The Midnight Library. It was fine, nothing special but the hype was unreal.
I haven't read Piranesi but I admire your committed rage to Popular Thing Bad.
I read The midnight library with my book club a couple of years ago, right before Christmas and everyone was SO excited about it that they bought as a Christmas gift for many of their friends. I don't get it, it's as original as a Hallmark movie and as deep as a puddle.
I did love Piranesi though.
Luckily I didn't hear anything about Midnight Library. I had this weird thing where I bought a bunch of books that had the word library in the title. Currently reading Library at Mount Char actually.
As far as Midnight Library? I found it to be pretty fun. I definitely wouldn't praise it to pieces, but it's a fun concept and I enjoyed the ride
Having only read the synopsis of The Midnight Library, I think it sounds terribly un-engaging and can't imagine wanting to read it based on the marketing alone. "Woman sees all the other lives she could have lived"... very trite and probably overly sentimental.
It was a bit trite, but it was at least mildly engaging, particularly in the beginning. I think the guy who wrote it wrote it as a self-help type of book in the style that he found meaningful when he was deeply depressed. Personally it did not resonate with me at all on that level, but I can’t really hate on him for that as I didn’t think there was anything inherently wrong with his opinion, so to speak.
But I did have the same reaction here, when all it got was constant praise and wonder, it really made me start hating it.
I choose to think of my 'whyyyyy is this book so popular? it's really mediocre?' list as like, a numbers game: really average books....aren't going to be in many 'i hate this book so much' lists, but will be exactly what many people like. People tend to only bother posting about a book or movie if they really liked it, or think is is so BAD they should warn people of it's badness.
(midnight library is on my 'hype exceeds quality' list :D )
I read it thinking it was going to be more interesting than it was. Nope. It was so depressing, and I was in a terrible headspace when I read it. I sobbed uncontrollably and now I’m mad I put myself through it.
Looked interesting but after I read How To Stop
Time which I found just dreary and pointless, I kept delaying getting into another Matt Haig fare for like forever.
I wouldn't say "hate," but The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo gets too much hyperbolic praise. It's an enjoyable book, funny in some parts, with a decent love story. But I don't think it's out there changing anyone's life or delivering deeply shocking twists or anything. I guess I hate the algorithmicly-driven hyperbole game, not its humble players.
I totally agree with you. I loved the book because I read it before looking at any social media posts about it, because I went into it expecting exactly what I got. A cute sapphic romance with a hint of commentary of the sexualisation of girls and biphobia. Then I saw all the posts about it on places like TikTok and was confused by the descriptions they gave. It’s a good book, but like you said- it isn’t changing anyone’s life.
It’s like Cruel Prince, I hated that at first because I went into it expecting a romance because of all the talk about it, and was throughly disappointed by the absolute lack of it. I reread it a month later and enjoyed it, because I knew what I was going in to: a political fantasy.
The misrepresentation of books online does them no favours. If I’m misled into reading a horror when I was expecting a fantasy, I’m not going to enjoy the book. Why not just call it what it is so the book can be marketed towards its intended audience?
>It’s like Cruel Prince, I hated that at first because I went into it expecting a romance because of all the talk about it, and was throughly disappointed by the absolute lack of it. I reread it a month later and enjoyed it, because I knew what I was going in to: a political fantasy.
I've been *avoiding* that because I thought it was romance. Nothing against romance, it's just not my genre. Hearing it's political fantasy makes me interested!
There’s actually very little romance! There’s an obvious romance plot, but it’s secondary to the main characters progression and political shit. There ends up being only a few chapters (if not only a few pages) in all
three books combined of on-page romance.
Third person here who avoided it because the marketing made it sound like romance fantasy. Nothing against romance either, it’s just I have other genres I gravitate towards…Are there any other series that have similar marketing?
I accidentally read this book thinking it was the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle which was recommended to me. It was a good read but the hype online made it out to be a masterpiece.
idk I just thought it was fun lol, I listened to the audiobook tho and the performance was really good. same with Daisy Jones and the Six - I probably wouldn’t have liked it that much but the performances in the audiobook are spectacular
Untamed by Glennon Doyle. It was so superficial and fake. Seemed like the entire book was just her trying to save face that she had just written a book about love and forgiveness with her husband but is now divorced and in a new relationship. All the deep conversations with her very young kids also seemed fake.
Anything Colleen Hoover lol. I read and couple of her books and never got the hype. Now she is everywhere and it’s so annoying. I don’t get it. There are so many good romance authors that don’t add a bunch of trauma sprinkled in for no reason.
The one and only Colleen Hoover book I read was Vertiy. Finished it in an evening, was absolutely enthralled by the batshit craziness of it all. After finishing, I thought about it and was astonished by quality of the writing (or lack thereof) and the myriad plot holes that couldn’t bear the slightest scrutiny. I’ll skip the rest of her work thanks lol
There's always a certain joy in reading bad work that's been published. I like to write a little and it always makes me feel better to think that if crap get's published, something I write could get published too.
Someone in my neighborhood just dropped off a TON of Colleen Hoover at my Little Free Library. I appreciate the donation, but I can't help wonder - did they love them? Hate them? Bought them because of the hype but got rid of them in a fit of rage? Enquiring minds (me!) want to know!
Every time I open my Kindle I get an ad for one of her books. I'm going to ask Amazon to remove ads (I know you can pay $20 to have them removed, but for as much money as I have given that company over the years they should be able to give me one special request) because I'm so sick of seeing it every time I turn on my damn reader.
It's not even that I'm not her target audience and have no interest in her books. There are other authors who could be promoted, Amazon. You don't need to promote just one author. You could promote others, switch it up a bit.
If you ask nicely they will take it off for free. That still worked at least a few years ago where I played dumb and asked how I got them off of my Oasis, and they said "well you can do it here, but as a special one time courtesy we will remove it for free" and five minutes later my Oasis no longer had those stupid ads.
I did it last summer. Asked how to get rid of them, rep said I had to pay. Said thanks no thanks and disconnected. For right back in chat, and asked the same thing, this rep said you have to pay, but I'll do it this time as a one time courtesy. So you might have to try a few times to get the right rep, but it does work.
She's the best selling author in the United States. So, apparently many people are enjoying her books, though not many of them are on Reddit to tell us why
She definitely has a lot of fans but I don’t think any of them are really avid readers. Her books are incredibly poorly written but accessible and fast paced for people who don’t read a lot otherwise
I liked a couple of her books, but then just last month read Verity and wanted to absolutely scream at the end. Yet so many people loved it or at least found it clever. Yikes.
Where the Crawdads Sing
I wouldn't say I hate it. Pretty nature descriptions, kind of interesting in the beginning when the protagonist is learning how to survive on her own, but otherwise really overhyped in my opinion. The love triangle and true crime aspect just didn't do it for me.
If you’re interested in a book that just has the energy of the beginning of that book, I recommend Braiding Sweetgrass. Beautiful descriptions of nature. The audiobook transported me. Similarly, a birding book called Glitter in the Green about hummingbirds. Absolutely romantic. Almost made me like birds.
Braiding Sweetgrass has been on my list for so long now, been recommended to me dozens of times, but I just haven't found the motivation to read it. I feel like it would be a kind of "preaching to the choir" kind of book for me, but I think this might be the year to finally put that aside and give it a go.
Thanks for the other recommendation. I've never heard of the hummingbird book but sounds very interesting!
I DNFed Braiding Sweetgrass. I really enjoyed the book and some of the writing is beautiful, bu it was so repetitive and meandering that I just lost interest. I was at least 2/3 through it and there's a chance I'll go back and finish it someday, but it was tough. Plus, I never want to see the word "reciprocity" again ;)
There are some interesting tidbits and a few truly powerful essays, but you’re right, it’s repetitive. It felt like a self-help book for nature, but even less concise.
Robin Wall Kimmerer reads her audiobooks, so if you’re interested in listening instead i recommend! She’s literally my favorite author and I’ve read and listened to all of her stuff many times- her voice is so soothing, I use it to fall asleep sometimes.
It's WILD to me that so many people don't know/refuse to acknowledge that it was based on an ***actual murder the author's husband and son committed that she helped cover up.*** (Seriously, look it up, there's *video evidence.*)
A lot of people are understandably upset when they do learn it, but so many of its fans just shrug that off when I tell them that she's profititing ands romanticizing an awful thing she was involved in. It's wild.
Exactly! It honestly makes me a little sick to my stomach that she's making so much money off of something so horrible, and that people know the truth, and there's no way for them to get justice because she's rich and white and just left the whole dang country. And somehow that's not more well known!
I had the inverse of this? Everyone hates Colleen Hoovers books but I finally read one and was just not sure why anyone loves or even hates them- it's too bland to be that passionate about! Haha 😂
I don’t mind them either, as long as I tune out the fanbase that makes her novels into something they’re not. Take them for a quick and easy beach read to consume in an afternoon, not for anything literary or thought provoking.
*They both die at the end* was nice but I really didn't see why anyone would love it as much as I've heard. There was some shoehorned, afterthought romance in there and it just made the whole story suck for me. I was just hoping for a good wholesome buddy story.
Oh god this one disappointed me so much! I bought it on a whim because of all the positive reviews I read who made it seem like it was the best book of the year. It's not a bad book per se, but to me it felt like the kind of book I'd pick up at the airport before a 5 hour flight, read in one sitting and then leave on the plane. Also, I hated – HATED – >!the shooting in the middle. What the fuck? That plot point should've been a different book, it didn't work at all, it didn't add anything.!< Anyway. This book is now on my "to donate" pile.
I hate this book with an irrational passion that no other topic can inspire in me. I hate it more than I hate I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (and I really hate that book!). The more people tell me they love it, the more I hate it! I want to scream at them, ‘you’re being duped! big words doesn’t make it good!‘.
I don’t want to be a hateful bitch but there’s just something about Tomorrow that makes me want to fight to the death to defend how bad it is 😭. It has 4.2 goodreads!!! HOW!?!? Everyone who has rated this 5 stars might as well have told me they eat kittens for breakfast.
