Top Five Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Shanah @ the Bionic Book Worm and this week’s theme is overhyped books. I give in to the hype often, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If lots of people are enjoying something, chances are that you’ll enjoy it too. There’s logic in that kind of behaviour, and it’s the whole reason things become popular in the first place. It doesn’t always work out, though. This is a list of a few of the books that either utterly disappointed me or just left me feeling kind of “meh”.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle — This was actually the first book I reviewed on this blog. I was so excited to start reading it, I’d heard only good things, and I love a good murder mystery — this one was supposed to blow my socks off, so expectations were through the roof. It turned out to be insufferable; the protagonist was as compelling as a piece of soggy bread, the villain was made entirely out of cardboard, and the helpful side character should just have been named “pointless plot-twist with zero emotional weight, because the reader can’t care about characters they haven’t met yet, and when will authors understand this?” I know it’s a bit of a mouthful, but some parents have weird taste. Ironically, that name would be the least contrived thing about this book.
Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda — This is an example of a book I liked, but that the hype led me to believe I would love. This is a solidly “ok” read for me. There were parts of it I enjoyed, parts that made me roll my eyes. If not for the movie I would have forgotten most of it. The romance is so odd, I respect that it can work for some people, but I can’t be invested in a relationship when I don’t even know who one of the characters is! Maybe that’s on me, but personally I didn’t care for it, the reveal at least didn’t try to be surprising, which in this case is a relief. Oddly, this worked even worse in the movie in my opinion, with Blue’s voice changing each time Simon thought he knew who he was the character grew even more flimsy and distant. But the romance is only a small part of the book, and as Simon’s coming out journey I think it works, and I liked it well enough. It was a short, fast-paced read, that could do with less pop culture references, other than that I enjoyed myself.
The Martian — I read this in preparation for the movie, which I was expecting to love, since I love near-future sci-fi set in space something fierce. I ended up being disappointed by both. I hate the protagonist’s voice. I just hate him. I don’t even remember his name, but he rubbed me the wrong way since the first sentence. Me and books written in first person don’t always see eye to eye, and this book is a glaring example of why. When it works, the protagonist’s voice is either non-intrusive or even welcome, but when you absolutely hate them it’s like nails on a chalkboard and there’s no escape. Reading this book felt like being trapped in space with that guy in every college class who keeps interrupting the professor to add his unasked for opinion, or who disagrees with everything you say, by saying exactly the same thing only phrased a different way. I only kept reading because I hoped he’d die. That’s a thing that sometimes happens with “stranded” narratives, so I was holding out for what was supposed to be a tragic ending but would instead be a balm for my frayed nerves and rampant bloodlust. It never came. And somehow the movie made it even worse. The fact that the movie ended up being nominated for the Oscars with masterpieces like Mad Max, Room, and Carol only adds insult to injury.
Lord of the Rings — I don’t know what it is but this book felt so generic. I liked the movies well enough, but I wasn’t a huge fan (I usually never like fantasy movies or shows, it’s a genre that works best in book format, for me), and while I appreciate Tolkien’s gigantic contribution to fantasy, I also can’t ignore that he is the father ofĀ “inspired by Europe and set in Europe” fantasy — and that it felt stale by the time I got to him. I can’t really tell myself “but he’s the one who started it all”, and make myself enjoy the book. I also prefer character driven stories to plot driven ones. I prefer it when fantasy spends equal time developing characters as well as the world. Lord of the Rings is all about the plot, though, at least that makes it a fast read, right? No, it’s glacial. Because while Tolkien couldn’t be bothered to flesh out most of his characters beyond what we today consider traditional fantasy archetypes, he sure could describe every corner of the world and all its mechanics. Even when they didn’t matter at all, especially when they didn’t matter at all! Reading classics is tricky, and very hit-or-miss for the most part, so I knew there was a chance I was setting myself up for disappointment. Being right isn’t always great.
The Hypnotist — I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world, but Swedish thrillers are super popular in Portugal. You can’t go to any bookstore without finding at least a shelf of nothing but Swedish thrillers. Lars Kepler was a name that kept popping up, often under bestsellers. I decided to start with the first in the Joona Linna series, and boy was I in for a ride. The tone in this is just appalling, it’s written like a grocery list, completely monotone, with dialogue that feels like white-noise, characters that are so paper-thin you can see through them most of the time. Motivations so flimsy and contrived, that you can see the authors picking up their characters winding them up and watching them go do whatever the plot needed them to. To make matters worse, this has the world’s worst plot-twist half-way through, that completely changes the course of the narrative, in a very jarring way, for no good reason besides shock value. People love a teenage serial killer, right? Half of it felt impossible and contrived, unless the Swedish police all become officers by winning some sort of scratch lottery.
These are just a few examples of books where the hype led me astray, it happens more often than I would like, but not enough to make me stop paying attention to what’s got everyone talking, altogether. I think the most important thing is learning to distinguish between a hyped book you might enjoy from one that just isn’t for you, no matter how much other people might love it. It’s a skill that takes some fine-tuning and years of practice, but that’s half the fun of reading — finding out what kind of reader you are.
