Top Ten Tuesday is currently hosted by artsyreadergirl and has weekly topics for bloggers to respond to and share. Click the link for more info and to read more submitted posts!
This week is a freebie prompt so I’m doing the other side of the books I read because of the hype, and picking ten hyped books from the last few years, or authors, I’m purposely avoiding! These are the books I see over and over when browsing social media, Goodreads, book blogs or even frequently on displays in bookshops. Some are specific titles but others are a blanket avoidance of particular authors.
🙅🏻♀️ Romantacy
1. Sarah J. Maas : I kind of resent how everywhere SJM is on book based social media. You can’t move for it in BookTok or Bookstagram. I read and did not enjoy Throne of Glass, I don’t think she’s a good writer and from everything I’ve heard about it I know I’d hate ACOTAR. Her popularity seems to be a driver in the proliferation of poorly written, shallow books romanticising toxic behaviour.
2. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: I have no tolerance for bad writing, and see above about Romantacy! Anything in this genre viral on TikTok is a red flag for me!
3. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: I think this aims at High Fantasy rather than romance but I believe it has an LBGTQ romance in it. I’ve almost bought it for 99p a few times but when I dig into reviews frequently complaints are poor pacing, plot and it’s far too long.
🚩 Avoiding anything that tries to romanticise toxic relationships..
4. Colleen Hoover : similar issues as with SJM! I do not find toxic behaviour romantic. From what I’ve read she’s been “cancelled” several times over the years but rises again with each new social media (this time it’s TikToks fault).
5. Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood or anything that started out as Fan Fiction, especially if it’s fucking “Reylo” shipping fanfic! It is not sexy and romantic, Kylo-Ren is controlling and abusive and tries to kill Rae!
🙇🏻♀️ I’m sick of seeing it!
6. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus: I’ve also had a few people IRL try to recommend this to me, but having read many of the more balanced 2-3 star reviews I have a very strong feeling I’d not like the MC, and I don’t think it will have anything interesting to say.
7. Babel by R.F. Kuang : I know I would hate this book, for many reasons, but primiarily because I don’t like reading loads of world building and the intricacies of magic systems. But on top of that, we have a copy of it, because my partner read it recently, and I picked it up to flip through. Just reading the “Author’s Note” was enough to turn me off had I ever been interested! Before you even get to the first page of the novel, she launches into a defence against imaginary critics who might come at her for being American and not writing Oxford accurately in a fantasy book. It seemed to be an excuse to list all the primary sources she read for research and also drop in that she studied at Oxford, so don’t make any mistake about how clever she is! The level of thin-skinned arrogance in that was enough. As for the novel partner didn’t completely hate it but it took him months to finish and he grumbled a lot about it, and this is the kind of thing he does usually like!
8. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang : I’m giving two spots to this author because these are very different books in different genres. and I’d ordinarily be more inclined to read this one. But as above, I knew nothing about this author before I read her “Authors Note” in the introduction to Babel and from that alone I’m not surprised to learn she wrote this entire novel as a “satirical” critique of the publishing industry in answer to her critics… Many reviews call this unsubtle with flat characters. No thanks!
9. Intermezzo or anything else by Salley Rooney: I read two of her books (Normal People and Conversations With Friends) and her brand of thin pretty, thin, pretentious white girls with aesthetic mental health issues is not for me.
10. Happy Place by Emily Henry : I love or I hate Emily Henry books but I just know I’ll hate this one (as I did You And Me on Vacation) because the summary alone winds me up. I hate miscommunication in romance!
Interesting idea! I haven’t read any of these books either, and since I don’t read explicit romance ACOTAR isn’t a book I’m likely t pick up in the future.
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairy.blogspot.com/2024/12/top-ten-tuesday-books-with-black-covers.html
Lol! I do this too. Sometimes I can’t read things once they have become so hyped up. And I agree about Colleen Hoover. No thanks.
It definitely depends where the hype is coming from! I hate that Hoover is everywhere at the moment!
I don’t read books that romanticize toxic relationships either.
Yes, sometimes the hype makes me avoid the books.
My TTT
https://seriesbooklover.wordpress.com/2024/12/03/top-ten-tuesday-my-top-ten-historical-fiction-authors-who-stories-are-set-in-britain/
I have no intention of reading any of these either.
I bought Priory because it looked and sounded good, then it sat on my shelves for a couple of years by which time I had discovered that it was the author’s first adult novel (after writing YA) – a transition that rarely goes well with modern authors. That had me losing most of my interest so I checked out a few reviews of people who didn’t like it and confirmed it wasn’t a book for me (I have the same dislikes).
Yellowface was a bookclub pick because we often pick books that are related to books/bookshops. I didn’t vote for it or read it as I had a strong feeling it was going to be an unsubtle soapbox book. Turns out I was right, though some of bookclub did like it despite that
I’ve picked up and put down Priory so many times in shops but the more balanced mid to low range reviews are convinced me I won’t like it!
I get bad vibes for Kuang, as popular as she is. That author’s note just rubbed me the wrong way and nothing I’ve heard about her since has changed my mind!
I read Lessons in Chemistry and wish I hadn’t. It was almost a DNF for me. Happy Place was a DNF, there was lots of whining. I also DNF Henry’s most recent release.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/christmas-2024-tbr-will-i-squeeze-them-all-in/
I liked Funny Story in the end but I did have an “uh oh am I going to have to DNF!” moment!
SJM and CoHo are authors I blanket avoid for the same reasons. Fourth Wing has never appealed to me and even less after learning more about the author. I briefly considered reading Sally Rooney because of the hype but then remembered that’s very much not a genre I love and I need to not give FOMO so much power 😂. I love the idea of this list! 🙂
I understand the Sally Rooney FOMO. I think I would have loved her in my 20s (the age of her characters) but now I’m too old for that shit 😂