Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
2023 Weekly Question
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Weekly Question - Mar 5 - Overhyped?
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Robin P, Orbicular Mod
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Mar 04, 2023 06:04PM
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Where the Crawdads Sing - I couldn't buy the premise of a child growing up alone like that. She never got sick or had a serious injury and somehow got enough nutrition.
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel - I was annoyed that while people were actually starving in Russia, the inhabitants of the hotel just complained about not having good wine. Also it has a trope I hate of a child brought in basically to give the adults purpose in life.
Speaking of that trope - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry = same thing. Also (view spoiler)
All the Light We Cannot See - Largely my fault for misunderstanding what the story was about. I thought it was about the relationship between 2 kids/teenagers, but it turns out they only cross paths for literally 1 page almost at the end. Also the author tried so hard for "beautiful" writing that I got tired of it. This and other books have led me to think I should avoid books described as "luminous". (But I did like Cloud Cuckoo Land by the same author.)
Robin P wrote: "I'll start since I have OPINIONS on this! Where the Crawdads Sing - I couldn't buy the premise of a child growing up alone like that
[book:A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel|34066798..."
Ohh, that's too bad about Crawdads. I really liked it. Haven't read the other two though.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
This has an avergae rating of 4.56 stars, but I gave it 2. I would have given it 1 if it weren't for the great art. It's shelved as a "graphic novel" but I think it's more like a picture book instead. The art is lovely, but the words... I feel like the words are trying too hard to be inspirational that it just comes off as corny to me.
I have only a handful of books I’ve given only a single star here on Goodreads (and that was generous). The two most overrated in that group are The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Lord of the Flies by William Golding.My review is the former is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of the latter is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I’ll probably get a lot of flak but Colleen Hoover books. I’ve dnf-ed the two we own at the library. I don’t get why she’s popular.
I won't say a book is overhyped just because it's popular and I don't like it. I can understand why people like the books I don't like and I'm happy for all sorts of books to exist in the world.But if the question is books that everyone seems to love but me, I have tried two T.J. Klune books now and neither have wowed me into being a fan. Overly sentimental and have that vibe of kids books for adults which leaves me feeling I should have just read a kids book.
I have two books I thought were over-hyped.1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
2. The Midnight Library
I found the books similar so I think that is why I didn't like them.
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B..."
I felt the same about The House in the Cerulean Sea - just TOO sweet.
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Robin P wrote: A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel - I was annoyed that while people were actually starving in Russia, the inhabitants of the hotel just complained about not having good wine. Also it has a trope I hate of a child brought in basically to give the adults purpose in life.."
Oof, hard agree. I read a fair amount of eastern European lit, and this one completely glossed over the brutal reality of the time while overdoing the "sweetness". It felt closer to Eloise than, say, I Served the King of England. I had to drop it about 1/3 of the way in. You can just tell an American wrote this.
Another hyped-up book I couldn't get through last year was Matrix by Lauren Groff. I'm all for some medieval historical fiction, but this one read more like fantasy to me and didn't feel grounded in history at all. That said, I did appreciate the gender questions posed by the book and can understand the hype, it just wasn't for me.
In general, I seem to have issues connecting to historical books where the characters all have unrealistically modern attitudes that wouldn't have been in keeping with the times.
I agree with Colleen Hoover books. DNFed two of them. Also I REALLY don't understand the love for Beautiful World, Where Are You!
I might just have some bad recollection but sort of feel like the choice awards often have several books that get hyped up and probably are only there because of previous successes by their authors or really good marketing people. I have enjoyed almost all of Liane Moriarty's books but Apples Never Fall was so boring that I had to DNF. In my wholly un-objective opinion, there certainly had to be other mystery/thrillers that were better that year.
The Glass Hotel bored me most of the way through.
Sherri I agree with you on The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, it sounds so good but have DNF'ed 3 times.
You also mention The Midnight Library and others brought of T.J. Klune and while I love those books I can totally see where they might not work for others. They kind of seem like ones I would either love or find annoying but in these cases they worked for me.
ANYthing by Coleen Hoover.
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That reminds me of another thing I don't like - characters' mental health challenges easily solved - The Midnight Library, The Kiss Quotient, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. And all those children going through trauma and being just fine in their new home.
Life After Life. Ugh! This book makes me angry just thinking about the time I spent reading it hoping for something to come from it! It just dragged on and on and on. The gimmick of the time repeating itself got old real quick. The only reason I finished it was because the very beginning of the book had her with a chance to kill Hitler and I wanted to see how that ended. When it did, it was so quick, it was totally not worth the hundreds of pages in between.
