Books I Read Because of Hype || Did They Live Up To It?

Posted April 7, 2020 by Sammie in book list, top ten tuesdays / 34 Comments

If you’ve been part of the bookish community for any time at all, you’ve suffered from the struggle that is FOMO.

In laymen’s terms, that’s Fear Of Missing Out. It happens a lot with hyped books, especially, because there has to be a reason why everyone loves it, right?! What if they all know something you don’t know? What if this is the book and stupid you decided to pass it up? Maybe you could’ve discovered the secret of crafting a Philosopher’s Stone. Maybe you could’ve mastered necromancy. Maybe you could’ve fallen in love. But shucks, you’ll never know until you read the thing, right?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is books I bought/borrowed because …

Since we’re all familiar with the evils of the hype monster (and yet we’re all somehow still susceptible to its wiles), I decided to examine some of the books I’ve read for hype. I always tell people that I’m skeptical of overly hyped books because I tend not to enjoy them as much, so I was curious just how true that was. So here we are!

I want to preface this by saying that just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean you can’t. If you don’t agree with my conclusions about a book … that’s great! Every book has an audience, and just because I don’t belong to that particular group, doesn’t mean there’s necessarily anything wrong with the book. I’m obviously a minority on a lot of these.

Dragon Divider

✦ Wicked Saints ✦

Wicked Saints


Verdict: ✔️

Reasons:
✿ Every bit as dark as my soul.
✿ Enemies-to-lovers.
✿ Betrayals and backstabbing.
✿ Gods as characters with personalities.
✿ Serefin. Just … everything about him.

Dragon Divider

✦ Dread Nation ✦

Dread Nation


Verdict: ✔️

Reasons:
✿ Ace and bisexual lead characters.
✿ Sarcasm and snark.
✿ Bad-ass, zombie slaying black girls.
✿ Wielding weapons like a boss.
✿ Make you laugh and break your heart at the same time.

Dragon Divider

✦ All the Stars and Teeth ✦

All the Stars and Teeth


Verdict: ❌

Reasons:
✿ The main character fell flat for me.
✿ Repetitive affirmations of a goal I didn’t care about.
✿ Underwhelming climax.
✿ Promising secondary characters that were underutilized.

Dragon Divider

✦ Aru Shah and the End of Time ✦

Aru Shah and the End of Time


Verdict: ❌

Reasons:
✿ Not a fan of the main character’s personality.
✿ Hinduism and gods came off too cartoonish.
✿ Cringey pop culture references.

Dragon Divider

✦ Stalking Jack the Ripper ✦

Stalking Jack the Ripper


Verdict: ❌

Reasons:
✿ Annoying “not like other girls” character.
✿ Easy to predict plot.
✿ Supposedly “smart” female who does dumb things.
✿ Uninteresting love interest.

Dragon Divider

✦ A Curse So Dark and Lonely ✦

A Curse So Dark and Lonely


Verdict: ✔️

Reason:
✿ Damsel in distress who is no damsel in distress.
✿ She’ll save herself, thank you very much.
✿ Even though she also happens to have cystic fibrosis.
✿ Darker, deeper flip on a classic tale.
✿ Beautiful, but terrifying, new world to explore.

Dragon Divider

✦ Children of Blood and Bone ✦

Children of Blood and Bone


Verdict: ❌

Reasons:
✿ Fails to deliver on promise of the Orisha.
✿ Basically 80% Avatar: The Last Airbender, but in Nigeria.
✿ Incredibly cliche premise and execution.
✿ Lack of world-building.
✿ Cringey insta-love plot.
✿ Super annoying protagonist who puts everyone in danger repeatedly.

Dragon Divider

✦ Shadow Frost ✦

Shadow Frost


Verdict: ❌

Reasons:
✿ Very cliche storytelling.
✿ Unbelievable caricatures rather than characters.
✿ Weird pacing issues.
✿ Modern-sounding dialogue inappropriate for the setting.
✿ Really awkward romance/love triangle.

