Announcing the Winners of the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards

Zohal wrote: "My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beasts got the fant..."

I totally agree with your comments, Zohal, except that I love Sarah Mass. However, I admit there were other great reads in that category. Fantastic Beasts??? No way! There were also more deserving nominees in the mystery category.

Surprised at the disappointment expressed by many who posted. The votes were by Goodreads members - not some committee. I'm pleased that the authors in my two favorite genres (fiction and mystery) were those I voted for. Congratulations to both of them and to all the other outstanding writers.

Tim wrote: "Wish I were shocked that Rowling won best Fantasy, with a screenplay. But it happens every time she's nominated --- people vote for her because "JK FOR QUEEN" and "WE LOVE YOU JK" fans.

Goodreads ..."
Amen to that!!

Alan wrote: "Tim wrote: "Wish I were shocked that Rowling won best Fantasy, with a screenplay. But it happens every time she's nominated --- people vote for her because "JK FOR QUEEN" and "WE LOVE YOU JK" fans...."

Tim wrote: "Wish I were shocked that Rowling won best Fantasy, with a screenplay. But it happens every time she's nominated --- people vote for her because "JK FOR QUEEN" and "WE LOVE YOU JK" fans.

Goodreads ..."

Talk about sour grapes.

Zohal wrote: "My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beasts got the fant..."
Absolutely agree on Without Merit!!! Not sure how the book with the fewest stars of all the nominees pulled off the win!

Maureen wrote: "Alioftheroses wrote: "Beartown should have beaten Little Fires Everywhere, which was an awful commentary on adoption and suburbia. Also, Into the Water for best thriller?! Hardly anyone on the week..."

You take it to Twitter. I'm a regular fixture here at Goodreads posts under my name, so give up.

Maureen wrote: "Alan wrote: "I'm not voting in this far fetched contest ever again. Apparently their are a lot of people who don't know how to read..
You got to be kidding me with a screenplay winning fantasy book..."
Lmao, what hypocrisy! Ignore this poster, Alan. She just defeated her own argument by calling me a "fool" a few posts ago.

Hilary Clinton- really? How much of it did she actually write? Her only victory....

Monkiecat wrote: "I didn't vote on anything this year because I didn't manage to get to many new releases (and still my TBR pile is growing, growing, growing...) but I love the author pictures!
Rick Riorden is a cla..."

I also did like the pictures and video

Celeste Ng is amazing!! Also happy about Neil (Can I call him Neil?), who is doing an incredible job of making astrophysics interesting and accessible. Huzzah!

Alioftheroses wrote: "Beartown should have beaten Little Fires Everywhere, which was an awful commentary on adoption and suburbia. Also, Into the Water for best thriller?! Hardly anyone on the weekly Goodreads posts tho..."

I hated Little Fires Everywhere. Beartown was much better!

Zohal wrote: "My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beasts got the fant..."

I agree with you on Fantastic Beasts! Fun movie but the book (screenplay) didn't need an award...

Alioftheroses wrote: "Duh, I said I post under MY NAME. Like I'm going to tell any troll my name. Go worry about your own posts."

Thanks for making my point for me.
How to deal with someone who knows nothing about the clapback (That's you Aliofthecoffeegroundsintheroses):
1. Don't
2. When in doubt, repeat step one.
Buh-bye

To all the haters,
It is difficult to take your criticism seriously when it is full of misspelled words and grammatical errors. Such mistakes are highly unusual among people who actually read books. Not to be the grammar sheriff, but I beg of you to please read a book or two on writing, perhaps by Stephen King. ;-)

Surprised another entry in the "A Court of" series won again? No. Disappointed, yes. Am I surprised The Sun and Her Flowers won Best Poetry? No. Exasperated, yes. Two punchy, instragrammable lines push the limits of the term poetry. Still, cool to see everyone's pics. So cool that even Hillary sent a picture. And it's just nifty seeing such a collection of admirable people from Rick Riorden to Andy Weir in one lineup. (Both good choices). Also, how cool Andy Weir wrote such an honest, powerful thank you!

In the horror genre seems Stephen King is the authentic King."SLEEPING BEAUTIES" has made it to the best list co written by Owen.King.Congradulations.

Congrats Steven & Owen!! (Mr. King I LOVE your books so much; keep on writing!!) ;)

I love SJM, I do. But I'm so sad it wasn't Cassandra Clare who won.

