Week 3: Weekly Challenge

I have attempted “Where the Crawdads Sing” at least three times. I have borrowed it, bought it, and can not get into it. I don’t know where the disconnect is for me, but I just don’t get the hype. Everyone else I know loved it and I just don’t. 

Hoover is an overly hyped author on Booktok. Millions of readers devour her books. I do not typically read any romance, but I thought I would see what all the fuss was about and borrowed a copy of It Ends With Us. The writing is basic, the plot lines are obvious and cliche and the love scenes are over the top. I tried another of her books and found it even worse. 

(Soon after I read Red, White & Royal Blue, another romance, but written by Casey McQuinston. This is another popular Booktok choice, but the writing is witty, fresh and enjoyable. So I guess I don’t hate all romance, just Hoover.)

I did not enjoy The Goldfinch. It has some very convinced fans, but I thought the writing was overly convoouted, the plot lacked focus and the characters (especially Theo, the main character) are quite unlikeable.

Big exception for Boris, the weird russian teenager.

The book was super depressing. It was a huge book and I kept hoping it got better closer to the end. It did not. It was the first time I read Donna Tartt and it does not make me want to read any of her other novels.

This book takes place in a world where magic is real and everyone is aware of it. Some of the most important people in this world have magic, although you still need to be born with it. The Facinators is the name of the magic club the main characters are in. Thats about all i remember because it was so boring. The plot was very wishy washy, the book ended on a cliffhanger, I remember that much, but if a sequal ever came out i never heard of it and wouldn't go out of my way to read it. Its biggest dissapiontment was that it was in my favourite genre: Queer Witches, but it just didn't understand the assignment and was a complete flop. 

I'll confess, I can't pretend to hate the Twilight series anymore. I was so excited for the ultimate comfort/nostalgia read when Midnight Sun was announced, but unfortunately it was too much even for me. This book was 672 pages, and for what? The same brooding monologue repeated 80 times. I'd have understood if more time had been spent fleshing out the climax of the book and getting us into that drama, but honestly 85% of the book was focused on high school instead of killer vampires. Missed opportunity! I still made my way through it, but boy was it an effort to get through what could have been a delightful 272 page book. 

I was excited to read the book Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez.  However, the book left a lot to be desired. The concept is really interesting, as it follows the lives of underprivileged people living in Scaraborough, Canada.  I though it could have been executed much better. There were too many characters for such a short book (around 250 pages).  The book cycled through the points of view of different characters, but many were simply introduced for one chapter and never had their stories developed.  For example, the family who ran the Caribbean restaurant (they are possibly Trinidadian but it was never confirmed) were featured in one chapter and never again.  I though their story if elaborated upon would have been interesting to read. Overall the book seemed like a skeleton of what it could have become.

I love a good mystery, but this one was a big loser for me. I had heard it was great and was really excited to see it in a little free library near me. It went straight to the top of my to-read pile. It was so bad, I almost stopped reading 1/2 way through. Then I thought, maybe it gets better, but it didn't. For me, this book was a huge disappointment. 

Bonjour, 

ce qui me frustre quand je lis, c'est la répétition. Lorsqu'on lit une séries de livre(16 au total) et qu'a chacun des livres ça répète toujours la même chose à un moment donné du livre pour expliquer le comment c'est arrivé... C'est un peu frustrant, je lis très vite cette partie du livre.

I recently attempted to read Hater, by John Semley. I struggled through the introductory first chapter, and then put it away. I hated the contemporary-casual language, I hated the style of writing, and I hated the position the author was pleased to have taken in his opening anecdote. The guy's a troll, and he has written a book that I assume attempts to justify the social phenomenon he has found vocation in - I assume, because, of course, I did not finish the book. Just those first few pages were enough to make me mutter and argue, out loud, at the book, so congratulations Mr. Semley, mission accomplished, you've made one more person in this world unreasonably mad, you hater you. I understand he has a career as a writer of some sort as well? Well done. #disbelief /endrant

I am a book enthusiast of all kinds so it is hard for me to find a read that I don't appreciate or like at least a little bit. 

The Pretty Little Liars Series by Sara Shepard was one that really annoyed me and I couldn't read until the end of the series. When I first started reading the books I was under the impression that it was a 6 or 7 book series. I really enjoyed the writing the the plot line. The suspense in each novel had me wanting more. It seemed to me that the series had concluded around the 7th novel. After that it felt to me that the author was just continuing to write more novels just for the sake of it or for the money and not because the story should have actually continued on. 

