Which popular books are worth the hype?? // part 2

The hype and I are mortal enemies, ever locked in an internal battle to the deaths.

Ok, that might be a bit dramatic, but my point stands. I always build up this super high expectation for what the book will be, but once I read it I’m disappointed that it didn’t live up to the grandiose that I was imagining. It is the worst feeling (only ripping the dust cover comes close).

A while back I made a part one, which you can find here. All of these are my opinions, so more power to you if you did like some of these! Alright, without further ado, let’s hop right in.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue… YES

The key for this one is to expect a slow pace. If you’re coming into this book expecting Avengers level action, you’re not going to get it. If you go into this book expecting the romance of the century, you’re not going to get it. Rather, you get a beautiful journey over hundreds of years, and a discussion about legacy.

The prose is absolutely stunning and the entire premise is so interesting. I definitely cried at the end because, it was just wow wow wow.

Divergent Series… No

Middle school me is going to hate me for this, but no, Divergent is not worth the hype. It is the prime example of another 2012 dystopia created to cater to the teen frenzy going on.

The dystopian setting is absolutely chaotic (not in a good way), I found the characters boring, and villain was just evil for not good reason. And don’t even get me started on Allegiant. Or the movies… *gag*

To Kill a Kingdom… MEH

I personally enjoyed it, but the more I think about it, the less I do. When I first finished I thought it was the holy grail of pirate books, but the more pirate books I read, the more I realize no it really wasn’t. The writing can be at times difficult and the voice between characters is lacking. However, it did start me on my pirate binge, I will be eternally grateful for that.

I feel like To Kill a Kingdom is one of those books that is good (don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it), but not life changing.

Check out my full review here.

Legend Trilogy… YES

Legend isn’t peak dystopia, but the charming dual perspective and the lovable characters more than made up for it. The Legend trilogy is one of my favorite dual perspective series because both of the characters had really unique and authentic voices.

Legend felt really long, but Prodigy and Champion picked things up for sure. Plus the ending of Champion absolutely DESTROYED me.

Renegades Trilogy… MEH

I 10/10 enjoyed Renegades. The ending left me shook and I binge read Archenemies the next day. But Supernova? Supernova is where it went downhill.

I was so disappointed by the Supernova that I wrote a bit of a ranting review on it. Here’s what I originally wrote: The superhero bits were the very definition of cheesy. Ah yes, we got our power from magic stardust. Everyone is a hero! We will all live happily ever after and ride off into the sunset on ET style bikes that Adrian drew yippee. I was not thrilled. You can find my full review here.

The more I think about it, the less rage I feel, so I’m changing my answer to meh instead of a hard no. I liked both Renegades and Archenemies. There were solid books, filled with tropes I adore, characters I would sell my soul to, and superpowers. The only part I didn’t like was the ending, but that shouldn’t deter someone from reading it completely.

The Shadows Between Us… YES

This fast paced read was decked out with a slow build of trust and a fake courtship, but was fun to start to finish. Can Alessandra be a touch annoying at times? Yes, yes she can be. But she is unapologetically bad and a mind trick genius. Overall, an enjoyable read.

Percy Jackson (yes, all of them)… YES

Percy Jackson books were my basically personality in middle school. I was obsessed. Imagine little April’s joy when she discovered the Heroes of Olympus series existed as well. Now I had 10 books to obsess over, not only 5. Reading these books brought me so much joy. I can’t help but look back at them fondly.

Shatter Me Series (original trilogy) … YES

I started to read this for a book club and I couldn’t finish it. The characters were annoying and the writing was even worse. Nope. Over winter break I decided to give it another shot and actually quite enjoyed it.

Ok *deep breath* this series is worth the hype if you stick with it. If you can ignore the absolute chaos that is the writing, the constant pelting of bad similes being thrown at you, and a mediocre book one, then you will like it. I promise, the second book does get better. Getting to it is the trick. 

The Cruel Prince Trilogy… NO

This book honestly was painfully average. Not that it was bad, it just wasn’t great either. Plus, I guessed one of the major plot twists which made the ending a solid eh for me. 

The writing style was so flavorless. It made for a fast paced book, but I never got to savor the scenes. Built up moments were rushed through which left me generally disappointed.

This year one of my goals is to steer away from the hype and to focus more on what I want to read. At this point I kind of know what I like, so I’m going to try to stick that more to avoid the disappointment. Not that I’m never going to succumb the hype again (please, I don’t have that kind of self control), but I’m trying to get better at picking things that cater to my reading interests.

What did you think of these reads? Did you like them?