Let’s Talk Bookish: Book Hype

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022, with Dini at Dini Panda Reads as co-host from February 2025.

This is excellent timing for this prompt for me personally, as I have just finished a very hyped book that I felt, ultimately, wasn’t that good! But we’ll go into that a bit below.

Let’s Talk Bookish July 11th:
Book Hype
(Melanie @ Melanie’s Book Blog)

  Prompts: Has the hype ever ruined a book for you? Has the hype ever made a book better for you? Do you like lesser-known reads, and finding a gem of a book that no one’s heard of? Or do you prefer to read the more popular, mainstream books? Where are the majority of the books you read, in terms of popularity? 

I don’t think hype has ruined a book for me, as such, but it’s definitely given me higher expectations, which occasionally haven’t quite been met. Or I read a hyped book and end up feeling a little confused about why people seem to love it so much! Similarly, hype hasn’t made a book better, but sometimes it’s guided me towards a book I might not have otherwise read, and I’ve ended up loving (such as the Folk of the Air and Darker Shades of Magic books!). What I prefer to do now is wait for the hype to die down somewhat, then read the book – I feel like it gives me a bit more room for my own experiences!

I do like coming across lesser-known reads, but I think I prefer doing so early on, as in closer to the book’s publication. There are so many excellent books I’ve come across that feel like they should have had (or should have) more hype than they do. And there are definitely books I’ve seen unfairly judged or harshly criticised that don’t deserve it, and it’s often because something has sparked off a big hype for it, exposing it to an audience who either don’t typically read that type of book, or who go in expecting something completely different (such as people hugely misreading To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods as a romance), and again, it’s something I find painfully sad for books which should really hit larger, if they had been able to hit with the right audience.

I think the books I read vary with popularity, because I tend to read a mix of ‘mainstream’ and indie books. Sometimes hearing more about books will bump it up my TBR, but often I just focus on what books I want to read, or I might purchase a book based on ‘hype’, but not always rush to read it.

I think a good example of all the above is the book I mentioned earlier (though not my name). It was incredibly popular quite a few years back, and it seemed impossible to be in any bookish corners of the internet without hearing about it. It was made into an excellent TV series, but sometime before this I’d spotted the book in a shop, picked it up, and it had sat on my TBR for a long while. Now I’ve finished reading it, and I’m left a little baffled by all the hype around it. Again, the TV series was great, but there were a lot of things about the book itself I just disliked, and didn’t think worked too well. I haven’t yet written my review, but it’ll likely end up being a bit of a rant. Reader, I just couldn’t get on with Daisy Jones & The Six. I have ideas about why so many people liked it (again, which will be explored in my review), but for the most part, I definitely think the book was somewhat overhyped. Or maybe I expected it to be much, much better than it was considering how many people adored it. And apologies for anyone reading this who did honestly love it (and if you did, and have a review, I’d love to read it and see different viewpoints! And if you didn’t enjoy it and have a review…also let me know that, too!).

So yeah, mixed bag when it comes to hyped books. But what about you – do you pick up books when you’ve heard a lot about them, do you try and read them straight away or wait a while for the hype to die down?