The question I am asking today is about hype. Do you buy into the hype or does it put you off completely? I will admit to buying into it! I bought Anna and the French Kiss (though it is not yet read), Unearthly, The Hunger Games and numerous others due to hype. I like hype. Yes it does raise the expectation bar but a lot of the time it lives up to the hype. There must be a reason why everyone loves it so much, right?
That being said a few books have fallen a little short for me, namely Hush, Hush. It was only slightly (I gave it 4 stars) but I wanted to LOVE it and I didn't. Mainly they work for me though. I do like an un-hyped book too. I like feeling like I have discovered something rare and then being able to share it with all of you feels like a great gift!
Another thing I love is books that have insanely high ratings and insanely low ratings. I love books that divide readers. It gets me really interested. Low Red Moon was one of those books and unfortunately I didn't love it. Beautiful Creatures had some mixed reviews and I ADORED it. So did Fallen by Lauren Kate and I loved that too. I like being unsure going into a novel and of course you automatically expect less. So what do you think? Do you love the hype or does it completely turn you off?
I could go either way with hype. Sometimes I stay away from books that have a ton of hype because I'm sure it'll let me down--I avoided Hush Hush for a long time for that reason (but I actually ended up loving it!).
ReplyDeleteThen again, sometimes hype makes me pick up a book. So, uh, I'm really not on either side of the fence on hype. *shrug* Great discussion post, Alice! :)
I like hype for the most part, but... it depends. I definitely like to be a fan of something BEFORE it gets too hyped. Just so I won't be let down.
ReplyDeleteThe good: Like you, I saw that Anna and the French Kiss had a lot of raving reviews, so I figured it was worth a read. It ended up being one of my favorite books.
The bad: I often feel like hype is too exaggerated, so that's mainly the reason I end up disappointed. Like with Twilight, for example. I was a fan way before the movie and the fans then all seemed to like it for what it was--a paranormal romance. It wasn't until the movie was announced, that Twilight started getting a bigger following and I think those are the people that started exaggerating, calling it the "best book EVER" and made it easier for people to mock.
But that's just my opinion. I know a lot of people get touchy on the whole twilight thing. haha
Overall, I think hype is nice--especially for the book industry. If it helps sell books, I guess that's a good thing. If you end up not liking it however, I guess it makes you more weary the next time you hear about "the next big thing".
Um, woah. I totally didn't mean to write an essay in your comments! (If only I could write that much for school!) haha
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree. I love hype It always ends up drawing me to a book. However, sometimes it bothers me. For example (and I really hate having to use this as an example) but Twilight got so much hype that it turned me off from the book completely. Most of the time I do enjoy it though :) I've found some great books through hype, so I think it's worth it. Great post once again! :)
ReplyDeleteGood question!! Do I buy into hype? That's a tough question to answer, lately I seem to in order to support some authors I admire. I never used to though, with both Harry Potter and Twilight I was late to join the party. Both series were a book away from the end before I finally bought into the mayhem. This I regret greatly. I went to a huge book party at midnight, when the last Harry Potter book came out and I absolutely loved it. All the people waiting until midnight to get their books was so exciting. Unfortunately no books seem to have the same hype now :o(
ReplyDeleteI think it just depends on the book. The Hunger Games books & Anna and The French Kiss were both really hyped up & even after all of it, I don't think it did the novels justice. I love them that much! But on the other hand books like Fallen & If I Stay really felt like let downs after everyone talked them up so much. I think I'm the only person on the planet that didn't really like If I Stay. It's such a double edged sword. So do I buy into hype, well yeah I guess I do, but as a blogger its hard not to. There are so many wonderful books you hear about through others and mostly in my experience the good ones out way the bad!
ReplyDeleteI think hype is great for authors but can sometimes turn out bad for readers. You can be building something up to be SO GREAT in your mind and then it turns out its still good but just not great and then you're totally disappointed. I've learned that as far as hype goes I need to read the book for myself and not expect a lot. I just need to keep an open mind and then read the book. Otherwise the book could be ruined merely because its not quite as good as what I thought it would be.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways l buy into hype, if l see a book on the shelf and it has been on lots of blogs l will take more of a interest in it than others. l read Matched because of the hype and quite a few others.
ReplyDeleteI agree it can let you down though and a few books have. I wasn't blogging when Hush Hush came out so l wasn't aware of a hype, l got told to read it by a librarian and pick it up. l LOVED it, interesting to know if l was aware of the hype .. would l have loved it as much?
It doesn't turn me off at all! I love book hype :)
ReplyDeleteIf a book has a lot of hype surrounding it, and then I buy it to find that I dislike it, I don't really mind because it's great for the author to have so much hype, and I know everyone has different tastes.
One example of that is Matched.. I still haven't finished it!
So yeah, without hype I never would have read The Hunger Games, Vampire Academy, Across the Universe, TMI... I love book hype!
I like the hype, I really do. I mean isnt that what we are really doning here in the book blogger world anyway, building hype for the books we love? Hype is why I was turned on to so many books that I have read and loved! Hype is why I read Delirium that I Looooove! its why I read Fallen, Hush Hush, Shiver. Its why im going to read Beautiful Creatures. Hype is just good carma lol :)
ReplyDeleteI love this topic! I have a discussion post scheduled for it too :)
ReplyDeleteI'm on the fence about hype. On one hand some books I probably would have passed over or not heard about if it weren't for the hype. I also love the sense of community and excitement that goes along with book hype (assuming I liked the book too!)
On the other hand, hype sometimes turns me off to a book. I have very little interest in reading Anna and the French Kiss because of all the hype. I feel like I've already been so over-saturated by the book from seeing it everywhere. I'm also afraid of being the odd one out if I end up disliking it.
I think I'm more influenced by negative hype than positive. If a bunch of people rave about a book, I feel like I can just breeze through their posts and still have an open mind when I read it.
ReplyDeleteWith negative hype, whether it's books or movies, I have a hard time getting excited to read or go see it if the consensus is that it's bad. If I see more than a handful of reviews not liking a book, I probably won't bother.
This is a tough question. I think I'm more influenced by well-constructed hype. Like, when Twilight came out...most of the hype seemed to center around so-called swoonworthy Edward and Jacob. Nobody really raved about the style of writing...well, the writing in general. No one raved about how awesome Bella was. So, I didn't really buy into the hype. In fact, I was annoyed by it. I did *not* want to read Twilight because of its awful hype. However, one of my friends convinced me to read it, and I did enjoy it-- not enough to join in the hype, but enough to convince me to finish the series.
ReplyDeleteI think that's why I'm more likely to buy into hype produced my book bloggers vs. the general public/typical media. Book bloggers tend to look at books with a more critical eye. They won't just ramble on about a swoon worthy character. They examine the plot. Is it original? Is it a fresh spin on something that is easily cliched? Is the writing lackluster or is it mind-blowingly awesome? How is the character development? etc etc.
That being said, I probably still won't rush out to buy the book hyped up by bloggers as soon as I get some cash in my pockets or as soon as the book hits the shelves (Harry Potter being the only exception). Or if I do, I usually wait for some of the hype to die down before I read the book. After a while I lose patience when the only thing I've read or heard about is about one specific book. Does that make sense? It's like, book overload, and if I hear about it one more time, I might explode. Again...HP might be the only exception.
No matter how much we try, hype affects our purchasing power, even if it's not a book. Negative and positive hype alike.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good discussion post! It was fun to read through the comments as well. Everyone has so many great points to make.