I’m genuinely baffled. All I see in those threads about “What book is wildly overrated” or “Which author will you never try again” are people stating the same books/authors. Colleen Hoover, The silent patient, The midnight library, fourth wing, etc.
Yet they seemingly go into it having read a lot of praise for those books/authors, but people seem to unanimously dislike them on this subreddit. So where is this praise coming from?
Also on the same topic, I’m all for the “What book is wildly overrated” threads, but can we get some different opinions, please? Can’t someone put their foot down and say Brandon Sanderson wastes your time for most of Words of Radiance or that Steinbeck is a load of dross(Not my opinion)?
I just want some spice in my threads you know?
by Examinaar
9 Comments
Brandon Sanderson did an AMA here [you might want to take a look](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/) 🙂 [Here’s a link to all of our upcoming AMAs](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule)
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Try the genre-specific subreddits. But most of the talk seems to be about books popular in the tik-tok/influencer sphere.
TikTok. The hype and praise and popularity are coming from TikTok. On all my recent trips to Barnes and Noble to put things on my library list, there’s a whole giant table with things from Booktok. I avoid it like the plague after the first couple times of being sucked into reading drivel by a reasonably interesting blurb.
A lot of these books gain popularity on BookTok/Bookstagram and then people come to reddit to bitch about them.
There’s an entire world outside of reddit where people read and talk about and rate books. Colleen Hoover is *incredibly popular.* Her book, *It Ends With Us* has over 3 *million* reviews on GoodReads, and is hovering around 4.17 out of 5. That’s *very strong*. That’s more than twice as many reviews as the most read Stephen King book on GoodReads, and a higher rating than *Pet Cemetery*.
Reddit has a tendency to amplify certain perspectives, particularly “this popular thing is overrated!” type perspectives. God forbid that we not like something other people did. It can’t just be “that wasn’t for me, guess I’ll move on,” it’s got to be a rant about how overrated it is.
I don’t understand why people feel the need to get an opinion from one social media platform, then run to another social media platform to post the same generic complaint about it over and over.
I’ve never read Hoover, Maas, etc. and don’t plan to, but the circle jerky “DAE HOOVER BAD OR JUST ME????” posts are so obnoxious.
But also due to the nature of Reddit you’re always going to get the same low effort comments and posts, because that’s what gets upvoted.
I liked the midnight library. Not particularly special but I thought it was wholesome 🙂
They’re popular for a reason, just like with popular music, tv, and movies. Some books are easy reads, some are relatable, some are just fun. People can like things for simple reasons but that will also bring on more people who dislike it because of it.
it’s coming from other book spaces. tiktok, instagram, goodreads, storygraph, book clubs, friend groups, etc.
this subreddit is going to skew a certain way because of reddit’s demographics and hostility towards women. “unpopular opinion” on reddit just means “popular reddit opinions.”
i’d never pick up brandon sanderson, but i’d also never pick up another colleen hoover (read her shitty “new adult” book “slammed” in the 2010s) book, or most of the authors often mentioned in this space.
if you want different opinions, you’ll probably just need to seek out other platforms or spaces.