Top 5 Unpopular Bookish Opinions

Have you ever read a book and had a completely different reaction to it than what you were expecting? Have you ever felt scared to air your opinion on a book you didn't like because everyone seems to love it? We've all been there - here are five massively hyped books that I didn't enjoy. 

Stalking Jack the Ripper – Kerri Maniscalco

Victorian London? Yes. A female protagonist contravening social norms with an interest in forensic pathology? Yes. A YA book set around the Jack the Ripper case? Yes!

Except, no.

I read this book in August and was so disappointed to not love it like everyone else. The main problem I had with this book is that we have a classic case of telling and not showing. Kerri Maniscalco constantly tells us how different and unique Audrey Rose is, but there’s no evidence of this throughout the book. The romance was straight up insta-love, and the mystery was completely predictable from the first 30 pages or so.

Caraval – Stephanie Garber

This series is everywhere on bookstagram, so after starting my account back in February, I decided to pick up the first book. It sounded like a YA version of The Night Circus, which is one of my all time favourite books – what could go wrong? Well, just about everything. I really didn’t like this one (obviously, because it’s on this list). I thought the writing was very basic, to the point that I was cringing at certain sentence/dialogue formations. This was very distracting from the actual story, which in of itself was all over the place. The plot seemed to be a bunch of random scenarios tenuously linked together, and the romance was undeveloped throughout.

The Summer I Turned Pretty – Jenny Han

I read the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy earlier this year and loved it, so I immediately picked up Jenny Han’s other books. However, I hated The Summer I Turned Pretty. I’m usually a fan of books which are written in a mix of past and present, but I found the way it was executed in this book quite confusing, and I often wasn’t sure whereabouts in the timeline we were supposed to be. I also didn’t gel with the romance at all, which was so disappointing after how much I shipped the characters in To All the Boys.

A Darker Shade of Magic – V.E. Schwab

Victoria Schwab’s books are super popular, so when I finally decided to give her Shades of Magic series a go, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I finished the book not hating it, but feel disappointed nevertheless. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t find it anything special either. The worldbuilding was entirely lacking, and I wasn’t a huge fan of one of the main characters – Lila – who I found less headstrong and independent and more annoying and impetuous.

The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater

I read this book years ago, way before I had any kind of bookstagram/book blog, and I almost DNF’d it because it was so boring. Imagine my surprise when I started stackedshelves all these years later and now see this book all over everyone’s feeds. So many people absolute love the Raven Cycle, citing it as one of their favourite series, but I just didn’t click with it. I find Maggie Stiefvater’s writing a bit exaggerated and unnecessarily wordy, but I did enjoy The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. I just thought The Raven Boys made no sense, and I couldn’t for the life of me wait to finish it. Maybe it’s one I should revisit to try and understand what all the fuss is about. Or maybe I should just let it lie…

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? One of the great things about books is how many different (and equally valid) opinions they produce. Do you have any unpopular bookish opinions?