Hyped up books! - did you read them?

[tobee]

I'm probably a bit too fascinated by this, but what books do you remember being hyped up to the max and "everyone was reading"? Did you read them at the time? Did they live up to the hype? Do they stand the test of time?

So, off the top of my head, I'm thinking

The Silence of the Lambs
The Secret History
The Essex Serpent
Where the Crawdads Sing
A Little Life

I think it's interesting to me because I tend to shy away from anything hyped because I assume it will be disappointing, I'm stubborn and don't want to feel duped by the hype.

For example I never hear people talking about The Essex Serpent any more or see it recommended. But people still talk about The Secret History as evidenced by the thread on here currently. The Silence of the Lambs has been superseded by the film.

I read A Little Life. It was boring and a slog to get through, I only managed because I was hanging around for hours waiting for DD at a sports event and there was nothing else to do.

I couldn't wait to finish, The Essex Serpent and Where the Crawdads Sing.
Over-written badly controlled bilge.
If I had to re-read one it would be, The Essex Serpent but there would have to be a literary gun to my head.

A recent over-hyped book is, On All Fours. Good on Miranda July for being hyped in this way-she must be hardly able to believe her luck. Shortly after reading this bilge I read Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney- same type of subject matter, except Breakdown was marvellous. I really couldn't understand why it slid under the radar and yet All Fours was lauded.

I think it boils down to the marketing team and the budget they have to spend.

50 shades of grey 🙄

i loved essex serpent. and secret history - i did reread that. the others in your list OP i hated and gave up on pretty early

I lovers The Secret History and read it ever year for about 10 years.

And I very much enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing.

I recently read Butter which is seen everywhere but it was a good 100 pages too long. Quite enjoyed it, the stuff about Japanese everyday life.

Loved the Crawdads and loved the Secret History even more (although I reread it a couple of years ago and was disappointed)

I read the Essex Serpent for book club and would have given up halfway through if it were not for the club but ended up really enjoying it.

Crawdads I thought was absolute tosh and a real lesson not to read things just because they are hyped up.

Long, long ago, I read The Secret History, when it was pretty new, and loved it but I was a classics/Latin/Greek major from the US and familar with all the trops so it was fascinating.
But, in general, I agree that hyped books, especially 'prize winners' are shite. I avoid them like the cardboard they always turn out to be ...

Thanks for the replies.

What other titles have I missed out?

I'm another one who loved The Secret History. It builds a world that I can so easily picture. (I mean the environs, not the plot. Just to make it very clear!)

I agree about The Essex Serpent. The tv series on AppleTV+ is better but both suffer from the heroine being overwrought in a not very interesting way.

I don't tend to read hyped-up novels though. Quite often there's abuse in them, or death of children, and I just don't want to be spending my time with those subjects.

I fell for the Crawdads hype - and what an absolute pile of shite it was. That’s a few hours of my life I’ll never get back. I now approach hyped-up books with great caution.

Crawdads was awful.
Recent hypes I can remember have been Lessons in Chemistry (ok), Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (great), Yellowface (fair).
Older ones: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (good book, bad ending); Elinor Oilphant (ok), Bridget Jones.

The da Vinci code. So much hype. Was a really good book though. Page turner.

I gave up on the crawdads!! But I did enjoy the film very much 🤣. Rare occasion where the film was better!!!!

I avoid all hyped up books/films/series at all costs. Sometimes to my detriment!

One about the graveyard and US president-

clearly not memorable!

The Crawdads was ok but a struggle to get through.

If anyone doesn't know, look up the stuff about the author - pretty dodgy. Her and her husband are wanted for questioning around the murder of a poacher in Zambia in 1996.

I tend to not read hyped books that much as they can be boring, but they're good sometimes to discuss as part of a book club.

I'm always cynical about very hyped up books but having said that I do try and read new fiction that is published to make my own mind up and to know what books are being talked about in the media including here on mumsnet.

I loved A Secret History. I've read Butter which was much too long and got very repetitive and boring. I liked Yellowface. I thought Fundamentally, which got lots of praise including from Rory Stewart, was dreadful. As was The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe which had also had lots of hype.

The best book I've read this year so far is If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor. I missed it when it was published in 2002 when it was nominated for the Booker Prize and it got lots of hype then, but for this book it was justified.

It baffles me the way people have to be reading the latest ‘in’ book. I couldn’t give a flying f- what everyone else is reading. I’m only interested in books that have stood the test of time. If I want a guide to what to read, I used Harold Bloom’s list. We have three thousand years of great writing from all over the world at our finger tips. No previous generation has had that privilege. Almost everything that is hyped today will be forgotten in fifty years. Hilary Mantel, for example, is genuinely great, and will still be admired in 2125, but I doubt anyone will remember Sally Rooney, let alone the dozens of lesser writers.

I thought If Nobody Speaks… was awful! Terribly affected and boring.

Life of Pi. So many people raved about it. I hated it.

This is me! I still haven't seen ET largely for this reason 😁 I'm sure I've not read loads of stuff I might enjoy.

However, I think you might be right @Dappy777.

Was it Lincoln in the Bardo? I quite liked it 😂

Loved where the crawdads sing also It ends with us and the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo. (More hype books) Also Kristin Hannah’s books. Not read Frieda McFadden though

I avoided a hyped up book for years. Full disclosure I work part time in a bookshop. Educated by Tara Westover is probably the best thing I have read for a decade. Everyone likes different things and you never know whats going to really get you.