Is there an author whose broader catalogue you like, but whose most popular work would have turned you off them if you’d read it first?

If I read something and like it, I tend to seek out other works by the same author. I’ve seen others here describe this as “binge reading” an author.

Sometimes I’ll start reading an author based on their most recommended book, I’ll enjoy it, and then I’ll read more.

Other times, I’ll chance upon a random book in an author’s broader catalogue, and I’ll only get around to the book that supposedly defines them later.

And sometimes when I come to the “it” book for an author later, I’m disappointed.

For instance, I’ve been on a V.E. Schwab kick for a few months. I started (randomly) with the colours of magic series, and I’ve been working my way through others since. So far, I’ve liked everything I’ve read. Sure, I have favourites, and I can tell how she has honed her craft over many years. But, on the whole, I’ve enjoyed each of the 8-or-so titles I’ve read so far.

That is, until *Addie LaRue*. I’m reading it now, and it’s the first V.E. Schwab that I’m considering DNFing. I’m a few hundred pages in, and finding the main character totally insufferable.

This is an author I love. And it’s supposedly the book they are known for (certainly, I was aware of *Addie LaRue* before I knew who wrote it).

Yet, if it was the first book of theirs that I read, I probably wouldn’t have read any more.

It makes me wonder whether I’ve missed other authors’ good books when I’ve bounced off their most-recommended ones.

Has this happened to you? Thoughts?