Cheyenne wrote: "Rick Riordan signs his thank you in Hearthstone attire in front of the worlds portals (duck statue). I may have screamed at my computer for a full minute :D"

lol. i just realize that after reading your post, love him

Congratulations to all the winners! And here's to hoping for a better 2018!

Congratulations to all the winners. Some of the winners are my choice while others are not. But I guess there must be something to cater for everyone's taste. I am really glad that the Pioneer women has won. I follow her show on food network and she is absolutely amazing and makes cooking and baking look so easy. :)

Zohal wrote: "My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beasts got the fant..."
Very annoyed as well that JK book won!!

Congratulation to all the winners. I never know it's always an interesting scene to adorn like this.

Next year JKR will publish a Harry Potter themed sticker album and even that will win, probably in more than one category.

Ley wrote: "IM SO PROUD OF SARAH J MAAS!! SHE IS MY QUEEN AND I LOVE HER! <3"

OML AGREE SO MUCH SO HAPPY SHE WON!!! SARAH FTW

Congrats to all the authors who won!!

Am a Potterhead and didn’t really see the fantasy section popping up in my feed but I have to agree that the screenplay for fantastic beasts shouldn’t have won. Sure, it’s popular and all that, but I feel we should give other books a chance. Hopefully the GR team can look through these comments and find ways to give other up and coming authors a chance at winning in the fantasy category!!

(Special shoutout to Angie Thomas and Sarah J Maas for winning!!! You guys totally deserve the award!! <3)

I was really surprised to see Hillary's book made the list. Can't imagine anyone wanting to read this blame game saga. Look for it soon in your local half price book store, I'm sure an ample supply will be available.

I love Angie Thomas'reaction! :)

Alioftheroses wrote: "Beartown should have beaten Little Fires Everywhere, which was an awful commentary on adoption and suburbia. Also, Into the Water for best thriller?! Hardly anyone on the weekly Goodreads posts tho..."

I thought that "Into the Water" was not readable. My sentiments are confirmed by reviewers on Amazon. Just because an author has one bestseller does not mean that all other books are great or even good!

Congrats to the winners! I love all the book selfies, especially Celeste Ng's and Neil deGrasse Tyson's.

I must agree with everyone re: Fantastic Beasts - it's a screenplay for a blockbuster film set in Rowling's wizarding world, not a fantasy novel, so it's a weird choice and not really fair.

Manisha wrote: "Dear Goodreads,

It's not hard. Next year please have a separate YA category for Fantasy and Sci-fi. It's not fair to put YA in with adult SFF when they have their own YA category as well.

The c..."

The thing is that Goodreads Choice Awards DOES have a YA Fantasy category. The problem is that Goodreads doesn't seem to understand how to keep YA Fantasy like Harry Potter, V.E. Schwaab books and similar YA stuff in the damn YA Fantasy category. Non-YA fantasy books will always struggle to win the Fantasy category as long as YA is included in both SFF and YA Fantasy categories. But then I guess that's what Amazon thinks will get them more sales since YA is what's all the rage these days.

Amanda wrote: "Andy Weir seems like a stand-up guy and I'm sure Artemis is great (just like The Martian was.) But it's inclusion (and eventual win) in this year's contest baffles me, as it was not even published ..."

I agree. How can a book be the best you've read this year, when it was published just after voting started? Or what about a fantastic book that was published in December, but would never get a chance to be in the running?

To make it more fair, the "year" should be books published November-October. So the 2017 awards should have been books published in November 2016-October 2017. 2018 awards should be books published in November 2017-October 2018, etc.

Martini wrote: "Next year JKR will publish a Harry Potter themed sticker album and even that will win, probably in more than one category."

If she did do a sticker album, you're right it would likely win considering how people vote by name popularity. I know many friends who are serious hardcore Harry Potter Fans, and they even had mixed feelings on the Fantastic Beasts screenplay.

Issue isn't the rating of a book, but that it wins due to the Harry Potter name even though it's not a fiction "novel." Goodreads is allowing an entry to win that doesn't fully fit the qualifications of the contest in the first place, which is one of many reasons people are getting annoyed. It's not sour grapes, it's just not setting up the contest to be fair.

This should have been in a different category for screenplays, plays and poetry - this could have won in that category and would have given actual novels a chance in the Fantasy genre.

Nadine wrote: "I thought that "Into the Water" was not readable. My sentiments are confirmed by reviewers on Amazon. Just because an author has one bestseller does not mean that all other books are great or even good! "

I really enjoyed 'The Girl on the Train', but decided not to read 'Into the Water'. While I planned to initially, I was put off by my friend's reviews who complained about too much POV Head-hopping and confusion. I'm surprised it won as well, but there must have been enough people who did enjoy it.

