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Books Your Unpopular Book/Literature Opinions

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So...I figured that since there's a film/TV version and Pokemon version of this thread, why can't there be one about books, manga, poetry, or literature? Discuss your unpopular book/poetry/manga/literature opinions here.

I have a few I feel compelled to share:

1. I think the Lord of the Rings is kinda overrated.
2. Unlike the majority of the world, I absolutely DESPISE The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas with every fiber of my being. The characters are all unlikeable and annoying, the writing is bogged down by constant gangster slang in every single page, the serious issues are poorly written, and all without any attempt at substance or nuance, and it's supposed anti-racism message is completely shot because every single character is either racist or makes some unnecessary racist comment about whites at every opportunity. One character feels he has to apologize on behalf of all whites for...being white, for Pete's sake! So yeah, I hate this book and I don't expect to watch the movie.
3. I can't stand Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece. Sorry, Big Three fans! I'm just not into them, and their sheer length turns me off to the idea of reading them.
4. A Wrinkle In Time's ending sucked because it didn't resolve the issue with IT and Camazotz in any way whatsoever.
5. I cannot seem to get into any manga by Yu Watase. I know her manga are super popular, but I can't see why. I stopped reading Fushigi Yuugi after three volumes because Miaka is a moron, Imadoki's melodrama and having some characters easily forgive an unlikeable jerkass who not only sexually assaulted the main lead but nearly killed everyone with his so-called "innocent prank" seriously rubbed me the wrong way, and it seems like Watase has this weird obsession with panty shots and putting her female characters in sexually compromising situations without really getting into why those things just don't work. Plus, I don't like her brand of humor. Seriously, there's only TWO manga of hers that I like: Fukugaeru, a two-chapter short manga, and Sakura Gari, a yaoi, and even that's a personal guilty pleasure!
6. Bambi: A Life In The Woods is an awesome book that seriously deserves more attention and love than it gets!
 
The Twilight book series isn't all that bad, it's most definitely not the worst I've read like a lot make it out to be (I'm not sure how unpopular this is nowadays though). In fact I like quite a few YA novels, and adults can enjoy them as much as teens/tweens.

For manga I never thought Hunter x Hunter was all that great, I thought I'd like it since I generally read/don't mind shounen series but this one never caught my interest no matter how many chances I give it. I also never liked the characters and don't find their designs appealing to me at all.
 
I think The Lord of the Rings is under-rated (Not an attack on you, Juliko), at least as often as it is overrated. Certainly I am a big Tolkien fan, and while I recognise some especially big pacing problems in The Fellowship of the Ring, I don't think Tolkien is given credit for the plot of the trilogy, not just the worldbuilding.

I don't think 1984 is anything like as relevant or applicable as it's cracked up to be. I suspect that those who reference it most fervently - as many journalists have done in the not-too-distant past - haven't read it since school, if they read it at all.
 
I think The Lord of the Rings is under-rated (Not an attack on you, Juliko), at least as often as it is overrated. Certainly I am a big Tolkien fan, and while I recognise some especially big pacing problems in The Fellowship of the Ring, I don't think Tolkien is given credit for the plot of the trilogy, not just the worldbuilding.

That's fine. If you like it, that's totally cool. I have a bunch of friends who adore Harry Potter but I barely read it myself, nor do I really want to.
 
- I actually like both the Mortal Instruments book series and the Shadowhunters tv series based on it. I think it's possible to like both instead of fighting over which one is an healthier depiction. (Although I also think that TMI lost its charm after the original trilogy. The next three books are almost plotless and drag on forever.)

- Blood of Olympus was the worst book in the Riordan-verse. And this isn't just me being salty about Percy and Annabeth not getting enough pagetime (although I think they definitely deserved better) but even the fight scene at the end was poorly written. And heck, even Hazel and Frank didn't got enough pagetime.

- Only the first series in The 39 Clues was interesting and excellent enough. The second series had shown a lot of potential but the sixth book (Day of Doom) just turned out to be really bad imo. And then I lost interest in the third and fourth series. I still read them, but my interest was already lost.

- Extremely sorry but, I hate the Cursed Child book a lot. Almost as much as I love the earlier seven HP books.
I especially hate what was done with Harry's characterization in the book. Harry was literally shown saying to his own son that he wished he wasn't his son. Like okay, Albus made fun of his childhood abuse. In that case I support Harry over here. But then he threatens McGonagall that he would attack Hogwarts (his first home!!!). That's ooc for him. And he believes the rumors about Scorpius.
Like, did they really wanted readers to believe that the boy who saved Draco from the Fiendfyre and even suggested attempting remorse to Voldemort would believe stupid rumors about an innocent child?
And they also turned Ron into a joke (much like his movie version) which was another thing I disliked.

