The Unpopular Opinion Book Tag

3 February, 2016 Musing Musers, Random 27 comments

I am crashing this party and also breaking the rules and not doing a video because, I don’t know, something about fuck the system? Mostly just because I hate videos.

Anyway. When Steph did the Unpopular Opinion Book Tag (created by The Book Archer), I realized I had some things I wanted to get off my chest.

A Popular Book/Series You Didn’t Like:

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I’m sorry guys, but I kind of hate the Vampire Academy series. Rose was awesome but everything else? Not so much. I thought the writing was awkward, the side characters were forgettable (literally, I can’t even remember their names) (Lisa?) and I never totally got into the ship (mentor/mentee ships are super hit or miss for me). Then the whole thing in whatever book happened and NOPE. Hard pass. I really need to be into a ship to get past that. The series had a cracked out readable quality and I don’t regret having read it, but when I think about it I’m just like ugh, no.

A Book Series Everyone Hates But You Love:

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I genuinely do not get why everyone hates The Queen of the Tearling so much. Like, I agree that it’s not the best of all series but I don’t understand the level of actual outrage I’ve seen people direct towards it. Whatever, okay, I’m super excited for The Fate of the Tearling and I know there’s a small but dedicated group of you that are looking forward to it as well.

A Love Triangle Where the MC Ends Up With The Person You Didn’t Want Them To End Up With:

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#GaleHawthorneWasWronged

A Popular Book Genre You Rarely Reach For:

This doesn’t really count as a genre but I’m a pretty broad reader so this is all I’ve got. I don’t read suicide books. Ever. I generally hate how they’re handled and it’s even worse if they’re handled well because reasons. I don’t read about suicide, I don’t talk about suicide. Just, no all around.

Oh, also, New Adult. If it wasn’t written by Elliot Wake (writing as Leah Raeder), fuck New Adult.

A Popular Beloved Character You Didn’t Like:

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As much as I love Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, I don’t love Kai. To be fair, it’s not that I dislike Kai as much as I give literally zero shits about Kai. Kai is like tasteful upscale hotel wallpaper; lovely but specifically designed to be unobtrusive and therefore ultimately unmemorable. Sorry Kai.

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(actual portrait of Kai)

A Popular Author You Can’t Seem to Get Into:

I feel like saying John Green is the unpopular opinions book tag version of shooting fish in a barrel, so I’m going to go with Gayle Forman. Idk what is is but I just can’t get into her books. I enjoyed If I Stay but the rest were anywhere on the scale of meh to nah for me. Serious contemporary is probably the genre I’m the most picky about, I need to be engaged in the writing to deal with angst and for reasons I can’t fully explain, I just don’t engage with Gayle Forman.

Second runner up: Katie McGarry. Her books are waaaaaaaaay too sincerely dramatic and emotional for me (which, ha) and after the whole underlying you have to be a good girl to be worthy of love and happiness theme in Dare You To, she went on my hard pass for life list.

Popular Trope You’re Tired of Seeing:

Idk if this is a specifically labeled trope but I’m super over mean girls type stuff. Blah blah blah realism blah blah blah high school, whatever, let’s promote lady friendships and girls supporting each other for no reason at all, yes? I don’t hate tropey-ness across the board, sometimes I’m totally okay with it (especially if the thing is fully aware it’s tropey and playing with it). I’m also super excited at the number of books coming up that hint at bisexual love triangles. I am ALL FUCKING OVER that. If we’re going in that direction, I am here for it.

Popular Series You Have No Interest In Reading:

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This isn’t even really all that unpopular of an opinion anymore because I’ve been seeing more and more people get on the nope train but A Court of Thorns and Roses. If I’m being entirely honest, I don’t think Sarah J. Maas is all that strong of a writer (SORRY. I LIKE HER A LOT AND IT HURTS ME TO SAY IT BUT I REALLY DON’T). Obviously she taps into some kind of magical something or other from time to time as far as I’m concerned because I love Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows A LOT. But. Look, Throne of Glass was super meh and I didn’t really get into Crown of Midnight until the last half/few chapters (The Assassin’s Blade falls somewhere in between CoM and HoF on my personal scale of SJM) and I think I should’ve gone with my gut on ACoTaR because nah.

The saying goes, ‘The book is always better than the movie’ but what movie (tv show) do you prefer more than the book?

