Least favorite Enid Blyton book

[Anita Bensoussane]

In my opinion, there were three books that would equally rate as my least favourite EB book. The Mystery That Never Was, a truly woeful book whose only saving grace was the Gilbert Dunlop illustrations, Fun For The Secret Seven, the final Secret Seven book, that should never have been published, and The Hidey Hole, which I think was her final published book in 1964.

I find those titles (all written towards the end of Enid Blyton's writing career when her health was failing) woeful too, Stephen. Five Have a Mystery to Solve and Five Are Together Again are a step up from those three, though still weak and weary in my opinion.

[StephenC]

This thread has reminded me that however poor Five Are Together Again was, Fun For The Secret Seven, was far worse. As John Pickup commented, apart from Pater and Janet, hardly any of the other SS members do anything. The ending, with Peter and Janet's parents helping to beat off and defeat the villains, was laughable. And the complete absence of Susie, was a serious loss. A very sad ending to the series, I thought. And The Mystery That Never Was, easily rates in my view, as Enid's worst ever one-off book. From start to finish, the plot was woeful.

[John Pickup]

As I made the argument in the last journal, Fun For The Secret Seven isn't a bad book, it just isn't a SS book. It would have made a nice little stand alone title for small children with the names changed to separate the characters from the ones in the SS. As a SS book, it's awful as Enid chose to introduce a new character when there wasn't a meaningful role for five of the original cast.

[Fiona1986]

I use that argument a lot for non-Blyton books, John.

Many of the books I've read that continue Blyton's series are rubbish if you read them as a Blyton book. If they'd come up with the story with their own characters and locations I'd probably have said they were OK reads.

[Deejay]

Five are Together Again has to be the worst one for me. A sad end to Enid’s best series IMO.

[StephenC]

Five Are Together Again is woeful, Deejay, a rehash of other books, particularly The Rilloby Fair Mystery. But it is not her worst. The Hidey Hole and The Mystery That Never Was, are definitely worse. But I agree with you that Together Again, was a sad ending to the FF series, which should have ended with either Demon's Rocks or Mystery To Solve.

[IceMaiden]

I genuinly and honestly don't have one. I've loved and enjoyed every Blyton book I've ever read and still do. I don't see the flaws and faults in some books that others mention. Ok Five Are Together Again isn't as exciting as Five Go Adventuring again but I still find it enjoyable enough to have read it over 20 times just like I have all the others. I also seem to like characters that many don't rate highly, like Noddy and Bred Rabbit. I loved Bred Rabbit as a child, I had a Deans copy of Bred Rabbit Again that I re-read over and over. I'd actually rate them as some of Enid's funniest books, things like Brer Fox being tricked with white plums , sticking to the tar-baby and getting stuck to the shingles on the roof had me in fits of giggles. I didn't know then that Enid Blyton hadn't originally written them so I don't know whether she altered what was originally put or what but she did a good job of it.

Two books I see mentioned time and time again as being spectacularly bad are The Mystery That Never Was (always sounds like the title of an Avengers episode!) and The Hidey Hole, both of which I've never read. I'm working my way along my bookshelf and am not far from THH so I'll be interested to see what it is that makes it so unpopular.

[Irene Malory Towers]

For me it is the Mystery of the Banishee Towers. It was such a good series and this last book was not nearly up to the others and was a let down for the last book in the series and for that reason I have not read it a while. From what I remember the main issues are that is much shorter than others, a few glaring inconsistencies like Superintendent Jenks being referred to as Chief Inspector or even just ordinary Inspector but worst of all such a paper thin plot. Also there is not much humour unlike the others, I don't think Fatty even disguises himself.

As we have said before EB books at the end of the series were generally poor and this was one of the worse examples, partly as the others were all so good. The penultimate book, The Mystery of the Strange Messages was actually pretty good with a slightly more complex plot than the others, although the ending was rather poor.

[Nair Snehalatha]

I think Fun.for the Secret seven is one of the least liked books, --mostly.because it's the last in.the Secret.Seven.series..All Blyton.books are.a joy.to read -- -- you.become one with the characters .and.share.their.happiness and.adventures

[Irene Malory Towers]

For me the last books of nearly all of EB's longer adventure/mystery series were poor - Famous Five last 2, last one of secret seven and maybe more, Secret of Spiggy Holes - hardly any actual action and only the boys involved, the Mystery of the Banshee Towers (see my previous posting), The River of Adventure and the last 2 of the Barney books.
However in delightful contrast the last St Clare's book and Malory Towers one (not the continuation books) were excellent. I think the trouble is that as well as being ill she ran out of ideas. I find that often happens in series that are long. The creators run out of ideas. This is particularly the case in very long series such as Are You Being Served etc etc. I think that is why programmes such as Blackadder and Fawlty Towers were brilliant to the end. Actually Blackadder did have quite a few episodes but each series was fairly short.

[Irene Malory Towers]

mistake - I mean the Secret of Moon Castle the last of the Secret books not the Secret of Spiggy Holes which was the 2nd in the series and my personal favourite of that series.

[Debbie]

I use that argument a lot for non-Blyton books, John.

Many of the books I've read that continue Blyton's series are rubbish if you read them as a Blyton book. If they'd come up with the story with their own characters and locations I'd probably have said they were OK reads.

Bit like a fair number of films (Looking especially at the Dark is Rising one and the adaption of Little White Horse, and a special mention to the latest Swallows and Amazons) where if they hadn't got the same names, then you wouldn't have recognised it as the story at all. I always think that it's an attempt to piggy back on a famous name because they aren't confident of getting the backing by the story alone.
I wish authors would refuse adaptions that aren't true to at least the spirit of the book because firstly it stops someone else getting the copyright and doing a proper version, and I think spoils the book for children who go to it after the film.

Least favourite EB book is a hard one, I like parts of all, I think. Possibly River of Adventure, but I think that's more because it's weak in the series. I couldn't pick out a SS one because I don't particularly like them as a series. They just all blend into one.
I was never very keen on the Mr Twiddle ones as I felt sorry for him.

[Bertie]

I generally re-read the same six or seven series. So there's probably books in other series that I haven't read that I'd enjoy less than the following. But, of the series that I know and love, my least favourites are: The last two Famous Five books, The Mystery of Banshee Towers, The River of Adventure, The Secret Mountain and The Secret of Killimooin.

All read different than the rest of those series and are either very poor, or in settings I'm not as fond of, or both. So I tend to skip those books nowadays.