Have you ever seen those mop advertisements that are constantly played on the TV about how life changing and absolutely necessary they are to have in every household? Then when the next mop comes out, that mop to suddenly becomes a household sensation and yet another absolute necessity.
This is how I feel the book community has gotten to be like in the past few years. Our community has been so explosive about all the amazingly diverse releases that are crossing past stereotypical YA fiction boundaries. The marketing in the publishing world has gotten to be so efficient and alluring that all the books that are set to be published in the upcoming months seem to be unimaginably riveting, new, and refreshingly unique to the YA fiction pool.
I’m always nervous about getting into these books because sometimes, I feel as though the hype really raises the expectations to a standard that becomes really hard to beat. I’m one of those readers who suffers from that pre-reading anxiety when it comes to picking up a well-loved and hyped book. I’m always afraid that an overhyped book is either going to majorly disappoint me or ruin me by being so amazing.
Here are some over hyped books that I’ve come across recently:
This is the book I’m most nervous about. I’ve heard so much about how amazing this novel is and how the romance is amazing and thrilling. I kind of am getting the feeling that this book plays with many tropes that we commonly see in fantasy novels. Please don’t come at me for saying that. This book does wonders culturally and on diverse representation but I’m nervous if besides that, this book will really wow me. As a person of color, I’m loving what this book is doing to our reading community but at the same time, I wonder if I’ll be able to look past all the tropes. I think I’m also skeptical on this read because of how important this book has been to the reading community and while I am a sucker for tropes, I want this book to be more than that.
I’m really hoping this book is going to be amazing. I don’t read much literature on the fairie world and I’m very excited to see what Holly Black is all about. Also Leigh Bardugo blurbed this book and honestly, not much else needs to be said about my expectations for this book. I’ve heard that this book is very good when it comes the political atmosphere and I haven’t read a good book in a while with some good politics, so I’m looking forward for all the drama. Also, I love the title! The Cruel Prince sounds so interesting and gripping already and I haven’t even started reading the book yet! Why is the prince cruel? I love myself some royal drama. Don’t answer that haha.
I want to believe this is going to be a good read because I’m getting many classical fairytale vibes from it. I don’t know much about this book besides the fact that Naomi Novik’s writing is supposedly gorgeous. I also heard that this book has a strong female lead which makes me especially nervous going into the book because it’s been a while since I’ve read a good fairytale with a strong female lead. How sad is that?
Everyone and their mothers love this book and people go and on about how magical the writing and atmosphere is. I’m nervous specifically about the writing because as sad as it is, I don’t remember reading a novel with writing that made me really think about how graceful and elegant the author’s writing was. I feel as though I have yet to encounter reading an author’s writing that makes me really change the way I look at writing as a whole. I think the last book I read with writing that really moved me was the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo. It’ll be really hard to beat Leigh Bardugo but I really want to find a stand-alone novel with really amazing writing so I can find a new comfort read. I’m also really drawn to this book from the magical aspect. I haven’t read many books about magical competitions and I’m really interested to see the world building and character development with this element of magic.
I’ve tried on 3 separate occasions to finish The Night Circus. It’s beautiful writing, too beautiful. Ever read something that had so many words but didn’t say anything? That’s how I would best describe it. I knew there was a lot of hype around it and sadly, I fell for it.
Ah oh no 🙁 Thanks for letting me know. The hype always gets us one way or another sadly, haha.