Some books just seem to get a lot of hype. Everywhere you go, everything you read seems to be telling you that it’s a “must read”. As a book addict, I will quite often get caught up in the hype and pick up a book because it’s all anyone cal talk about. And because of this, I’ve been burned a few times.
The first book I’ve ever bought because of all the hype surrounding it was Twilight and (go ahead Twilight fans, crack your knuckles) I hated it. The story was kind of okay, but there was way too much romance for my taste, and unrealistic romance at that. Yes, I know, vampires aren’t very realistic, either, but I’m a firm believer that you can do the unreal in a realistic way. And for me, Twilight completely missed the mark. In the end, I have just read much better YA urban fantasy books (like Rachel Caine, P.C. Cast, Kelley Armstrong, Cassandra Clare, Melissa Marr, to name my faves).
Another book that I wanted to read because of all the hype is Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle. I’m 75 pages in, and have been there for about three months. I’ve now heard from several different book bloggers that it gets good after 100 pages, so I’m going to give it a try again this week. But I doubt that I’ll end up loving it.
Two YA books that have been getting all kinds of publicity, hype and general good feelings sent their way are Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush and Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan. Becca is a new author, but some of you may be familiar with Scott’s Uglies series (amazing books).
So I went ahead and bought both books and now they are sitting on my desk, having arrived yesterday. I want to read both, but am a bit leery: what if they don’t live up to the hype? What if I hate them? Or worse, what if they DO live up to the hype and then I end up on a book shopping spree of EVERY book I hear about (don’t laugh: it is a possibility with me!)?
Have you gotten caught up in the hype of a book? What super popular books have you read and now don’t understand what the hype is all about?
