journey back to Riftgard to free the slaves is just barely skimmed over in an epilogue, told from the point of view of another slave. ''Really?''
** From ''Outcast of Redwall'': Bryony casually dismissing Veil's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] at the end, saying, and I quote, "Veil was bad. I know that now." Um, lady? YOU RISKED YOUR LIFE TO BRING HIM BACK, HE SACRIFICED ''HIS'' LIFE TO SAVE YOURS, THE ABBESS HERSELF SAYS THAT THIS PROVED THAT THERE WAS SOME GOOD IN VEIL, ''AND NOW YOU'RE JUST WRITING HIM OFF AS A BAD SEED?'' What's worse, after Bryony says this, Abbess Miriam immediately decides that this makes her worthy to become the next Abbess when she steps down. THUD.
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** Miraz was a usurper so the question of who his rightful heir was is irrelevant. Caspian is the only one with a right to the throne, and his heirs after him.
*** Miraz's misbehavior doesn't negate the fact that he was also Caspian's uncle. His son is part of the Telmarine royal bloodline, coming second in the line of succession after Caspian's own child. Cousins have inherited the titles of plenty of childless [[Real Life]] nobles, and would do so again if an entire royal family died in a plane crash or whatever.
**** In many medieval and fantasy-medieval systems being guilty of treason, regicide, usurpation, etc., attaints your bloodline and forfeits your inheritance claim, unless the king is feeling generous and pardons your descendants even after he executes you. When Miraz DQ'ed himself, he disinherited his entire line.
** Also, to anyone who was still reading ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' by then, ''[[The Last Battle]].'' This book tries to mix the nigh-hopeless mood of Ragnarok with the ultimate triumph of Aslan, and it doesn't go down easy. And the characterization is flatter here because of the themes of the work.
** Note: none of [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s fiction is fully compliant with other people's ideas of Christian theology. He liked mixing the pagan in with the Christian, and since he still left it clear which was which...
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** Each member of the Flock could beat a black-belt with minimal effort. This is completely uncool.
** The Flock's insistence that they don't need adults (except Max's super cool mom cause she is the best mom ever!!!!) for ''anything''. And then Max has the gall to complain that every time someone offers them something, they want something in return. Well Max, there's this group where adults give you stuff with nothing in return but a thank you (though knowing you even that would be too much), it's called "Children"! Make up your mind, you can't have the best stuff from both sides!
* James Patterson also ended ''The Lake House'' with one. In the final chapter, the [[Big Bad]]
** The fight ends with the [[Big Bad]] attempting to push the hero (who can fly) out of a window and being dragged to his death. [[Villain Ball]] is putting it mildly.
* While the ending to ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'' is undeniably [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|heartwarming]], if you look at it by [[Values Dissonance|today's standards]], it becomes one of the most absurd cases of [[Easily Forgiven]] in classic literature.
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** Speaking of Orson Scott Card, he really shouldn't try and write characters smarter than he is, it's annoying to us who are actually smart. When Bean can't think of a reason for humans to have evolved morality, I was sitting there, mentally listing off, like, eight.
* ''[[The City of Ember]]'': Why did the scientists give the mayor the instructions on how to leave the city, which would just arouse his curiosity sooner or later? Couldn't they have hid it in some kind of time-activated safe in the center of the city or something? And what was the point of the third book, besides the subplot of that one guy {{spoiler|making contact with the aliens that serve no purpose in the story whatsoever}}?
* The latest [[Tabletop Games/Forgotten Realms|Drizzt]] novel, ''The Ghost King'', wisely leaves the [[
** Is that the book's fault, or the fault of the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' setting's metaphysics?
*** It took the book to make the catch in the metaphysics clear. Remember, independent GMs can override anything they like. This shows what happens when there is no override.
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** Not to mention the bit where the author has Alice mention that the Tweedles were in the book ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' which is completely and utterly wrong- ''in the prologue''!
* The third ''Secrets of My Hollywood Life'' book has Kaitlin (who is about one iota from [[Mary Sue]]) sing and be good about it. Whilst talking about her acting career her agent says she's such a good singer that she'll definitely be cast as Glinda if they ever make a movie out of ''Wicked''. So, let me get this straight, a 16 or so old girl who has no previous singing experience other would definitely get one of the hardest and in-demand musical roles in a highly anticipated movie over any of the actual experienced actors after the part? WTF?!
** Probably justified, as puffing up actors' reputations (and egos) is an agent's job. Even if it's an entirely unrealistic boast and he knows it, he still might make it because some agents believe that hyperbolic publicity is the best kind.
