Hype or Like Friday is a Goodreads group hosted by Jill at Rant and Rave About Books, Larkin at Wonderfilled Reads, and Britt at Geronimo Reads.
Today’s discussion topic is Top Over-Hyped Books. I’m going to do the Over-Hyped Books that I read this year, in 2016. These books aren’t necessarily bad; they just didn’t live up to the hype!
And my selections are:
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany: All hype. This one did not live up to the hype I’m afraid. I just didn’t get this one, and I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to ignore the gaping plot holes and enjoy it. I’ll stick with the original seven books, thank you very much! Read my review here.
- Victoria by Daisy Goodwin: Sadly this one I hyped up in my mind because I enjoy the author, but I just could not connect to the young queen. Here’s hoping that the PBS series is better! Read my review here.
- Carry On by Rainbow Rowell: Maybe I just wasn’t into wizards this year or something… Here’s another one that didn’t live up to the massive hype that surrounds it! Read my review here.
- Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty: Oh dear, don’t get me wrong, this was an entertaining book, but Big Little Lies blew me away, and this one most definitely did not. But I do love Liane Moriarty and will read anything she writes! Check out my review here.
- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater: I just didn’t get this one at all! I finished this book and was so confused why everyone raves about this book and the series. I thought perhaps I read the wrong book, as it seems everyone raves about the characters and I thought they were all fairly bland. Read my review here.
- Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: Completely predictable. The format was interesting, to a point, but when I have to turn the book around in circles trying to figure out how to read a page, I get annoyed. The format could’ve been toned down a bit and I would’ve been much happier! I’m not racing out to read the sequel, Gemina. Here’s my review! (It’s a short one!)
And my Top Over-Hyped Book that I read in 2016 also happens to be my least favorite book that I read this year. Drum roll please!
And it is…
The Winner’s Trilogy, specifically the third book in the trilogy, The Winner’s Kiss. I should’ve stopped after book two, but I continued on… save your time and skip this trilogy!
Click on the title to go to my review!
What were your Top Over-Hyped Books that you read this year? Do you agree with my selections? Disagree?
And our book for December is A Thousand Pieces of You. Hopefully it lives up to the Hype! We shall see…
luvtoread 
Yup, I had The Winner’s Kiss on my list too! That book was just blahhh. I enjoyed the first two, but the story just took a turn for the worse with the last book.
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Yeah – I don’t know what happened! I really enjoyed book one, and then book two was Ok but had that great ending, and then ugghhh – book three! What a disappointment !
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Yes, exactly!!
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I agree about The Raven Boys! But from discussing with people who are obsessed with the series, they agree the first book is a bit boring and it gets better as it goes. I’m planning on continuing the series next year, hopefully. I enjoyed The Winner’s Curse this year but I’m really scared to finish the trilogy since I keep hearing negative reviews! Ahhh..
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The Raven Boys did have enough interesting plot points in it to make me want to read the rest of the series at some point, but probably not anytime soon! Glad to hear that the series does get better as it goes along.
I enjoyed The Winner’s Curse as well, but the other two books were just not as good. I know some people really loved the series, so at least not all of the reviews have been bad!
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Yeah, that’s true! But most of my friends that I trust ended up not enjoying the ending to the Winner’s Trilogy either so I don’t have high expectations.
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Amen to The Winner’s Trilogy winning the grand prize! Whew, it’s remarkably bad.
Great list overall, though I’m sorry to see you read so many disappointing books!
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It was so terrible!
Yeah, there were some bad ones this year, but there also were a lot of really excellent books as well!
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I agree with Winners Trilogy. I remember reading the first book and was just so bored by it. A Thousand Pieces of You is pretty good, I haven’t read it in a while but I remember enjoying it. Great list.
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Thanks!
I actually enjoyed the first book of the Winners Trilogy, but I can totally see why you were bored with it. I tend to like a slower book sometimes, I definitely don’t mind slowness if it’s a series, but the books following were just terrible!
Glad to hear A Thousand Pieces of You is good – I need to get a copy from the library to read for this month’s review!
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I completely agree about Harry Potter and the cursed child. What a let down – I didn’t even finish it.
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Oh wow! I had to finish it because I was hoping it would get better… but nope. Now I wish I never read it. Such a disappointment! I do think that had I watched the play and not read the script that I would’ve liked it a lot more, as I would’ve been focusing on the special effects used in the play and not the plot.
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Oh shame you felt that way about Illuminae- I have to say I usually hate formatting things like that and expected to hate it- but ended up being really surprised by it!
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Yeah, the formatting just seemed overly complex and forced to me – especially on those weird pages that swirled around and around. While it looked cool, it wasn’t all that practical to read.
I did enjoy the character of AIDAN however – he was so interesting to read!
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Ahh I understand that- I know I looked like a crazy person reading it in public! Ahh me too!!!
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