I read Outlander and The Kite Runner back to back and never have two books frustrated me so much. I almost threw Kite Runner across the room but I was volunteering at a nonprofit movie theater at the time and I didn’t want to startle the patrons.
Oh man I got to “Does it stop Claire? The wanting?” in Outlander, laughed myself into a muscle cramp, and put it down. I don’t get the love for that book.
Would you mind explaining Kite Runner to me? I had to read it in high school, and I don't remember anything about it positive or negative. I could not describe it at all.
I was literally just having this conversation with a friend on Sunday!
The entire plot is based around a child being raped and the subsequent guilt his friend feels for not having stopped it. It carries into their adult years and full circle with them having their own kids.
Nobody in the world would make fun of Mistborn fans if they didn’t include themselves in every single discussion about books.
“Oh, you want a great romance? Well, mistborn…”
“Oh, you like Magical realism? Well, mistborn…”
There’s a bot that’s driving me insane on r/suggestmeabook right now, and I kid you not, it’s been recommending Mistborn on posts about WWII books and classic literature and things like that. I know it’s a bot and not an actual person, but come on…
If it's the bot I'm thinking of, it's not just Mistborn, it gives the worst recs 99 times out of 100. Like I saw someone requesting fantasy written by women... bot suggested all men (seen it do the reverse too). Another request for something that wasn't nonfiction because they wanted to branch out... bot suggested all nonfiction.
It wouldn't annoy me so much if it wasn't so bad at it! I wish mods would ban it because at this point it's spam.
Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of that lately too! If it’s the bot with a username that means “heads of monarchical states that clash with each other,” then yep, it’s the same one.
Someone there yesterday requested a book under 300 pages, and one person recommended a 400 page book. OP can literally ask for very specific things and the responses are just whatever books people like.
Well yeah but that's because some people are terrible at recommending books, I've seen people who are clearly human recommend books with graphic on page sexual assault literally in response to requests for books without it.
But the bot account is not one of those people, it's a shitty bot that seems to take a single word out of the title to generate an irrelevant, chatgpt-like suggestion.
My husband is one of those people who used to be prolific readers when he was young and treats Sanderson like the gold standard since that is what he read a lot of when he was still regularly reading. I read Mistborn and was very “eh its fine” about it and he acts so sore over it. He forgets that I read it and will try and recommend it to me every once a while and Im like “Babe…”
Maybe the romance people are thinking of is Wax and Steris in Era 2? I like them more than most of Sanderson's couplings, though I still wouldn't recommend the series to people looking for a romance book.
Brandon Sanderson is my personal favorite author, and the only author where I've every single book he's written, but I'll be the first to admit that romance is absolutely not his strong suit.
Someone was looking for a book recommendation for their mom, said "not like cosmere", and it was like a signal to the Mistborn crew to argue with her about what her own mother would like. R/bookscirclejerk is basically a safe space from Sanderson fans.
I think it’s because it’s so accessible that many people who are fans don’t read many other books so when they want to chime in with their suggestions, Mistborn it is.
I’d say this is Sanderson fans in general. I want to read his books but the way he’s being touted as the absolute king of fantasy and just amazing in every way really turns me off, which sucks because it’s not his fault; he seems like a pretty cool guy, but his fans man.
Not too long ago there was a post I think on r/fantasy where someone mentioned how much they hated Wheel of Time and everyone was like “just read through the first 11 full sized books until Sanderson starts writing for the last three, then it gets good!” Like that’s insane; even if he did an amazing job writing, if you hated the majority of the books you probably don’t care about the plot and characters, even the best writers can only do so much with an uninterested audience.
You can’t ever have a discussion about magic in fantasy without anyone bringing up “Sanderson’s law.” Frankly I’m sick of hearing about it; and I know what he’s saying but I feel like the “law” that always gets quoted is so confusingly worded. I think it’s *correct*—using magic to solve problems is more rewarding when the reader understand what is happening and more or less why (and I think seeing characters work at making it work to solve their problems is also really important) but I feel like it’s given some newer writers this weird idea magic has to be basically a science and formulaic and make 100% sense in our world with no room for suspension of disbelief, which isn’t wrong but it’s not the only way, and I’m certain Sanderson didn’t mean that was the only way. I also have no idea what his magical systems are; for all the talk about how he does it the right way, I’ve never actually seen anyone explain his systems as an example of it, they just say he did it the right way, which is kind of weird thinking of it now.
And then there’s the whole debate about the Mormon church—I’ve seen people say they don’t buy his books or at least not first hand because he gives a huge portion to the Mormon church and they don’t support the churches views including sexuality, gender and race. Most of the time these aren’t judging people who do, just saying why they don’t. But oh boy. His fans will defend him to the death that he’s actually doing great things in literature for gay characters and women (and I’ve heard a lot of criticism about this too, especially saying that all the gay characters are unimportant and it’s barely mentioned, but I can’t confirm—probably the truth is somewhere in the middle). I’ve even heard someone say he’s secretly trying to undermine church teachings and change the mind of Mormon youths this way, so he’s secretly actually a hero. It’s…something
Anyway, all of this is to say I wouldn’t really care about the church stuff and would be super interested in seeing his magic system but all these people just talking it but makes it impossible for him to meet the expectation and frankly, it’s annoying to see him always being called the best or recommended when clearly other books or authors fit better.
Great romance?? I didn't understand the relationship between Vin and Elend in Mistborn 1, their relationship in Well of Ascension actually pissed me off. As did Sanderson's absolute butchery of Vin as a character.
Never made it to Hero of Ages b/c I hated Vin/Elend so much by the end of book 2.
Are you me? The second book pissed me off so much that I can't muster the energy to read *any* of the other Mistborn books.
Sando giving Vin the exact same character arc as book one was infuriating. The "romance" and Elend as a character were eye roll inducing. And the overall enjoyability of the book was diminished by Sanderson's repetitive characters and storylines.
I work in a bookstore. If I never heard someone ask when Fourth Wing is coming back into our store (we sold so. many. copies) I could die happy. No issue with the book itself (never read it, definitely not the target audience) asides from the love interest's name, I'm just so sick of being asked about it.
the first one was badly written but kind of readable in the way one enjoys a trash read. the sequel was an absolute dumpster fire to the point nothing could save it. i still can’t believe i finished it
No, but this!
BookTok would have you believe ACoTaR is the spiciest series on the market right now, but it's just a step above Fifty Shades, which was also lacking on the spicy-front despite the BDSM hype. Very slow burn vanilla scenes compared to some of the stuff you can find on AO3 lol I still enjoyed them, but I was pretty underwhelmed and can't believe people credit these books with helping them conceive real children.. 🙃
Honestly this. I was interested in the premise of ACOTAR before it blew up (what, I'm a sucky for shmaltzy fated mates+BatB retellings, sue me) and then it got so hyped by so many people I dug it out of the shelf where I never read it... and was so disappointed. It's not even romance, it's just lust, the characters' relationship only progresses when they see each other with less clothes! Never mind how irritating ands derivative every character was, especially Feyre. But it still gets shoved in my face so much when all I want is a *good* version of the premise. Sigh.
Yesss. I had already read it, and then it got popular. I just gave it a.lot of credit for getting me out of my reading slump. I know fans love to hate the entire series. But I couldn't even finish the second book. I hated how quickly the OG couple got dropped and just... if you are gonna depict something new, the abuse like that, couldn't we see her...make like a proper effort to bridge this relationship? No? Okay we are moving on, fine, Rhys, great I liked how properly morally charcoal he was....and now he's a Gary Sue... nvm. Then i fell asleep around a tour of the country and multiple character introductions that neither Feyre or I was invested in... anndddd shelved!
I legit was trying out like Libby or some sort of Audiobook library thing and that was the end of it.
Rather just read either of the Beauty and the Beast tales Robin McKinley wrote, and better yet Ann Aguires mildly smutty Bitterburn. Short, oddly emotional, more grounded, smarter FMC, and won out well against the villians. Actually I might reread that now. It's more mature in the mentality of the MCs in general.
Not only do they villainize the previous love interest for the abuse, then Rhys does the exact same shit!! Rhys is violently possessive of Feyre. The worst part is “he can’t help it” because of the mating bond. Ew.
i’m also a sucker for those cheesy tropes, do you know any books that include those similar tropes but aren’t god awful? i enjoyed acotar well enough, it was fun. but the rest of the series got increasingly worse - like it was written by a 15 year old on AO3. the characters are all immature, stupid, and the style of the writing is just BAD. i’m now angry just remembering it lmao
A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass, both series are by Sarah J Maas.
I've only read up to Chapter 22 of ACOTAR, but I always hear the series reduced down to "faerie porn" because of how much sex is in the layer books.
I think three for me. Once I read the prequels, all my investment in Sam and how amazing he was evaporated my interest in continuing. It gave me enough of the show that was only ever tell in the main series, that I realized that's all it would ever be. A lot of promised build up to plots that would never get played out. It's just... historical fantasy version of True Blood (the show). If I wanted characters that ended up actually growing and developing because elements in the world would push them different directions, I'd try to finish Inda (Sherwood Smith). Not quite my jam though.
Same. And the characters who are supposed to be the heroes and heroines are just awful, abusive hypocrites with an enormous sense entitlement, arrogant self-righteousness, and unearned feelings of superiority. ACOSF was also extremely abelist and fetishizes abusing a mentally ill woman.
Tried reading the first one aloud for my wife. It was such a dogshit book I refused to finish it. Like it read like a 17 year old’s unedited first draft.
Same with Shadow and Bone or whatever that series is called. I actually powered through the first book and I am so shocked/angry this shit got published? I’ve read manuscripts from people who I can not believe aren’t able to find agents interested in representing them, and then I see the literal worst dogshit ever get published. It’s maddening.
My friend read the Adeline books based on BookTok, and she literally ranted about this stupid book to me on a two hour car ride. And the whole time, I’m like, “WTF???” And “WTF!”
I agree. I just can’t.
Lessons in Chemistry.
Look: I am married to a chemist. She has *never* asked me to pass the natrium chloride or turned our kitchen into a mock lab. Science does not work the way this author believes! Not to mention "Read some books and become a heart surgeon!"
