Recently, there was a Top 10 Tuesday topic asking for our unpopular opinions, and it made me realize that is has been a very long time since I last did the Unpopular Opinions Book Tag! I last did this one in 2017, so I thought it was about time for an update to take into account many of the books I’ve read since then. This has always been one of my favourite tags to read/watch because I find it so interesting to see people’s “controversial” opinions. Although I don’t think we should ever have to clarify that anything expressed in an opinions tag are just our own opinions and not meant to offend, that statement still tends to be necessary. People can be so defensive about their favourite books, which I understand, but everyone is free to like or dislike what they want.
This tag was started by TheBookArcher, and her video can be found here.
1. A popular book or series that you didn’t like
I’m not sure how popular this series still is, but I found the Little House on the Prairie books so boring! I’ve only read the first two books in the series because of challenge prompts requiring westerns, but I really struggled with them. I never read this series when I was younger and I’d heard so many great things about it, but it was so dry! It read more like a textbook to me.
I also really couldn’t get into The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. I think it’s popularity seems to have dropped off a bit since it first came out, but at the time that I read it, this book was literally everywhere and I couldn’t avoid it. The only reason I read it in the first place was because of all the hype, and although it was technically well-written, I found it incredibly slow and it is told from such a distant perspective, that I couldn’t connect with the main character at all.
I also didn’t love We Were Liars! I picked it up in the first place because of all the hype, and though I ultimately gave it 4 stars, I was very underwhelmed. I predicted the main twist fairly early on, and thought that one of the major events that happened (which I can’t mention in detail) made very little logical sense.
2. A popular book or series that everyone else seems to hate but you love
The Girl on the Train! There was a lot of hype and positive reviews for this one when I first read it, but pretty soon after the popular opinion seemed to shift. I absolutely loved this book and devoured it in a couple of days, so I was surprised to see so many people complain that it was generic and predictable. I find a lot of thrillers seem to have very mixed reviews in general. I also really enjoyed Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers. It was weird and not at all what I expected, but I really liked it.
I also stand by my previous answer of Me Before You. I absolutely adored this book, and even enjoyed it’s (mostly unnecessary) sequels. I do understand why people disliked this one, but I thought the ending was very fitting for the character and the story in general opened up a very interesting ethical dilemma.
Also, I have to add Emergency Contact. There was a ton of hype around this one at first, especially before it was released, but once people started to read it the general opinion seemed to change. I loved this book, and I’m still debating whether to up my rating to a 5. I gave it 4.5 and rounded it down for Goodreads, but have questioned ever since whether to up it. There were a few moments that felt a bit sudden/disjointed, but I loved the interactions between the two main characters.
3. A Love Triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did NOT want them to end up with (warn ppl for spoilers) OR an OTP that you don’t like
I don’t think either of these are spoilers by now because the series are both so popular, but I’m not a huge fan of Jace and Clary from The Mortal Instruments. I’ve only read the first three books so far, so it’s possible my opinion will change, but I wasn’t that invested in them. I actually didn’t mind Simon as a character. I don’t want him with Clary because I didn’t like the way she handled their relationship, but I definitely don’t hate the character as much as everyone else seemed to.
4. A popular book genre that you hardly reach for
I know it’s hard to classify non-fiction as a single genre, but I rarely read non-fiction. When I do read it, it tends to be very specific books about favourite topics, and even then, I strongly prefer fiction. I have tried multiple different sub-genres, and haven’t been a huge fan of any of them, so I think it’s safe to say I don’t really enjoy non-fiction. I also rarely read horror because I’m too much of a coward for a lot of it, and although I have enjoyed the sci-fi books that I’ve read, it’s not a genre that I pick up very often.
5. A popular or beloved character that you do not like
Honestly, I’m not a big fan of Peter Kavinsky from the To All the Boys I Loved Before series. He was fine in the first book, but I didn’t like him as much in either of the sequels. To be fair, I also thought the sequels were a bit unnecessary in general. It also didn’t help that I listened to the second one as an audiobook, and I really hated the way the narrator voiced Peter. I liked him a tiny bit more again in the third book, but definitely not as much as everyone else seems to.
6. A popular author that you can’t seem to get into
I have to stick with my original answer for this one, and go with Stephen King. Horror is not my genre anyway, so it may not be such a surprise that I don’t like his books that much. I’ve only read Carrie and Misery, and I wasn’t a huge fan of either of them. Maybe I’d be better off trying one of his more recent books just to see if that makes any difference, but honestly none of them really interest me enough to want to pick them up.
7. A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing. (examples “lost princess”, corrupt ruler, love triangles, etc.)
I don’t really mind any trope, as long as they are done well. I also tend to vary my reading enough that I avoid overdoing any specific tropes in a row. However, I am getting a bit tired of every single YA character having a parent who has either died or run off. I get that it can make a more interesting backstory for the character, but it is starting to feel a bit overdone to me. It might just be the specific books that I’ve been picking, but it was the one thing I found myself getting a little tired of.
I’m also starting to get a bit tired of thrillers where the main, usually female, character is an alcoholic. I’m definitely not as sick of this as a lot of other people seem to be, but it is becoming very common and I would love to see a little more variety.
8. A popular book or series you have no interest in reading
Anna and the French Kiss! I’ve probably outgrown these books anyway, but I had no interest in them when they first came out and nothing that I’ve heard about them ever since have motivated me to pick them up either. I might eventually end up trying them just to see what the hype is about, but I’m really not expecting to enjoy it at all.
Last time I did this tag, I picked all of Rick Riordan‘s series, and I think that is still the case now. I don’t even know what it is, since I used to love mythology and I generally enjoy fantasy, so by all logic, I should have read these a long time ago. But I wasn’t interested when they were first published, and there are now so many that it’s becoming a bit overwhelming.
9. The saying goes “The book is always better than the movie”, but what movie or TV show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?
Last time I mentioned Devil Wears Prada and The DUFF, but I definitely need to add The Princess Diaries to that list. That was one of my favourite movies, but I didn’t really care for the book. I also really liked the Netflix movie version of To All the Boys I Loved Before, probably more than the book.
Abyssal Librarian 