Lately I’ve been picking up new releases and seeing blurbs that promise “a once‑in‑a‑generation masterpiece” or “the most important novel you’ll read this decade,” and then the book itself is… Just okay. You know? So 100%. Okay so Still enjoyable, but nowhere near the cosmic event the marketing makes it sound like. It almost feels like every title has to be sold as life‑altering just to stand out, and it ends up flattening the real gems. I’m curious if this is just me getting more sensitive to marketing language, or if others feel like the blurbs have drifted from enthusiastic to borderline parody. Does anyone actually take them seriously anymore, or do you mostly ignore them at this point?
by throwawayjaaay
8 Comments
Nope!
I don’t read ’em!
Blurbs are basically trailers for books, and I don’t watch those, either. I generally just go off friends’ recommendations and follow authors I already know I like.
I’d say I enjoy 9 out of every 10 books I read through that method, and never have a thing spoilt.
Astronaut pointing a gun at another astronaut:
“Always have been.”
Everything is hyperbole now. It’s either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever.
The world has become melodramatic, makes sense for blurbs to follow suit
Every new horror movie is “scariest movie in the past decade”
I think there’s a couple of things I would note. First, I think this has been the case since they became popular and is pretty much the whole point of them. Why would anyone put a blurb on the cover that says “This was alright – 3 Stars”? Second, books are a matter of taste and some of the reviews could be legitimate and you just happen to not see it. Every book in my all time favorites I could find people that thought it was just okay or even that thought it was terrible. Overall I agree with the other commenter that I just ignore them.
There was always this element. I suspect it’s just more findable now that you can read them digitally too.
The worse the hype, the less likely I’ll even finish reading the description, let alone bother looking at the e-sample.
anyone notice marketing is marketing