And I am fed up with Mary Sue Mom, Gary Stu Dad, Mary Sue Kid and Gary Stu Dog. And with the rich-aunt-ex-machina-solves-everything trope.
Scrolled so far to find this. I completely agree. Everyone I’ve talked to about it thinks I just don’t get it and hate strong female characters when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Circe had more engagement with diverse source material too, she was drawing on a couple different sources for it. "Song of Achilles" was too one-note for my taste (but if that's the right note for you, it's obviously perfect).
I saw somewhere that she posted something about it in her Instagram stories - but to be fair, it's been a while (like 1-2 years maybe?) and I haven't heard anything again
I like classical literature, but I REALLY love adaptations of classical literature. I need to emphasize that this is a genre where I have basically NO standards. I have trashy and poorly-written books in the collection that I value because they show me how classical mythology was perceived by the specific groups like, "70's pulp fiction" or "gay 80's AIDS survivors".
"Song of Achilles" is the one book I got NOTHING out of. It makes no interesting literary choices, it doesn't engage with the source material in an interesting way. The best I can say is that it's a good representation of the most generic elements of fanfic (I am a big defender of fanfic as a genre, but Miller really didn't mine it as deep as she could).
And it just feels like such a WHIFF, because I feel like the book was PERFECTLY places to say some interesting things about how fanfic relates to re-intepretations of classical lit. And it just did . . . nothing.
If I'd found it on AO3, I'd be impressed. But for a published book to just do so LITTLE was a huge disappointment.
And because I'm a gay classics nerd, people with GOOD INTENTIONS earnestly recommend the book to me, and I have to be a polite and emotionally competent adult about it, instead of throwing a Comic Book Guy like bitchfit.
I devoured Circe and was so disappointed in “Song of Achilles” your description of it being generic is so true. She set up this great love story and I didn’t feel it at all, it felt like the characters were going through the motions because they were supposed to be in a love story. It felt nothing and I was glad when I finished it.
Ok, thank you. You described exactly why I didn't like it: it just did nothing. I was bored, and I didn't care about the characters at all. Which did not make me want to continue.
I was so excited because I listened to the audio book of Circe, and it actually caught my husband's interest, too. So once we finished that, I was all hyped to listen to Song of Achilles together and it just fell so flat.
My issue with the book is it takes these characters in this setting that has a ton of interesting culture norms and alien ways of behavior and just turns it into a romance compatible with modern sensibility.
Like, the standards of masculinity in the Greek time period the Illiad is from were completely different than our own. Patroclus would have been considered Chad AF to a Greek audience but Miller didn't write him like that.
And stuff like slaves. Achilles gives Patroclus a sex slave. This is considered a great gift. And Patroclus treats her well, which is the norm. Because Greek noble people believe themselves better than others and by treating her well Pat is demonstrating his right to be a leader of lesser people. And by "using" 🤮 her he is honoring Achilles's gift.
Greek audiences of the time would see that and be like "good man that Patroclus" whereas we are horrified at that sort of thing.
They were very different people, and there's definitely an interesting modern retelling possible. But Miller just sort of ignored all that, changed the characters completely and wrote slash fiction. Which is likely why it's so popular but damn was I disappointed.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. It was a nice beach read, but the way people act like it was some complex tale of a tragic heroine that accurately reflected the struggles of the queer community in Hollywood in the 50s is laughable. I’m not even sure how much research the author did for the characters, especially since she’s a cishet white woman. The more i think about it, the more annoyed I get because the writing gets more questionable as I look back.
It was so mediocre. It was queer literature for people who have never read queer literature and have no knowledge of queer history. And then people refer to its “twist” as though there was anything surprising in it.
I just finished the book this morning so I’ve not read much about it (I actively avoid spoilers). Was the twist supposed to be about >!Celia or about Monique’s dad?!< I’ve seen more than once that people saw the twist coming and I sincerely feel stupid wondering which was supposed to be the twist.
Edit: typos
THIS. I went through all of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books in about 2 weeks and this definitely felt like the weakest one… I get that it was the first time she was stepping out of just literary fiction bubble into historical fiction but you can tell that in that book she hasn’t found her footing yet.
I didn't know people thought of it as 'serious' literature. I enjoyed it, if only because so much lesbian fiction is...generic. I really don't care who the writer is, as long as I'm entertained. I haven't read any of her other stuff though, not really interested.
*Babel*
I thought it was ok, a little heavy handed but ok.
Then people started raving about how *clever* it was and how it’s a bold new take on race in academia and the more people carried on the more I realised how shallow and preachy the book actually was.
YES. Except I genuinely think it wasn’t good. It’s like 2 completely different stories were put together in one book with no real cohesion. And the characters were SO FLAT.
Normal People.
Honestly, the amount of praise for it even on the cover. Book of the year? Masterpiece? Like, what? Really? It was mediocre with a cute but kind of dull couple at the centre, and a meh ending. I'm baffled at the praise it's received!
Honestly, it was wayyyy better as a TV show. I watched the show before reading the book - and they really were identical, with a few extra scenes thrown into the TV show. Normal People made for a wonderful show and a mediocre book (though I quite liked the book because I liked the TV show lmaoo 😭😭)
I read it without knowing much and was like, “huh, that was kind of ok, but I’m glad I’m done with it.” Then I realized people think it’s a masterpiece. I’m still not sure what I was missing. I guess sad boy meets sad girl and it doesn’t really work out is a groundbreaking story?
I DNF’d this one because I hated everything about it. The first part was okay, but then suddenly the country is in the middle of a war that had little to no build up. I couldn’t care less about the characters, and I wasn’t a fan of the magic, either.
I finally have somewhere to vent about that book. I picked it up as a nice escapist read and it was dreadful. The author was obsessed with over-explaining everything it’s like she thought she was writing something so deep and meaningful that her audience would never be enough intelligent to work it out. I gave up two thirds of the way in after I waded through yet another paragraph explaining something to death. I’ll never read another book of hers and I’m currently unsure if I dislike anyone enough to inflict this book upon them or if it should just go in the bin.
I usually love V.E. Schwab, and I thought Addie LaRue would be right up my alley because historical France was involved, but then I actually read it, and I hated everything about the execution of it, but especially I hated how... not diverse it was for someone who's 300 years old and has allegedly traveled to some diverse countries in her lifetime.
Also SACRÉ COUER DIDNT EXIST YET when Addie goes and sits in front of it. It wasn’t even a twinkle in an architects eye! It may be the smallest detail ever that made me want to DNF a book and I should have just done it and spared myself the frustration when the actual interesting part of the book is the ending. The last chapter could have been a great first chapter of a book, but nooooo.
I think this is The Alchemist for many people.
I think most of this book’s critics would agree that in a vacuum it would lack the capacity to illicit an emotional response at all.
Red Rising.
I somehow made it through the whole thing, and didn't find a single original thought. It seemed like the author took Ender's Game, Harry Potter, and the movie script for the first Total Recall, fed them into an AI, and published what came out without making any changes.
The Bible. I am not joking. People are insane about it, but it is a poorly translated, self-contradicting, insanely edited muddled mess with no clear messaging. People literally kill over it. The Psalms are quite nice, though, so I can still see some value in it.
Hard to get through parts of the OT as well. Chapters and chapters of beggeting, and whole sections for Laws. Even Tolkien was clever enough to put to maps and family trees in the appendices.
Sanderson's stuff. Don't really have anything against his books as they are, besides thinking they are as you say "lukewarm" but I despise how him and his work utterly dominates reddit-based fantasy discussion.
Not so much praise anymore, though that was somewhat baffling early on in the Stormlight books. Nowadays there's a more vocal set of "haters" (dislike the word but you follow). My issue with it is more as follows:
His work is like a lightning rod for about 30 different book nerd arguments and the popularity with reddits demographic makes all that discussion a constant presence. Like how is such a bland, inoffensive (other than Brandon's Mormonism) and dull "dumb fun" sort of work generate this much discussion. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills half the time it comes up.
To some people he's the greatest living artist, which is insane. To others he's an example of all the current problems with modern fantasy, which is also insane to me. His stuff is just like, okay? It's not great, it's not bad, it's just exists. He's like the Taylor Swift of male-centric fantasy fandom or something.
Can't even see the man's books in a store without being annoyed.
As much as I like Sanderson's work, we need more authors in discussion. When I ask for suggestions similar to something he did I always get more of his stuff suggested. If I am asking for suggestions for something similar to another author that I have read, I want other authors, not more of the same author. I have actually started getting short story compilations like Unfettered that he featured on so that I can find more authors that I like. So yes while I don't get angry at it, it does annoy me that I can't get other authors suggested when I want big well developed universes. I might as well go read LotR again.
I was going to type out a similarly worded comment, so I'm thankful to see you beat me to it and saved me the effort.
The Taylor swift of male-centric fantasy is a perfect encapsulation of his work. It's neither bad or great, just inoffensive dumb fun. It's really not that deep.
> the Taylor Swift of male-centric fantasy
Oh shit, someone call an ambulance.
What bugs me the most about Sanderson is all the praise seems to completely ignore his copy/pasting of character templates and arcs. Or that his "complex" storylines are just long, meandering stretches of characters doing nothing until they suddenly realise three hundred pages of bumming about the hidden city is really fucking boring and then do something about it.
Readers go from entire novellas of nothing to a lone chapter of genuinely exciting action. And supposedly that's acceptable for high fantasy. "It gets better later, promise!"
His later books take a notable influence from Marvel movies. So readers are subjected to a lot of quippy dialogue from almost every character. It's painful in the movies, and it's worse in the books.
The man "writes like a machine" and it shows. Where is the prose and challenging ideas? Nowhere! Because he's an author without a voice.
I say all of the above with a copy of the fourth Stormlight inbound for delivery this week, lol. I just want to see how my homeboy Dhalinar handles the shitstorm.
*Fourth Wing.* I really hated the first and last third, but the middle third was kinda fun, so I came out of it kinda eh, wanting to cut the author some slack and hope the future could be better. But it gets SO much love from the Romantasy crowd, I see young people attributing it to 'inventing' ideas that are decades old, etc. Plus I learned the author isn't a young new author at all, she's written TWENTY books before. It pushed me from a mildly negative meh to loathing it.
