What book is so overhyped in your opinion?

Anything by Sarah J Maas. What absolute trash.

I don’t take any recommendations from Booktok. They are YA books by kids who’ve just found out about them despite them being released for years lol

The Silent Patient is the worst book I’ve ever read

Edit: oh no, nevermind, the worst was Little Fires Everywhere

Pretty much anything that goes viral on tiktok, by definition. Like, even good books that go viral get overhyped because of the ubiquity.

I’d heard so many good things from friends and family about “How To Kill Your Family” so finally gave it a try and had to actually force myself to at least try and keep going after only 30 pages before eventually giving up because the protagonist was so incredibly unlikeable and it was just full of her rambling on and on with unnecessary details and unnecessary rants/social commentary which just seemed like the author needed an outlet to shoehorn in some things she wanted to get off her chest. I couldn’t believe this was the same book I’d heard nonstop praise for. Interesting premise but godawful execution.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Da Vini Code and other Dan Brown books

Pretty much anything on booktok is a recipe for a letdown. Don’t get me wrong, I used them as book recs when I was getting back into reading however now that I’ve found what I like i don’t really trust much of the stuff on there.

Any book deemed spicy is usually a let down because there’s NO PLOT ITS JUST SEX

Verity. I read a ton of domestic thrillers before this and expected it to be good because of the hype. It was below average compared to other ones I read.

This sub should focus on being less gatekeepy.

If someone gets into reading from social media, or authors you don’t jive with, does it really matter? Just be happy others are finally enjoying the hobby you love. Be happy that money is finally flowing into an industry that you loved and was previously dying.

I want to unsub from here more and more with every post I read. Just reminds me of gatekeeping toxic gaming subs.

You guys are better than this. I get what you’re going for, but being inclusive goes a long way. Stop shaming people just because they got into reading at a later stage than you did, or discovered it from a main stream source.

Book tok comment sections are toxic, more toxic than this subreddit comment sections.

I also did not like They Both Die at the End. I had like 3 people recommend it and told me it was crazy emotional. Although I did not like it, I wouldnt say the book was terrible just because I think it is a great story for teenagers. Its somewhat relatable and is a fun story which introduces tough concepts that is often hard to find in other YA literature.

With that said, I did not like A Darker Shade of Magic.

A Little Life was perhaps the most overhyped pile of crap I’ve read in years, and I typically have a pretty good nose for sussing out good literary fiction from bad.

Most of the reviews I read seemed inexplicably positive, and a friend or two recommended it. I kept expecting it to pick up, and it never did. Eventually, I hate-read all 800 some-odd pages of it. Just an abysmally bad novel. It was relentlessly grim, but I can handle that. My primary issue was that characters consistently behaved in ways that seemed implausible given what we were supposed to know about them, or were described.

There’s a detour into the genius protagonist’s random background in mathematics (before they end up a corporate lawyer?) that serves… as the precursor to a mediocre metaphor about “empty sets.” It’s like fifty pages of shoehorning in plot to buttress a funeral scene. Another character casually has a meth addiction, and just sorta recovers. I’m loathe to use the term “Mary Sue” in literary fiction, but the math genius-cum-corporate-lawyer-despite-mind-boggling-levels-of-sexual-physical-and-sexual-abuse marrying what amounts to the Brad Pitt of this particular story makes my eye twitch.

I probably made a face like the chap on the cover as I slogged through.

Blood meridian, especially on here

Yeah yeah beautiful prose blah blah blah but it could have really been something of it had been like 150 pages. As it is it’s just monotonous and boring as fuck.

The best part is the book has a built in defense against that with “it’s supposed to be tedious! It reflects the characters and how callous they’ve become!” Great! Doesn’t mean it’s interesting to read

The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I know that it is highly loved and I don’t judge anyone for liking it. I just found it left a lot to be desired. I didn’t feel attached to Dorian as a character, Lord Henry didn’t say one single thing of substance and his entire character boils down to “say outrageous crap and people will think you’re interesting”, there’s an entire chapter just cataloguing Dorian’s extremely niche collections, and — most unforgivably in my opinion — his whole descent into evil is essentially glossed over by an 18-year time jump and then we’re told after the fact that he ruined a bunch of people’s lives.

All this is to say the book was enjoyable, I just didn’t find it to be the masterpiece so many say it is.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I don’t know how popular it really is but it seems to have an incredibly dedicated fanbase – and it really did nothing for me.

It’s one of those books I’d label as a “philosophical novel,” ie no actual plot to speak of, just a bunch of characters with no personalities standing around long-windedly talking *at* each other, acting as mouthpieces for the author’s personal viewpoints. In Ishmael, a man finds a talking monkey who spends the story espousing some truly horrific viewpoints (not least of which includes killing off the old and the poor, so that society can better progress). It’s incredibly dry and elitist, so it’s great for academics and cryptofascists masquerading as leftists, not so much for people with even the smallest amount of empathy or basic human decency

Southern Bookclubs Guide to Slaying Vampires. It sucked. It was physically and mentally painful to read and yet everyone on YouTube and booktok was raving about it. It was the book that made me stop trusting the recommendations of people online.

I feel like I’m in the minority in that I tend to like what I read and can’t think of a book I didn’t like.

I’ll give you two. Dune and American Gods. Maybe the authors just don’t click with me. I’ve read a couple other Gaiman books and didn’t enjoy them. Maybe I had too high of expectations of Dune from friends. I don’t know. I didn’t particularly get much from either book, though.

I love literature. I really do. Lord of the Rings is a great story in concept. By Tolkien is a *boring writer.* It is the only series I’d be happy to have a Reader’s Digest of because Tolkien doesn’t know how to get to the gahdamn *point.* I got through the Hobbit. I have tried and failed multiple times to get through Fellowship of the Ring.

The Handmaid’s Tale.

The plot is really interesting, which is why the show is so good, but the actual book doesn’t seem to be well written. At least, in my opinion, I thought Atwoods writing was really basic and lacked imagery. Her word choices were too obvious, and it made the characters seem flat. Some of the moments that should be emotional and pull you in felt like first drafts. Maybe it was just me, but idk what people saw in it.

Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas.
Trite shite is my opinion.

Most fantasy series are overhyped. Shit writing, repetitive plot, stupid names. Most of it exists purely for middle aged women to get their rocks off without having to watch porn.