So this just happened to me with The Cruel Prince! Wildly inconsistent in tone (I think it should've been written as an adult book instead of YA) and nothing to keep me glued to the page happened until the 65% mark. Sorry to 1.5-star it, because I loved Holly Black's earlier trilogy, but this one is not it. Maybe I've hit the point where I just need to leave YA books alone.
I am with Robin on The Midnight Library and I am currently struggling through the 6th Cormoran Strike The Ink Black Heart which is messy with mixed media and far too long for a mystery series I think JK Rowling is trying too hard for different and supposedly clever and it does not work
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I forgot about this one, which I hated! It should have been called Death After Death, and it seemed to show that whatever decision you make, you are doomed to a miserable existence, and then you die!
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I also really didn't get on with both the Ian McEwans I've read (Atonement, Saturday, while over in Fantasy, I've failed to finish Harrow the Ninth TWICE and I couldn't bear The Knife of Never Letting Go.
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That one is really long and the online parts are annoying (especially on audio). Plus the author does use the opportunity to complain about being criticized/canceled on social media. However, I adore Strike and Robin so much that I'll put up with anything.
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Robin P wrote: That one is really long and the online parts are annoying (especially on audio). Plus the author does use the opportunity to complain about being criticized/canceled on social media. However, I adore Strike and Robin so much that I'll put up with anything."
I like Strike and Robin, too, having read the first three, but since then, I've found they have the same problem as the middle Harry Potters did - the editor was too afraid to actually edit them. I'm not sure ANY modern thriller or crime novel should be over a thousand pages long.
I felt this way last year when I read Daisy Jones & The Six. I generally dislike memoir and biography, as well as entertainment magazines/programs, so the sensationalized interview format with multiple POV did not work for me. I had difficulty pushing through it, and ended up giving it only two stars.
I'm sure I'll get flak for this, but I really struggled to get into The Underground Railroad. I just felt so detached from the character and found it a slog to get through, even though theoretically it sounded amazing.
Jennifer W wrote: "Life After Life. Ugh! This book makes me angry just thinking about the time I spent reading it hoping for something to come from it! It just dragged on and on and on. The gimmick of..."I read Life After Life because someone in my writing group loaned it to everyone because she thought it was brilliant from a writing viewpoint. I found the concept interesting, but I only gave the book 2 stars. Imagine living that many lives and none of them were interesting.
I found Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two was overhyped compared to the glorified fanfic that it delivered. Ditto for Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - the book was so long and pointless in large parts that I actually liked the musical better because it forced someone to cut the drivel and strip the story to its bones.Daisy Jones & The Six was another book that was so hyped, but I found to be just average. Instead of watching a one hour Behind the Music special, you can spend hours reading a book that rehashes most of the same themes.
Well, I'm sad to see The House in the Cerulean Sea & The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue mentioned, because I love those, but then again, I've seen son many people here hype Convenience Store Woman and I hated that one, so to each his own.I also want to mention The Great Gatsby. Yes, it sets out what a party for idle rich Americans in the 20's was like, but there's not much story or characters and I found the whole thing boring.
And, I will also second the mention of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I had a friend that kept on me to read it because he was sure I was going to love it, and I just found the whole thing vile and I never managed to finish it, even though I only had 2 chapters left.
And, I will also second the mention of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I had a friend that kept on me to read it because he was sure I was going to love it, and I just found the whole thing vile and I never managed to finish it, even though I only had 2 chapters left. That is literally the only book I can remember DNFing. Did Not Like. (But I loved Wicked on Broadway so go figure)
Trish wrote: "I'm not sure ANY modern thriller or crime novel should be over a thousand pages long."Well, that takes care of any budding desire to read the Cormoran Strike series. Nope! Way too long.
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You're not alone. I loathed it.
Oooh, I actually have one! The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was talked about extremely enthusiastically by every single review site I followed at the time (and a fair few authors too) and I HATED it. It just felt so twee! And everybody talked like they were on tumblr. And I like tumblr, I myself am on tumblr under another name, but that doesn't mean I want to read it in my published fiction.
Siobhan wrote: "Oooh, I actually have one! The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was talked about extremely enthusiastically by every single review site I followed at the time (and a fair few autho..."I had the same reaction to that book. I found it derivative and insufferably twee, without much a plot. I gave up on it around 1/5 of the way in. Life is too short to read books you’re not enjoying.
