It’s time for another Top Ten list from That Artsy Reader Girl, and today’s topic is “Books That Defied My Expectations.” I came up with more than 10 pretty easily when looking through the list of books I’ve read and reviewed in the last 4 years on this blog and narrowed it down to those that I felt most strongly about, one way or the other.
I am going both ways with this—books that I expected to like that I didn’t and books I didn’t particularly expect to enjoy that I liked a lot. I don’t generally read a book that I don’t expect to like, but it does happen, usually because it was recommended to me by someone I trust or am close to. And there are a lot of books I’ve read that I didn’t end up liking, but to make it on this list, I had to have good reason to suspect I would really like it.
I’m starting, though, with two books that defied my expectations of their purported genre:
The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters and The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
These books are both here for the same reason: they were billed as horror, but were not scary. I’m not exactly a horror fan, to be honest, but I still anticipated at least some chills and thrills from both of these books and neither delivered. See my reviews for The Dead Girls Club and The Saturday Night Ghost Club here.
Books I expected to enjoy but didn’t:
Trace of Doubt and Facing the Enemy by DiAnn Mills
These are the second and third books I read by this author, and I had liked the first one enough to give it 4 stars. So it was a shock to realize from both of these books that I don’t really like the author’s writing style…like, at all. The 2nd one made me question my sanity a little, since I noted so many confusing and disjointed dialog and narration in it, and yet, the book has almost exclusively 4- and 5-star reviews on Goodreads (it just released today). See my reviews for Trace of Doubt and Facing the Enemy here.
Lost and Found by Orson Scott Card
When I was brand new on Netgalley, I was shocked and excited when I was approved to read an ARC by a big name like Orson Scott Card. I’d never read anything written by him, but had always extolled the greatness of Ender’s Game. Suffice it to say, when I did not enjoy the book much at all, it was a huge surprise and letdown. I was a little less surprised when I didn’t really enjoy Ender’s Game either. See my review here.
Click Here to Start by Denis Markell
When my daughter (currently 13) recommends books to me, I always read them and I always want to love them. Between her recommendation and the story being about escape rooms, I was really expecting to love this book. Unfortunately, it was probably my love of escape rooms that made this book not really work for me. See my review here.
Books I enjoyed but didn’t really expect to:
Lock In by John Scalzi
When I first started looking for sci fi and fantasy books to read to help me with my own writing, this was one of the first ones on my radar. My husband owned it, and I’d see it sitting around the house and know that it had some similarities to my own book. But at that time, I hadn’t read much sci fi, if any, certainly none written for adults. I thought it would be dry and that I would struggle to follow the worldbuilding, but it was quite the opposite. I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to re-read it at least once in the future. See my review here.
4 Years Trapped in My Mind Palace by Johan Twiss
As a self-published author, I never want to assume that other self-published books aren’t going to be good. But the sad fact is, so many of them really needed more work before they were published. So I don’t avoid reading self-published books, but I tend to go into them with low expectations. This one blew my expectations right out of the water! It’s creative and well-written, an unusual take on historical fiction with some fantasy thrown in. See my review here.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Knowing that this is a book read in schools (though I never read it in school), combined with the cover, I think I’d filed this book away in my mind as some boring drama. My sister bought the whole series for me for Christmas, so I gave it a chance. I guess it’s a classic case of not judging a book by its cover—not only was I completely wrong about what the book is about, it was anything but boring. I loved it! See my review here.
Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn
My husband bought me this book (he hadn’t read it, but recognized the author as the writer of several Star Wars books that he liked), the first in a space opera series. Space opera is really not my thing, though, and based on that and the synopsis, I had made the decision to pass on reading it. Then I thought—I already own the book and it’s not exactly long; it won’t take long to give it a try. I’m so glad I did, because I ended up really enjoying it. See my review here.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
From my review: “I didn’t want to read this book. I never planned to and was content with knowing nothing more about it than the basic premise. (I’ve never seen any of the movies either.) The main reason I stayed away is due to an aversion to heavy violence and death, and of course a book that involves a couple dozen teenagers being forced to kill each other is going to have plenty of that. I finally decided to read it after my son (who has seen the movies, but not read the books) tried to tell me that I might not be giving it a fair assessment, and of course, he was absolutely correct. And I did struggle still early on in the book, considering walking away because I was dreading what was to come. But I stuck it out, and boy, did I not expect to like it this much.” I have now read the entire series, including the prequel, and am already looking forward to re-reading it someday. I haven’t watched the movies yet and will probably wait until after I read them again to do so. See the rest of my review here.
Have you read any of these? What’s on your list this week?
I keep meaning to read The Hunger Games, it’s sitting on my Kindle waiting for me. I enjoyed the first movie and want to read the books before I carry on with the rest of them
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I haven’t seen the movies yet, though I planned to, and it’s probably because the more I like a book, the less hope I have that I’ll like the movie based on it. Maybe it’ll be better now that I’ve put some space after reading the first one. I hope you like the book as much as I did!
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The Giver was so good!
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
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Agreed! Though I wasn’t a big fan of the rest of the series, sadly.
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I am reading Facing the Enemy now and I’m enjoying the story but I can see what you mean about the dialogue, etc. My TTT
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I had high hopes for it based on the synopsis, but I highlighted so many passages that made me go, “Huh?”
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I didn’t love THG, but did read “Mockingjay” later on right before the movie. Years ago, I also read “The Giver” but don’t remember much about it AND it’s been SO long since I read a novel by DiAnn Mills. Maybe someday! 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting my website today.
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I’m much more used to disliking books that others enjoy than loving books that others don’t like as much, haha! But it’s more interesting to me when it’s the other way around. Thanks for commenting!
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I gave Trace of Doubt four stars. I didn’t notice the disjointedness that you pointed out, but I didn’t find some parts actually believable, and I struggled with the characters a bit. I have not read Facing the Enemy yet.
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I don’t think I noticed it as much in Trace of Doubt, or I doubt I would have read another one by her. I really liked her book Fatal Strike, enough to buy it later when I saw it at a discount store, but now I’m afraid to go back and read it in case it turns out to have the same issues for me and somehow I didn’t notice them the first time.
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I can understand that!
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Same on THE HUNGER GAMES. I loved the series, even though I don’t like excessive violence, especially when it has to do with kids. The books are so engrossing that it’s hard to put them down!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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They really are. I like Collins’s writing style and that the violence wasn’t gratuitous (though I did feel it got to that point in the 3rd book).
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I also enjoyed The Hunger Games than I thought I would.
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It definitely gives me good reason to try other things I don’t think I’ll like!
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I have to say, I have avoided The Hunger Games for many reasons you’ve listed. While I’ve heard many great things about it, I’m not interested. Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier this week.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
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I was never interested either. I only read it because my son kinda challenged me to give it a try instead of making assumptions about it. Fortunately he wasn’t too smug when I ended up liking it.
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I have never read The Giver but my brother has and he loved it. I will have to put it on my reading list!
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My 12-year-old daughter read it after I did, and she really liked it too. I wouldn’t really recommend the rest of the series, but I definitely recommend the first book.
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There are more in the series. I didn’t know there was more than one book.
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