I don’t understand the hype

Dear bookish friends, I don’t understand the hype.

So what do I mean by that? I’m not talking about the hype of a specific book. Just the hype in general. I don’t understand it. I haven’t read a lot of hyped up books, but I have read some and the experience for each of them wasn’t so good. So my question is: why do people make such a huge deal of books that are according to me just average?

Let’s look at an example: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. For a while you couldn’t go onto bookstagram or booktok without seeing that book. And the book wasn’t all over the internet because people didn’t like it. Almost everybody loved it. They raved about this book. “It’s so good”, but it wasn’t so good at least not for me.

*Sidenote: I’m definitely not that person who goes on about how bad a book is or slam the author or anything. As an aspiring author, I know how hard it is to hear people talk negatively about your writing and I have so much admiration for every author who is brave enough to put pen to paper and then actually publish it.

So when I say that “it wasn’t so good at least not for me”, I’m not saying the book was bad. Because it wasn’t. It was still good and I gave it 3 out of 5 stars so it’s nothing like that. I just think the problem with the hype isn’t the books. It is the fact that you see these books all over the internet with overly positive reviews. People will say stuff like “it is the best book I’ve ever read” and the problem with that is that after I heard you say that I have this expectation of “I’m going to read one of the best books ever”. But it’s never the best book ever.

And of course everyone is entitled to what they believe. Maybe this book was the best book you’ve ever read, but it wasn’t for me. I sometimes feel like these people who write these amazing things about this book (without even talking about the book’s flaws and EVERY book has flaws) are being paid or something, because they rave so much. And even though you see the book and you know it is another hyped up book and you shouldn’t put your trust in all these people going crazy, you still have a certain expectation for these books and most of the times you are disappointed. Not all hyped up books are like this, though. I am currently reading Six of Crows and it is really good.

I just think there is an unnecessary spotlight on these books. They are good books. They aren’t amazing, life-changing books. There are books that are amazing and that don’t get that same spotlight. Some days I will scroll through bookstagram and every second post will be the same book and most of the reviews/feedback will be good.

I just think we need to try to get that spotlight back on those books that isn’t in every second post. The underrated books, the books we haven’t heard of or the hidden gems. So let’s put the spotlight on them. So in the comments, let us know of some books that you think are underrated and also let us know about some hyped up books that didn’t live up to the hype. I’ll probably make another post at a later stage about hyped up books I’ve read that doesn’t live up to the hype (and maybe I’ll include some of the books you mention).