Rachel wrote: "I'm sure I'll get flak for this, but I really struggled to get into The Underground Railroad. I just felt so detached from the character and found it a slog to get through, even tho..."I loved it, but I can see why it's a "love it or hate it" book. I lent it to a friend who normally has very similar taste to me but he hated it so completely that it's become a joke between us every time I lend him books.
One of the rare one-star reviews I've given was The Wrath and the Dawn, which everyone in my old book group absolutely adored. I just couldn't understand the characters' motivations and hated the huge dollop of insta-love that basically resolved all the plot tension.
Nina wrote: "Siobhan wrote: "Oooh, I actually have one! The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was talked about extremely enthusiastically by every single review site I followed at the time (and ..."Yeah, there really was no plot! Which is fine, but there was very little of anything else either. It just seemed like 500 or so pointless pages to me. I read a paper copy, and gave it away as soon as possible.
I was disappointed inA Flicker in the Dark So many people I usually agree with loved this and I really didn't.
I can usually appreciate why people like/dislike books I feel the opposite about but the love for this one surprised me.
Ashley Marie wrote: "So this just happened to me with The Cruel Prince! Wildly inconsistent in tone (I think it should've been written as an adult book instead of YA) and nothing to keep me glued to the..."Agree! Several of my friends loved it so much. I struggled through the whole series, but found it hard to read.
Oh, hey, I have a whole shelf for this :) For me these aren't necessarily one star reads so much as reads that seemed like they should have been much better based on all the excitement around them. Here are a few of the highlights.Among Others - I really, really wanted to love this. It won almost all the awards. The writing and characterization were gorgeous. But the actual story was just flat and unimaginative, and the author actively discouraged the more interesting possible interpretations of the plot, which means she either didn't see them or didn't think they were interesting. So at the end of the day, it really just seemed like an excuse for SFF lovers to get nostalgic about the way the books we've read worked into our lives.
The Sense of an Ending - I did one star this one. I absolutely loved Flaubert's Parrot and this one won the Booker, and almost all my friends loved it. Big twist ending! Ooh! It turned out the twist didn't do anything. Horrible book.
House of Leaves - I actually enjoyed this one, but the book is not remotely a difficult read and it annoys me that people act like there's a lot here to parse when it's mostly genre based chicanery. I would have forgiven that entirely if the book had had the courage of its convictions and stuck the ending, but it really, really did not, so what was about to become an all time mind blowing fave turned into a sort of a sad whimper at the end. I hate it when books do that.
Illuminae - Speaking of which! here's another that ALMOST did something really brave and amazing and then turned right around and marched bravely away like bold Sir Robin. I was really into it until that point. I haven't been able get past that to continue the series, although I really wanted to.
The Soul of an Octopus - a nonfiction book that somehow fails to have the courage of its convictions, and also says a lot more about the soul of the author than any of my beloved octopi. (Yes, I said octopi.)
ETA: Oooh, forgot Uprooted. One of the few times I've had a friend upset with one of my reviews. It was a DNF for me.
Honorable mention to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I don't think I've ever read a thousand page preface to a story before. But if she would tell the actual story, I would forgive everything. In the meantime, I guess I'll reread Piranesi when my ability to finish books comes back.
Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "ETA: Oooh, forgot Uprooted. One of the few times I've had a friend upset with one of my reviews. It was a DNF for me."Oof, this book. And yes, shelves! I've got too-much-hype and wanted-to-love-it for books like these lol
I'm glad I'm not the only one who just could not! My shelf is the-world-adores-and-i-do-not.
Oh man - I have a few of these. I absolutely detested The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I was in a book club that read it, and I was the only one who didn't give it five stars. I thought it was BORING.
I could not get past how stupid the plot was in Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Everyone was raving, and I was like, "Huh?" LOL.
Everyone absolutely loves A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, but I cannot get passed the deeply ingrained misogyny. It really annoys me when people try to pass it off as a "feminist" book. Um, no. Not even a little bit. I was even going to write a paper on it in my women's studies class, but I picked a subject that more closely aligned with my major.
I also did not get the hype of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. I can't remember now if he doesn't use paragraphs or quotation marks or what, and I know it was a stylistic choice, but holy cow did it make the book read in a monotone. It was by far the dullest book I have ever read. I used to read it before bed, and it would put me to sleep. LOL. My husband kept asking me why I kept reading it. "Because it has to get good at some point, right?!" Wrong.
