I’m just in a mood for venting, so I thought it was a great time to do the Unpopular Opinions Tag. Everyone loves a bit of controversy now and again. Apologies in advance if I have insulted any of your favourites, but that’s just the nature of unpopular opinions.
1. A Popular Book You Didn’t Like
The first one that comes to mind is Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman – which I feel a bit bad about since they’re fellow Aussies. A huge disappointment, because I was really looking forward to reading it. Behind the superficial trappings of the epistolary format and wicked-cool designs, the book hides a relatively run-of-the-mill sci-fi fare. It skimmed much too close to the plot and details in Battlestar Galactica for my liking, particularly because BSG did everything so much better. I also found the characters shallow and underdeveloped. Everyone else on the blogosphere seem to include this book in their Top 2015 list, so I’m definitely in the minority here.
2. A Book Series That Everyone Hates But You Love
Plenty of people love this series, but it has its fair share of haters, too. Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes is a huge guilty pleasure of mine. I know that it’s technically not very good, filled with nonsensical plotlines, barely constructed world building, and underdeveloped characters – but I just love the shameless drama of it all. It’s like the author picked up a book on worst cliffhangers/plot-twists and crammed it all into one book. I could eat this whole series up with a spoon.
3. A Love Triangle Where The MC Ends Up With The Person You Didn’t Want Them To End Up With
I know this is probably premature, since the second novel isn’t even out yet, but Tamlin of ACOTAR puts me to sleep. Rhysand is swoony, but is also hugely problematic. Feyre should just ride off into the human realm and never look back. Also, the cards are in my ship’s favour for Throne of Glass at the moment, but I have trust issues when it comes to Sarah J Maas so I’ll hold my breath.
Also, they’re not main characters, but Neville and Luna is a huge missed opportunity. I mean, Hannah Abbot?!
4. A Popular Book Genre You Rarely Reach For
Contemporary books in general, especially ones centred on romance or self-discovery. I just find regular life really boring, and unless I have heard rave reviews left and right, I’m unlikely to pick up contemporary novels. Although I do dabble in reading general fiction, I prefer ones that have a magical realism or fabulist spin – in fact, those are my favourite kind of books.
5. A Popular Character You Didn’t Like
Kvothe of Kingkiller Chronicles. He is such a hack, I can’t take a guy who’s a genius, and a maestro, and the chosen one, and possess a godly penis, etc… seriously. I love the writing in these books, but Kvothe and his insufferable and incessant humble-brag irritates me so much, I find it almost amusing. A lot of fans are of the opinion that his perfection is the result of the unreliable narration, I say that they’re giving the series way too much credit.
6. A Popular Author You Can’t Seem To Get Into
Richelle Mead. I tried a couple of her Vampire Academy books, and I found the story largely went nowhere and the cast awfully boring. Then I tried reading Soundless, which was such a godawful waste of the gorgeous cover that I gave up in a hurry. Her most recent release, The Glittering Court, seems like The Selection in space – so it’s an instant skip. I admire her ability to continually pump out one popular series after another, but they’re just not for me.
I have only read one Colleen Hoover book, and I know she’s hugely popular in the blogging circle – but I can’t stand the slut-shaming and the uninspired writing style.
7. Popular Trope You’re Tired Of Seeing
Although I dislike plenty of tropes, such as instalove or love triangles, but the one I most detest is the heroine is ‘not-like-other-girls’ trope. It reeks of internalised misogyny and special snowflake syndrome. Guess what, being different from other ladies do not automatically make you i) relatable or ii) unique – especially when the fictional landscape is filled with such characters. This is also often coupled with derisive comments about other females and how silly they are for liking *gasp* to look presentable. I’m a lady who loves both clothes and makeup, I find ‘hanging out with the dudes’ tiring, I take offence to this trope. I have a lot more I would love to say on this subject, but I’ll save it for another post.
Note: I noticed something a little ironic when typing this up, two of my favourite female characters: Hermione Granger and Lila Bard, plays on this trope a little – especially the latter. I guess it shows I have a tolerance for it when it’s written well, and that even the very best of us have blind spots.
8. Popular Series You Have No Interest In Reading
The Selection series by Kiera Cass. Everything about this series blares warning bells, from the monotonous girl-in-a-gown covers, to the nonsensical faux-dystopia setting, to the inane premise. I’ve also seen enough reviews from sources I trust to know that I shouldn’t bother with it.