Anne McCaffrey is my absolute favorite author.  I cannot count the number of times I have read her books, even the romances but especially the Pern books.  However, I am choosing to ignore the existence of any Pern books by Todd McCaffrey and I can just tolerate Gigi's entry.  I really, really tried - made it through quite a few - but the difference in concept and execution, the changes to canon in Todd's books, were too jarring to enjoy, even in the name of dragons.  Gigi's wasn't as bad but I frequently asked myself if she'd ever read the originals as the characters' motivations were quite altered from the original writings.  I would have loved to pass my adoration on to Anne's descendants but the legacy is not being held to the same quality.  I'll stick with the originals.

My rant is to ask why there are no copies of The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi in the KFPL system? It won Italy's major book prize The Strega Prize in 2020. KFPL readers will be carried away by the characters and enjoy the references to Canadian music icons. 

Since I don't like scary story, I don't like this book.

However many people love that book.

We read this book, February by Lisa Moore, as part of a book club years ago and I did not really care for it.  I found it moved slow and there were parts missing to the plot.  It felt a bit unfinished in the end  and I felt like there were still questions I did not have the answers to.

I was excited to read The Silent Patient a while back because it was so highly recommended, but it was a real let down for me. I found the actions of the characters made little to no sense, the twist didn't surprise me, the female characters were two-dimensional, and it had one of my pet peeves: diary entries that contain verbatim conversation. The concept was interesting but it fell apart in the execution. 

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh recieved so much hype online that I was very excited to read it. Throughout the whole book, I just couldn't understand why. I know the argument is very interesting, a woman who sleeps through weeks and months, but it felt superfluous and boring. I never, not once, understood or came to like the main character. It simply wasn't the book for me.

I found this one of the most frustrating stories.  I have read and enjoyed many books by Kristin Hannah but honestly did not enjoy this one.  I kept reading hoping the story would improve and it never did.  I have seen praise for this book on Facebook, not sure what they saw in the story that I didn’t.  

I am so happy when I saw this challenge! I have been a hunger games fan for so long and I loved the series but the new book that came out about president snow was not as good. I feel like it didn’t live up to the expectations of the other books. Don’t get me wrong I feel like it is something that people should read but it was so slow getting to the point. Not sure why I felt about it but I wish it was more in depth about how the characters connect to the original story. I have heard rumours they are making the movie I think so that will be interesting to see how they adapted it maybe it’s better than the books.

I read all of John Green's works when I was in high school. I was never a fan but I knew so few people who read but many people read his books so I got to talk about it. I was going to skip this book but I was told it was John Green's "best book." That of course spiked my interest. I had the same problem with this book as his others. The characters are just all unlikeable, and they don't grow much from start to end. 

I have come to absolutely loathe most books in which the point of view switches between characters chapter to chapter.  I find most of the time one character and their plot is more enjoyable than the other and thus I am often disappointed switching back to the other characters point of view and it often feels like a cheap way to build suspense.  

I kept seeing this book come up on BookTok and on the pages of a lot of book 'influencers' I follow. I was very underwhelmed by the story and I found the writing very mediocre. The characters were boring and did not grip me at all.

The James Dean movie’s an absolute classic, but the book is a real slog. 

I'm reading The Loch by Steve Alten right now. It started out as not a bad thriller, but I'm almost halfway through and the monster has only appeared once and that barely. It's not a movie, buddy! It's not going to blow the budget to have lots of monsters! The magic of books is that you can make them as big and as numerous as you want.

I would love to find books that are joyful and joy-filled that aren’t romance or cheesy chick-lit!  I am constantly searching for that amazing character and plot story that isn’t all about terrible trauma. I get it, but I also would love more stories that have real guts without being only about very very sad people!! 

I know some people like this type of writing but I hate when a book switches between characters. I don't mind it if it is a few perspectives but sometimes I would rather keep it consistent rather than have so many characters talk about the same thing if that makes sense. I have read a few novels that make it work but then there are others that just make it a bit too overwhelming. Always best to find a middle spot! 

I read Malibu Rising because it was all over Instagram and was getting so much hype. The synopsis sounded really interesting, but I found it was slow and a bit anti-climactic.