Dragon Divider

✦ Nevernight ✦

Nevernight


Verdict: ✔️

Reasons:
✿ Absolutely the dark, stabby book my black heart needed.
✿ Assassins! All of them.
✿ Mr. Kindly deserves his own mention, and here it is.
✿ Sarcasm and wit and banter and snark.
✿ All the bloody twists and turns.

Dragon Divider

✦ A Monster Calls ✦

A Monster Calls


Verdict: ✔️

Reason:
✿ Decimated all of my feels. Repeatedly.
✿ Seriously, who recommends stuff like this, and why do you hate me?!
✿ Gorgeously written.
✿ Fresh take on a common idea that kept me guessing.
✿ The sort of book that tears you down and helps you heal.

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34 responses to “Books I Read Because of Hype || Did They Live Up To It?

    • So glad I’m not the only one! We seem to be a huge minority, but at least we’re not alone. xD I definitely agree about that, though. I feel like I’m more likely to pick up a book I have doubts about if everyone else seems to like it and recommend it.

    • It is disappointing, since it’s hard not to go in expecting to absolutely love it, right? I think if you’re not familiar with Avatar: The Last Airbender, you’ll probably appreciate CoBaB a lot more. If you’re a big fan, it feels a lot like a rip-off. Also helps not being familiar with the Orisha, because I went in thinking they were going to play a role in the story (since I was already familiar with them) and they unfortunately did not, so that was a bummer. You should still try it yourself, though. You might like it. I’m in a minority on this, for sure. 🙂

    • I was surprised by how popular a choice the hype thing was. xD I probably should’ve guessed, but ah well. Hey, nothing wrong with disagreeing! I always find it interesting to see how people have different reactions to books. :3

  1. Ah, you really can’t believe the hype sometimes, can you?
    I’m really glad to hear that you liked A Monster Calls, though! It’s one of my favourite books.
    I’ve had A Curse So Dark and Lonely on my radar for a while. I really liked the author’s contemporary book, Letters to the Lost, which just makes me more curious about that one.
    Fina @ Rambles from My Library recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Bought/Borrowed Because of the PremiseMy Profile

    • But I so want to believe the hype! It just keeps betraying me. I actually will probably read A Monster Calls again next month, I’m thinking. 🙂 It’s a good time for it.

      That’s funny, because I’ve had her contemporary books on my radar for a long time, and I started with ACSDAL, and I enjoyed that so much that I’m now going to read the contemporary. xD

  2. Ooh, the hype monster is very real and can be very scary. I never cared to be reading what everyone else was. In fact, the more hyped a book was, the more I would tend to hate it (which is likely where most of my dislike towards The Hunger Games and Divergent came from, despite being okay series overall, and possibly in part why I never attempted to read Harry Potter until I was in college). Ever since I got back into reading, I’ve been okay with reading hyped books, and though I still tend to dislike the ones that come off as overly hyped (Everything, Everything and The Hate U Give are two good recent examples), they haven’t all been bad.

    I haven’t read any of these books except for A Curse so Dark and Lonely, but as always, I love the list! You also may have convinced me to read A Monster Calls. I watched the movie awhile back, but I haven’t tried the book yet.
    Holliehocks @ My Thing About Books recently posted…TTT: Books I actually borrowed for a (semi) valid reasonMy Profile

    • I feel torn in regards to hype, because I always feel like I won’t like overly hyped books (unless they caught my attention because of their content and not the hype). I think I tend to read books I normally wouldn’t pick up which may not be a good fit for me due to feeling pressured because of the hype.

      I so highly recommend A Monster Calls! I didn’t realize there was a movie of it. I sort of wonder how the story works as a movie. The book was fabulous, though.

  3. So many of the most hyped books don’t interest me from the outset. I’ve tried to care about some in the past, but most of the time the most-hyped books seem to dark, gritty, or otherwise just not for me. (I’m referring mostly here to books most hyped in this TTT community.) I do have a few on my TBR that are there because of the hype, but I haven’t gotten to any of them in the time since I started joining in on the TTT fun. I’m intrigued to find out how they go when I do.
    Kristi recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Bargains of Unknown ValueMy Profile

    • Ah, well, dark and gritty is my brand! I guess those work for me. It’s the softer, contemporary or romance ones that tend to be misses for me. I hope you end up enjoying them when you do get a chance!

