Let’s Talk Bookish: the hype train!

Another week of quarantine has passed and now it’s almost the weekend! As it’s Friday, there’s only one thing to post today and that’s Let’s Talk Bookish hosted by Rukky @Eternitybooks! It’s all about the HYPE TRAIN today – I’ll talk about whether I follow the hype train, my favorite hyped books and the ones that let me down!

Do I follow the HYPE TRAIN?

Yes, I do follow the hype train. I know hyped books are a super controversial topic, but I think that it’s worth checking out books that people seem to really love – hype – because even though that not every book might be your taste, I did discover some of my all-time favorite books because of their hype. I know it can be frustrating when you buy a book because it was really hyped and then discover that you don’t like it, but then again, you also bought it because it seemed interesting, right? And that can happen to every book and so as long as you always check first if it could really interest you before buying, I’ll always support the hype train!

My favorite books I bought because of the hype train!

Well I think it’s fair to say that Harry Potter had to be included here. I literally know not a single person who bought this book not knowing its popularity and simply thinking oh this could interest me, I’ve never heard of it. And so this is the best possible example for the hype train. More than 20 years later, several generations still hype this series and rightly so!

The next awesome series I would have never discovered weren’t it for the hype is none other than the Lunar Chronicles. This series has one of the most amazing crew – funny, humorous, smart and loving; a fantastic and gripping plot and I love the whole cyborg and dystopian world theme! I was super sad after finishing Winter and I think it’s about time I reread the whole series because I’m missing Kai, Thorne and Wolf!!!

I first discovered this book because of The Lady Janies Book Tag I did and then I realized that everyone was HYPING My Lady Jane and of course, I had to buy it. And that was the best choice ever: this book turned out to be one of my absolute favorites because it is the FUNNIEST book you will ever read. I read this during a very long car ride and it was the best I’ve ever been on. God, I really have to read it again, it has the most magical characters and the story is too crazy and good to be true!

Usually not the biggest fan of contemporary (I feel like I say this all the time and then always keep reading contemporary… Oh, whatever), Fangirl was so hyped that of course, I had to jump on the hype train, buy it and read it in one day and then scream: I LOVE IT! WORTH THE HYPE! Yes, that’s how it went – but the book deserves the hype. Cute college story, relatable protagonist and a boy named after jeans (Levis).

Oldies I bought (a long long time ago) because of the hype train!

Well, yes. Obviously I bought it because EVERYONE on earth was hyping the books, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. And while I wouldn’t read it again now, I’m so happy I bought it because I loved it back then. Now I saw a tiktok saying The brunettes everyone loves with no eyebrows and no personality and it stated Bella – and wow, harsh but true?! I don’t know, now that I realize it, what is her personality? Anyways, I loved the book when I was younger and I’m happy the hype train existed.

When I read this, I certainly didn’t buy it because of the online hype train, but because of the hype train at my school. I was about ten and everyone I knew (mostly boys to be honest, my girl friends weren’t big readers… still aren’t…) was reading and loving it. And after a boy in my class presented it and crafted the most awesome Olymp ever out of a shoebox, I had to read it. And I still love Percy, and yes, from time to time I still watch the movies because they remind me of childhood and aren’t too bad (my mom also likes them. Sorry for the exposure, mom).

My and my best friend watched the movie at like 13 years old because of the hype – not knowing what we were expecting. When the movie ended, we were terrified, hadn’t expected so much violence and in fact, I guess everyone would be shocked watching this movie not having watched the trailer at least because it is kind of crazy… But I did buy the book because, obviously, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. And so I also joined the hype train.

Hyped books that let me down

I had just finished The Fault in Our Stars and was new to John Green. And so I looked him up and saw that everyone hyped this one book, Paper Towns and of course, I had to check it out. And while reading, I was OMG I can so understand the hype, what a GREAT and complex story I can’t wait to get to the end – and then I discovered the ending and was super disappointed. Margo was just not the complex person I’d imagined her to be and I feel like John Green had this amazing story in his head but wasn’t sure how to give his readers a satisfying ending – that’s how I felt and why the hyped book disappointed me.

The Gilded Wolves was THE hyped book a couple of months back – people compared this book to Six of Crows and anything that’s being compared to one of my favorites – count me in to read. But the soon as I’d read half of it (and don’t hate here, I DNF this one), I thought oh no, it’s only a cheap replica. When people compared this to SoC I obviously knew that the plot or characters must be the same in one way or another, but I’d also expected it to be compared because of its awesomeness – and so I was beyond disappointed.

This book was beyond hyped when I started this blog: everyone who loved YA fantasy would love this story of three sisters all in line for the thrown. I was so ready for an amazing story, but the characters were such a let-down, they complained throughout the whole book, the plot wasn’t as intense and complex as I’d wished for and in general, the book wasn’t as gripping and as phenomenal as expected. And so I read like 150 pages and then didn’t continue because I didn’t want to waste my time.

That’s it for today, there are obviously one or two more hyped books that were a let down, I don’t want to pretend like the HYPE TRAIN has only upsides and only three downsides for me, but I don’t want to rant and cause bad moods… So we’ll leave it at that – what do you think about the hype train, what were your best and worst experiences? Comment! Happy reading and have a great Friday!