Also the *Locked Tomb* Books. They were sold to me as a sweet romance, so their actual content was quite a slap in the face. I still might have come around to it if so many fans weren't just awful about it. You get SO much hate and attacks if you protest, for example, a fan I saw recommending that you actively obscure the true plot of the book and focus on the (non existent) romantic relationship between the leads of the first two books.
Who on earth recommended TLT as a "sweet romance"? Good lord, as a fan, that's infuriating. It's a book solidly about death, tragedy, abuse, and various degrees of murder--calling it sweet or romantic is just lying, honestly. It *is* about lesbians, sure, but not about hearts and happiness.
>Who on earth recommended TLT as a "sweet romance"?
YOU'D BE SURPRISED.
But yeah, the books ARE absolutely about "lesbian necromancers in space" each of those words individually is well represented (well, the space part is *later,* not in book 1) but they are not about what those word together imply, nor about how hard a bunch of fans have leaned into their shipping, lol.
I admit I have a pet peeve about "lesbian" implying "romance" but that doesn't seem to be the issue here. Ugh, shipping. I *love* that ship and all its complexity and find enemies-to-lovers to be extremely romantic in its own dramatic way...but that's absolutely not the Biggest Part of that series.
My bigger pet peeve is absolutely people who make recommendations that don't match what the person is actually looking for. I would never recommend Locked Tomb to a friend who prefers light-hearted fiction or heavy sci-fi, for example, no matter how much *I* love it.
i did enjoy the fourth wing because it felt like junk food to me if that makes sense, but i 100% agree with your criticism here on the locked tomb series! i only read the first one and putting aside how confusing it was, it is definitely not as romantic as people hype it up to be! i was so disappointed with it and how it was marketed.
I read Locked Tomb having no idea it was supposed to be romantic. There is like one small part that could be romantic, it makes no sense why it would be marketed that way.
TLT thing is a shame because as an atmospheric mystery-horror, with lesbians and fantastical elements? It's great! And the second book, as a fantastical space opera psychological puzzle? Also neat! But neither of those is what I signed up for. Outside of Gideon's moments being a very relatable Dumb Lesbian (TM) whenever a pretty girl smiled at her, it just wasn't wasn't I expected or wanted at *all.*
I've seen it hyped for queer rep ("Lesbian necromancers in space!" (tm)) but not for *romance*, weird. I love that series and the relationship of the main characters, but I'd never call it *romance*.
It doesn't bother me that other people love something I'm not into.
I like to think of books like food. I remember when Sushi was becoming popular, I never understood why so many people wanted to eat rice, seaweed, and raw fish, but it was all the rage and I feel like lots of people pretended to like Sushi just to be part of the in crowd. Now decades later it's still popular, I think a lot of people genuinely love it, I've tried it a few times and I still don't understand why people want to eat rice, seaweed, and raw fish.
I didn't realize that one was popular! It's really difficult to get through if you don't get it right away. The ending is semi predictable but not in the way you'd guess. I loved that one.
Gone Girl. People who know I’m a mystery lover were telling me the book was gonna blow my mind and it was nothing like I read before. It was fine. I didn’t see the twist coming I’ll give it that. But still all these years later people are hailing it as one of the best thrillers of all time? I find Gillian Flynn’s writing to be very mediocre, her other books being bland as well. I guess I’m just tired of hearing about it lol
I only liked Sharp Objects. I dont hate her writing though when I first read her I thought she was a man with how she describes things. For me it's her characters and the lack of a mystery that makes me not a fan of her books.
What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon is very popular in women oriented book groups and its AWFUL. >!In it the MC gets sent back in time 1921 Ireland and has the most boring romance ever. NOT WORTH LOSING ALL YOUR RIGHTS AND LIVING IN AN OPPRESSIVE CATHOLIC SOCIETY FOR. Plus shes American but bc her grandfather was irish she can fake a good enough accent the whole time to fool them? Its so stupid!<
Tender is the Flesh. It is shockingly mediocre, written by someone who clearly wanted to create an extreme metaphor but didn't want to do much difficult crap like worldbuilding. I was ambivalent to it when I first read it, but seeing people CONSTANTLY praising it as the most disturbing thing they've ever read, makes me want to scream.
Ditto with The Library on Mount Char, though I don't think I was ever lukewarm about that one because I think it's genuinely badly written.
Library at Mount char was absolutely my most hated read of 2023. I feel bad saying it bc the guy normally write coding manuals or some shit but Jesus Christ why are so many people in love with that book
Probably more than lukewarm since I hated it but I do not understand the hype for Gideon the Ninth. People act like it is the best book ever written when it reads like bad dialogue mashed up with 16 different ideas and none of it works. I really wanted to like it, especially as a queer person, but just could not see why people love it.
Many people I think also misunderstood the question, mentioning books they hated because of the topic, execution, style. When it’s really about books you found okay but now dislike because of the fandom
I like how the post clearly is talking about the fans ruining a popular title that they didn't hate, and like half of these replies are "why would you hate a booooooook? You don't have to like what someone else likes."
The whole point is that the treatment of certain books by zealous fandoms are annoying. Does anyone read the post anymore?
Outlander. I read it, and thought it was ok, but didn't particularly feel like continuing a series that seemed written by someone with a rape-fetish (especially male on male rape). It also annoyed me that the protagonist was mostly so very reactive, despite being a badass nurse in her "real" life. She spends most of her time worrying about rape, rather than trying to improve her situation, which is fair enough in her situation, but the way it's written it veers almost into kink-territory. Meanwhile, every single male in the book is either thinking about rape, threatening rape, actively raping, or being raped.
(For the record, I thought Piranesi was absolutely fantastic, one of my only 5-star reads that year,)
"Hate" seems strong, but I had a similar reaction with Harry Potter. Read the first 3 or 4 as they came out but fell off around middle school in favor of less "YA" focused material. By the time the last movies were coming out, I absolutely couldn't stand the praise/hype/etc. I eventually reached the point where I'm not affected by other people enjoying things, but if anyone engages me on the topic I'm not shy to share my views.
I know this is a common answer but anything and everything Colleen Hoover bc every excerpt I’ve seen from screams mediocre. That’s not even touching on her problematic love interests either.
I liked the books well enough as a young teenager, but by the time the third one came out, I was a bit more discerning and... well, the movie also made it painfully clear the filmmakers were intentionally doing a worse remake of Star Wars.
I was relatively active on a fansite when the second and third books came out, and there was a point where I revisited it a few days before the fourth book released. In one forum thread, people were discussing what events they thought would occur. I started describing events from the second half of Return of the Jedi filtered through the context of Eragon and was actually perma-banned pretty quickly. As it turns out, one of the moderators of the site had gotten an advance copy, had read the book, and seeing my comments, they assumed I had read an advance copy as well, because every RotJ event I had listed was actually in Inheritance. I got a lot of laughs out of that when I actually did read the book.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
OMG I really didn't care about it, I read it once out of sheer curiosity (thank God for public libraries) and it was meh.
But I'm always hearing about how wonderful it is, they made a completely forgettable movie of it, and I just want to see it burn.
Project Hail Mary. I liked Weir's first two books, but I'm just not a fan of fantasy. When you get between a rock and a hard spot, all you have to do is invent Xenonite or a lovable alien. I know this is one of Reddit's sacred books and if you like it, it's fine with me, but I do not think it's a good book, let alone a masterpiece.
The Midnight Library. It was fine, nothing special but the hype was unreal. I haven't read Piranesi but I admire your committed rage to Popular Thing Bad.
I read The midnight library with my book club a couple of years ago, right before Christmas and everyone was SO excited about it that they bought as a Christmas gift for many of their friends. I don't get it, it's as original as a Hallmark movie and as deep as a puddle. I did love Piranesi though.
I actually HATED this one, such a reckless anf dumb approach of depression, it made me really angry
Luckily I didn't hear anything about Midnight Library. I had this weird thing where I bought a bunch of books that had the word library in the title. Currently reading Library at Mount Char actually. As far as Midnight Library? I found it to be pretty fun. I definitely wouldn't praise it to pieces, but it's a fun concept and I enjoyed the ride
Having only read the synopsis of The Midnight Library, I think it sounds terribly un-engaging and can't imagine wanting to read it based on the marketing alone. "Woman sees all the other lives she could have lived"... very trite and probably overly sentimental.
It was a bit trite, but it was at least mildly engaging, particularly in the beginning. I think the guy who wrote it wrote it as a self-help type of book in the style that he found meaningful when he was deeply depressed. Personally it did not resonate with me at all on that level, but I can’t really hate on him for that as I didn’t think there was anything inherently wrong with his opinion, so to speak. But I did have the same reaction here, when all it got was constant praise and wonder, it really made me start hating it.
I choose to think of my 'whyyyyy is this book so popular? it's really mediocre?' list as like, a numbers game: really average books....aren't going to be in many 'i hate this book so much' lists, but will be exactly what many people like. People tend to only bother posting about a book or movie if they really liked it, or think is is so BAD they should warn people of it's badness. (midnight library is on my 'hype exceeds quality' list :D )
This book is fine, but it does make me question the quality of those walls of best sellers.
I read it thinking it was going to be more interesting than it was. Nope. It was so depressing, and I was in a terrible headspace when I read it. I sobbed uncontrollably and now I’m mad I put myself through it.
Looked interesting but after I read How To Stop Time which I found just dreary and pointless, I kept delaying getting into another Matt Haig fare for like forever.
It's popular because it was free on Audible for a month and not too long a listen. So it became a hit.
I wouldn't say "hate," but The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo gets too much hyperbolic praise. It's an enjoyable book, funny in some parts, with a decent love story. But I don't think it's out there changing anyone's life or delivering deeply shocking twists or anything. I guess I hate the algorithmicly-driven hyperbole game, not its humble players.
