3 Books That Don’t Live up To The Hype

This post has the potential to ruffle some feathers. But, you know, it’s just, like, my opinion…man. 

I like what I like. None of these books are bad. I would say they are all solid 3s (out of 5), whereas their average ratings on Goodreads make them seem like the best books you’ll ever read. They all have tens of thousands of ratings and are all rated above 4…in some cases over 4.5! People were feeling awfully lenient IMHO.

If you have similar tastes to me, maybe this post can save you some time.

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

I was super intrigued by the description of this book (read it here) and it had so much potential. It was, in theory, a mix of The Handmaid’s Tale, Lord of The Flies, and The Hunger Games. And maybe that was the problem—that it was marketed to be like these hugely successful stories, and it couldn’t quite compete. The problems I found with this book were mostly related to pacing and character development. The characters were flat, and some of the plot developments (which is as specific as I can get without spoilers) were hard to believe. There is a very unconvincing and unnecessary love story that feels like something the author decided to add in after the book was finished. We were also just told characters were a certain way instead of the author taking the time to develop them. If I were to give this story a lot of leeway, which I’m sometimes wont to do in reviews, I could let that character development play out in my imagination. But I didn’t feel as forgiving towards this book. The author is clearly capable, and you get glimpses of her talent throughout. I just need consistency. Some of the plot points are really well conceived and beautifully written, and others felt woefully ignored. This book could have been twice as long, so we could really get to know the characters and so the author could fix that mess of a love story. The Grace Year provides an interesting premise, and if there were to be a sequel, I’m still intrigued enough to read it. But let me do it first so I can tell you whether or not any of it is worth your time.

Notes on An Execution by Danya Kukafka

This is objectively a great book. I have no critique of the writing or the telling of the story. It was just something that didn’t entertain me. And by now, y’all probably know my #1 reason for reading fiction is entertainment. I don’t need a whole song and dance number, but this was ultimately a story that didn’t interest me. I was attracted to it because it sounded different from anything I have read lately and it was described as landing on the horror spectrum. I’m making an assumption here, but the people who would potentially find this book impactful are not reading it. People who are into true crime in a non-self aware way and people who think the death penalty solves societal problems are not picking up this book. I don’t want to say that it’s preaching to the choir, but I guess it kind of is and that’s why I found it boring. Yes, I think it’s messed up how into true crime a lot of people (especially women) are, and, yes, I think the death penalty is also messed up. So, do I need to be reading this? I ultimately didn’t feel connected to the women in the story, which I think if I had would have made it more interesting. The changing POVs had an effect of distancing the reader from the characters (which all may have been intentional), but that distance ultimately made me care less not only about the characters but also about the story as a whole. I know the point was to show there was nothing special about the killer, that he was just a dude who wanted to kill, thought he deserved to get away with it, and was under the illusion that he was a misunderstood genius. Point taken, but the story is bland.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Did not finish. I got about halfway through and couldn’t bring myself to continue. It’s way too long, which is more of an editing problem than the author’s fault. I have kept my opinions about this book mostly to myself, because several people I love and respect are INTO IT—like I said at the beginning, I’m in the minority opinion here. I also didn’t finish it, so maybe it redeems itself in the end. But I couldn’t go on. What I read of this book was beautifully written, but also incredibly repetitive which about bored me to death. The first several chapters were relatively easy to read (and it IS beautiful), but after that, chapter after chapter just seemed to be making the same point in an only slightly different way. I *might* return to it at some point, but I had to stop and move on with my life. 

These books are not the worst I’ve read, not by a long shot, and I’m not even saying they’re bad. They are just WAY over hyped. They obviously appealed to a wide audience, as can be seen from their incredibly high (and, in my opinion, incredibly inflated) ratings. But if you read for entertainment and aren’t into books you feel like you lose interest in every 10-20 pages, choose something else.