- Artemis Fowl is a severely underrated series that deserves better.

- I like Agatha Christie's novels more than the Sherlock Holmes series. Although the later is good too.
 
  1. I just cannot bring myself to read anything beyond Book 3 of Harry Potter. I mean, what is with the sudden jump in word count and length??
  2. Where there seem to be a lot of alternate history literature regarding an Axis victory (Man in the High Castle etc), I'd like to see one where Germany or Japan revolts against their respective dictatorships instead of Italy.
  3. Generally speaking, I prefer nonfiction reading over fiction.
 
1. Amal Unbound is an absolutely amazing book, and I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more love. Yeah, it's writing is very simple, what with it being a middle grade novel and all, but I think the simple writing works in making the serious issues it tackles more accessible to kids. Seriously, more people should read it!
2. To Kill a Mockingbird didn't really grab me. I mean, I liked it well enough, but I didn't really love it.
3. The novelization The Nutcracker and the Four Realms: The Secret of the Realms by Meredith Rusu is really, really good. It deserves so much more love, and I already wanted to see the movie long before reading it.
 
I didn't like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I never got the appeal of it and all the praise it gets in most discussions about literature.

The Zasha books need more love, I've seen most people shrug it off because it's YA but I think more people should give it a chance, especially if you like stories about dogs and the bond about man's best friend.
 
  1. I can't stand Harry Potter for the life of me, and my older sister is a huge Harry Potter fan.
  2. I hate Catcher in the Rye a burning passion. None of the characters were interesting and little attempt at a story, hate how it's hail as a classic and it is read in schools.
  3. The same can be said about Fahrenheit 451, especially since my class wanted to burn my books after we read it in class that year.
  4. The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest alternate history stories I have seen, and I'm surprise it's not talk about more.
  5. I can't get into Non-fiction or Memoirs at all.
  6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was horrible, it lost itself half-way through and pulled the Duke and King out of nowhere.
  7. I actually slightly like adult Scout more in Go Set a Watchmen than her as a child in To Kill a MockingBird.
  8. I wish there were more re-tellings of fairy tales like Cinder or Hunted.
 
Cymbeline, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra are one of the more better Shakespeare plays I've read compared to the more popular ones of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Winter's Tale (though I do still like them just not as much as most).

This one is going to be very unpopular, but I find Titus Andronicus and The Taming of the Shrew (two other of Shakespeare's works) to be alright reads, but very rarely if ever mentioned in mature discussions outside of outright harsh criticism, I do think people really should give them at least one read so they could form their own opinion of them.
 
I'll probably get lynched for saying this, but I actually like Yoshitoki Oima's more recent manga, To Your Eternity, better than A Silent Voice. Yeah, I said it. I feel like Oima rectified a lot of the mistakes she made in A Silent Voice with Eternity. The characters are far more likeable (And thankfully, no sign of any repugnant pieces of crap like Ueno anywhere in sight), varied, and interesting, the concept is intriguing and thought-provoking, there's less pointless fanservice, her messy art style actually makes the fantastical world feel more cut-throat in a good way, and the story is far more compelling. I just hope the manga ends on a high note this time around, because I HATE Silent Voice's ending with the fury of a thousand suns.

John David Anderson's gotten popular lately, and some say his book Ms. Bixby's Last Day is really good, but I think Granted is his best work. It's an absolutely wonderful, whimsical book that seriously needs more love.

On the flip side, I read I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, and...I'm not seeing what the big deal is. It's just a bland, generic love story between a guy who's about as interesting as a wooden plank and an overly perfect sick girl who's only there to be inspiration porn. The twist ending was especially bad, completely undermining the whole story and making the girl's illness seem like little more than fancy window dressing.

Beasts of Abigaile by Spica Aoki is a criminally underrated manga and more people should read it!
 
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Some, mainly, manga opinions this time:

I've been re-reading Black Butler again and now I remember why I sometimes avoid discussions about this series whenever Elizabeth Midford is brought up. I don't think she's that annoying that people make her out to be tbh. She's what, 14? Most pre-teens are obnoxious at that age, at least I know I was at times as well as those in my family and ones I've met from my friends own family and acquaintances. Also she truly does care for Ciel, and some people mostly hate her just because they think she get's in the way of their Sebastian x Ciel ship, I don't care if you ship it or not but that's a dumb way of hating a character just for that imo. Also she's pretty badass while using swords to fight, that earns her points in my book.

