I am genuinely curious as to something within the book community. Getting back into books this week and read through “The Silent Patient” and “Verity”, which I both enjoyed truthfully not masterpieces but solid. I hop on Reddit to see the discussions expecting to see a little distaste, but instead was overflowed by it. Thinking to myself “Fuck, people really hate these books”, I back out to the main subreddit and can’t find a single positive discussion on any book.
Is it just a social norm to shit on every book? In a way to make you seem smarter? That you’re an individual of higher taste?
***“Pish posh thou beggard and thou wretched book, I will ascend to my throne of reddit where thy shall spew vile upon your name/work to thy like minded and totally not pompous acquaintances!”***
***”…”***
***”HOW DARE THOU CALL THY A SHEEP!!!”***
I don’t get it, I judge a book on how it affected me and made me feel, I understand the annoyance of plot holes and bad endings but, c’mon it’s entertainment at its core. People love “The Notebook”(the movie ( Please dont kill me because im referencing a movie on a book subreddit lol)), because it made them feel, and if you dissect it like ya’ll do, Noah is creepy but at the end of the day its still good. Allow the author take your mind on a ride without picking at every detail along the way. Why is the social norm/conformity bias to immediately start attacking a book? idk doubt anyone will see this
by ugga-o-dugga
2 Comments
Colleen Hoover is a pretty polarizing author. People either love her books or absolutely hate them.
I think you’re going to get different opinions on a sub dedicated to reading because you get a lot of avid readers and the more books you’ve read, the harder it is to be truly impressed by a book.
I read The Silent Patient several years ago when I was just getting back into reading after basically doing no reading for fun the whole time I was in college. I loved it, thought it was super well done and was shocked by the twist.
5 years later, I’m now someone who has read probably over 100 thrillers and I average about 2 books per week. If I read the Silent Patient for the first time now, I don’t think it would impress me or I’d like it nearly as much. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, I’ve just read lots of similar ones now and so it wouldn’t stand out as much.
Verity specifically is really polarizing because of the topics covered. I’m personally not a fan of CH’s writing and think she covers violence against women in a very weird, kind of fetishizing way but I understand why people like her at the same time.