** The TV production of [[Game of Thrones]] was entirely willing to cast Maisie Williams, a 14-year-old girl whose only prior acting experience was high school drama, for the role of Arya Stark. Who if you're familiar with the novels is a character that the casting director would know (even before filming) would have extensive screen time and a role that would require the actress to have an exceptional dramatic range, and who would need to be able to single-handedly maintain audience interest in a substantial chunk of the plot arc. And in return they got an actress who could actually steal scenes from veteran award-winning actors like Charles Dance. Sometimes this 'ridiculous young prodigy' thing ''actually happens''. Admittedly this is slightly less of a stretch than the fictional example because the character being cast actually was still a teenaged girl (as opposed to casting a 16-year-old as the adult Glinda), but there's any # of experienced young adult actresses who can convincingly look like teenagers with enough help from the costuming department that they could have tried using and instead they did this. And struck gold doing it.
* When [[Demetrios|this troper]] was younger, I had this book (whose title escapes me at the moment) about stories set in the [[Disney Animated Canon]]. In this one story about ''[[Peter Pan (Disney film)|Peter Pan]]'', to make a long story short, the characters were able to foil Captain Hook's plan because "in Neverland, their breath was a million times stronger than it was at home." Wait, ''what''? Since when? I thought Neverland was a place where children would never grow up, not "give children [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|the power to make up powers as they need them]]." Even when I was an impressionable little kid, I thought that was pretty dumb.
* [[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]: At some point, someone needed to get Orwell away from the typewriter and tell him that enough was enough when it comes to Winston's torture in Part III. Whereas Orwell's contemporary, Aldous Huxley, wrote a compelling debate between rebel and tyrant at the end of ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'', O'Brien just gives an [[Anvilicious]], 40-page [[Mind Rape]] to Winston. George, there is a way to give a warning about totalitarianism without kicking us in the balls.
** [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|But are they as effective?]] Orwell wanted the reader to ''feel'' the horror of a man slowly being broken down to nothing and having his soul destroyed calculatedly and piece by piece, not just to intellectually note that it was happening and move on. Remember that at the time this was being written things like eugenics theory and other 'break the omelet to make the egg' type things were still respectable mainstream opinions. Showing a sanitized version of Winston having his brain reformatted into that of an 'ideal citizen] ran the risk of [[Misaimed Fandom]] in its favor, and Orwell knew it. Remember Doc Savage's Crime College, and how many readers of the day thought that was a ''good'' thing?
*** Absolutely. [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped]] is a cop-out. Huxley managed to drop smaller Anvils throughout his novel through his chilling descriptions of the BNW through the eyes of its inhabitants, and then wrote an appendix explaining the links between the BNW and real world and how disaster can be prevented. Orwell just says, "[[The Bad Guy Wins]] every time and you can't stop it."
**** Uh, no... "[[The Bad Guy Wins]] ''if you let him set up an evil totalitarian government to begin with.''"
** On the subject of ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'', the finale of that book featured the tyrant giving a long, detailed and perfectly reasonable justification for the totalitarianism of the World State. We're clearly not ''supposed'' to agree with him, but you potentially ''could''. And what defence does O'Brien offer? None - all that matters is power. This is a book which is praised for providing a deep insight into the totalitarian mindset, and yet it reduces the advocates of authoritarianism to Saturday morning cartoon villains.
** You went after Winston's torture but not Goldstein's book? What the hell is wrong with you? Goldstein's book is definitely a [[
*** Hell, if you're sharp enough to realize a couple paragraphs in that it tells you shit you already knew, you could skip it with no effect.
*** Goldstein's book is essentially the ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' equivalent of John Galt's speech in ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''; it lasts forever, completely disrupts the flow of the book and just explicitly states everything that was being inferred beforehand.
