This is something I always think can round up a good discussion since hyped books are such a big part of the book blogging community, I mean after all it’s kind of our thing to talk about books and promote them! However, hype isn’t always a good thing and I’m here to discuss both the good and bad.
What is a “Hyped” Book?
Basically this is a book that EVERYONE and their mother is talking about! You’ve seen this book around the blogosphere hundreds of times and feel like you quite literally see it being discussed everywhere!
(Examples of Hyped Books: The Cruel Prince, Throne of Glass, or Six of Crows)
So What’s the Big Deal with “Hyped” Books?
Well, I suppose we can never really be too sure what exactly makes a book turn into a super-hyped book can we? It could be anything from a book with a beautiful cover, a great synopsis, or maybe it’s another book by an already popular author. Either way this book is being talked about a TON and that’s sort of what the “big deal” is in and of itself!
Is a Ton of Hype Surrounding a Book Good?
This is kind of where the real discussion on “hyped books” begins, in my opinion.
Tons of hype for a book can be a good thing! It just means it’s getting tons of promotion and your odds of hearing about it are, obviously, a lot higher and you might want to go give it a read. I do think the good side of the hype tends to affect the author and publisher a bit more since free promotion and the chances of selling a lot more copies are higher because it’s a more popular book.
If you read a hyped book and enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to that’s great! You now get to discuss it with TONS of other people and also not have to worry about spoilers anymore too! Also I believe bookish merch is more available for more popular books too, which is kind of a given.
(Hyped Books I Enjoyed: Six of Crows, The Hate U Give, An Ember in the Ashes, and Red Rising.)
Is a Ton of Hype Surrounding a Book Bad?
With every pro comes the cons…
I personally lean a little more on the “hype is bad” side of things. Why? Because I feel like too much hype builds a ridiculous amount of expectations and most of the time a book just can’t meet them. Therefore the likelihood for disappointment is increased. I have bought books a couple of times just because of how hyped they were and then was let down by them.
The more popular the book the more it’s discussed on social media….which also increases your chances of seeing spoilers! And no one likes spoilers! That’s a con for sure. Also it can get a little annoying to see the same book everywhere over and over again especially if it’s a book you have zero interest in reading.
Peer pressure or just regular pressure to read the book because of how popular it is. Once again I have given into this multiple times, reading a book just because everyone else is. You shouldn’t ever feel like you have to read a book if you don’t really want to.
(Hyped Books I Didn’t Enjoy: Truthwitch, Throne of Glass, One of Us Is Lying, There’s Someone Inside Your House, and The Crown’s Game)
What do you think of hyped books?
Do you tend to avoid hyped books? Why?
Do agree with any of my pros and cons?
Do you usually enjoy hyped books or are you disappointed by them?
Come join the discussion!
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Before a year ago, I was out of the loop when it came to hyped books, then I started blogging and started to see a lot more of them, obviously. I tend not to think too much about what other people think about a book. I’ve picked up a couple that I’ve seen *everywhere* after they were released and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I loved them.
I think books are pretty objective, like TV shows and movies. Just because everyone loves Star Wars doesn’t mean you will. It doesn’t mean Star Wars is bad, it just means it isn’t for you. Most of the time I do think that hype is deserved, even if I didn’t personally enjoy the book. If it’s hyped by everyone I follow on wordpress, I may be more likely to pick it up or at least look into it a little more than I would be if I was just wondering through the book store and found it.
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I love your opinion on this (is it weird to say I love an opinion? Haha!) and I agree with you. I book may not be for everyone but sometimes they’re worth the hype regardless. One book I can think of right now is “Children of Blood and Bone” which other people may not end up liking but it’s a diverse fantasy written by a POC author and that’s worth all the hype right there!
Thanks for joining the discussion! 🙂
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Honestly, I’m always weary when I see books that are overly hyped. I tend to read books that are talked about a little bit less except for the hyped books I’ve always wanted to read on my own I.e. Throne of Glass (which is my least favorite of the TOG series (the series get so much better from there)) I love it when I Review a book and others say they’ve never heard of it and now want to give it a try from my recommendation. It makes me feel like I’m contributing to the more unappreciated market of books!
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*off topic* so glad to hear the ToG series gets better because I really didn’t like the first book all that much!