9. The Saying Goes, “the book is always better than the movie” But What Movie Do You Prefer To The Book?
I would say Lord of the Rings without any hesitation. The book is a cornerstone for my beloved fantasy genre, but the film series moves me in ways the book never could. The actors, the music, the visuals, the sceneries of my beloved NZ – everything about the movie elevated Lord of the Ring as a series for me. I rewatch it religiously every single year, and I still cry during all of my favourite bits. It’s also my partner’s favourite movie series, so I love the series all the more because it’s something we can share together. We’ve the visited Hobbiton, gone to the movie premiere of The Hobbit in Wellington, and wandered Weta Workshop together, all because of this movie. Those memories and more than what the book could give me.
Do you have different opinions on any of these? Have you done this tag yourself? Link me & chat to me below! I tag everyone who hasn’t done it, I’m pretty late on this train.
Read at Midnight 
I love your answers, Aentee! I also ship Neville and Luna. I just wished they’d end up together. I still yet have to read Illuminae but the hype is still there. I’m curious about that book 😛
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I am so upset about Neville/Luna, but head canon will always exist.
I hope you end up enjoying Illuminae, I’m definitely in the barely existent minority with that one.
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Is it okay to say that I prefer the 1939 film version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ to the book?
btw- I think the old ‘Maltese Falcon’ film with Humphrey Bogart is the truest conversion of a book to a movie that I know of.
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Of course! I will have to check everything you mentioned here out 🙂
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ooooh i love this post! i actually read the first book in the Selection series, and i really liked it, but couldn’t get into the second… i guess i just wasn’t in the mood for it, but i’ll definitely give it a try later 🙂 and YES! the thing about unique girls. sooooo true. i mean, we need girl WE RELATE TO. we wouldn’t connect to characters we don’t see ourselves in (exept Hermione, which i LOVE. that means, as you said, this trope should be done well)!
i’ve also done this tag if you want to check it out! the link is HERE
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Glad to hear that you liked Selection, perhaps I need to change my mind about it XD
I just want a true regular girl, not one that’s overly clumsy and totally different from everyone around them – it’s so annoying. I love Hermione as well – her bias about Fleur aside.
Thanks for linking me!
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YES! Neville and Luna should have been together!!
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Hear hear! JKR needs to revise a lot of the epilogue XD
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I’m so with you on nearly all of these! I feel exactly the same about Illuminae, it’s pretty but not nearly as original as it was hyped to be!
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Your review of Illuminae was pretty much the only one I’ve read that I could agreed with haha! Ah well, plenty of other great scifi to occupy ourselves with.
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I LOVED the fact that you decided to do this post since it focuses so much on venting about what you don’t like in YA! 🙂 I may do it since it seems so tempting because there are a bunch of things I don’t appreciate about YA and some of the things have to do with the whole love triangle thing… and stuff! ugh…
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Do it Keionda, writing this post was so satisfying – you’ll love it XD
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I’ve not read a lot of the books you mentioned, but I definitely agree with Lord of the Rings – though more so on The Hobbit, since I’ve read the book and seen the first two films, and they are absolutely stunning. I love the cast, the cinematography, etc; though the book was great, I found the films to be much better.
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I personally found the Hobbit got dragged out too much for the movie, but I did appreciate them trying to incorporate more of Gandalf and bringing Galadriel into the story, since they’re my faves ❤
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Oh I really dislike the ‘not like other girls’ trope as well. I also really, really hate how often abusive relationships are romanticised in fiction nowadays
And definitely agree with you on Neville and Luna. Maybe their endgames wouldn’t have felt so out of place if we had ever seen them interact, but Neville and Luna are just so adorable together!
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Yes especially in NA, the characterisation in that genre always skeeves me out. And yes, I was so disappointed that Neville married a “filler” student D: At least Luna’s match kinda made sense with her obsession with strange magical creatures, but I would have preferred Neville.
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I completely agree with so many of your opinions. Let’s start with Lord of the Rings. Those books were my bedtime stories when I was a kid so I already loved the franchise but the films took that love to a whole new level. The acting is on point, the cinematography is stunning and the music, oh my the amount of times I’ve found myself getting emotional cause of the music is ridiculous.
The covers for The Selection series was enough of a warning sign for me to run as far away as I could from those books haha.
The shipping wars in Sarah J Maas’ books are so frustrating to me. For one I hate love triangles/squares and the drama and putting down the other characters for the sake of your ship is so off-putting.
I could definitely go on a rant about the ‘not-like-other-girls’ trope but I feel like you summed up my reasoning pretty well. 😀
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The music in LOTR is so on point. I smile when I hear the Shire theme. I get all worked up hearing the Fellowship theme. I still get chills down my spine every time I hear the Rohan theme! It definitely took the movie to another level.
SJM never sticks to her gun shipping wise as well. I live in fear of being crushed ahhh!!
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Very interesting opinions Aentee! I like Colleen Hoover but lately her books have been uninspired. Lol I wasn’t too impressed with Falling Kingdoms either but it was definitely entertaining. You’re not the first person who didn’t love ACOTAR so I’m not surprised! Fantasy all the way!