Mostly I just keep my mouth shut when people love a book I hated because we should let people like what they like! It feels good to get it off my chest for this thread though. LOL.
I did not like Life After Life. But the book I really hated was The Goldfinch. I could not find one character I liked and I am so mad at myself for reading the whole book. I could have used the time to read something I actually liked! For some reason I allowed my nephew (who liked The Goldfinch) to convince me to read The Secret History last year and the strange thing is even though I didn’t like any of the characters, I actually felt the book was interesting and I was glad I read it.
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Something I've learned to watch out for is genre fiction that is widely popular outside of its genre, if it's a genre that I actually really like. That is to say, if I hear a ton of people saying "I don't normally read a lot of sci fi, but I loved x" or "I'm not usually really into historical fiction, but x really worked for me" I probably will not like the book. This happened to me recently with Station Eleven and also The Calculating Stars, both books I wish were way more science fictiony! The opposite of this is mystery/thrillers — I'm not a big fan of the genre and so the ones I tend to like are the ones that mystery/thriller fans consider "not really a thriller," like My Sister, the Serial Killer.The other category of books that I'm likely to find way overhyped are books people describe as heartwarming/cozy/uplifting. I worry this means that I'm actually a grinch deep down (I swear I'm usually a positive person!!) but soooo many of these books have been big misses for me, even though I was sure I would like them by the plot summary/ways people described them: A Man Called Ove, The House in the Cerulean Sea, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
The last one doesn't have a category (I guess it maybe falls into the first one, but I mostly hear my fellow sci fi fans hyping it up), but I really hated The Martian. I just did not get on with the humor of this book at all, which is a real pity, because I'm so into first contact stories and it sounds like I would really enjoy the plot of Project Hail Mary, if only it were written by absolutely anyone else.
I don't DNF very many books. One reason I tell myself is "If I could finish The Goldfinch I can finish this"Big Did Not Like on that one for me too.
I don't have many books that I read because of the hype. Most of my choices tend to be books that have been around a while...not exactly classics but definitely not the NEW and EXCITING books, which usually are hard to get from the library and which run the risk of being over-hyped in my opinion.However, that said, I find that frequently the over-hyped books (EVERYONE MUST READ books) do not live up to my expectations and even if good often disappoint for that very reason.
I seldom give 1 or 2 stars, but I suspect that over-hyped books end up in my 3 star category more often than not. Can't think of any specific books at this point, but I am sure they exist.
The Great Gatsby was not for me. I usually avoid hyped books because they are hyped. They are not always the best of their genre.
Robin P wrote: "I'll start since I have OPINIONS on this! All the Light We Cannot See - Largely my fault for misunderstanding what the story was about. I thought it was about the relationship between 2 kids/teenagers, but it turns out they only
All the Light We Cannot See - Largely my fault for misunderstanding what the story was about. I thought it was about the relationship between 2 kids/teenagers, but it turns out they only cross paths for literally 1 page almost at the end. Also the author tried so hard for "beautiful" writing that I got tired of it. This and other books have led me to think I should avoid books described as "luminous". (But I did like Cloud Cuckoo Land by the same author.)
This is such a relief! I read this for a F2F book group, began with hope, persevered through exasperation and ended in loathing. The book had too many strands, most of which seemed to me to fail either to add to or to further the storyline: bees, snails, magic, cancer, light/grey/colour, and on (and on). I don't understand the motivation behind the mishmash of various genres; the author certainly didn't wear his learning lightly in the 'Werner' sections'; and as for the (over)use of triangulation ...
I had similar issues with another of the F2F group's selection, this chosen solely on the basis of reviews; however, this one was loathed by every group member: Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us. Dreadful book, again too many themes, and badly written to boot.
Tess Gunty's The Rabbit Hutch didn't fare too well on that score either.
I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a new style of writing developing which I'm proving incapable of appreciating - one for which 'less is more' is anathema. :(
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Award-winning books can be just so weird and uninteresting. One of my IRL groups years ago read Tinkers, which one a prize and nobody liked it. Book critics are probably like film critics. Critics have seen so many movies that they tend to favor something weird and not appreciate a normal story or presentation.
My reaction to The Great Gatsby was "meh". I didn't dislike it, but there was barely anything to it, in my opinion.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Honor (other topics)Educated (other topics)
Life After Life (other topics)
Migrations (other topics)
The Garden of Evening Mists (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Liane Moriarty (other topics)Lauren Groff (other topics)
Cormac McCarthy (other topics)
William Golding (other topics)