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* ''[[Tales of MU]]'' gets this kind of bad. It's established early on that most characters are either inexperienced with social dynamics, have some form of mental issues, or both. This generally allows for a pretty big stupid discount. However some characters just blow right through that. Steff generally gets it the worst, because no one expects the words "raped at a young age", "guro fetishist", and "free magical healing any time" to produce a sane or mentally healthy individual. Her friend needs a knife for weapons practice and there's a nice obsidian one no one will miss, she takes it. Out of the necromancy department. Fair enough, since she's training in necromancy and nobody ''did'' miss it. One of her first reactions? ''stabbing herself in the chest''. Turns out it's a vampric dagger, an the damage done is repaired because she heals herself with it. No harm done, except she stabs herself again. And again. She misses her friends birthday party and all her classes to stab herself until her ''soul is torn in half''. Most people think thats stupid of her, but perfectly in character and fine. Then another character gives her a <s>breast enhancement</s> turn-a-male-body-perfectly-female-with-the-sole-exception-of-retaining-a-penis potion. She has it explained to her repeatedly that that mass needs to come from ''somewhere'' and it will probably have other side effects for a long while, so be very careful and talk it out with friends and lovers. Immediately recovering from tearing her soul in half through sheer stupidity she downs the potion with no preparation despite having plans and classes for several days. Unsurprisingly she winds up near dead for the second time in a week and no one thinks of it as a particularly enormous lapse of judgement by her standards.
** It is seen as an enormous lapse of judgement on the part of Dee, the student who gave her that potion and really, REALLY should have known better.
* Walter Farley, author of ''[[The Black Stallion]]'' and other horse books, wrote a very good book called [[The Island Stallion]] about an island that appears to be just solid rock surrounded by cliffs hundreds of feet above the waterline. The main character, Steve, discovers a way into the center of the island, where a herd of wild horses lives in a hidden canyon, and manages to tame the mighty red stallion he unimaginatively names "Flame". All was very well and good, and a sequel was written in the same vein, with similar acclaim. Then, in the third book, aliens show up. Probably more of a [[Jumping the Shark]] moment than a strict [[
** Wasn't that his excuse to {{spoiler|get Steve and Flame off the island and onto a real racetrack}}?
*** Yes, but you wonder that ''aliens'' was the best thing he could come up with. Couldn't he have just said they found a new passage in the tunnels or something?
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*** It's even worse than that. It says he lists not only all the countries, but all the LEADERS of said countries, in alphabetical order, IN EVERY LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT THE UN (as in, he repeats each country/leader multiple times in different languages) IRL, as the opening of his speech entered its 14th hour, someone would have stood up and shot him, and everyone else would have cheered.
*** The worst thing about it is that what everybody in the world is concerned about right now is what caused all these disappearances. Carpathia doesn't even mention them in his speech. It's the ''one'' thing people would want to hear opinions and suggestions about, and still they applaud a speech that doesn't mention it at all.
*** There is an in-setting explanation for all of the above: Carpathia is the Antichrist, and his explicit superpower is the ability to make you believe even the most unbelievable bullshit if it spews out of his mouth. However, while this does adequately explain why the relevant scene is not a plot hole, it does nothing to make that scene actually readable or good.
** In the first book Buck basically gets a fellow reporter killed by a [[Government Conspiracy]], because of something he said to a member of said conspiracy. And then, shortly afterwards, he ''makes a deal'' with said conspiracy, in which he agrees to keep quiet about the death (that is partially his fault to begin with) in exchange for personal safety.
** ''"He was no prude, but Rayford had never been unfaithful to Irene,"'' we're told in the first part of the first chapter of the first book. But just a few lines later, we're told that ''"He had long felt guilty about a private necking session he enjoyed at a company Christmas party more than 12 years before. Irene had stayed home, uncomfortably past her ninth month carrying their surprise tagalong son, Ray Jr."'' That's right, he had a "private necking session" (and why add the word "private?" As opposed to what, exactly?) with another woman while his wife was at home pregnant with their soon-to-be-first-born, but he "had never been unfaithful to Irene". The Swedish translator, who realized how moronic this was, simply removed the words "private necking session he enjoyed at a", making the translated result this: "He had long felt guilty about a company Christmas party more than 12 years before." No actual reason is given as to ''why'' he felt guilty. And it's ''still'' better than the idiocy of the original.
*** Also, the book tries to sell Buck as a worldly-wise rogue, in the same paragraph in which it mentions that he's a 30 year old virgin (but then if he wasn't a virgin, he wouldn't be "pure" and therefore a minion of Satan)
**** Of course, that's probably the least of the book's [[Wall Banger
* Licia Trosi's ''[[Chronicles of the Emerged World]]'' (official English title can be something else, if someone can correct me, please do) is painfully cliched Eragonesque fantasy trilogy. It hit wall in about 1/3 of first book. [[Doomed Hometown]] of [[Mary Sue]] heroine is a city - tower. It's implied to be really tall with multiple windows. It stands in the middle of plain, plain that is flat as a table. Attacking army of Orc-like creatures is not noticed by anyone until it's by the gates. 'Cause armies are something that moves stealthy.