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Obviously the answer is The 100. I’ve only read the first book (though I own the whole trilogy because I am thorough in my obsessions) but I can whole-heartedly say the show is so far on a different level it’s basically in a different universe and not like a similar but not really sort of parallel universe, I’m talking totally different rules of physics universe.

27 Responses to “The Unpopular Opinion Book Tag”

    • Meg Morley

      SO AWESOME. Like, I get that it’s weird and I get that the world-building has some as of yet unaddressed holes but I’ve seen people get SO. MAD. about it and I’m like ????????????????

      • Kerri

        I remember how stoked I was when I first read it, and I hopped over to Goodreads to squee and saw that other people didn’t like it… I was so sad, haha. I’m excited whenever I meet other people who like it!

  2. The Emerald Quil

    Ha ha totally agree with you about Kai! I admit, I have only read the first 2 books in the Lunar Chronicles so far, so maybe he gets better? But I also just can’t care about him. He is so blah.

    • Meg Morley

      I’ve read the whole series minus Stars Above and I’m like okay, he’s super nice but that’s….basically…..it? I feel bad not liking him because of the aforementioned niceness but he’s just so bland I can’t handle it.

  3. Bekka

    I totally agree with you about Kai. I couldn’t tell you one thing about him as a person – the only thing I know about him is his role in the series.

    I agree with EVERYTHING you said about Sarah J. Maas. That series is a forever fave because of the characters, but tbh I never would have even moved on to Crown of Midnight if I didn’t already own it when I finished Throne of Glass. And CoM itself takes forever to get rolling. It made me so angrysad when I tried to read ACOTAR and it was a raging tire fire. 🙁

    • Meg Morley

      YES. I feel so bad talking shit about Kai because he’s so nice but agree, he’s barely a person.

      I also feel like such a traitor talking shit about SJM but honestly, I quit CoM halfway through and had no intention of ever going back until basically everyone I know who’s a fan of the series assured me that HoF was MUCH MUCH better. I’m super glad I did go back but I’m still not sold on SJM in general and ACOTAR pretty much confirmed that for me.

  4. Erin @ Paperbackstash

    Great responses. Looks like a fun tag. I agree with you that I dislike doing videos – I also don’t have patience for book videos. I try but they drive me batty, I keep forwarding it – would rather read posts

    • Meg Morley

      Video takes me forever. I’ve done one video and it literally took me 4 hours to shoot because I kept getting tongue tied and then the editing process was even worse. Also agree about watching videos, I’d much rather just read a post.

  5. Kate @ Mom's Radius

    Gale! Love it. And I love your comments about Kai. Upscale wallpaper. Ha! He’s my least favorite of The Lunar Chronicles men, but I probably wouldn’t have gone that far. 🙂

    • Meg Morley

      GALE WAS WRONGED.

      Oh Kai, sweet Kai. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s really really NICE wallpaper he’s just so uninteresting to me especially compared to everyone else.

      • wildpear

        Okay, yeah. I liked him more back in Book 1 when he had more to do and I thought he was gonna grow and stuff, but alas!

        He really is lovely wallpaper, though. And Cinder seems satisfied, so that’s good I guess.

        (And I do like, narratively, that the damsel in distress who really can do nothing but wait and hope and attempt to appease the aggressive suitor so everyone doesn’t die got to be a guy this time! I wonder if that could have been done while still giving him more dimension, though? Hmm…)

  7. Hebe

    Kai as upscale hotel wallpaper is the most hilariously accurate thing I’ve read for a while.

  8. Laura @ Scribbles & Wanderlust

    YES YES YES YES YES TO THE MEAN GIRL TROPE. OMG. I CAN’T HANDLE THOSE. We already have enough mean girls in our everyday life from age 4 to death. Let’s promote positive female friendships. THOSE EXIST TOO.

  9. Gillian

    I had a whole comment in my head and then I saw my space babies at the bottom and I cried so hard I forgot what I wanted to say other than KAI WALLPAPER GREATEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE 50% with you on VA though I will always cracklove it and crackhate it in equal measure #Galewaswronged (#butPeetawasbetter) (#gauntletthrown) (#pistolsatdawn)

  10. Ruth

    I agree with pretty much all of this! (except maybe about A Court of Thorns and Roses). Bellamy and Clarke are the only hope I have left for good in the world and I’ve lost track of the amount of times I wanted to shake Kai hard enough to see if there was anything actually INSIDE! I enjoyed Queen of the Tearling SO MUCH, that dimmed a little with the second book but still can’t wait for the third. Also lady friendships that kick ass and trust implicitly (and silently) = awesomeness.

