bookish tea time

Are some books over-hyped?

life is sweet in books11 Comments

Hello and welcome back to lifeissweetinbooks. Today I have another questiony/ranty post where I will discussing popular books.

Recently or over the past year or so booktube has been discovered by many publishers and so publishers have been sending books to many of the booktubers who have a lot if views. While this may create a arc envy towards other booktubers and bloggers it means that many people will talk a lot about the same book.

From my own personal experiences I have seen many books that are raved and talked about a lot but when I actually read the book I didn`t enjoy it as I thought I would. When I hear about a book over and over again I know that I definitely enjoy it because many people have, although in reality I didn`t. A recent example of this is Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I was expecting so much from this book because everyone said that it was their favourite book of 2015 and the plot twist was suspenseful, however I didn`t enjoy the book, the plot was obvious and a bit of a cliche.

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Now please don`t get me wrong. I actually do like it when books are talked about a lot because I can find a new read and mostly when everyone likes a book I tend to like, although for some cases it isn`t the case.

To consolidate my main point is over hyped books confuse me. I feel the urge to read and buy the book because many people love the book and I see it everywhere, literally everywhere, but I know that there are other books that have been on TBR (to be read) list for longer. Books are books and it makes me sad sometimes that some books get more attention than other books, which is why I sometimes avoid hyped books because if I don`t enjoy the book I feel like a lot of people would hate me. It also dawned on me that I should start looking for books which aren`t as popular and to make them known.

Some over hyped books that are on my wishlist are:

  • The Kiss of Deception
  • The Wrath and the Dawn
  • Shadow and Bone
  • Final Empire

Thank you reading today`s post and let me know what you think about “over-hyped” books.

Franciska. xxx

11 thoughts on “Are some books over-hyped?”

  1. I think lots of books are over-hyped. Your example of Red Queen is a good one. I thought it was just ok but it was nothing we haven’t seen done before and done better by other authors. I was really disappointed.
    I’ve only read one of the hyped books on your list: The Wrath and the Dawn. It’s very good (much better than Red Queen) but not life-changing. Plus, as it’s the first in a series, it does a lot of necessary but not very thrilling work to set up the next installment (which I think will be better). I’m going to read Smoke and Bone soon though and I’m trying to go in with “average” expectations.
    I understand why all the hype happens, but I’m trying more and more to ignore it because it usually sets me up for a disappointment 😦

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  2. I often see this same problem. I’ve read many books that have been touted as superb and then find myself hating them; or the opposite happens, and I love a book that many hate. It just goes to show you always need to do your own research on stuff before listening to someone else’s views.

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  3. I totally agree with you on over hyped books! I loved the Red Queen but I loved it knowing (and stating in my review) that it is in no way a unique plot. I brought The Wrath and The Dawn because I just had to know what the big fuss was and not because the synopsis really intrigued me. I still haven’t read it. I tried A Kiss of Deception and tbh I really, really didn’t like it (I DNFed it) I was so confused why everyone was raving about it. Shadow and Bone although is a great dark fantasy, it has a unique plot and interesting characters, I don’t think it’s brilliant enough for all the praise it receives. Like to me it sits at like 3.5-4 stars while everyone else wants to give it 5+stars.
    I think when it comes to hyped books you need to go into them with out feeling intimidated into having to love them. I think sometimes people feel pressured to say they liked it even if they really didn’t.

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  4. It’s so true how some books get way overhyped. Sometimes they live up to the hype and other times they just don’t. Fangirl fell slighy into the latter category for me, four stars out of five–not too shabby, but not amazzzzing. The characters were really enjoyable, but the “excerpts” we’re a drag. Wrath and the Dawn and Shadow and Bone are on my list, too. Fingers crossed they’re as good as everyone says.

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  5. I actually loved The Final Empire (& Shadow & Bone, to a lesser degree), but I agree that I quite often start books with seriously unrealistic expectations, due to all the hype. For me, the best example would probably be the Shatter Me trilogy, which I was super-excited about, then ended up really disliking… 😦

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