* I '''love''' [[Jane Austen]], but... Anne Elliot's "[[I Regret Nothing]]" speech at the end of ''[[Persuasion]]'' -- [[Anvilicious]], [[Values Dissonance]], [[Double Standard]], [[Broken Aesop]], and blatant [[Hypocrite|hypocrisy]]. Either Anne or [[Jane Austen]] is trying to "have it both ways." If Anne had defended her decision eight years ago on grounds such as "I now realize that Lady Russell was right for keeping us apart, but for different reasons, and it wouldn't have been safe to get married under such circumstances," it would have at least been fair and consistent. But Anne admits that her own reasoning is that the advice was wrong, but she (Anne) ''was right to yield to it for no other reason than because it's a woman's "duty" to yield to the advice of friends!'' Anne asserts she was right to take what she has since learned to be bad advice, not on the grounds that it turned out to be right in the long run or could have turned out so just as easily, but because she was yielding to persuasion period. Either Anne or Austen just can't bear to have Anne admit she was wrong, and since Wentworth agrees with her completely, and since this is completely consistent with the [[
* ''[[Dracula the Un-
** There's also the fact that the novel [[Retcon|calls the predecessor as "nothing but lies"]]. [[Flat What|WHAT?!]] And don't forget about the massive [[Character Derailment]], the portrayal of Bram Stoker himself, the {{spoiler|"[[Luke, I Am Your Father]]"}} twist, the blatant sex, and ugh, this is making my head hurt.
*** There's a tendency among revisionist literature to deride the canon which it is revising, which just seems a bit cheap.
* [[Artemis Fowl]] : He's supposed to be an awesome genius but in the fourth book when he's in trouble and has some kind of digital handcuffs he asked to Holly how many digits the password has. She said that three and then stated that there were thousands of possibilities... Artemis replies that there are millions. Now if you have 3 digits in which each can have 10 different possibilities (0 to 9) then you have 10^3 = 1000 possibilities. MASSIVE [[
** Especially when in a situation like that, you don't even have to use math. Just realize that each possible combination is a different number, going from 000 to 999. That requires almost no thought at all, and yet super genius Artemis Fowl was off by a magnitude of 3 or 4. Then again, 1000 combinations is still too many to test out when pressed for time, but still.
* ''[[World War Z]]'' was a good book, but the zombies are pretty transparently engineered to overcome traditional zombie weaknesses so they can't be killed. Take a look at [http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly.html this Cracked list]. Solanum zombies are poison to animals,<ref>which wouldn't necessarily keep animals from ''trying'' to eat 'em, but the strange ability of every species ''except'' humanity to somehow know not to tell Zombies are toxic would</ref>
It's a good book, but Brooks had to stack the deck ''and'' put a few aces up his sleeve.
** This troper agrees with a lot of what you just said, except for a few things. Brooks is at least internally consistent: for example, the zombies don't float in water because they aren't decaying as fast as normal corpses, because Solanum is basically toxic to all life, including bacteria. Most of the problems that you have with WWZ are explained in "The Zombie Survival Guide", another book by Brooks. Absolutely hilarious, as well.
*** It's entirely unprecedented to have a disease that somehow turns flesh into something that is toxic to everything, with a 100% communicability and fatality rate. Even the Black Plague had carriers; fleas. Also, if people were dying before they could be infected fully, and the disease cannot infect people who are already dead, then it's impossible for flesh that wasn't infected before death to become infected. Basically, everything about Solanum is impossible (starting with, oh, ''sodomizing the law of conservation of energy'' by making zombies function for years without consuming any nutrients), and the [[MST3K Mantra]] doesn't work specifically because the canon spends so much time explaining it in scientific terms, only to handwave or ignore inconvenient questions.
{{quote|[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term{{=}}Solanum According to Max Brooks, zombies are somehow reanimated by a virus that allows the body to function with no blood circulation, no oxygen, and no ATP (which is absolutely required for muscle movement)].}}
**** Even if we're willing to grant a blanket amnesty for the violations of real-world physics and biochemistry (after all, this is a zombie story), we still ''cannot'' forgive when the book ''breaks or ignores inherent self-contradictions in its own established rules''. Having established as part of its canon that Solanum has 100% communicability, 100% lethality, a very short incubation period, and that it cannot infect dead tissue, then the story locks itself into a [[Plot Hole]] because any disease with those characteristics, unless its granted about ten million simultaneous separate Index Cases spread all over the planet, simply ''cannot'' expand into a civilization-destroying local epidemic. Diseases can only do that if they spread faster than any quarantine measure can possibly go ahead of them, or if they spread so subtly that you can't tell who's a carrier and who isn't until its already too late. A disease that can spread only as quickly as a shambling zombie, where the infected can be told from the non-infected by simple naked-eye observation from hundreds of feet away, requires actual flesh-to-flesh contact to transmit, and is so hideously lethal that you cannot possibly even ''try'' to save or treat victims after they are infected, is at most going to destroy one local region before its finally isolated and burnt out. With literal fire, if not copious explosions.
