The Unpopular Opinions Book Tag

I was tagged by my book book blogging partner-in-crime Rachel, who is eloquent, and honest, and has recommended some fabulous books, so if you’re not already following her blog, definitely check it out!

1.) A popular book or book series that you didn’t like.

There are definitely a few classics that fit this category, although I’m not sure how popular Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller really are…

It takes A LOT for me to DNF a book. I’m one of those people who will stubbornly persist, even when I’m not enjoying something. Part of that is the fact that personally I don’t think it’s right to rate on goodreads, mark as read, or review books that you haven’t, in fact, read (I’d argue it’s more acceptable if you’ve made it through more than half of the book and DNF, but before that I don’t think personally agree with rating/reviewing). Part of it is optics and wanting to finish as much as possible for my goodreads challenge, and even it comes to reading a book with other people as part of a book club I’m even more stubborn. I DNF-ed Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Friend. I made it halfway and was getting absolutely nothing out of it. I found the humour juvenile, I know at least some of the religious references were going right over my head, and I didn’t care for any of the characters. Even Jesus. I have friends who RAVE about this book though, so it’s clearly a to each your own kind of deal.

2.) A popular book or book series that everyone else seems to hate but you love.

I sorted my read shelf on Goodreads low to high and compared the average goodreads rating against books that I gave four or more stars to. Surprisingly one of the two books tied for lowest was The Scorpio Races by Erin Bow! I’m actually really shocked that the book only has a 3.43 on goodreads. Sure in the wake of The Hunger Games’ popularity the YA dystopia genre has been overrun, but I found this book fascinating. Basically a ruling AI prevents war between nations by making it mandatory that each ruler have a child, an heir under the age of eighteen who is held as a hostage to ensure good behavior. Whenever a nation declares war on another, the hostage’s life is forfeit. The book has a bisexual protagonist, a snarky AI character, and is set against a world where water rights are paramount. I did think the second book in the duology, which focuses more on questions of what it means to be human, was more engaging, but I really enjoyed this book.

The other book, the first in Arlene C. Harris’ Pont-au-change books is not exactly popular, so it doesn’t fit this category. Still, even though I get that it’s basically published fanfic (what if Javert and Valjean didn’t die) I think it’s really good published fanfic and I enjoyed this (unfinished) series a lot.

3.) An otp that you don’t like.

Does it have to be a canon endgame otp? Because look, I know Mal is kind of a safe, boring match for Alina, I can see why the fandom would look elsewhere, but I really don’t understand the Alina/The Darkling shippers. He quite literally kills people!!! I know I’m in the minority here, but I just never ‘got’ the appeal of The Darkling as a character. He’s an interesting enough villain, but I feel almost as strongly about not understanding the appeal shipping him with Alina as I do about the idea of shipping Rey with Kylo Ren. Weirdly enough I don’t have strong feelings about who to pair Alina with though, just who NOT to pair her with! Although, if I were in her shoes, I would definitely have picked Nikolai.

4.) A popular book genre that you hardly reach for.

I love fantasy but I don’t have any interest at all in the Paranormal Fantasy/Urban Fantasy genre (magician or werewolf or demon hunter in a contemporary city kinds of books), let alone Paranormal Romance. I’ve tried reading paranormal fantasy books before and every time I’ve found the book disappointing, so I’m throwing in the towel unless it comes highly recommended by a reader and/or blogger I trust!

5.) A popular/beloved character that you do not like

People seem to either love or hate Severus Snape, and I definitely fall into the latter category. I definitely don’t condone bullying and I can see why he would carry a grudge against James Potter, but I don’t think it’s right to inflict punishment on Harry for the sins of his father. Much like in ‘nice guy’ syndrome, Snape is not, in fact, a nice guy. He sides with the Deatheaters and makes racist comments, including against Lily herself. No wonder she doesn’t choose him! Sure Snape does covertly protect Harry, and he does end up on the right side of things, but I don’t think it’s enough to make amends for his past actions or to justify his treatment of Harry throughout the books.

6.) A popular author that you can’t seem to get into.

I don’t know that he counts as mainstream popular, but certainly Cixin Liu is popular in his native China and the translated versions of his series have all been nominated for Hugo Awards so I think he counts. As my co-worker said, when I asked her how she was finding The Three-Body Problem, “I feel like the author hates women”. There’s some interesting ideas in his work, especially for those more mathematically inclined, but there’s also a deep thread of misogyny that’s hinted at in the first book and hit me full force with The Dark Forest. I didn’t even attempt the final book in the series because I didn’t need another 500 pages of this level of misogyny where the female characters are all 1) evil, 2) make poor choices and doom humanity in the process, or 3) exist only as love interests/sexual objects for the more fleshed out male characters. Stay away from this series folks!

7.) A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing.

I am really, really over love triangles. Not only is it a YA cliché, I feel like it’s almost an easy out for the author. Need some conflict in your novel? Add a love triangle! Earlier this year The Love Interest was one of the more anticipated books because it looked like it would satirize and/or invert the classic love triangle trope, but it sadly fell flat leaving readers right back at square one. Personally I’ve never understood the prioritization of romantic love over other types (platonic, sibling, etc.) I would love to read more books that put friendship front and center (The Raven Cycle), or at least books where romantic subplots have their time in the spotlight but also have to take a backseat to group dynamics (like Six of Crows). If you have to include a love triangle, at least mix it up a little! Where are the bisexual and/or same-sex love triangles, or at least the ones that don’t obviously set the characters involved up as contrasts right down to their physical appearances (fair vs. dark)!!

8.) A popular series that you have no interest in reading.

Like Rachel, I have no interest in reading anything written by Cassandra Clare or Sarah J. Maas. Cassandra Clare because honestly I don’t trust an author who has once been accused of plagiarism, and Sarah J. Maas I’ve heard really conflicting opinions on, but her books just don’t look like something that would appeal to me.

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?

I haven’t read the series (see above), but I do enjoy Shadowhunters as a guilty pleasure. From what I’ve heard, it seems to do better by its characters than the book series does, plus it’s filmed in my city!

Also, like Rachel, I enjoyed the movie version of Brooklyn by Colm Toibin more than the book. I found the pacing of the book to be really off, the main character of Eilis fairly wishy-washy and hard to understand, and I didn’t like one of her love interests at all. The movie was such a bright presence visually, Saoirse Ronan was really likable as Eilis, and seems to have more agency than she does in the book, and her love interest was actually really sweet, so the triangle was a true triangle.

What do you think of my choices? Leave a comment and let me know!

I’ve seen this tag around a lot so I won’t tag anyone in particular, but if you think it looks interesting and would like to give it a try, please link back to me so I can read your answers!