And I can definitely relate to that feeling of getting someone to read an underappreciated book! While I will cave in with some hyped books I usually like to read the more under-hyped books as well. 🙂
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Great post! Hyped books are bad for my bank balance as I must read! I always tend to get an ebook first and then if I love it then I get the physical copy 😁
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Thank you! And bad for the bank account those hyped books definitely are, haha! 🙂
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So true 😂
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I loved The Hate U Give as well. I feel like some books deserve the hype, while there are others that didn’t. A hyped book that I really didn’t like was Illuminae. I’m starting to somewhat decrease the amount of hyped books that I read.
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Same, everyone’s opinions differ so there’s always going to be some of us who didn’t think a book worthy of all the hype. I usually won’t read it unless I think it’s something I would genuinely want to read though. 🙂
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A few years ago, when I started blogging in Swedish I tended to buy all the books people talked about, especially if the book had a gorgeous cover. And I liked some of then, but then it turned and I started to read lots and lots of books I really couldn´t enjoy and that kind of got me thinking a bit more about what kind of a book I want to read. It ended with me unhauling so many books from my shelf. I had 90 when I started and ended up with only 50 books left that I wanted to read, not only because others told me I should. And I guess that has stuck with me. Shure I will definitely look a book or two up if I see it appear on many many blogs I love, but only and ONLY if the synopsis sound good, I buy it or borrow it on the library.
But then again I might miss out on great books. I almost did with the Red Queen series. I didn´t want to read it at first because of all the hype and I didn´t think it was a book for me. Then a book publisher here in Sweden send me a copy for free and I thought, why not try it for a chapter and two. But I got stuck and now I understand the hype around it because I really enjoyed this new world. Now it was almost 6 month since I´ve read it and honestly I haven´t thought of the sequel for a long time. Maybe I will read it, Maybe I wont. And that okey 😀
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I was pretty much the same way before I started blogging and learning about what types of books I actually enjoyed reading, I used to buy books just because of how popular they were since I didn’t know any better. Yours is a great way to do it I think because that’s how I do it as well, only read it if it sounds like something you would actually enjoy!
But also like you said we could be missing out on some great books, so I like to think borrowing a copy from the library is a great way to try a book to see if it’s something you’d end up enjoying! Thanks for joining the discussion too! 🙂
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Great post Heather! 🙂 Ahhh the good old hyped books. I don’t even know how I choose them tbh. I don’t read every hyped book out there, like I’m only getting to Six of Crows now (which I read last week and loved, currently reading Crooked Kingdom and it’s just as good). But when I heard about Carval I just had to read it, I don’t know why… same thing with the Hate U Give, I heard so much about it that I just had to own it and read it. With Caravl I could have left that because it wasn’t my favourite, but I’m SO glad I read THUG. But all this to say I’m not worried if I miss out on a hyped book because I know if I still want to read it, I can 😛
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Thanks Meghan!
What you said all makes perfect sense to me because it sounds similar to how I operate, haha! Sometimes I am swayed by the hype even if I’m not 100% sure I’ll love the book or not, for me that was THUG since I don’t usually like contemporaries but that book is 100% worth all the hype! But like you said the book is always going to be there if we decide we want to read it later. I’m not too sure about Caraval anymore but I think I’ll give it a try at least. 🙂
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You’re welcome! I’m glad to know I’m not alone haha! THUG was definitely worth every hype it got & continues to get. I hope you enjoy Caraval; a lot of people really enjoyed it so there’s hope. 🙂
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when i saw cruel prince appear, i was thrilled. i love how holly black writes and wanted to read it… but now that everyone (and their mother) is talking about i feel less inclined. I’ll read it once the hype died down a bit…
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I was the opposite with Cruel Prince since I’m not the biggest fan of Black’s writing but the hype swayed me, I’m going to give it a try just to see. Still, I think waiting for hype to die down is a good idea, haha! 🙂
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I think you’re right about hype being both good and bad. There are a lot of books I really enjoyed that I wouldn’t have picked up without the hype surrounding them but when I pick up a hyped book, it does raise my expectations and make me a little nervous. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was one book I probably would have enjoyed a lot more if it hadn’t been hyped up as the best book ever. I also think it can have a negative effect on the book’s reviews because all these people go into reading the book with impossibly high expectations and when it doesn’t meet them, they give it one or two star reviews.
On the other hand, my library tends to get the hyped books quicker so sometimes the hype works 🙂
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I agree, whenever I pick up a hyped books my expectations are always a little high and I’m worried I’ll be disappointed. But it’s always nice when one does meet those expectations! I really like the point you brought up of other people having their expectations not met because of the hype and therefore end up rating it lower.
My library is fairly good at getting in new releases as well so if I’m a bit worried then I can always borrow it instead of buy it! 🙂
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