  11. Natalie Monroe

    YES FINALLY SOMEONE WHO IS HEAD OVER HEELS FOR KAI. Your description is spot on. He’s unmemorable wallpaper.

    I’m part of the tiny minority that hates Throne of Glass, but loves A Court of Thorns and Roses. Calaena drives me up the wall hahaha.

  13. Morgan @ Gone with the Words

    I read book one of VA and just….didn’t….care. I was gifted books 2 and 3 but it’s honestly doubtful I’ll ever read them. I still want to read QotT because of you and Jessie and Lisa! I could never decide on my Hunger Games triangle. But I was very upset with how Gale’s story ended up in general. I’m with you on suicide books (and for me, most issue books in general). ELLIS AND I ARE GOING TO PUSH THE DEAL ON YOU UNTIL YOU READ IT THOUGH. NA EXCEPTIONNNNNNNN. (But really my only exception. I’m with you on most NA). Omg yes, I want to like Kai but he’s like Prince Charming in the Disney animated Cinderella to me: *there*. *existing*. kind of boring. Poor Kai. No interest in Gayle Foreman or John Green, or Cassie Clare for that matter. Oh, for some reason I thought you liked ACOTAR! Interesting. I agree with you on her writing… I love her stories (both series) but I feel like she sometimes tries to make her writing Extra Meaningful, you know what I mean? And it makes me roll my eyes a bit with how dramatic the internal monologues can get (this actually bothered me a lot in HoF). I love these tags and seeing different opinions 😀

  14. Anette @ Anette Reads

    I laughed at the “picture of Kai,” because I completely agree. A nice but super forgettable character. But then again, so is the fairytale prince he’s based on LOL. And I haven’t even read the The 100 books, but from what I’ve heard I’m not touching them with a ten foot pole. NOPE. I’ve got my TV show, I don’t need anything else.

  15. Carina Olsen

    You are awesome Meg 😀 Thank you for sharing this. <3 I agree about some of it. But, lol, I might disagree about a lot of things 😀 Like.. I really hated The Queen of the Tearling o.O Like one star hated it. Huh. But glad you managed to love it 🙂 Aaand. I haaaaate Gale. Like hate him like crazy. I could not stand him in the books :p I love Peeta the most. <3 Sure, movie Peeta is so ugly, but I don't care about the movies at all. Not for me. The books were amazing back when I read them 🙂 But aw, I'm sorry you shipped Gale, hih, as that did not end well :p

    And ah. I agree about the genre thing. I don't read suicide books either. Mostly because I need all my books to end happily, and with my couple still alive 🙂 And ugh. I also can't stand New Adult. Not for me 🙂

    But goddamn it. KAI. I loved him THE MOST. How.. how can you not love him? 🙁 Ahhhh. Heartbreak. You are being mean, lol. But I love how honest you are. <3 Though I disagree the most 😉

    Anyway. The other parts of this post is stunning too 😀 Thank you for sharing Meg. <3 You are awesome. I haven't read The 100 books, but I also know I would prefer the tv-show, which I love like crazy 🙂

  16. Jules

    Hah — Kai was also my least favorite. He was so nice that I kind of felt bad about it, but he was also just…kind of boring. I also read A Court of Thorn and Roses and was less than impressed — haven’t tried anything else by that author, though.

  17. Katie @ ShelfishlyAddicted

    Aw. My heart is sad over your Gayle Foreman meh-ness. However, I do agree on John Green! His was actually my first book signing ever, and while I thought he was super cool then, when I finally got around to reading TFiOS last year, I wanted to chuck the book at the wall. I won’t read anything else by him – ever!

    The wallpaper reference to Kai made me giggle 🙂 I do like Kai, though you’re right about him not being very memorable.

    I just bought ACoTaR and am excited to read it, as I adored Throne of Glass. I’ve read mixed reviews, so I’m glad my eBook copy was only $1.99! Haha.