Do you ever see a book pop up on your recommendations list that you know you will never read? Instead, you marvel, in what world did this algorithm think that I would even consider a book like this? I’ve been seeing this happening more frequently after I’ve purchased or checked out books, so I thought I’d vent some of my frustration by listing some recent fiction that has the effect of setting my teeth on edge.
The 50 Shades of Gray Trilogy by E. L. James
I think the cringeworthy flaws in this one speak for themselves; we have enough books that romanticize manipulative or destructive relationships, but I can tell without even cracking open the cover, that this one takes the cake!
The Bridgerton Novel Series by Julia Quinn
Speaking of cringeworthy, it saddens me how far away from the “proper romance” of Jane Austen’s world the present day has journeyed away from and Bridgerton seems to be one of the main examples of this occurring. Disclaimer: I am basing my judgments on this series off the Netflix adaptation, so if the book is far different from the show, I may be persuaded to give it a chance. While I don’t mind the main characters being portrayed by different races in the show, the sex scenes are too much for my respect for “proper romances” to handle.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Everywhere I look—YouTube, book shops’ Best Sellers, my book recommendations group on Facebook—there it is! Since I tend to like Southern fiction, this was on my TBR list for a bit, but after I watched the commercial for the new movie adaptation coming out, all I can think of it now is…Meh. I think this is one of the circumstances where a book is so overhyped, I’m getting sick of hearing about it.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
This was on one of the “Book of the Month” lists that I reviewed, and I thought this looked good (based off of my initial judgment after seeing the fun cover). Since I usually am not interested in present-day romance novels, I thought, “Why not try something new?”, but after reading the synopsis I was under the impression this was just another cliché romance. To those of you who’ve read this: am I right or should I give it a chance?
Verity by Colleen Hoover
Like Where the Crawdads Sing, I saw this book posted infinite times on book recommendation lists, but after looking into it further, I guess there is a LOT of sex scenes, so I can already tell that this is not the book for me. Why don’t publishers just market books like these in the erotica genre instead of general YA fiction? Is it to throw readers like me, who don’t want to read that trash, for a loop?
This post turned more into a rant than I had wanted, and I apologize for that. It just frustrates me to see so many good books out there, mostly underrated ones that are unknown to many readers, get sidestepped for popular fiction that is either written poorly, has a horrible plot, or has clogged the whole story with trash.
Ashley Weaver 