I don’t think I’ve ever had a bigger season of reading disappointment than this past summer. And, I’ve been hearing similar things from other book bloggers and on reading-related podcasts.
Many of the books that didn’t work for me this summer had been hyped up by publishers and the book media…making the crash hurt that much worse. At the end of every year, I write a post called 5 Books That Deserved the Hype…and 5 That Didn’t. Y’all, 5 books isn’t enough to account for all the overhyped books this summer, much less an entire year! Let’s review the offenders…
Books Blurbed by Beloved Authors
I’m a sucker for books blurbed by authors I love. But, I also fall into the trap of thinking that means the blurbed book will be similar to said beloved author’s books. While this does occasionally pan out for me, it generally didn’t during the 2017 summer of overhyped books. I quickly DNF’d both of these examples…
Examples:
- The People We Hate at the Wedding
by Grant Ginder (blurbed by Kevin Kwan of Crazy Rich Asians
and Jennifer Close of The Hopefuls).
- Who Is Rich?
by Matthew Klam (blurbed by Curtis Sittenfeld of Prep
and American Wife
) and Meg Wolitzer of The Interestings).
and Jennifer Close of 
and 
Hyped, But Disappointing Debuts
I’ve historically had good luck with debuts. But, this summer brought us a crop that were hyped by publishers as well as traditional book media (and some podcasters), but that I don’t think have connected on a large scale with regular readers (i.e. people not enmeshed in the book world)…and, they didn’t connect with me.
Examples:
- What We Lose
by Zinzi Clemmons (compared to The Mothers, billed as one of the most exciting debuts of 2017, included on Elle’s 24 Best Books to Read this Summer List)
- Stay With Me
by Ayobami Adebayo (highlighted at the BEA Adult Editors’ Buzz panel and received public support from Margaret Atwood)
- My Absolute Darling
by Gabriel Tallent (highlighted at BEA Adult Editors’ Buzz panel, named Amazon Best Book of September)
-
See What I Have Done
by Sarah Schmidt (spotlighted on Book Riot’s All the Books podcast, blurbed by Paula Hawkins, included on Elle’s 24 Best Books to Read this Summer List)
Book of the Month Club Selections
I have to preface this by saying that I have read countless Book of the Month Club selections that I’ve adored and I anxiously await the announcement of their picks every month. But, I’ve read a couple of Book of the Month Club stinkers this summer. Let me repeat again…this is an anomaly overall!
Examples:
- The Windfall
by Diksha Basu (July selection). I know some people that liked this one, but I wasn’t one of them and I’ve heard of a number of others who thought it was completely inane.
- Final Girls
by Riley Sager (July selection). Also, Stephen King called it the “first great thriller of 2017.” This book is not universally disliked by any means, but I thought the ending completely jumped the shark. And after publication, there was the minor scandal surrounding Riley Sager being a male using a pen name that many assumed referred to a female author.
Here’s what I’d like to know about the traditional media’s new release preview lists: how are they put together?
Has someone at the publication actually vetted the books that are included on the list? Do the journalists compiling these lists do their own research to determine which books they’re actually interested in? OR, do the journalists merely talk to people in the book industry, who tell them which books to include?
It’s kind of like including the methodology in a summary of survey results or findings of a study. This information really impacts the way the results are interpreted! And, it would certainly help me determine which new release lists to pay the most attention to.
I do have to commend Publisher’s Weekly for linking to its reviews of all the books on its Fall Preview list, meaning someone at Publisher’s Weekly has actually vetted these books. The Millions occasionally links to an internal review and publicizes the name of the staffer that recommended each book included in its Great 2017 Book Preview. But, Buzzfeed, Elle Magazine, and Bookish need to get a little more transparent.
If any of you know insider details about how the traditional media’s new release preview lists are put together, I’d love to hear them in the comments!
As for me, I obviously personally research every book I include in my “Most Anticipated Books of X Season” posts and indicate specifically when I’ve already read a book I included. That being said, I know from my own experience that it’s hard to pick winners in advance. I haven’t always been successful (I average about 50% or so per season). I’d like to get more successful and will be even more explicit about how I’ve compiled my list after the summer of overhyped books.