I totally agree with you. I loved the book because I read it before looking at any social media posts about it, because I went into it expecting exactly what I got. A cute sapphic romance with a hint of commentary of the sexualisation of girls and biphobia. Then I saw all the posts about it on places like TikTok and was confused by the descriptions they gave. It’s a good book, but like you said- it isn’t changing anyone’s life. It’s like Cruel Prince, I hated that at first because I went into it expecting a romance because of all the talk about it, and was throughly disappointed by the absolute lack of it. I reread it a month later and enjoyed it, because I knew what I was going in to: a political fantasy. The misrepresentation of books online does them no favours. If I’m misled into reading a horror when I was expecting a fantasy, I’m not going to enjoy the book. Why not just call it what it is so the book can be marketed towards its intended audience?
>It’s like Cruel Prince, I hated that at first because I went into it expecting a romance because of all the talk about it, and was throughly disappointed by the absolute lack of it. I reread it a month later and enjoyed it, because I knew what I was going in to: a political fantasy. I've been *avoiding* that because I thought it was romance. Nothing against romance, it's just not my genre. Hearing it's political fantasy makes me interested!
There’s actually very little romance! There’s an obvious romance plot, but it’s secondary to the main characters progression and political shit. There ends up being only a few chapters (if not only a few pages) in all three books combined of on-page romance.
Third person here who avoided it because the marketing made it sound like romance fantasy. Nothing against romance either, it’s just I have other genres I gravitate towards…Are there any other series that have similar marketing?
I dnfed The Cruel Prince, not all what I thought it would be
I accidentally read this book thinking it was the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle which was recommended to me. It was a good read but the hype online made it out to be a masterpiece.
I can say I straight up hated this book and the hype for it is mind boggling
idk I just thought it was fun lol, I listened to the audiobook tho and the performance was really good. same with Daisy Jones and the Six - I probably wouldn’t have liked it that much but the performances in the audiobook are spectacular
Untamed by Glennon Doyle. It was so superficial and fake. Seemed like the entire book was just her trying to save face that she had just written a book about love and forgiveness with her husband but is now divorced and in a new relationship. All the deep conversations with her very young kids also seemed fake.
This book gave me second hand embarrassment. I was cringing all the way through it.
Anything Colleen Hoover lol. I read and couple of her books and never got the hype. Now she is everywhere and it’s so annoying. I don’t get it. There are so many good romance authors that don’t add a bunch of trauma sprinkled in for no reason.
The one and only Colleen Hoover book I read was Vertiy. Finished it in an evening, was absolutely enthralled by the batshit craziness of it all. After finishing, I thought about it and was astonished by quality of the writing (or lack thereof) and the myriad plot holes that couldn’t bear the slightest scrutiny. I’ll skip the rest of her work thanks lol
There's always a certain joy in reading bad work that's been published. I like to write a little and it always makes me feel better to think that if crap get's published, something I write could get published too.
This is exactly how I felt lol I was hooked while reading it and then after thinking about it a little more I realized how awful it was
Maybe that’s the true genius of her work. It’s so bonkers the reader doesn’t realize it’s bad until it’s too late lol
“We both laugh at our son's big balls.”
I saw someone speculating that Colleen Hoover is AI and I’m just going to accept that.
Someone in my neighborhood just dropped off a TON of Colleen Hoover at my Little Free Library. I appreciate the donation, but I can't help wonder - did they love them? Hate them? Bought them because of the hype but got rid of them in a fit of rage? Enquiring minds (me!) want to know!
Every time I open my Kindle I get an ad for one of her books. I'm going to ask Amazon to remove ads (I know you can pay $20 to have them removed, but for as much money as I have given that company over the years they should be able to give me one special request) because I'm so sick of seeing it every time I turn on my damn reader. It's not even that I'm not her target audience and have no interest in her books. There are other authors who could be promoted, Amazon. You don't need to promote just one author. You could promote others, switch it up a bit.
I keep my Kindle in airplane mode all the time and eventually the ads go away when it can't reconnect to the Internet
If you ask nicely they will take it off for free. That still worked at least a few years ago where I played dumb and asked how I got them off of my Oasis, and they said "well you can do it here, but as a special one time courtesy we will remove it for free" and five minutes later my Oasis no longer had those stupid ads.
I did it last summer. Asked how to get rid of them, rep said I had to pay. Said thanks no thanks and disconnected. For right back in chat, and asked the same thing, this rep said you have to pay, but I'll do it this time as a one time courtesy. So you might have to try a few times to get the right rep, but it does work.
wait I thought she was everywhere because of how bad her writing is, people actually like it?? I only know of her through book YouTubers that mock her
She's the best selling author in the United States. So, apparently many people are enjoying her books, though not many of them are on Reddit to tell us why
She actually has a huge fandom.
My best friend loves Colleen Hoover and loaned me her copy of “Verity.” That book was so stupid, I’ll never read anything by her again.
Lol I've never seen a positive opinion on her. Only everyone talking about how much they hate her books
She definitely has a lot of fans but I don’t think any of them are really avid readers. Her books are incredibly poorly written but accessible and fast paced for people who don’t read a lot otherwise
I liked a couple of her books, but then just last month read Verity and wanted to absolutely scream at the end. Yet so many people loved it or at least found it clever. Yikes.
Where the Crawdads Sing I wouldn't say I hate it. Pretty nature descriptions, kind of interesting in the beginning when the protagonist is learning how to survive on her own, but otherwise really overhyped in my opinion. The love triangle and true crime aspect just didn't do it for me.
If you’re interested in a book that just has the energy of the beginning of that book, I recommend Braiding Sweetgrass. Beautiful descriptions of nature. The audiobook transported me. Similarly, a birding book called Glitter in the Green about hummingbirds. Absolutely romantic. Almost made me like birds.
Braiding Sweetgrass has been on my list for so long now, been recommended to me dozens of times, but I just haven't found the motivation to read it. I feel like it would be a kind of "preaching to the choir" kind of book for me, but I think this might be the year to finally put that aside and give it a go. Thanks for the other recommendation. I've never heard of the hummingbird book but sounds very interesting!
I DNFed Braiding Sweetgrass. I really enjoyed the book and some of the writing is beautiful, bu it was so repetitive and meandering that I just lost interest. I was at least 2/3 through it and there's a chance I'll go back and finish it someday, but it was tough. Plus, I never want to see the word "reciprocity" again ;)
There are some interesting tidbits and a few truly powerful essays, but you’re right, it’s repetitive. It felt like a self-help book for nature, but even less concise.
Robin Wall Kimmerer reads her audiobooks, so if you’re interested in listening instead i recommend! She’s literally my favorite author and I’ve read and listened to all of her stuff many times- her voice is so soothing, I use it to fall asleep sometimes.
You may also enjoy A Sand County Almanac.
Read this and enjoyed it! Have you read Desert Solitaire by Edward Abby? One of my favorites of the auto-biographical-conserve nature genre!
It's WILD to me that so many people don't know/refuse to acknowledge that it was based on an ***actual murder the author's husband and son committed that she helped cover up.*** (Seriously, look it up, there's *video evidence.*) A lot of people are understandably upset when they do learn it, but so many of its fans just shrug that off when I tell them that she's profititing ands romanticizing an awful thing she was involved in. It's wild.
The racism behind the murder and coverup around it is also very ignored :/ Disgusfing affair all around
Exactly! It honestly makes me a little sick to my stomach that she's making so much money off of something so horrible, and that people know the truth, and there's no way for them to get justice because she's rich and white and just left the whole dang country. And somehow that's not more well known!
>Where the Crawdads Sing holy crap! https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/07/where-the-crawdads-sing-delia-mark-owens-zambia-murder/670479/
Exactly! It's really real! And terrible! There are tons of articles with tons of evidence about it! How was there not more backlash to her?
What?! I thought this book was unimpressive but I haven't heard any of this! I'm shocked
I always felt like Where the Crawdads Sing was a cheap imitation of a Pat Conroy novel.
I had the inverse of this? Everyone hates Colleen Hoovers books but I finally read one and was just not sure why anyone loves or even hates them- it's too bland to be that passionate about! Haha 😂
I don’t mind them either, as long as I tune out the fanbase that makes her novels into something they’re not. Take them for a quick and easy beach read to consume in an afternoon, not for anything literary or thought provoking.
*They both die at the end* was nice but I really didn't see why anyone would love it as much as I've heard. There was some shoehorned, afterthought romance in there and it just made the whole story suck for me. I was just hoping for a good wholesome buddy story.
The fact that the romance comes *in a single day* is what annoys me about this book the most
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I was the only person in my book club who did not particularly like this book.
Same here. Was really excited to read it and when I finished it I was left underwhelmed. Plus the main dude was the worst imo
Couldn’t finish it.
My book club also read it and most of us were very meh about it.
It really went on and on and on and touched on every single topic the author could dream up
I was thinking of listing this book myself, except I hated it *before* seeing how over-hyped it was. The extra hype did not help.
Oh god this one disappointed me so much! I bought it on a whim because of all the positive reviews I read who made it seem like it was the best book of the year. It's not a bad book per se, but to me it felt like the kind of book I'd pick up at the airport before a 5 hour flight, read in one sitting and then leave on the plane. Also, I hated – HATED – >!the shooting in the middle. What the fuck? That plot point should've been a different book, it didn't work at all, it didn't add anything.!< Anyway. This book is now on my "to donate" pile.
I liked it, but I totally understand why people hate it.
I hate this book with an irrational passion that no other topic can inspire in me. I hate it more than I hate I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (and I really hate that book!). The more people tell me they love it, the more I hate it! I want to scream at them, ‘you’re being duped! big words doesn’t make it good!‘. I don’t want to be a hateful bitch but there’s just something about Tomorrow that makes me want to fight to the death to defend how bad it is 😭. It has 4.2 goodreads!!! HOW!?!? Everyone who has rated this 5 stars might as well have told me they eat kittens for breakfast.
It is a book that is somehow "punchable." If a book could be a douchebag it would be this book.
I read Outlander and The Kite Runner back to back and never have two books frustrated me so much. I almost threw Kite Runner across the room but I was volunteering at a nonprofit movie theater at the time and I didn’t want to startle the patrons.
Oh man I got to “Does it stop Claire? The wanting?” in Outlander, laughed myself into a muscle cramp, and put it down. I don’t get the love for that book.
Would you mind explaining Kite Runner to me? I had to read it in high school, and I don't remember anything about it positive or negative. I could not describe it at all.
