AIBU to think that a lot of books are over-hyped?

[Notradespeopleareavailable]

In the past few days I've picked up 3 books which I bought on the strength of written reviews and soundbites on the covers from other authors.

Supposedly, these other authors have found time to read these books (really?) and offer lavish and fulsome praise for the contents within. I am also talking about a very much trending book which has Thursday in its title.

In all cases, I gave up on all three books as the stories were not that engaging. Across all 3 books, in common I think the characters were under-developed and not really like real people; all characters had involved and convoluted back stories; all plots were over-complicated and contrived and finally the authors chose to use both the 1st and 3rd person voice for narration.

But I wonder about these glowing reviews? I turned to reviews on Good Reads and found (gasp, horror) a lot of 1 and 2 * reviews. So I was relieved and comforted to find I was not the only person who had been let down by the lofty premises of these books.

I think there is an awful lot of back-scratching going on in the publishing industry and AIBU to think that a lot of reviewers (aka other famous authors) have not actually read the books?

@spookycookies

I'm reading the Thursday one for a book club. I might have given up but persevered because I had to and it got in better about 50% of the way through. I'm really enjoying it now and hope to finish it tonight.

I thought the same.

Crawdads - beautiful descriptions, well written but implausible plot.

Eleanor On- annoyed me,

Midnight Library - reading at present, not gripped but okay

Book Thief - once I got into the style of writing, quite enjoyed it.

The good thing about a kindle is you can get good books very cheaply, so you don’t feel so bad if you ditch them half way through.

The Thursday Murder Club was well written, by which I mean the language flowed well and was easy to read, and I was enjoying it at first, but the plot sort of slumped into unbelievable crap, and the practicalities of committing the crime hadn't been thought through. The opposite of Jeffrey Archer, whose plots were imaginative and well worked out, but spoilt by clunky, pompous writing. When I am looking for a good read, I look at the many online book club sites or read reviews in newspapers, rather than on Amazon, past Richard and Judy choices are often suprisingly good too.

Isn't this just a question of personal taste in most cases? Most fiction is flawed in some way or other, but many people seem to enjoy certain novels regardless of their flaws.

I don't tend to read the sorts of books listed above so I'm not defending them though. Personal taste and all that...

finally the authors chose to use both the 1st and 3rd person voice for narration.

Why didn’t you like this? Different characters, different points of view, perhaps different time settings?

@PhillipPhillop

The Thursday one was awful. And I think written in a way to spawn a whole series! Such a disappointment. I get hooked into thrillers described as 'so many twists!! ' mystery of the year!' 'a spine-chilling book you will be talking about for ages!'. I never learn, they are all crap

I could not get into it! My library loan lapsed twice. Found they stuff to enthrall me.

I think some posters are being needlessly rude about books that many people have clearly taken a great deal of pleasure from. Calling them “a pile of shit” and “total crap” makes me question the poster’s judgement if that’s the limit of their critique. I’ve read some of the books in this thread, agree with comments about some, disagree about others. What a boring world it would be if everyone liked the same thing. Not enjoying a book doesn’t make it “total crap”, especially if millions of other people have enjoyed it.

Fiction is subjective and captures people’s imaginations differently.

I got very angry with myself for getting sucked in by the hype around The Midnight Library: what an astonishing waste of time that was. Matt Haig is the Poundland Paulo Coehlo.

I don't read a lot of fiction (I prefer travelogues and, oddly enough, military history) and this was a great demonstration to myself of why.

Found other stuff to enthral me! I'm trawling through everything Clare Chambers ever wrote at the moment.

I bought the Thursday murder club during lockdown 1 and gave up after a few chapters. I well and truly bought into the Twitteraty rave reviews about it. Richard has finished the second book in the series and it's out soon. My problem is I always like to have a complete book set so anxious about if I should buy book number 2 (weird I know)

I got the midnight library for Christmas and still haven't started it.

I do agree though that books are individual to each person. I definitely think a lot of back scratching goes on for reviews etc.

I usually buy books in Tesco if I like the cover. Oh and I can never buy a book without reading the last page first 😳

I found The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell- another book recommended by practically every other thriller writer- quite unbelievably bad.

@LadyJaye

I got very angry with myself for getting sucked in by the hype around The Midnight Library: what an astonishing waste of time that was. Matt Haig is the Poundland Paulo Coehlo.

I don't read a lot of fiction (I prefer travelogues and, oddly enough, military history) and this was a great demonstration to myself of why.

Same about Matt Haig

Thursday murder club was terrible. And will date very badly.

I enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club. It was certainly different.

Whoever mentioned Clare Chambers, I love all her books, too.
Ditto Sue Gee.

I quite enjoyed reading the Thursday Murder Club, but the last few chapters were disappointing. So yes, for me it was overhyped. But I know a few people who really loved it.
Has anyone seen the Amazon reviews for The Bench? Hilarious. Completely polarised between 5 and 1 star reviews.

I've been caught out so many times like this! I'm a sucker for arty, moody cover art splashed with glowing recommendations like "I could not put it down", "Highly addictive!" I seem to lose all my critical thinking. So, the total let downs were:

Daisy Jones and The Six
The Lonely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Skin Deep
Something To Live For
One Day in December
Mine
The Charmed Life of Alex Moore
Sweet Little Lies

Marian Keys and Dolly Alperton have a lot to answer for!

Sorry, Dolly Alderton.

Some are where as some are underhyped.
I think the girl on the train is over rated but have loved others from other authors who are not as well known.

Maybe they're just not your type of book OP. It sounds like you'd get on better with something more literary

The Sudden Appearance of Hope – anyone read that? It's truly terrible, imo.

The author I've newly discovered and have enjoyed is Jane Harper, whose books are set in the Australian outback, about which I have no knowledge at all, but they sound convincing to me!

I bought The Thursday Murder Club and was really excited to get started after all the hype. Got half way through and it’s still sat on my bedside table. Was boring! Wondered if it got any better but not enough to continue!

Love Jane Harper. Her debut "The Dry" was so very good.

@TheFairyCaravan

The Thursday Murder Club, you are allowed to name books on here, is a load of rubbish. I was desperate to read it after all the hype but it was awful. The same can be said for Eleanor Oliphant.

Yes, was going to mention Eleanor Oliphant as well.

I guess it varied across various books

@MasterBeth

Why is everyone terrified of saying The Thursday Murder Club?

Thanks so much, I was wondering why everyone was behaving in such a twee fashion (and wondering how long it would be before the 50 Book Challenge thread was deleted)

I've read a lot but i tend to favour easy reading books these days. I got an audible trial, downloaded the midnight library and a month later I still haven't finished it. I love Carey Mulligan's voice and the reviews were great but I'm finding the story difficult to get into. I'm wondering if it's more the difficulty of listening to an audiobook as I've persevered with plenty of mediocre books on my Kobo.