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I’ll have to try some other ones of hers. Falling Kingdoms is perfect for a “no brainer” type read, though!
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I am relieved to have found someone else who didn’t like Illuminae! I thought it was clever with the format, and the sci-fi element was a huge draw, but I ultimately wasn’t a fan. I am not alone, apparently!
I totally agree that Neville and Luna should have become a thing. Heck, even the last Harry Potter movie was trying to put them together, ha!
An author I’ve tried to get into but just can’t is definitely Ally Condie. I relatively liked her standalone Atlantia, but it wasn’t really what I wanted. I won’t even get started on her Matched trilogy.
And yes, The Lord of the Rings movies are amazing! I loved the books, but the movies really make the story come to life, and they make things much clearer to understand.
Awesome answers, Aentee! This is one of the best book tags because everyone’s answers are usually wildly different. 😀
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I disagree with you on pretty much all of these, haha! Well, except number 7 which I SUPER agree on. Only, the two characters you say you like that the trope applies to, I wouldn’t actually say use the trope. While Lila and Hermoine both don’t enjoy a lot of traditionally “girly” things they also seem to respect girls who DO like those things. I usually find that trope gross because it pits girls against each other and the character is usually “looking down” on other girls but with those two I don’t really see that as the case. Lila and Hermoine are just doing what they enjoy to do. That’s just my two cents, anyways.
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Ahhh unpopular opinions can be so fun to confess to, right?!? hehe. I absolutely agree without about Richelle Mead. :O I’ve read 2 of her book sand really cannot see what the fuss is about. I keep finding them very problematic, tbh, and having some disturbing themes (like Soundless playing with “Curing culture” for disabilities…how about no.) And also I found the one Colleen Hoover book I read VERY problematic too, gah. So yup. I’m with you on that. XD
I agree that Feyre’s options aren’t great there. heheh.
And omg the LOTR movies are AMAZING. But not so much the books. I fell asleep during trying to read bk 2. 😂
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We are book soulmates and we should elope immediately. I agreed with EVERYTHING YOU SAID IN THIS and now I may have a tiny crush on you and your bookish ways.
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Neville and Luna all the way! Don’t worry Aentee, we still love you. This tag is quite liberating, isn’t it? *pats you in the back*
I agree with the situation with Richelle Mead. I mean, her books are good I guess, but I think the only thing I can read from her is The Glittering Court. I’m not in there because of The Selection vibes, I’m in it for the historical references hahaha. 🙂
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I am with you on the “not-like-other-girls” trope. I hate when the narrative describes them this way (mostly the telling rather than showing) and the character ends up walking around comparing herself to other female characters, believing them to be ‘too girly’ or ‘too desperate’ or ‘too… whatever’. I have plenty of favourite female characters that are definitely not-like-other-girls, but they are interesting, independent and confident characters that don’t need to walk around believing that they are better than everyone else. They are simply themselves. And they don’t worry about what other female characters are doing.
(I hope that comment just made sense, haha.)
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I agree I just want a regular girl who do not demean other girls for once as the main character. And no the comment totally made sense, characters can triumph over their tropes in hands of a skilled writer. Thanks for stopping by ♥️
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I totally agree with you on book genres! I only read contemporary when I have review books, or I’ve heard incredibly good things about it, but I’m just BORED by many of them. I don’t know if it’s because I hate the love, or the drama, or just regular life in general (haha), but I definitely prefer fantasy 🙂
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I ignore contemporary unless I get a serious bout of cover lust haha. I want epic adventures and death by the dozens and space! I think my issue is with the regular life which I find too boring haha.
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Eck, the Selection trilogy. I read the first three books, back when it was a ‘trilogy’ for real, haha… and I really struggled. There was some fun fluff, but it was also really infuriating when it came to the romances and predictable plot points. Yep, save your time.
As for Tamlin – I actually really loved him!
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Kudos for making it through the entire trilogy haha. I think I might save it for a time when I’m after some fluff as well.
I confess that I’m not a huge fan of ACOTAR in general which might be the problem 🤐
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Totally agree about the love triangle on ACOTAR! I didn’t really like Tamlin and to be honest, I don’t see why everyone loves Rhys. Sorry ☹️
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Haha I’m not a big fan of ACOTAR so don’t worry no need to apologise here 😉
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I think my sister and coblogger did this tag a while back. It’s pretty fun in my opinion. I really liked your answers– YES to neville and luna! The movie of stardust was better than the book I thought too.
https://weavingwaveswords.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/unpopular-opinions-tag/
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Thanks for linking me! Glad you guys had fun w the tag! I haven’t had a chance to check out the Stardust movie but the book is one of my favourite Gaiman works.
