Books Your Unpopular Book/Literature Opinions

[Darkmaster006]

1. I loved BNHA when it first came out. Now I hate it. Season 1 was pretty fun, Deku was a good, wholesome lead character. And all the characters were so fun. Season 2 had pretty good fight scenes and Stain. But right now, it has turned so boring and kinda annoying? I hate how everyone is now inspired by Deku aaaaall the time? And they do nothing more than marvel at him or something? I think Bakugo and Deku get TOO much character development (that isn't even done well, tbh) while the others (maybe minus Todoroki a bit) get litte to no character development or anything. Let's not even talk about the girls, because they get zero character development and I hate that because they could be such good charas but are always shadowed by the guys. ALso, Mineta gets TOO much screentime that could be used for GOOD stuff. Ugh. Dropping it tbh, not gonna watch S4.

 

[Aulos]

Here's one, a very general one: I actually don't like really reading fictional books, I'd rather watch stories than merely read them. When it comes to non-fiction, I have no problem reading if I'm interested, but I just have no interest in books otherwise. At least not right now.

 

[Tactician Karina]

Yuki Nagato from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels is very overrated. She just follows the same character archetype as Rei Ayanami from Evangelion, and she didn't deserve her own spinoff manga about the alternate universe in the Disappearance novel. Though at least she's more tolerable than Mikuru Asahina.

Sword Art Online light novels are better than the anime, though I still really love both anyway.

When reading Shakespeare plays, I don't find the early modern English hard or annoying to read and I don't think it should be changed to make it more "readable".

 

[lordfridge]

Black Butler is garbage.

Not only is the whole series centered around the ship-tension between a centuries old demon of seduction and a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOY who was a victim of child abuse (and there are plenty of vastly inappropriate innuendo-jokes about said 'ship')... it also has a trans character who is played off as a predator and someone who murders cis women because she's 'jealous'. All while the entire cast refers to her as a man.

When I was a teen, I loved this series. Now I have base-level critical thinking skills, I can see it for what it really is.

 

[Juliko]

The novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey, I feel, is MUCH better than the movie. Not only does it explain the entire movie and everything that happened in it better than the movie itself did, there's much less filler and pointless padding.

The Tales of Zestiria manga is really good as well. It compresses the game a LOT, but it also cuts out a lot of the more annoying parts of the game (like the trials) and is more to the point.

 

[Tactician Karina]

While I like the games as well, I think the Alice in the Country of manga adaptations are slightly better. Mainly cause they flesh out a bit more of the story and characters, and they give even minor characters (but still love interests) from the games more background and character development in their own manga (like the My Fanatic Rabbit manga for Elliot March, for example) when interacting with Alice.

I guess this is considered unpopular now in some forums and subreddits, but I still like the Black Butler manga so much. My only real problem with it (and it's not even cause of the manga directly) is all the shipping arguments in some discussions about it. Otherwise it is still a beloved series to me with characters I really like (Ciel Phantomhive and the Perfect Four from the Public School arc).

Black Clover is a great manga and I still like it more than MHA.

Snow White with the Red Hair is currently my favorite shojo manga running right now. Surprisingly I like it even more than Sailor Moon! (which used to be my top favorite shojo series)

I actually liked the manga side story of FE Binding Blade, Fire Emblem: The Champion's Sword. I didn't even mind when the story became a AU kind of retelling. Also, I would love for them to appear in a game (no I don't mean the items referencing them, I want actual characters), though I'm happy some characters did make it into the FE Cipher TCG.

 

[prog rocker]

I actually liked the manga side story of FE Binding Blade, Fire Emblem: The Champion's Sword. I didn't even mind when the story became a AU kind of retelling. Also, I would love for them to appear in a game (no I don't mean the items referencing them, I want actual characters), though I'm happy some characters did make it into the FE Cipher TCG.

Not sure if they can use those characters, specially since it's possible that the characters' rights are the property of whoever wrote the manga. After the mess that happened with the Sonic comics, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Juliko]

Snow White with the Red Hair is currently my favorite shojo manga running right now. Surprisingly I like it even more than Sailor Moon! (which used to be my top favorite shojo series)

Saaaaaame. The anime version is a delight, too! I can't wait for the manga to be released now that Viz has the license to it! Which reminds me, I ought to finish watching the English dub!