How do you feel about the books of Summer 2017? How do you feel about hyped books in general? And, how do you feel about hyped new release lists?
You’ve summed up my whole reading year. For some reason I really gravitated toward 2017 releases this year — only to be disappointed over and over! As a result, it’s been a thoroughly mediocre reading year for me. I’m hoping to read some backlist — books that’ve been on my TBR forever that I know I’ll love — to finish out the year. Hope you have a better bookish fall! (Also, it’s sad to see some books I’ve been excited to read on your list, like “Stay With Me” and “What We Lose.”)
This year I finally started keeping a list of books I have read and giving them a grade. I have read about 31 books so far this year. Yesterday I counted and almost half of them were a C grade which to me means they were average I didn’t hate them enough to DNF but I didn’t love them and I wouldn’t recommend them either. Sadly only 5 of them were A’s. Hopefully the fall books will be better.
I don’t pay much attention to author blurbs because I think they’ll blurb anything their publisher puts out. I’ve found that books and movies that professional reviewers love kind of fall flat for me. Sorry you’ve come across so many stinkers this summer.
I totally agree with you about the season’s overhyped books! I almost feel that the more hyped it is the less I’m going to like it. I’ve also decided I’m not falling for Stephen King’s blurbs anymore…I didn’t like 1 book he blurbed about recently. It’s interesting to me that books like Final Girls which IMO had SO much wrong with it get all the hype while we barely hear a peep about well-written ones like Castle of WaterLots to think about, great post!!
This is so spot on. There were so many over hyped books this summer and it made for a lot of disappointment. I would add to your list Home Fire and New People, both hugely hyped by established authors and then just blah. I’m not sure we can really trust blurbs. I think they’re often done quickly and I suspect that sometimes the book hasn’t actually been read. I’m going to try to pay less attention to them in the future. After this summer, I feel like I need to trust my gut a little more and pay less attention to the hype.
Though I didn’t get to read as much this summer as I normally do, I feel the same. Thank you for this post. Sometimes I worry that it’s just me – that I’m overly critical. I don’t want to be perceived as being a generally negative person but I have to tell it like it is. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed See What I Have Done. I’ll be reading it soon.
I really struggle with putting together upcoming release lists for these same reasons. I rarely have time to read ahead much so most of the time I haven’t had a chance to read any of the books I’m including. But I do research on the topic, author, goodreads and amazon reviews thus far, and things like that which can help me figure out if it’s something I would be interested in reading or not – and therefore feel more confident recommending or flagging it to others. If it was my full time job to put together lists like this, I’d be sure to get ARCs of as many anticipated upcoming titles as possible to give a more personal recommendation.
On another note, I’m 70 pages away from the end of Final Girls and your comment about the ending has me a bit worried 🙂 lol I’ve liked it so far, not loved it. The writing is good, not great, and the plot has a few implausible or unnecessary elements to it, but overall the plot has engaged me thus far. We’ll see what I think of how it ends 🙂 lol
I think this is largely why I don’t read new releases much. I usually wait for the hype to die down a bit. It sounds like I should not feel bad about not being “of the moment” — it may save me some reading anguish!
That’s a good question about how book lists for the upcoming season are put together. I tend to bypass big media outlets and go to bloggers I trust. 🙂
I could definitely do better by cutting back on new releases and waiting until people I trust have read it. But I so love reading new releases as well!
I just started Stay With Me, which I hope I like better than you did! It seems divisive…some people found it just meh, some really liked it. I agree that it seems like a lot of books with hype got published this summer and then faded away quickly because there wasn’t a lot actually there. I’ve cut back on ARCs quite a bit this year and feel like I’ve had a lot more reading success because of it…I like to read some new releases, but it seems like sitting back a bit and letting the cream rise to the top is working out.
I’ll be interested to hear what you think about Stay with Me!
