I tend to read a lot of books that people recommend to me because then I have someone to talk to when I undoubtedly fall in love with them… right? No. I normally end up not liking them and then I just get disappointed.
I think I should do a disclaimer saying I’m sorry if your favorite books are on this list. I don’t mean to offend you etc. etc. But really these are just my opinions. Some of these it just wasn’t the right time to read them or just not a genre I like to begin with.
If you want more in depth about any of these just DM me on Twitter. I don’t want to do any spoilers on here.
- City of Bones- Cassandra Clare
I’m going to start off with probably the most controversial one. This was just full of cliches and predictability and I had to force myself to finish it. Even the predictable things where I was thinking “she wouldn’t do that.” Yep. She did them. The characters were all one dimensional and the writing was kind of bland. I really really wanted to like this series. Especially with everyone going on and on about Lord of Shadows. I wanted to read them all so I could join in. If I had read this when I was in high school I probably would have loved it… until the “plot twist” where I didn’t. I just couldn’t. - Illuminae- Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Again, this was a book I really wanted to love. I enjoy books that don’t take on the regular form just to mix it up and while I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, everyone was talking about this one so I had to read it. This dragged on and on. Also I don’t remember much about it, just that I knew I wasn’t going to read the next one. Anyway, my review of it is right here. - Nevernight- Jay Kristoff
I might just not read anything else by him…. I mean I tried. I really did. I was very bored the first half of it. It took me over a month to get through the first half of it. It took me so long that one of my friends was telling me to DNF it. With hyped books I just really really want to give it a fair shot and read it all the way in case the good parts are at the end. Every time I started to got distracted by the footnotes. I hate footnotes. They make me feel like I’m reading for school again. In addition I just didn’t vibe with the characters. I loved the idea of Mia, but I just didn’t really love her as much as everyone else.
The thing is the sequels to these novels are getting so much hype as well that I may just end up reading them anyway despite the fact I don’t actually care about them or like them and then I won’t like them anyway. It’s a never-ending cycle.
That’s too bad that you didn’t like Illuminae! I loved it, but I can also see how it wouldn’t work for some people. I didn’t like City of Bones when I read it either. I kept with it, and started to like the series by the third book. I’m actually reading Nevernight right now and I just got to the second “book”. I hope it picks up though because like you said, it’s really slow going. The footnotes keep disrupting my flow, but I also like reading them. Not many of the books I read have footnotes so I don’t get that feeling.
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I’ve heard The Mortal Instruments picks up around the third book but I don’t have patience to read that many. And I hope I didn’t ruin Nevernight for you! Sometimes hearing other people’s opinions makes me pay attention to things I wouldn’t normally and then I hate it or love it even more.
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It’s so sad you didn’t like Illuminae! It’s one of my favorite sci-fi books! I can understand why you might not have liked it though. The buildup is really long in Illuminae. It takes a while for things to pick up and get really interesting. I’ve read the same critiques for Nevernight as well, but being a history buff I actually loved the footnotes lol. It’s the kind of thing I dig especially with a fantasy world, but that’s totally me haha.
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I read it in the middle of the hype and I’m not huge on sci-fi to begin with which honestly may have played a part. I loved AIDEN though.
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Oh yeah I totally get it. Reading outside of your comfort zone is always hard. AIDAN is easily my favorite character in the books.
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I liked Illuminae, but I agree with you on City of Bones. I just couldn’t get into The Mortal Instruments. I didn’t like the writing or the characters.
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And it’s such a shame because I really wanted to like them because they sounded so good 😦
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I think I would have liked City of Bones had I read it when I was younger, but now I’m just like nope, I’m not going to try. I like talking about books we don’t like and everyone else does, because not every book is amazing to everyone.
Deanna Reads Books
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Me as a middle school/ early high school student would have loved them. And I really like seeing which books people don’t like. I think it says more about their taste than what they do like.
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As someone who loves Cassandra Clare’s later works (I’d say starting with her Infernal Devices trilogy) and is currently in the middle of re-reading TMI, I totally get it! I was reading the first book and I got so angry with the characters over and over again! But they do get better and her most recent trilogy is definitely the best work she’s done in the Shadowhunters universe so far!
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Thats what I’ve heard! And everyone on BookTube just goes on and on about the new ones so I wish I could get into them!
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I tend to skip the popular books that everyone else is reading because I don’t see how they could live up to all of the hype. Still haven’t read City of Bones, but I did like Illuminae. The beauty of the book world is that everyone has different tastes!
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I read them after the hype most of the time. Have you seen the cover for the third one? Those are going to look so good on the shelves together.
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Oh wow – I’m so sorry to hear that you did not like Illuminae. I have not yet read it, but it’s been on my TBR for quite a few months now. I’m actually second guessing if I want to read it now or not -haha. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I look forward to more of your posts in the future… Happy Reading! 🙂
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I know a lot of people liked it, just not for me
I look forward to having you around 🙂
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