I’m taking a break for Five Things Friday this week as I’ve not been able to get much reading in, but then I saw that the lovely @Fantasticbooks_awtft had picked up on this tag, so I thought I would join in! You can check out her thoughts here
- A popular book or series you did not like
The Cruel Prince is a series that I just don’t get. I kind of convinced myself into a 3* review on the basis that the ending was fairly good for book one but actually I really shouldn’t have. Trigger warnings for bullying and abuse should be rife for this, but strangely I find them to be lacking, which is baffling to me as they seem to appear in abundance everywhere else. I found the high school element trite and I just went into major anxiety mode for most of it as I relived my own high school bullying hell. This is not a good book in my view, granted I’m not the demographic but still, other than the last 50 pages where the story actually became a story I found very little to like about it. I’ve not gone anywhere near book 2 and with quotes like “kiss me until you hate me” or some such, I’m not convinced it’s going to up the series in my estimation.
2. A popular book or series that everyone else seems to hate but you love
State of Sorrow came in last years anniversary Fairyloot and from the very first page I loved it! Now, when I posted about how much I adored book one on Instagram I was immediately met with comments of “wow, really?” and “I DNF’d” I feel really horrible even putting this up here as I loved every single page of it and I just didn’t understand why others didn’t – but then not every book is for everyone (see above) – the conclusion was even better and I want to re-read them both again very soon.
3. A love triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did NOT want them to end up with OR a OTP that you don’t like?
I’m going to have to go with @fantasticbooks_awtft with this one and say I just don’t get Rowan and Aelin. For a start there wasn’t much about Rowan that I found particularly swoonworthy and when they ended up together it just felt wrong and a bit weird. Rowan was horrible to Aelin at the start, his treatment of her was pretty shocking. It shouldn’t take scaring a woman to the degree she wets herself to have made him realise he needed to perhaps try a carrot rather than a stick with her. There is also that chasm like age difference between them which just felt icky – and I’m saying this when my husband is nearly a decade older than me. Honestly, I would have loved to have seen Aelin take the same road as Manon, but I’ll leave it there in case there are some reading this who haven’t completed KoA yet.
4. A Popular book genre that you hardly reach for?
Contemporary gets the shake of the head for me every time. I have a tough muggle job firmly entrenched in the hideousness of real life, so coming home to read about it just doesn’t do it for me. I struggle even with urban fantasy and low fantasy sometimes for this reason. I read books to escape and need a completely new world to be able to do that.
5. A Popular or Beloved Character that you do not like
Another popular series that I just don’t get is Shatter Me and whilst I hold little regard for all the characters save for Kenji, Adam by far is my least favourite. His behaviour towards Juliette is abusive, controlling and in my view borderline rapey. Juliette repeatedly tells him where to go, yet he still forces his way into her room at night demanding she declare her love for him. A girls allowed to change her mind and guilt tripping her into staying is just wrong. Again a series with surprisingly few trigger warnings given the domestic abuse aspect – letting abuse slide because the abuser is hot is actually pretty worrying and this is sadly not an isolated example.
6. A Popular author that you just can’t seem to get into
The Maze Runner series is so popular and I picked up a 4 book boxed set from The Works for like £8 – but try as I might I just can’t bring myself to pick up book 2 as I can’t get on with James Dashner’s writing style at all. I forced myself through book one and it’s a series that’s going to be sat unread on my shelf for a long time to come I feel.
7. A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing
Instalove – give me a slow burn any day
8. A popular series you have not interest in reading
Twilight just holds zero interest for me. I think had I not watched the first movie I might have been tempted to give them a try, but that film really didn’t do it for me at all and has soured any desire to read what are pretty hefty books. I think that other than Buffy the vampire thing kind of passed me by at the time!
9.The saying goes “The book is always better than the movie,” but what movie of TV adaptation do you prefer more than the book.
Whilst Dianna Wynne Jones is Queen, there is no escaping the fact that Howls Moving Castle was a Studio Ghibli masterpiece. Whilst the book is fantastic, the realisation of the characters and wonderful narrative of the film means that I will go for the film first every time. I’m hoping to introduce Biba to the book soon though so maybe that will rekindle it for me too.
So there you go! Many unpopular opinions here I’m sure, do you agree with any of them or disagree vehemently?
Paperbacks and Pinot 