** In the same vein, ''[[The Zombie Survival Guide]]'' was ostensibly a humor book, parodying extremely serious survival guides. But by about the second chapter you realise that Brooks is '''absolutely''' serious about surviving ''real zombies''. Zombies that ''he made up''. It's filled with numerous [[Take That]] shots against other zombie works, for being "unrealistic" when they are '''''more realistic than his''''', and ridicules fast ([[Technically Living Zombie]]) zombies for [[Hypocrite|being biologically impossible]] when they are far more realistic than his. If you are a firearm or weapons fan, [[Guns Do Not Work That Way|just rip out]] [[Flynning|and burn]] [[Hollywood Tactics|that section of the book.]]
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] with ''[[The Number of the Beast]]''-- (no, really, the dash is part of the title apparently) is a double [[Wall Banger]]. First with the introduction of the most misandristic, emasculating woman ever in Hilda, who proceeds to use her power when in the captain's seat to get what she wants, then force responsibility on whoever is there when she isn't to again get what she wants. The second part is where they start hopping universes to other fiction, and then they visit frickin' [[Land of Oz|Oz]]. Oz, in what's supposed to be a serious SF novel.
** Apocryphally, Heinlein wrote that novel with the specific intent of writing the worst novel he possibly could and seeing if it would still sell. Apparently, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
* Steven Wakefield in ''Sweet Valley Confidential''. Or, more specifically, his [[Suddenly Sexuality]]. Especially when he had married one woman (Cara), was engaged to another (Billie) until shortly after she miscarried, and had a nervous breakdown over Tricia's death (to the point where he broke up with Cara ''twice'' to pursue [[Identical Stranger|Identical Strangers]] who looked like her. It wasn't until one of them called him out on it that he snapped out of it.). This makes no sense if you followed the ''[[Sweet Valley High]]'' series.▼
** Also, its arguable if the book whose entire premise is 'a man invents a time-travel device that turns out to also allow access to the entire multiverse of possibility, including ''fictional'' worlds' was ever intended to be "serious" science fiction.
*** Plus, let's be fair. Somebody gives ''me'' a gizmo that lets me enter any fictional world I know about? Oz is gonna be one of the very first stops on my itinerary.
*** On a more practical level, licensing concerns limited Heinlein to using only fictional worlds of his own creation or that are in the public domain, and sales concerns limited Heinlein to using only fictional worlds his readers are actually familiar with. Add in that it was a plot point that his characters find a safe haven with magical help available, and pretty much the only place on the Venn diagram where all three of the sets above overlap ''is'' Oz.
▲* Steven Wakefield in ''Sweet Valley Confidential''. Or, more specifically, his [[Suddenly Sexuality]]. Especially when he had married one woman (Cara), was engaged to another (Billie) until shortly after she miscarried, and had a nervous breakdown over Tricia's death (to the point where he broke up with Cara ''twice'' to pursue [[Identical Stranger
* While the [[Twist Ending|twist endings]] in the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' series of books can be pretty silly at times, a special mention must go to ''Welcome To Camp Nightmare'' for being so ridiculous it becomes a sheer [[Wall Banger]]. See, throughout most of the book the protagonist is persued by a monster in the woods that has already claimed his friends as its victims. Then, {{spoiler|it turns out that the monster isn't real, the fake monster was a test to see if the protagonist could think quickly under stressful and dangerous situations, and it turns out the protagonist and everyone else are aliens who are actually training to travel to Earth.}} Wait... what? The first two parts of the ending, fine. A little silly, but fine. But {{spoiler|aliens?}} Really? It doesn't make any sense. Yes, the other twist endings of the books came out of nowhere at times too, but at least ''they'' had some semblance of logic in the stories' settings.
** It should probably be mentioned that ''My Best Friend Is Invisible'' had probably an even dumber ending. It turns out that all of the characters we've met so far are also actually aliens who have already invaded and conquered Earth and the invisible guy was a surviving human. Why was he invisible? His parents were wizards or something.
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