I can't belive I'm actually reading "I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win," and more than once! ACOWAR was great, and the entire series was amazing. Honestly, I think it's the best ya fantasy I've read this year. Of course, this is just my personal opinion that I wanted to make known, because I believe Ms. Maas very much deserves this award-and then some! =)

Congrats! to all of the recipient's Ms. Thomas I was blessed to have read your book in our book club here in Cleveland, O. It was a joy! I thought your piece was very transparent and I can't wait until you visit Cleveland, O Good luck on future writings Angela Williams

I am writing a book myself do any of you want to hear what I have so far? it is only three pages

I'd like to hear it, Mr. Octopus. I have a few moments.

The voters were people who use Facebook. I don't so didn't get to participate but am happy for the winners and glad to see some books I really enjoyed winning.

Janine wrote: "The voters were people who use Facebook. I don't so didn't get to participate but am happy for the winners and glad to see some books I really enjoyed winning."

No. The voters are always Goodreads users regardless of participation on FB. The banners and links to vote have been all over GR for the last two months.

sorry I went offline, I am here now and so is what I got so far

and here it is:


It’s 10:00 am and everyone is asleep in the orphanage. I go back to the room where my best friends are waiting for me. Jason my closest friend is the second oldest in the group, Mitchell who is the newest addition to the group is the third oldest, Emily who is the oldest in the group is Isaiah’s girlfriend, Megan is the youngest and is really shy, Alexis is my girlfriend and is second youngest, and i’m the third youngest. I’m walking down the hallway to the room, when I go to open the door, I stop and listen to what they’re saying, I hear Jason say “Did you guys hear about the riot in London?” I open the door and say “everyone is asleep so let’s get this party started!” Jason gets his weed from a hidden compartment in the closet, Emily gets Jason homemade pipe nicknamed frankenstein out and hands it to Isaiah. Alexis gets out the vodka that she stole from the janitor who got fired yesterday for being drunk on the job.

40 minutes later we’ve already smoked all the weed, that when Megan says she thinks she hears something outside. That when Mitchell gets this bright idea to go to the roof, Jason then says i second the motion. Next thing I know we're on the roof looking at the biggest smoke cloud I have ever seen in my life; it looked like it was coming from the mental hospital three miles down the road from where we’re at right now. The weirdest thing was that it was completely silent outside other than the wind howling in the distance; which is what i think Megan heard earlier. Then as we were walking back to the roof entrance to go back to the room I heard the loudest blood curdling scream ever, it sounded like it was coming from outside and the scream was like something out of the movies. Jason looked at me and said “ you heard that to, right?”

We’re in the room for the next 50 minutes when there’s a crash from downstairs and then a muffled scream. The first thing Jason says is let’s go see what the hell that was, Mitchell looked at me and said “ you coming xavier.” Jason is the first one up and goes to the wall above his bed and grabs the baseball bat that his mom gave him a long time ago. Jason is in the front and i’m right behind him with Mitchell bringing up the rear. The girls are slumped in the room and we’re the only ones up, Jason nearly falls trying to go down the steps but quickly regains his balance walking straight to where the noise came from. Before you even see it you smell it, the rotten flesh is what hits you first. Jason pukes and nearly passes out, Mitchell helps Jason up off the ground because he slipped on his puke. I start walking down the stairs to see one of the nurses that worked here at the orphanage lying on the ground bleeding from her throat. I run down to the nurse and wipe the blood from her throat and say “Jason, Mitchell come and look at this.” What I see is revolting and disgusting, it looks like a bite mark from an animal, wait no that kinda looks like a bite from a little kid, like the one i got from this crazy kid three years ago I think the kid was like 8 or 9 years old.