    • I’m so glad I’m not the only one, too! I’ve even recommended it to patrons who seem interested in that sort of thing, and they’ve enjoyed it, so that’s always nice. I just don’t get it, though. xD

  4. I loved Nevernight and A Monster Calls too and definitely think they lived up to the hyped surrounding them – although I must admit I’m yet to finish the other books in the series for Nevernight and need to get onto that!

  5. I don’t think there will ever be a time when the hype monster does not devour me whole, chew me up and spit me out again–only to have it happen YET AGAIN not long after that 😂 This is a great list! I still have some of these to read but I agree with you on quite a few of the “duds”! I haven’t read All the Stars yet though but I’m keen to give it a try 😊 Great list, Sammie!
    Dini @ dinipandareads recently posted…#TopTenTuesday: It’s because of the ‘GRAM!My Profile

    • Ugh, that’s exactly how I feel. xD And yet, we keep coming back for more. What does that say about us? I hope you like it! It was sort of just meh for me, but Leelynn really liked it. 🙂

  6. Oh I have definitely fallen prey to the hype beast before. (And will probably do so in 3, 2, 1…) Sometimes I’ve been lucky enough that it’s worked the other way, where I read so many bad reviews (or negative hype) that I totally expected to hate the book but ended up really liking it (e.g. with ‘We Were Liars’, ‘The Hazel Wood’ and ‘Wildcard’).

    • I find that that happens a surprising amount to me, where it seems like everyone hates it, so I go in expecting I will, too, and it’s like … heeeey, I love this. xD The Hazel Wood is on my TBR, so I’m glad to see that you ended up liking it anyway!

    • Oh, you know, I never thought about the audiobook for Nevernight. I might have to check that out when I get ready for a re-read (because that’s obviously going to happen sooner or later).

    • That’s the one thing I definitely love about hype! While I do still think there’s a lot of misses for me when it comes to hyped books, I’ve found some books that I absolutely loved and would’ve never read if not for the hype.

  7. I loved Nevernight, and I’ve heard great things about Wicked Saints. I haven’t read Children of Blood and Bone yet because of the hype. Hype is a scary monster. I’ll probably read it sometime, however, because a friend bought it for me. And the hype does have me curious.

    • Hype definitely is scary, yet also makes you kind of want to read it haha. It’s such a confusing thing. If you loved Nevernight, I’d say give Wicked Saints a try. It’s completely different writing styles, but very much the same dark fantasy, betrayal around every corner vibe. 🙂

  8. Yes, FOMO is real! Especially as a blogger and when you see everyone reading the same things. I love seeing your thoughts on these too and whether or not they lived up to the hype. 🙂

    • Yeees, becoming a book blogger was horrible for my TBR lol. There’s so much pressure to read all the popular books, and on the one hand, it’s great exposure to different books, but on the other … peer pressure! xD

  9. Ugh I feel you, the Hype Monster can be so RUDE! I am sad to see that Stalking Jack the Ripper and Children of Blood and Bone didn’t live up to it cause they’re on my TBR, but THRILLED to see that Dread Nation did (one of my FAVORITE series), Wicked Saints, and A Monster Calls did! They were great for me too. I worried that All the Stars and Teeth wouldn’t, too. And sadly, Nevernight hasn’t worked for me and I paused it. Idk if I will return, I mighT!
    Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…Elysium Girls by Kate Pentecost: Review & Giveaway!My Profile

    • Well, I’m very much in the minority for both of those, so you might love them even though I didn’t. xD

      Dread Nation is definitely one of my new favorite series, too! As much as I loved Nevernight, I do think it’s a very niche sort of read.

  10. Melissa

    I know we agree with CoBaB, but do you plan to read the sequel? Part of me wants to to see who it ends, but part of me is just meh about it.

    • Honestly, I don’t think I will. It’s a looooong book, and since I didn’t feel the first one, it sounds like a way to torture myself. I’ve also talked with some people who actually loved the first one, and they didn’t like the second one, so it doesn’t bode well. xD I’ve just read spoiler reviews to find out what happened lol.

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