Third Person Limited 
I haven’t read them all but I really wanted to read Evelyn Hardcastle but now I’m not so sure. Hey I love your blog and we have the same name!! Thanks for following me love š
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You might still like it! Lots of people do, I think I’ve seen only one or two other people share my opinion of it, so there’s a bigger chance you’ll like it than not haha And we do! I noticed that right away, and your blog is lovely I can’t believe I didn’t find it sooner!
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I am planning on reading Evelyn Hardcastle this month! I will not go in to it with lower expectations and hopefully I still enjoy it. Thanks!
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I hope you still enjoy it, if anything maybe the lowered expectations help you like more!
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There is something quite fun is hate-reading a book sometimes – especially when you’re a blogger! Not every post can be glowing with positivity. And like you said, you only find out what you like by finding out what you don’t.
I just watch a book blogger talk about how great Evelyn Hardcastle is and had decided to add it to the TBR but now I’m not sure! I am really, really picky when it comes to crime novels – if they are anything less than 5 stars I always feel like I wasted my time. I don’t know why I have such a high standard for them compared to other genres.
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I actually DNF a lot of books, but that usually happens with books that don’t manage to evoke any kind of feeling in me, I’m just so bored I can’t keep on reading. But when I hate a book I actually feel motivated to finish it, it feels personal in a way, like the only way for me to get back at it is to finish it haha With mysteries it’s often a case of me hoping the ending will somehow salvage it.
Lots of people loved that book, and I can understand why. I’m very picky with thrillers and crime novels too, I think it’s because when I was a kid I read so much Agatha Christie. Her books are such concise satisfying reads that tell you everything you need to solve them yourself, but always manage to be surprising, and when you do manage to solve the crime you feel accomplished, and not like you’ve just read a bad book, because of the way all the clues are so cleverly laid out. I think that kind of set a high bar for me, if a murder mystery doesn’t give me that same level of satisfaction then it’s just not good enough.
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YES! THANK GOD YOU HATED āTHE MARTIAN.ā I keep calling the character āAndy Weir,ā which is…wrong. But I agree – reading that book felt like being trapped in a strange planet with some college bro – āYou probably donāt know this about classic rock, but itās LAME!ā
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I can’t for the life of me remember his name. I’m so glad you also hated, I usually hear people sing this book’s praises, and I’m just baffled how they could stomach the protagonist and his know-it-all smugness.
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Iām kind of glad to see The Lord of the Rings and The Martian on your list because I feel like I should read them, but I donāt want to, and now I feel validated! Terrific post, Carolina!
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I know that feeling, I mean I basically read Lord of the Rings because it’s the most popular fantasy book ever written, and I love fantasy, so I felt like I “needed” to, but honestly that’s not a great feeling and reading should never feel like a chore. I don’t recommend either of them, so you end up never reading them don’t feel guilty and move on to the books you’re sure you’ll love!
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Totally agree with Lord of the rings, I did not enjoy the series at all..
(www.evelynreads.com)
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I really wanted to like it! But it wasn’t in the cards for me. I still haven’t read the Hobbit, maybe I’ll like that one better.
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Personally I enjoyed the hobbit, not the best book but definitely better then LOTR!
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This list speaks to my soul!!! I still don’t know why anyone liked The Martian. It was so boring and the protagonist was the worst. I listened to the audibook and it was like being cornered by a mediocre white man mansplainig shit for ELEVEN HOURS. I also expected something more from Simon vs. I think it’s a good contemporary and I enjoyed it, but it’s so hyped – I kept waiting for something extraordinary to happen. I adore the LOTR movies, but the books are so dull and full of useless information. And I really feel you on the Swedish crime. I’m from Norway and Nordic crime in general is huge here. Like, they take up whole walls of bookstores huge.
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I’m so glad to find other people who hated the Martian as much as me, because I still have the book in my shelf for the express purpose of sneering at it haha.
I’m really sad that I never managed to fall in love with the LOTR movies, but like I said fantasy works best as a text medium for me (unless we’re talking fantasy rpgs, which are my favourite games).
And you’re right! It isn’t just swedish thriller’s it’s like just nordic crime fiction in general — in Portugal at least, northern european media is very in fashion, the national broadcast channel airs a bunch of nordic tv shows, including trapped an icelandic tv show I really like. And so many Norwegian tv shows, but I can only remember Occupied now.
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I still want to read Evelyn Hardcastle- but honestly I’m glad to see it on here, because my expectations are currently *way* too high. Shame Simon Vs Homosapiens was just ok as well. I do understand what you mean about LOTR being slow (though I’ll admit it hurts my soul a little š ) Cool post!
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Haha there’s nothing like lowered expectations to make you love a book. I still hope you love it, lots of people do, so there’s a good chance it will work for you, I really wanted to like it, but it wasn’t in the cards. I really wanted to love LOTR but I just couldn’t, and I though I would because I read the Mists of Avalon when I was in middle school and that’s kind of a long-winded read at times, and I loved those books, but it just didn’t work out like that with LOTR. I still haven’t read the Hobbit, so I might like that!
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