There is a trial of bloody foot prints leading from the nurse going down the hallway to the right. Me and Jason look at each other and then to the body and are speechless. Mitchell gets up and says we should go wake up the girls and i agree, we’re about up the stairs when i hear a moan i turn around and see the impossible the nurse is getting up. I look to Mitchell and say run! The nurse is coming after us with a low growl that u would think came from a rabid dog, i run faster we get to Jason room and Mitchell opens the door and goes in i’m the second one in then Jason runs in an slips and falls. Mitchell closes the door and it’s not 30 seconds later when the nurse starts banging on the door, Jason wakes up the others and I start explaining whats going on to the girls. In the middle of explaining I hear someone come out of there room asking “ what the hell is going on?” Then it sounds like the person is fighting the nurse and then there is a crash and scream (this happens within 15 seconds,) Jason gets his baseball bat and opens the door to go help the person who was getting attacked by the nurse. Jason hits her in the back but it does nothing, the nurse is still attacking the guy on the floor when the guy stops moving. Jason pulls the nurse off the guy on the ground and slips from the pool of blood around him, the nurse turns around and starts attacking Jason. Jason puts the bat on the nurses chest to keep it from biting him, Mitchell tries to grasp the nurse's arm but fails when the nurse turns and bites into his arm, right then I was frozen in fear. Mitchell’s scream moves me to attack the nurse, I tackle the nurse and hold her down when all I see is a blur of silver and then hear a deep thud sound. Jason hits the nurse in the head three times before she stops moving, after she stops moving we run over to Mitchell he was sitting up against the wall in the hallway. I kneel beside Mitchell to look at the bite, it was not deep, but could get infected if not cleaned, Emily says “ hey would should go get the first aid kit”.

Megan starts crying and Alexis goes over to comfort her, Me, Jason, and Emily get ready to get the first aid kit. We go down the stairs and past the big pool of blood that came from the nurse, we’re walking down the hallway to the nurse’s office when I hear a scream for help. I turn around to see a light coming from the hallway where the bloody footprints lead, we start running to where the scream came from. The first thing I see is some random guy holding down a little kid, after a second I realize that the little kid must be the one who attacked the nurse. There is a chunk of flesh missing from the kids right arm and shoulder, the guy on top of the kid is crying and saying things under his breath. Jason goes over to the guys and says “ we need to tie him down quick.” Emily grabs the sheets off both of the beds in the room, we pick him up and put him in a bed and hold his legs and arms down while Emily ties him down on the bed. The guy starts crying and saying “We can’t kill him,” repeatedly, Emily asks what happened. The guy says “he just left our room to go use the bathroom and get a drink of water and he came back after seventeen minutes later and started to attack me.

Mr. Octopus: king of the sea wrote: "and here it is:


It’s 10:00 am and everyone is asleep in the orphanage. I go back to the room where my best friends are waiting for me. Jason my closest friend is the second oldest in the group, M..."

Woah. Pretty good! You definitely have a knack for writing.

do you think I should post it on Goodreads once I finish it?

Mr. Octopus: king of the sea wrote: "do you think I should post it on Goodreads once I finish it?"

I personally think that would be wonderful.

 
CONGRATULATIONS to All! :D

You, GO, ANGIE! :D WOOT! xD
 

Glad I'm not the only one bugged by how Fantastic Beasts won.
Seriously, there were SO many great books in that category and while I did like the movie .... a) I only liked it. I didn't love it to death and Tad Williams was nominated as well, so.... do you see my point? xD
b) it's a fucking screenplay. There is not much prose in it to even compare it to the other novels in that category I read! Why not create an entire category for screenplays or dramas instead?

I'm not hating on the author or anything, it's not her fault that people love her to death, I just thought it... well undeserving. The movie wasn't all THAT great and it's not really a novel. A lot of authors published better stories and showed better writing skills imo because as much as I love HP, you can clearly see how much of a beginner JK was at the start and still remains if I compare her to authors like Tad Williams or Brandon Sanderson.

Sadly, unlike what Andy Weird claims -- awards here are NOT based on what readers think of a book, but instead they're straight up popularity-contests.

At the point in time when voting happened on the initial rounds, his book was not even published, so it's a safe bet that most of the people who voted for it had not read it, but voted for it anyway because they liked The Martian.

You're also asked only to vote, not to rank books, so the result is that in a competition between a book that MANY have read -- but only a small fraction love, and a book that FEW have read but damn near everyone who have loves; the former book will win.

It's a popularity-contest. Not a quality-contest.

Of course to the degree people are more likely to read books that are better, it ends up being a little of both, but it does mean being popular trumps being good.

Amazed that Andy Weir won. I thought his offering -whatever it was called - was terribly written and I almost couldn't finish it. It was only that I was on a long plane trip with nothing else that got me through it. "The Martian" was way better.

I still cant get over the fact that Fantastic Beasts won the fantasy category... its a screenplay! What titanic genius at GR shortlisted it in the first place? This fandom popularity contest has no credibility. I suspect JK knows this full well which is why she hasnt said much about it.