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I actually love these sorts of posts—they always remind me that everyone has such differing tastes in books, and honestly, I find that pretty awesome. I can so understand why you’re not interested in THE SELECTION series. Personally? I adore them. They’re kinda fairytaleish and romantic and full of gorgeous romance and dresses . . . but they’re not for everyone. Interestingly the LoTR movie and books are on par to me—it would probably kill me to choose a favourite, hahah! And I’m sorry you didn’t really like ILLUMINAE, but I’ve never seen BSG so I can’t compare! 🙂
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Maybe I was too unfair on The Selection, I might still check them out on a day where I day dream of royalty and ball gowns haha. I admit to having never read the LOTR trilogy the whole way through so I trust your words haha. And omg you must watch BSG it has amazing plot and ladies and themes ♥️
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OMG, I feel the same about Lord of the Rings movies! I like books but movies blew me away. I watch it religiously every year as well and cry over the same scenes over and over again 🙂 I never thought I would say that some movie is better than book, but LOTR is an exeption to that rule for me.
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Every time I hear the song for the Grey Havens I bawl like a baby omg. I love the trilogy and I’m glad that you do too! Another example I prefer to the book is The Martian actually 😂
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“Although I dislike plenty of tropes, such as instalove or love triangles, but the one I most detest is the heroine is ‘not-like-other-girls’ trope. It reeks of internalised misogyny and special snowflake syndrome.”
THIS. I’m looking forward to your post dedicated to the subject!
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Thank you! Hope I can write it one day!
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I actually love Kvothe…but I never saw him as perfect, just lucky and quick on his feet. Plus, I always got the feeling that he’s either paying for his past awesomeness presently, as the narrator, or about to pay for it with whatever is coming in book three.
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He’s quite the polarising character, I guess w the final book we will know which he is! I do enjoy the series very much despite my reservations about kvothe
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I agree with you, Neville and Luna is such a huge missed opportunity! They’d be so cute together! And I also hate the special snowflake trope. Like why can’t normal people be the MC? Not everyone is a special snowflake. I haven’t read Illuminae, but my one reason I haven’t read it is because I’m afraid I won’t connect with the book because of the writing format.
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It is pretty difficult to connect to the MCs in Illuminae but you should still give it a chance as plenty of people loved it. Neville and Luna will forever be my head canon.
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Have I talked to you about my experience reading that one Colleen Hoover book? Literally nothing happened. It was all exercising, stolen glances, and living a semi-Amish lifestyle of nothingness and the whole time I was like “WHEREISTHEPLOT?” This is why I cannot do most contemporaries.
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There are no plots in CoHo’s books I think I just need to make my peace with the fact that I don’t like NA 😂😂
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I love the Unpopular Opinions Tag! So controversial but I love hearing people’s negative opinions on books 😀
I’m the opposite of you, I enjoy reading contemporaries! I guess I like reading about relatable things but it does get boring after a while, so I like to read a mixture of genres 🙂 I actually really liked Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead! I think I really liked the sarcastic characters. I do understand why people don’t like VA though! I haven’t read much Colleen Hoover but the Never Never novellas are pretty good.
I have this tag saved in my drafts – I’m almost afraid to post it lol.
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Eek we clash on opinions it seems. I think it’s bc I feel a lot more comfortable reading fantasy since it’s what I grew up with. I hope to give Richelle Mead another chance in the future 🙂 you should go ahead and post it, people love controversy 😉
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As you know I read mostly contemporary books; and it’s funny but I love this genre for the same reason you don’t like it: regular life. I always feel so connected with characters in contemporary books, because they have real problems. When I read fantasy I always feel like it’s not real: the world, characters and their feelings. And books with magical realism mostly don’t work for me at all.
You’ve made an interesting comment about Hermione Granger and Lila Bard. I never thought about it but I guess I’m the same; I can look past some problematic things when they are well written.
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I’ve just seen Joye’s comment, which made me realize that I don’t actually care about plot in my books. I can enjoy a book with nonexistent plot. I want multidimensional characters and most important I want feelings.
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Good, you should definitely stay away from The Selection! Having said that, those books are addictive AF because of their unnecessary drama. It’s probably better to just not start and get hooked. I’m going to write you a long list of contemporaries you have to read. We can make it a challenge.
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I watch The Bachelor in real life so LBR I would probably love The Selection on the downlow hahaha.
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Amen to the ‘not-like-the-other-girls’ trope. Hate it hate it hate it hate it. Good thing you’re not picking up The Selection because that was just two hundred something pages of ‘not-like-the-other-girls’.
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Oh My God, You and me basically have the exact same answers
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Literally same feelings for Falling Kingdoms
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