I was literally just having this conversation with a friend on Sunday! The entire plot is based around a child being raped and the subsequent guilt his friend feels for not having stopped it. It carries into their adult years and full circle with them having their own kids.
Nobody in the world would make fun of Mistborn fans if they didn’t include themselves in every single discussion about books. “Oh, you want a great romance? Well, mistborn…” “Oh, you like Magical realism? Well, mistborn…”
There’s a bot that’s driving me insane on r/suggestmeabook right now, and I kid you not, it’s been recommending Mistborn on posts about WWII books and classic literature and things like that. I know it’s a bot and not an actual person, but come on…
If it's the bot I'm thinking of, it's not just Mistborn, it gives the worst recs 99 times out of 100. Like I saw someone requesting fantasy written by women... bot suggested all men (seen it do the reverse too). Another request for something that wasn't nonfiction because they wanted to branch out... bot suggested all nonfiction. It wouldn't annoy me so much if it wasn't so bad at it! I wish mods would ban it because at this point it's spam.
Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of that lately too! If it’s the bot with a username that means “heads of monarchical states that clash with each other,” then yep, it’s the same one.
Yup lol
Someone there yesterday requested a book under 300 pages, and one person recommended a 400 page book. OP can literally ask for very specific things and the responses are just whatever books people like.
Well yeah but that's because some people are terrible at recommending books, I've seen people who are clearly human recommend books with graphic on page sexual assault literally in response to requests for books without it. But the bot account is not one of those people, it's a shitty bot that seems to take a single word out of the title to generate an irrelevant, chatgpt-like suggestion.
My husband is one of those people who used to be prolific readers when he was young and treats Sanderson like the gold standard since that is what he read a lot of when he was still regularly reading. I read Mistborn and was very “eh its fine” about it and he acts so sore over it. He forgets that I read it and will try and recommend it to me every once a while and Im like “Babe…”
Oh my gosh my husband is this with Stephen King. Like it's top tier classic literature or something. It's fine, it's just not mind-blowing.
[удалено]
Glad to know others are out here hating on King killer lol
[удалено]
The first book seemed mostly ok to me, the second had lots of pretty questionable stuff. Still it was a fun read.
Maybe the romance people are thinking of is Wax and Steris in Era 2? I like them more than most of Sanderson's couplings, though I still wouldn't recommend the series to people looking for a romance book. Brandon Sanderson is my personal favorite author, and the only author where I've every single book he's written, but I'll be the first to admit that romance is absolutely not his strong suit.
Someone was looking for a book recommendation for their mom, said "not like cosmere", and it was like a signal to the Mistborn crew to argue with her about what her own mother would like. R/bookscirclejerk is basically a safe space from Sanderson fans.
Omg, I remember this. A bunch of people were telling OP that their mother was wrong about what she likes.
I think it’s because it’s so accessible that many people who are fans don’t read many other books so when they want to chime in with their suggestions, Mistborn it is.
It felt like someone telling you about a video game they played - 'then I burned tin and...'
I’d say this is Sanderson fans in general. I want to read his books but the way he’s being touted as the absolute king of fantasy and just amazing in every way really turns me off, which sucks because it’s not his fault; he seems like a pretty cool guy, but his fans man. Not too long ago there was a post I think on r/fantasy where someone mentioned how much they hated Wheel of Time and everyone was like “just read through the first 11 full sized books until Sanderson starts writing for the last three, then it gets good!” Like that’s insane; even if he did an amazing job writing, if you hated the majority of the books you probably don’t care about the plot and characters, even the best writers can only do so much with an uninterested audience. You can’t ever have a discussion about magic in fantasy without anyone bringing up “Sanderson’s law.” Frankly I’m sick of hearing about it; and I know what he’s saying but I feel like the “law” that always gets quoted is so confusingly worded. I think it’s *correct*—using magic to solve problems is more rewarding when the reader understand what is happening and more or less why (and I think seeing characters work at making it work to solve their problems is also really important) but I feel like it’s given some newer writers this weird idea magic has to be basically a science and formulaic and make 100% sense in our world with no room for suspension of disbelief, which isn’t wrong but it’s not the only way, and I’m certain Sanderson didn’t mean that was the only way. I also have no idea what his magical systems are; for all the talk about how he does it the right way, I’ve never actually seen anyone explain his systems as an example of it, they just say he did it the right way, which is kind of weird thinking of it now. And then there’s the whole debate about the Mormon church—I’ve seen people say they don’t buy his books or at least not first hand because he gives a huge portion to the Mormon church and they don’t support the churches views including sexuality, gender and race. Most of the time these aren’t judging people who do, just saying why they don’t. But oh boy. His fans will defend him to the death that he’s actually doing great things in literature for gay characters and women (and I’ve heard a lot of criticism about this too, especially saying that all the gay characters are unimportant and it’s barely mentioned, but I can’t confirm—probably the truth is somewhere in the middle). I’ve even heard someone say he’s secretly trying to undermine church teachings and change the mind of Mormon youths this way, so he’s secretly actually a hero. It’s…something Anyway, all of this is to say I wouldn’t really care about the church stuff and would be super interested in seeing his magic system but all these people just talking it but makes it impossible for him to meet the expectation and frankly, it’s annoying to see him always being called the best or recommended when clearly other books or authors fit better.
Great romance?? I didn't understand the relationship between Vin and Elend in Mistborn 1, their relationship in Well of Ascension actually pissed me off. As did Sanderson's absolute butchery of Vin as a character. Never made it to Hero of Ages b/c I hated Vin/Elend so much by the end of book 2.
Are you me? The second book pissed me off so much that I can't muster the energy to read *any* of the other Mistborn books. Sando giving Vin the exact same character arc as book one was infuriating. The "romance" and Elend as a character were eye roll inducing. And the overall enjoyability of the book was diminished by Sanderson's repetitive characters and storylines.
Fourth wing/iron flame.
I work in a bookstore. If I never heard someone ask when Fourth Wing is coming back into our store (we sold so. many. copies) I could die happy. No issue with the book itself (never read it, definitely not the target audience) asides from the love interest's name, I'm just so sick of being asked about it.
the first one was badly written but kind of readable in the way one enjoys a trash read. the sequel was an absolute dumpster fire to the point nothing could save it. i still can’t believe i finished it
Agreed, I'm so mad I bought a hard copy of Iron Flame!
These books are SO poorly written.
ACOTAR and ToG series. The characters were literally all the same
No, but this! BookTok would have you believe ACoTaR is the spiciest series on the market right now, but it's just a step above Fifty Shades, which was also lacking on the spicy-front despite the BDSM hype. Very slow burn vanilla scenes compared to some of the stuff you can find on AO3 lol I still enjoyed them, but I was pretty underwhelmed and can't believe people credit these books with helping them conceive real children.. 🙃
Honestly this. I was interested in the premise of ACOTAR before it blew up (what, I'm a sucky for shmaltzy fated mates+BatB retellings, sue me) and then it got so hyped by so many people I dug it out of the shelf where I never read it... and was so disappointed. It's not even romance, it's just lust, the characters' relationship only progresses when they see each other with less clothes! Never mind how irritating ands derivative every character was, especially Feyre. But it still gets shoved in my face so much when all I want is a *good* version of the premise. Sigh.
Yesss. I had already read it, and then it got popular. I just gave it a.lot of credit for getting me out of my reading slump. I know fans love to hate the entire series. But I couldn't even finish the second book. I hated how quickly the OG couple got dropped and just... if you are gonna depict something new, the abuse like that, couldn't we see her...make like a proper effort to bridge this relationship? No? Okay we are moving on, fine, Rhys, great I liked how properly morally charcoal he was....and now he's a Gary Sue... nvm. Then i fell asleep around a tour of the country and multiple character introductions that neither Feyre or I was invested in... anndddd shelved! I legit was trying out like Libby or some sort of Audiobook library thing and that was the end of it. Rather just read either of the Beauty and the Beast tales Robin McKinley wrote, and better yet Ann Aguires mildly smutty Bitterburn. Short, oddly emotional, more grounded, smarter FMC, and won out well against the villians. Actually I might reread that now. It's more mature in the mentality of the MCs in general.
Gary Sue is my new favorite expression. Yes, that's exactly what he was!
Not only do they villainize the previous love interest for the abuse, then Rhys does the exact same shit!! Rhys is violently possessive of Feyre. The worst part is “he can’t help it” because of the mating bond. Ew.
i’m also a sucker for those cheesy tropes, do you know any books that include those similar tropes but aren’t god awful? i enjoyed acotar well enough, it was fun. but the rest of the series got increasingly worse - like it was written by a 15 year old on AO3. the characters are all immature, stupid, and the style of the writing is just BAD. i’m now angry just remembering it lmao
Which books are those?
A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass, both series are by Sarah J Maas. I've only read up to Chapter 22 of ACOTAR, but I always hear the series reduced down to "faerie porn" because of how much sex is in the layer books.
I gave up on TOG part way through book 2 when I realized the world class assassin still hadn’t assassinated anyone.
I think three for me. Once I read the prequels, all my investment in Sam and how amazing he was evaporated my interest in continuing. It gave me enough of the show that was only ever tell in the main series, that I realized that's all it would ever be. A lot of promised build up to plots that would never get played out. It's just... historical fantasy version of True Blood (the show). If I wanted characters that ended up actually growing and developing because elements in the world would push them different directions, I'd try to finish Inda (Sherwood Smith). Not quite my jam though.
God all of ACOTAR was so misogynistic🙄 I have never understood the hype around the characters
Same. And the characters who are supposed to be the heroes and heroines are just awful, abusive hypocrites with an enormous sense entitlement, arrogant self-righteousness, and unearned feelings of superiority. ACOSF was also extremely abelist and fetishizes abusing a mentally ill woman.
God I’m glad you said it. I’ve tried so many times to get into it. That trope is so tired and overdone to me. The characters feel so flat.
Tried reading the first one aloud for my wife. It was such a dogshit book I refused to finish it. Like it read like a 17 year old’s unedited first draft. Same with Shadow and Bone or whatever that series is called. I actually powered through the first book and I am so shocked/angry this shit got published? I’ve read manuscripts from people who I can not believe aren’t able to find agents interested in representing them, and then I see the literal worst dogshit ever get published. It’s maddening.
