Controversial Books

This page shows your 100 most controversial books, as measured by the standard deviation of members star ratings. (This is also the source of the Zeitgeist category "25 Books People Can't Agree on.") To be included, a book must have been rated at least 20 times. Work titles are given.

Standard Deviation	Rating	Title
1.156	3.09	Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace
1.155	3.57	Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane
1.134	2.9	The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom
1.131	2.96	Kept by D. J. Taylor
1.114	3.5	The Collector of Worlds by Ilija Trojanow
1.11	3.63	Rune by Christopher Fowler
1.098	3.51	The perfect summer: England 1911, just before the storm by Juliet Nicolson
1.084	3.04	The Gathering by Anne Enright
1.067	3.77	The Exception by Christian Jungersen
1.066	3.18	The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
1.066	3.35	The Love of Stones by Tobias Hill
1.065	3.37	Blue Angel by Francine Prose
1.062	4.13	The Thread that Binds the Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
1.055	3.62	The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
1.051	3.32	Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
1.051	3.7	Sex With Kings by Eleanor Herman
1.05	3.09	The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison
1.049	3.78	Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
1.028	3.9	Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan
1.025	3.61	The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
1.02	3.41	The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
1.018	3.5	Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
1.018	3.24	Life Before Man by Margaret Atwood
1.01	3.56	Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
0.999	3.73	Passion by Jude Morgan
0.993	3.7	The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster
0.992	4.23	Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
0.988	3.42	White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway
0.988	3.4	How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom
0.987	3.99	Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
0.985	3.37	Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn
0.973	3.46	The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale
0.971	3.31	A Ship Made of Paper by Scott Spencer
0.969	3.7	Come Closer by Sara Gran
0.964	3.69	Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson
0.964	3.95	The Man who Loved Children by Christina Stead
0.958	3.27	The Lifted Veil by George Eliot
0.958	3.18	Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
0.955	3.42	The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan
0.955	3.63	Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert
0.947	4.01	The Morgaine Saga by C. J. Cherryh
0.946	3.89	Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker by Stacy A. Cordery
0.945	2.9	Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk
0.943	3.54	When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum
0.943	3.58	How to Be Alone: Essays by Jonathan Franzen
0.943	3.09	The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble
0.942	3.69	Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
0.942	3.94	The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
0.939	3.47	The Archivist: A Novel by Martha Cooley
0.933	3.59	The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Margaret Atwood
0.932	3.71	The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky
0.93	3.62	Moral Disorder and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
0.926	3.17	Songs Without Words by Ann Packer
0.925	3.87	The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice
0.921	3.83	Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
0.92	3.92	The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
0.919	3.83	The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
0.919	3.95	Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
0.918	4.03	Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
0.917	3.96	Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
0.917	3.87	Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris
0.915	4.1	The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
0.915	3.96	The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
0.913	3.74	The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
0.911	3.64	The Last of Her Kind: A Novel by Sigrid Nunez
0.911	3.63	Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels
0.91	3.48	The Blessing by Nancy Mitford
0.908	3.52	The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe
0.907	3.93	The Fall: A Novel by Simon Mawer
0.906	3.64	Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson
0.905	4.1	The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
0.902	3.69	Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
0.9	3.68	Talking to the Dead by Helen Dunmore
0.9	3.84	The Bell by Iris Murdoch
0.892	3.54	Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
0.891	3.87	Farthing by Jo Walton
0.89	4.22	Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald
0.889	4.16	Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian LeverKuhn as told by a friend by Thomas Mann
0.885	3.93	Out by Natsuo Kirino
0.884	3.96	Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
0.882	3.59	Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood
0.882	3.93	The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
0.881	3.46	The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black
0.879	3.54	The Piano Tuner: A Novel by Daniel Mason
0.878	3.83	Boyhood: Scenes From Provincial Life by J. M. Coetzee
0.878	4.1	English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
0.876	3.84	Garnethill by Denise Mina
0.873	4.13	The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
0.871	3.76	Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
0.87	3.44	A Landing on the Sun by Michael Frayn
0.87	3.58	The Master of Petersburg by J. M. Coetzee
0.869	3.68	Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
0.868	3.82	Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
0.867	3.7	The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
0.867	3.79	Girl Meets Boy : The Myth of Iphis by Ali Smith
0.861	3.58	The Ventriloquist's Tale by Pauline Melville
0.861	3.62	The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean by John Julius Norwich
0.859	4.06	In a dark wood wandering by Hella S. Haasse
0.857	3.77	Spartina by John Casey
0.857	3.84	The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

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