I like majority of the characters in MHA, but I really want to see more of Hanta Sero and have him get some character development since I find him to be the most interesting of the side characters, though I want to see the rest of the side characters of Class 1-A get character development too regardless.

To follow with MHA characters, Katsuki Bakugo is overrated. Like I don't hate him but seeing how he treated Izuku in their childhood and now at times, still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. He goes too far most times and every time he might say or do something cool or funny, I remember his personality and go "Oh yeah, he's still an awful shitty bully sometimes." That being said I do still have high hopes for him and I'm sure later on he might make it higher on my list, for now he's mid-tier on my favs list, not hated but not really well liked either.

I like Sabo from One Piece, and I'm glad he's back, but I feel it would have been better if he actually died when he first set out. After going back into Luffy's past with his two adoptive brothers and him and Ace hearing about Sabo's boat being blown up was a pretty big impact on the audience and characters, it just felt kind of cheap bringing Sabo back all these years later. I don't know that's just me, I still like him though and feel happy for Luffy that at least he still has a brother alive, I guess it also maybe helps soften the blow for him from Ace's death so I'll give that a point for Sabo's return.

(Okay this is a webtoon but I'm still adding it) Tower of God's artwork is awkward to bad when I first started it, couldn't really keep up with the story anyway since I kept getting bored of it.
 
Some, mainly, manga opinions this time:

I've been re-reading Black Butler again and now I remember why I sometimes avoid discussions about this series whenever Elizabeth Midford is brought up. I don't think she's that annoying that people make her out to be tbh. She's what, 14? Most pre-teens are obnoxious at that age, at least I know I was at times as well as those in my family and ones I've met from my friends own family and acquaintances. Also she truly does care for Ciel, and some people mostly hate her just because they think she get's in the way of their Sebastian x Ciel ship, I don't care if you ship it or not but that's a dumb way of hating a character just for that imo. Also she's pretty badass while using swords to fight, that earns her points in my book.
To follow with MHA characters, Katsuki Bakugo is overrated. Like I don't hate him but seeing how he treated Izuku in their childhood and now at times, still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. He goes too far most times and every time he might say or do something cool or funny, I remember his personality and go "Oh yeah, he's still an awful shitty bully sometimes." That being said I do still have high hopes for him and I'm sure later on he might make it higher on my list, for now he's mid-tier on my favs list, not hated but not really well liked either.

I like Sabo from One Piece, and I'm glad he's back, but I feel it would have been better if he actually died when he first set out. After going back into Luffy's past with his two adoptive brothers and him and Ace hearing about Sabo's boat being blown up was a pretty big impact on the audience and characters, it just felt kind of cheap bringing Sabo back all these years later. I don't know that's just me, I still like him though and feel happy for Luffy that at least he still has a brother alive, I guess it also maybe helps soften the blow for him from Ace's death so I'll give that a point for Sabo's return.
1. Yeah, shippers can sometimes be extremely obsessive, to the point of being creepy. Just look at all the hate mail and death threats that J.K. Rowling got because Hermione married Ron instead of Harry. Hell, they threat the Weasleys like the Devil because it ended in a way they didn't like.

2. Thank you for reminding me of why I hate Bakugo. I wonder if there is a name for the situation in which people defend the bully instead of the victim.

3. Well, Sabo coming back was not a surprise considering that the databooks mentioned always mentioned his status as "unknown" instead of "dead". It doesn't help that some people predicted that he would be a Revolutionary since the beginning. Then again, you might be right about Oda trying to soften the impact of Ace's death. Hopefully it's not a case of executive meddling like what happened with JoJo (a character with a bullet in the head that even got an on-panel burial? No problem! He can show up in India!)
 
Nah, that's not the term I'm looking for since, as far as I know, those people don't blame the victims, they just find the bullies cool. Then again, I have not seen much of the weird part of the MHA fandom, and I don't want to do it.
 
  1. Astra: Lost In Space is an awesome manga that deserves more love! The fact that it's getting an anime soon really gets me pumped up, and I really hope they do it justice (Along with my favorite character Luca. If they mess him up I'll never forgive them!)!
  2. I tried reading The Book Thief once and I didn't like it. I don't see why this is so popular. The writing style really turned me off, and the pacing seemed way too fast and cluttered for me.
  3. Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards is also super underrated and needs more love!
  4. I really didn't like Bridge to Terabithia. I liked the premise, but the writing style was so seventies, and the characters were really annoying, Jess's older sisters especially.
 
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