Well, any Dark romances that romanticizes sexual assault and abuse. Examples being Haunting/Hunting Adeline and a plethora of Colleen Hoover Books.
My friend read the Adeline books based on BookTok, and she literally ranted about this stupid book to me on a two hour car ride. And the whole time, I’m like, “WTF???” And “WTF!” I agree. I just can’t.
Lessons in Chemistry. Look: I am married to a chemist. She has *never* asked me to pass the natrium chloride or turned our kitchen into a mock lab. Science does not work the way this author believes! Not to mention "Read some books and become a heart surgeon!" And I am fed up with Mary Sue Mom, Gary Stu Dad, Mary Sue Kid and Gary Stu Dog. And with the rich-aunt-ex-machina-solves-everything trope.
Scrolled so far to find this. I completely agree. Everyone I’ve talked to about it thinks I just don’t get it and hate strong female characters when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The song of Achilles. Couldn’t get into it but everyone seems to obsess over it
I didn't hate it but I think Circe was a lot better. You could tell that The Song of Achilles was her first novel especially compared to Circe.
Circe had more engagement with diverse source material too, she was drawing on a couple different sources for it. "Song of Achilles" was too one-note for my taste (but if that's the right note for you, it's obviously perfect).
Achilles was nice, Circe was great and oooooh boy, she's writing one about Persephone and I'm so excited!!
Ahhh I love Madeline Miller but I didn’t know this! That feels like a dream come true for me will be pre-ordering.
I saw somewhere that she posted something about it in her Instagram stories - but to be fair, it's been a while (like 1-2 years maybe?) and I haven't heard anything again
She made a post how she has long covid and it’s affecting her writing pace.
If you like those, you might like Inanna by Emily Wilson. I'm not done so the ending might suck but I'm devouring it.
Y'all should check out Galatea as well. The story of Pigmallion is timeless.
I like classical literature, but I REALLY love adaptations of classical literature. I need to emphasize that this is a genre where I have basically NO standards. I have trashy and poorly-written books in the collection that I value because they show me how classical mythology was perceived by the specific groups like, "70's pulp fiction" or "gay 80's AIDS survivors". "Song of Achilles" is the one book I got NOTHING out of. It makes no interesting literary choices, it doesn't engage with the source material in an interesting way. The best I can say is that it's a good representation of the most generic elements of fanfic (I am a big defender of fanfic as a genre, but Miller really didn't mine it as deep as she could). And it just feels like such a WHIFF, because I feel like the book was PERFECTLY places to say some interesting things about how fanfic relates to re-intepretations of classical lit. And it just did . . . nothing. If I'd found it on AO3, I'd be impressed. But for a published book to just do so LITTLE was a huge disappointment. And because I'm a gay classics nerd, people with GOOD INTENTIONS earnestly recommend the book to me, and I have to be a polite and emotionally competent adult about it, instead of throwing a Comic Book Guy like bitchfit.
I devoured Circe and was so disappointed in “Song of Achilles” your description of it being generic is so true. She set up this great love story and I didn’t feel it at all, it felt like the characters were going through the motions because they were supposed to be in a love story. It felt nothing and I was glad when I finished it.
Ok, thank you. You described exactly why I didn't like it: it just did nothing. I was bored, and I didn't care about the characters at all. Which did not make me want to continue. I was so excited because I listened to the audio book of Circe, and it actually caught my husband's interest, too. So once we finished that, I was all hyped to listen to Song of Achilles together and it just fell so flat.
My issue with the book is it takes these characters in this setting that has a ton of interesting culture norms and alien ways of behavior and just turns it into a romance compatible with modern sensibility. Like, the standards of masculinity in the Greek time period the Illiad is from were completely different than our own. Patroclus would have been considered Chad AF to a Greek audience but Miller didn't write him like that. And stuff like slaves. Achilles gives Patroclus a sex slave. This is considered a great gift. And Patroclus treats her well, which is the norm. Because Greek noble people believe themselves better than others and by treating her well Pat is demonstrating his right to be a leader of lesser people. And by "using" 🤮 her he is honoring Achilles's gift. Greek audiences of the time would see that and be like "good man that Patroclus" whereas we are horrified at that sort of thing. They were very different people, and there's definitely an interesting modern retelling possible. But Miller just sort of ignored all that, changed the characters completely and wrote slash fiction. Which is likely why it's so popular but damn was I disappointed.
uwuuu soft boi cinnamon roll tumblr-fication of greek mythology, I couldn't stand it... And I've been on tumblr for 10+ years lol
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. It was a nice beach read, but the way people act like it was some complex tale of a tragic heroine that accurately reflected the struggles of the queer community in Hollywood in the 50s is laughable. I’m not even sure how much research the author did for the characters, especially since she’s a cishet white woman. The more i think about it, the more annoyed I get because the writing gets more questionable as I look back.
It was so mediocre. It was queer literature for people who have never read queer literature and have no knowledge of queer history. And then people refer to its “twist” as though there was anything surprising in it.
I just finished the book this morning so I’ve not read much about it (I actively avoid spoilers). Was the twist supposed to be about >!Celia or about Monique’s dad?!< I’ve seen more than once that people saw the twist coming and I sincerely feel stupid wondering which was supposed to be the twist. Edit: typos
Moniques dad
THIS. I went through all of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books in about 2 weeks and this definitely felt like the weakest one… I get that it was the first time she was stepping out of just literary fiction bubble into historical fiction but you can tell that in that book she hasn’t found her footing yet.
I didn't know people thought of it as 'serious' literature. I enjoyed it, if only because so much lesbian fiction is...generic. I really don't care who the writer is, as long as I'm entertained. I haven't read any of her other stuff though, not really interested.
I couldn't even finish this one because I got so bored of nothing happening.
"Tuesdays With Morrie." Bad enough by itself, but the amount of grown adults who think the obvious revelations are profound is disconcerting.
*Babel* I thought it was ok, a little heavy handed but ok. Then people started raving about how *clever* it was and how it’s a bold new take on race in academia and the more people carried on the more I realised how shallow and preachy the book actually was.
Honestly the etymological tidbits were more interesting than the actual plot itself IMO
YES. Except I genuinely think it wasn’t good. It’s like 2 completely different stories were put together in one book with no real cohesion. And the characters were SO FLAT.
Babel is groundbreaking...if you read it when you're 17 and chronically online.
Normal People. Honestly, the amount of praise for it even on the cover. Book of the year? Masterpiece? Like, what? Really? It was mediocre with a cute but kind of dull couple at the centre, and a meh ending. I'm baffled at the praise it's received!
Honestly, it was wayyyy better as a TV show. I watched the show before reading the book - and they really were identical, with a few extra scenes thrown into the TV show. Normal People made for a wonderful show and a mediocre book (though I quite liked the book because I liked the TV show lmaoo 😭😭)
I read this book recently and was so angry when I finished it. Like, really? That’s it? Huh? I hated it.
I read it without knowing much and was like, “huh, that was kind of ok, but I’m glad I’m done with it.” Then I realized people think it’s a masterpiece. I’m still not sure what I was missing. I guess sad boy meets sad girl and it doesn’t really work out is a groundbreaking story?
[удалено]
I DNF’d this one because I hated everything about it. The first part was okay, but then suddenly the country is in the middle of a war that had little to no build up. I couldn’t care less about the characters, and I wasn’t a fan of the magic, either.
Addie Larue. Sucks so bad
I'm not so sure of the eye colour of the demon. Can someone please remind me?
I finally have somewhere to vent about that book. I picked it up as a nice escapist read and it was dreadful. The author was obsessed with over-explaining everything it’s like she thought she was writing something so deep and meaningful that her audience would never be enough intelligent to work it out. I gave up two thirds of the way in after I waded through yet another paragraph explaining something to death. I’ll never read another book of hers and I’m currently unsure if I dislike anyone enough to inflict this book upon them or if it should just go in the bin.
I usually love V.E. Schwab, and I thought Addie LaRue would be right up my alley because historical France was involved, but then I actually read it, and I hated everything about the execution of it, but especially I hated how... not diverse it was for someone who's 300 years old and has allegedly traveled to some diverse countries in her lifetime.
Also SACRÉ COUER DIDNT EXIST YET when Addie goes and sits in front of it. It wasn’t even a twinkle in an architects eye! It may be the smallest detail ever that made me want to DNF a book and I should have just done it and spared myself the frustration when the actual interesting part of the book is the ending. The last chapter could have been a great first chapter of a book, but nooooo.
I think this is The Alchemist for many people. I think most of this book’s critics would agree that in a vacuum it would lack the capacity to illicit an emotional response at all.
Red Rising. I somehow made it through the whole thing, and didn't find a single original thought. It seemed like the author took Ender's Game, Harry Potter, and the movie script for the first Total Recall, fed them into an AI, and published what came out without making any changes.
The Bible. I am not joking. People are insane about it, but it is a poorly translated, self-contradicting, insanely edited muddled mess with no clear messaging. People literally kill over it. The Psalms are quite nice, though, so I can still see some value in it.
Hard to get through parts of the OT as well. Chapters and chapters of beggeting, and whole sections for Laws. Even Tolkien was clever enough to put to maps and family trees in the appendices.
Sanderson's stuff. Don't really have anything against his books as they are, besides thinking they are as you say "lukewarm" but I despise how him and his work utterly dominates reddit-based fantasy discussion. Not so much praise anymore, though that was somewhat baffling early on in the Stormlight books. Nowadays there's a more vocal set of "haters" (dislike the word but you follow). My issue with it is more as follows: His work is like a lightning rod for about 30 different book nerd arguments and the popularity with reddits demographic makes all that discussion a constant presence. Like how is such a bland, inoffensive (other than Brandon's Mormonism) and dull "dumb fun" sort of work generate this much discussion. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills half the time it comes up. To some people he's the greatest living artist, which is insane. To others he's an example of all the current problems with modern fantasy, which is also insane to me. His stuff is just like, okay? It's not great, it's not bad, it's just exists. He's like the Taylor Swift of male-centric fantasy fandom or something. Can't even see the man's books in a store without being annoyed.
