hi, i’m madeline, and i’m a self-confessed hype-er.
specifically, i’m talking about book hype. i’ll admit, i’m a sucker for hype, and i always succumb to the excitement of new books, especially ones that people scream about in rave reviews.
we’re no strangers to hype in the book blogging community. with ARCs floating around in the community and people always getting excited about some book, it’s easy to get sucked into the hype machine.
and hype is so fun to be a part of. the thing is with hyped books, there’s usually a whole bunch of people who are excited about the same book you are AND YOU CAN SCREAM ABOUT YOUR EXCITMENT TOGETHERRR. hype is great like that- it can bring the peeps of the book blogging community together. it’s sorta like waiting for christmas.
but i have a problem with hype. sometimes.
the thing is with hype, it gets my hopes up too high, and usually i end up disappointed. 🙁 when i hype up a book in my mind, my expectations for the book are wayy too high, and the book usually falls flat when i actually get to read it.
it really sucks. you get so so excited about a new release. you’ve been talking about it for months on your blog. it’s at the top of your tbr. YOUR EXPECTATIONS ARE UP AT MOUNT EVEREST.
any examples?
- Caraval by Stephanie Garber – sorry guys. i was sooo excited for this book, mostly because it sounded a lot like The Night Circus (which i love LOVE), but unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. all the rave reviews made me expect something absolutely amazing. while the book was okay, i don’t think it was entirely worthy of the hype.
that’s really the example that stands out to me the most in my mind. and also i think it’s the first ever book that i hyped up when i first started blogging.
but sometimes hype makes you enjoy a book more.
this is what i might call “lesser hype.” (yaaa i know, so creative) this is still hype, but on a smaller scale. instead of say, hearing hundreds and hundreds of people screaming and flailing over the upcoming release of a book, “lesser hype” is more like a few dozen. also, i find that backlist books are most susceptible to lesser hype than new releases.
a hyped book that i loved:
- A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – i definitely didn’t read this when it was a new release, but the entire reason i picked it up was because i had heard pretty good things from a good amount of people. the hype was controlled enough that my expectations weren’t too high. but oh my goodness. i ended up loving it!! i might not have picked up the book in the first place if not for the hype.
i guess i need to work on reading what I WANT to.
actually, i know that i need to work on this. so often, i pick up a book because it’s been hyped in the book community. and then my hopes for the book soar, only to crash down in disappointment later.
hype isn’t a bad thing, but i personally need to work on controlling my expectations when it comes to books people are raving about. and sometimes hype leads you to pick up books you wouldn’t normally be interested in. (and you might end up loving them!) so yeah, i guess my point is that there are positives and negatives to hyping books, but mainly i would suggest being wary of your expectations for hyped books.
ᵔᴥᵔ now it’s your turn~~ what do you think about hyped books? have you ever been disappointed by a hyped book? does hype ruin a book for you at all? let me know in the comments!
xo,
madeline
omg this post is so!! great!! (i felt kinda weird commenting on my own blog as a commenter but.. whatever) i completely agree with Caraval; i initially liked it (and hyped it as well) but looking but i’m like 🤔🤔🤔 i dunno. it’s so interesting to think about how hype affects the way you view books!
YEEEEEEES omg, I thought I was the only one who suffered with this, also another thing that happens when a book is hyped up and I end up not enjoying it is that I’m left feeling guilty and/or feeling left ou for not liking the book lol
Most of the time it isn’t a problem because I don’t *normally* choose books based on hype (I tend to stick to my favorite authors and don’t let very many new ones in). BUT… I recently requested an e-arc based on a blurb and recommendation by Adam Silvera (which I would consider hype, since I like Adam and his books) and the book was very mediocre at best. Like I’m guessing Adam is friends with the guy.
Sometimes I just happen to read a book that has a lot of hype because I think I’ll like it (ACOTAR and ACOMAF, for example) and I just quite literally hate the books. Then the fact that there was a lot of hype just leaves me scratching my head wondering if everyone else read a different version than I did LOL!
By the way, everyone raves about how ACOMAF is so much better than ACOTAR. I liked ACOTAR a little bit (although it felt way too long) but I hated ACOMAF – did not see the appeal at all. Sadly, I have (what seems like) a lot of ACOMAF swag items. Of course. Obviously I didn’t continue the series. 😉
For a long time, I’ve been a solitary bookworm ( I felt like the only
bookworm in the universe 😂 ), so this is a new phenomenon for me, and
it’s true that even though I keep reading what I want /and/ not what
everyone is reading, I’m inevitably caught in some tides.
I try
to restore balance by looking for low-star reviews, to see why someone
might not have like it. But it’s hard not to be swept by the tides,
because: what if I miss my favourite book? 😱😱 Which I almost did with
The Raven Boys. 🙊
I literally just posted a discussion about hype! I mean, I love seeing books getting a lot of hype, it makes me more excited to read it but at the same time it creates a highly unrealistic expectations for me and I am more often being dissapointed by them. It won’t ruin the book per say, but I usually enjoy the hype but read it after the hype have died down to let my expectations went down/ forgotten for a bit 😀
I think hype is a great thing. it boosts authors and their books and it creates a community for people to fangirl about a certain book. after all, books are hyped for a reason – a lot of people LIKE them. But then the hype also ruins books for me because I have super high expectation and WHOOPS I end up hating it. This 2018, I’m trying to find the balance between reading books I ENJOY and trusting recommendations. Great discussion!
Hype is amazing, because I get to hear about so many books! Though it overwhelms my TBR.
Right now I’m struggling with a hyped book that I received an ARC for. I didn’t really enjoy it, and had some major problems with the plot & characters.
But all these people are posting amazing things on Twitter, and I’m like, “Guys, did we read the same book?”
It makes me question my opinions, are they good enough? Should I tone down my bad thoughts?
I hate disappointing people, and I feel like I’m going to do that by saying I didn’t enjoy the book.
Ergh, it’s a struggle.
I loved this post because I can totally relate!