And I did really cut back mid-way through last year, but somehow things have started creeping back up. Need to reign myself in.
Many of the books on your “over-hyped” list I looked at and decided they weren’t for me. The book review of my local paper (SF) is drooling over My Absolute Darling and I think it sounds horrible.
I agree with many others, that author blurbs are pretty useless. And didn’t Stephan King highly praise Surrender, New York? That book was so bad it was (almost) funny.
I wander through blogs, Goodreads and some local sources before picking up a book. But I’ve had just so-so results this entire year, having read 86 books. I may head to my backlist.
So, I’ve gotten a couple comments on this post about Stephen King’s blurbs…seems he’s one not to pay much attention to in that respect!
And good decision-making on your part!
I agree with you that many books are over-hyped by the publisher and blurbs would not be used unless they were extremely supportive. That being said – and that most reviews are written by professional writers and not readers – it seems everyone has their own agenda. Readers need to read reviews by trusted readers. Even if they are not always the most graceful, they are the most honest. Its really difficult for bloggers that get books early and don’t have much to go by. Sorry you haven’t been finding the gems. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it! And you are really good at it! So, thanks for your honest reviews and love of good books!
Awh – well, that makes me feel better! Thank you!
And interesting that most reviews are written by professional writers…are they even interested in books?! I guess I was naive to think book reviewers for traditional media publications were also avid readers.
Interesting post! I had to go back to see how many summer releases I still have left to read before I could comment. I surprised myself to see I am down to five, and most of those have held up well after friends and people I respect have read them. That being said, I cannot say that I have been wowed by any of the summer releases I have read either. I have been much more impressed with the fall releases so far.
I usually try to avoid hyped books because I tend to find them lacking. My problem lately is that because I am requesting galleys so early – before the hype – and then reading them closer to the publication date – well after the publicity machine starts churning – I invariably find books I might otherwise have avoided specifically because of the hype. I always approach such books with caution because I can’t help but feel that any books that are hyped SO much are books publishers think they would have a hard time selling without it. There is no scientific basis for this, but it is as if the more I see a book advertised in advance of its publication date, the more I believe the publishers view it is a stinker. This then gets into a whole psychological experiment of people who are susceptible to positive advertising and buy into the hype.
Anyway, yes, I think this summer’s crop of new releases was lackluster. Like I said though, this fall has made up for it so far though!
The more hype = bigger stinker theory is interesting. So if publishers think a book is going to be a stinker…why did they acquire it in the first place?? I have had this happen a couple times with books highlighted on BEA’s buzz panel. A couple were this year.
Glad your Fall has made up for it…mine is still pretty lackluster.
I’m not certain. Like I said, I do think this is where psychology comes into play. I imagine the power of suggestion is the biggest success of such intense hype. After all, we all know people who will run out and read the next big book, so I imagine most of those people are also inclined to view it favorably because all of the marketing campaigns tell them it is amazing. It takes a very conscientious and careful reader to be able to ignore the hype.
The People We Hate at the Wedding is the only book of the above that I read. It was underwhelming, to say the least. I did choose The Windfall for BOTM so I have hopes that it will be decent. It is a shame that authors blurb each other’s books out of obligation. I’m finding Goodreads ratings to be a more and more reliable indicator for me. I may roll my eyes at some individual reviews on Goodreads but the average star rating is usually helpful. Of course, there are jerks like me who have stopped giving star ratings. Oops.
It’s such a shame that authors blurb books out of obligation…don’t they feel uncomfortable slapping their name on something they don’t really love?! I realize it’s an “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” world, but this is so public. I’d be embarrassed if that were me.
Great post! I haven’t commented before now because you know how I feel about this summer. I had an unprecedented 4 DNFs in one month alone! I’m very close to going back to the beginning of my Goodreads TBR list, reading those books, and ignoring new releases.
I know we’ve talked about this as well, but I’m not feeling too hopeful about spring. I keep looking at my list of books I want and there’s nothing on it. What the heck?!
Agreed. I have a bunch of library holds I might substitute for the rest of my Fall ARCs!