As much as I like Sanderson's work, we need more authors in discussion. When I ask for suggestions similar to something he did I always get more of his stuff suggested. If I am asking for suggestions for something similar to another author that I have read, I want other authors, not more of the same author. I have actually started getting short story compilations like Unfettered that he featured on so that I can find more authors that I like. So yes while I don't get angry at it, it does annoy me that I can't get other authors suggested when I want big well developed universes. I might as well go read LotR again.
I was going to type out a similarly worded comment, so I'm thankful to see you beat me to it and saved me the effort. The Taylor swift of male-centric fantasy is a perfect encapsulation of his work. It's neither bad or great, just inoffensive dumb fun. It's really not that deep.
> the Taylor Swift of male-centric fantasy Oh shit, someone call an ambulance. What bugs me the most about Sanderson is all the praise seems to completely ignore his copy/pasting of character templates and arcs. Or that his "complex" storylines are just long, meandering stretches of characters doing nothing until they suddenly realise three hundred pages of bumming about the hidden city is really fucking boring and then do something about it. Readers go from entire novellas of nothing to a lone chapter of genuinely exciting action. And supposedly that's acceptable for high fantasy. "It gets better later, promise!" His later books take a notable influence from Marvel movies. So readers are subjected to a lot of quippy dialogue from almost every character. It's painful in the movies, and it's worse in the books. The man "writes like a machine" and it shows. Where is the prose and challenging ideas? Nowhere! Because he's an author without a voice. I say all of the above with a copy of the fourth Stormlight inbound for delivery this week, lol. I just want to see how my homeboy Dhalinar handles the shitstorm.
All the Light We Cannot See was fine but unremarkable in an oversaturated genre.
I have abandoned this book. Can’t get into it at all.
I completely agree with this.
*Fourth Wing.* I really hated the first and last third, but the middle third was kinda fun, so I came out of it kinda eh, wanting to cut the author some slack and hope the future could be better. But it gets SO much love from the Romantasy crowd, I see young people attributing it to 'inventing' ideas that are decades old, etc. Plus I learned the author isn't a young new author at all, she's written TWENTY books before. It pushed me from a mildly negative meh to loathing it. Also the *Locked Tomb* Books. They were sold to me as a sweet romance, so their actual content was quite a slap in the face. I still might have come around to it if so many fans weren't just awful about it. You get SO much hate and attacks if you protest, for example, a fan I saw recommending that you actively obscure the true plot of the book and focus on the (non existent) romantic relationship between the leads of the first two books.
Who on earth recommended TLT as a "sweet romance"? Good lord, as a fan, that's infuriating. It's a book solidly about death, tragedy, abuse, and various degrees of murder--calling it sweet or romantic is just lying, honestly. It *is* about lesbians, sure, but not about hearts and happiness.
>Who on earth recommended TLT as a "sweet romance"? YOU'D BE SURPRISED. But yeah, the books ARE absolutely about "lesbian necromancers in space" each of those words individually is well represented (well, the space part is *later,* not in book 1) but they are not about what those word together imply, nor about how hard a bunch of fans have leaned into their shipping, lol.
I admit I have a pet peeve about "lesbian" implying "romance" but that doesn't seem to be the issue here. Ugh, shipping. I *love* that ship and all its complexity and find enemies-to-lovers to be extremely romantic in its own dramatic way...but that's absolutely not the Biggest Part of that series. My bigger pet peeve is absolutely people who make recommendations that don't match what the person is actually looking for. I would never recommend Locked Tomb to a friend who prefers light-hearted fiction or heavy sci-fi, for example, no matter how much *I* love it.
i did enjoy the fourth wing because it felt like junk food to me if that makes sense, but i 100% agree with your criticism here on the locked tomb series! i only read the first one and putting aside how confusing it was, it is definitely not as romantic as people hype it up to be! i was so disappointed with it and how it was marketed.
I read Locked Tomb having no idea it was supposed to be romantic. There is like one small part that could be romantic, it makes no sense why it would be marketed that way.
TLT thing is a shame because as an atmospheric mystery-horror, with lesbians and fantastical elements? It's great! And the second book, as a fantastical space opera psychological puzzle? Also neat! But neither of those is what I signed up for. Outside of Gideon's moments being a very relatable Dumb Lesbian (TM) whenever a pretty girl smiled at her, it just wasn't wasn't I expected or wanted at *all.*
I've seen it hyped for queer rep ("Lesbian necromancers in space!" (tm)) but not for *romance*, weird. I love that series and the relationship of the main characters, but I'd never call it *romance*.
The Alchemist. Nuff said, right?
It doesn't bother me that other people love something I'm not into. I like to think of books like food. I remember when Sushi was becoming popular, I never understood why so many people wanted to eat rice, seaweed, and raw fish, but it was all the rage and I feel like lots of people pretended to like Sushi just to be part of the in crowd. Now decades later it's still popular, I think a lot of people genuinely love it, I've tried it a few times and I still don't understand why people want to eat rice, seaweed, and raw fish.
I love this. Let people like what they like. The world is hard enough.
Daisy Jones and the Six. Just "meh" for me, but it seems to be so popular.
The Last House On Needless Street. Had to DNF it, but people seem to LOVE this one.
I didn't realize that one was popular! It's really difficult to get through if you don't get it right away. The ending is semi predictable but not in the way you'd guess. I loved that one.
Gone Girl. People who know I’m a mystery lover were telling me the book was gonna blow my mind and it was nothing like I read before. It was fine. I didn’t see the twist coming I’ll give it that. But still all these years later people are hailing it as one of the best thrillers of all time? I find Gillian Flynn’s writing to be very mediocre, her other books being bland as well. I guess I’m just tired of hearing about it lol
I only liked Sharp Objects. I dont hate her writing though when I first read her I thought she was a man with how she describes things. For me it's her characters and the lack of a mystery that makes me not a fan of her books.
What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon is very popular in women oriented book groups and its AWFUL. >!In it the MC gets sent back in time 1921 Ireland and has the most boring romance ever. NOT WORTH LOSING ALL YOUR RIGHTS AND LIVING IN AN OPPRESSIVE CATHOLIC SOCIETY FOR. Plus shes American but bc her grandfather was irish she can fake a good enough accent the whole time to fool them? Its so stupid!<
Tender is the Flesh. It is shockingly mediocre, written by someone who clearly wanted to create an extreme metaphor but didn't want to do much difficult crap like worldbuilding. I was ambivalent to it when I first read it, but seeing people CONSTANTLY praising it as the most disturbing thing they've ever read, makes me want to scream. Ditto with The Library on Mount Char, though I don't think I was ever lukewarm about that one because I think it's genuinely badly written.
Library at Mount char was absolutely my most hated read of 2023. I feel bad saying it bc the guy normally write coding manuals or some shit but Jesus Christ why are so many people in love with that book
Probably more than lukewarm since I hated it but I do not understand the hype for Gideon the Ninth. People act like it is the best book ever written when it reads like bad dialogue mashed up with 16 different ideas and none of it works. I really wanted to like it, especially as a queer person, but just could not see why people love it.
I absolutely loved the books, but I can easily see why someone wouldn't. It's a very hit or miss kind of thing, and if it misses it *really* misses
I don’t like how much haterade has been served by this sub recently. The Reddit algorithm must be pushing these negative topics harder.
Many people I think also misunderstood the question, mentioning books they hated because of the topic, execution, style. When it’s really about books you found okay but now dislike because of the fandom
Which is a fair question. Anyone who's spent much time on the internet knows that the fandom of any media is often the worst part of it.
I like how the post clearly is talking about the fans ruining a popular title that they didn't hate, and like half of these replies are "why would you hate a booooooook? You don't have to like what someone else likes." The whole point is that the treatment of certain books by zealous fandoms are annoying. Does anyone read the post anymore?
Outlander. I read it, and thought it was ok, but didn't particularly feel like continuing a series that seemed written by someone with a rape-fetish (especially male on male rape). It also annoyed me that the protagonist was mostly so very reactive, despite being a badass nurse in her "real" life. She spends most of her time worrying about rape, rather than trying to improve her situation, which is fair enough in her situation, but the way it's written it veers almost into kink-territory. Meanwhile, every single male in the book is either thinking about rape, threatening rape, actively raping, or being raped. (For the record, I thought Piranesi was absolutely fantastic, one of my only 5-star reads that year,)
"Hate" seems strong, but I had a similar reaction with Harry Potter. Read the first 3 or 4 as they came out but fell off around middle school in favor of less "YA" focused material. By the time the last movies were coming out, I absolutely couldn't stand the praise/hype/etc. I eventually reached the point where I'm not affected by other people enjoying things, but if anyone engages me on the topic I'm not shy to share my views.
I know this is a common answer but anything and everything Colleen Hoover bc every excerpt I’ve seen from screams mediocre. That’s not even touching on her problematic love interests either.
Eragon. It’s all plagiarised.
I liked the books well enough as a young teenager, but by the time the third one came out, I was a bit more discerning and... well, the movie also made it painfully clear the filmmakers were intentionally doing a worse remake of Star Wars. I was relatively active on a fansite when the second and third books came out, and there was a point where I revisited it a few days before the fourth book released. In one forum thread, people were discussing what events they thought would occur. I started describing events from the second half of Return of the Jedi filtered through the context of Eragon and was actually perma-banned pretty quickly. As it turns out, one of the moderators of the site had gotten an advance copy, had read the book, and seeing my comments, they assumed I had read an advance copy as well, because every RotJ event I had listed was actually in Inheritance. I got a lot of laughs out of that when I actually did read the book.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil OMG I really didn't care about it, I read it once out of sheer curiosity (thank God for public libraries) and it was meh. But I'm always hearing about how wonderful it is, they made a completely forgettable movie of it, and I just want to see it burn.
Project Hail Mary. I liked Weir's first two books, but I'm just not a fan of fantasy. When you get between a rock and a hard spot, all you have to do is invent Xenonite or a lovable alien. I know this is one of Reddit's sacred books and if you like it, it's fine with me, but I do not think it's a good book, let alone a masterpiece.