Books that lived up to the hype

[petronella23]

Inspired by another thread about books that didn't live up to the hype, what about ones that did?

Any books that were really hyped or popular that you thought totally deserved it?

Mine are Gone Girl and Secret History.

Anna Karenina. Wonderful book

We Need to talk about Kevin was quite hyped and rightly so IMO, whatever people think about Shriver these days. Very moving.

A book of silence by sara maitland.

I don’t remember it being hyped and it’s an old book but Green Darkness by Anya Seton, my favourite all time book,

Why do people post this shit on these threads? Who do you think is hyping these books up? Obviously it’s best seller lists and recommended reads on socials and in stores and people in book clubs or at work or you see a lot of people reading them on the tube or they are reviewed in newspapers.

why are these comments always prefaced with the implication that those who read these books ‘don’t read a lot’? Do YOU not read a lot (of newspapers or best seller lists or book recommendations). Do you not go outside or talk to people at work or receive reccomendations from friends or read reviews on good reads or booktok or Instagram. Like comeeeeee on.

(I read LOADS btw). 😂

Noooooo gone girl was great.

Have not read the latest CMC but I did really like The Road when I read it many years ago so maybe I’ll give it a go.

Taste is subjective so I guess there's rarely going to be consensus as to what constitutes a 'good' or 'bad' book

Yellowface
American Dirt
Girl Woman Other
The Light Between Oceans
Song of Achilles
Circe
The Nightingale
The Thursday Murder Club
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Shuggie Bain
Educated

Small Island - Andrea Levy. Absolutely beautifully written.

An old one and not fiction: Wild Swans by Jung Chang. Everyone was reading it and talking about it when it came out, I didn't think it would be my thing, but I was given a copy as a present and loved it, I still re-read it regularly.

Verity. It's famous because of TikTok but was absolutely fantastic.

Am reading Demon Copperhead now. It's astonishingly good. Very glad I went for it.

I have a few of these to get to on my shelves. Exciting.

A Little Life
The Beesting
How to kill your family
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
The Rosie Project

Don't bother with Yellowface 😴

Normal People
This is going to hurt

Small Island
A Little Life
Wolf Hall - if you could keep up with all the Thomases

Also, read The Island while in Crete last year, including a trip to Spinalonga - loved this book (my mum hyped it up to me before I went) except the ending which I thought was a bit of an anti-climax.

Older one but always heard people rave about But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer, finally read it and it was perfection

The Secret History
Memoirs of a Geisha

Low brow - the Thursday Murder Club. Good plotted cosy murder mystery with likeable and “real” feeling characters. I was sure it would be crap as normally celeb book’s disappoint.

Following

Demon copperhead is great. I started to read around that as I was interested in american drug culture and just read A piece of cake’ by Cupcake Brown

Also anything by Donna Tartt is great! I’ve seen The secret history mentioned a few times here but all of her books are great. I read The little friend when I was 15 and have loved her work since then. The time she takes to research and write a book is phenomenal

Controversially found A little life too indulgent

The Running Grave - Robert Galbraith