 

[Tactician Karina]

Not sure if they can use those characters, specially since it's possible that the characters' rights are the property of whoever wrote the manga. After the mess that happened with the Sonic comics, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

I mean seeing as IS put some manga only characters in the Cipher TCG, they clearly remember them plus the references in the game about them. I think it's cause it's more along the line of worrying about messing up the Elibe story with how the manga went with a slight AU route. I can see them making Al and co. a DLC type for an Echoes style Binding Blade remake (seeing as they add in Cipher original characters into SoV, I'm sure they can do similar with manga characters).

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

The Kane Chronicles trilogy is the best of Rick Riordan's work. On a slightly related note, they should turn it into a Netflix original series.

 

[Juliko]

Oh, I actually have those books! I haven't read them in a while, though. I really ought to one of these days. I do remember enjoying them immensely.

 

[Juliko]

I've heard that Sarah Dessen's books were pretty good, so I decided to rent two of them from my library, Lock and Key and Just Listen. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get into them. I liked the latter better than the former, but they still felt generic to me. The conflict in Just Listen was just really forced, Owen was plain weird for all the wrong reasons, and the alpha bitch character never gets any comeuppance for the crap she pulls on the main character. In Lock and Key, I stopped reading after the main character's brother-in-law went off on her for reacting badly to the fact that her entire terrible life turned out to be a complete lie and never apologized. Eh, this kinda reaffirms why I never find myself liking books aimed at adults much.

 

[Darkmaster006]

I've heard that Sarah Dessen's books were pretty good, so I decided to rent two of them from my library, Lock and Key and Just Listen. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get into them. I liked the latter better than the former, but they still felt generic to me. The conflict in Just Listen was just really forced, Owen was plain weird for all the wrong reasons, and the alpha bitch character never gets any comeuppance for the crap she pulls on the main character. In Lock and Key, I stopped reading after the main character's brother-in-law went off on her for reacting badly to the fact that her entire terrible life turned out to be a complete lie and never apologized. Eh, this kinda reaffirms why I never find myself liking books aimed at adults much.

Books aimed at adults tend to want to be so... fake-deep or at least maybe too realistic and gloomy, with lots of conflicts that make the book just overall depressing, tbh.

Just started 'The Name of the Wind' which seems to be very popular (it's been some years from its release but I remember one or two kids in my college were reading it at that time), and it's fantasy, so I thought I'll give it a look! Also started 'Why We Sleep' which is a scientific study of sleep and its many aspects. Would totally recommend for anyone, and especially people who don't keep a regular sleep schedule.

 

[Scruffyjay]

The Fault in Our Stars is the worst book I've ever read.


There, I said it.

 

[Parissong]

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown is an amazing book. A lot of people give it a hard time being the predecessor of The Da Vinci Code (which I thought, like the majority, is not very good).

 

[Weiss]

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 respect your opinion but I think you are falling into the trap of looking at 1984 for a modern view. The book was published in 1948 (Orwell reversed the last two digits to get the title).

I suspect you’re of a similar age to me or younger ie not above 40. You have never lived in a world without CCTV or mass surveillance so you perhaps don’t appreciate how bizarre and dystopian the book is. Another thing to note is that not much was known about the communist regimes in the USSR and China at the time. Orwell called it almost 100% I have a lot of respect for him as a man of the left not willing to bend his principles for his “team”.

Lastly I think the most shocking and true element is how governments or certain groups of people who seek power bend language. You see this a lot today with the redefining of words artificially or the “re-branding” of certain things. The Ministry of Peace is what was then called in Europe, UK, Japan and the USA the ministry for or of war. Only a few years after the book was published was the name changed almost unilaterally to the “Defence Department” as PR became something governments were more concerned about with the advent of Television.

/rant

@Juliko I agree with @Beth Pavell I think TLotR is underrated but I’m bias it’s my favourite set of books. If you think otherwise cool but I think most people who have not read The Silmarillion should try it. Although the books stand on their own The Silmarillion adds so much and it contains my favourite story the tale of Beren and Lúthien.

 

[Weiss]

Spoilers for the ending of Game of Thrones

Spoiler

I always thought Bran Stark would end up on whatever was left of the Iron Throne. I think it will happen differently in the last two books when compared to the show. As much as I like the books I do not think it is a surprise or shock if you actually pay attention while reading.

I like the A Song of Ice and Fire series a lot I mod on some forums and the subreddit. That said I’ve come to realise that GRRM is not a good writer in my opinion. He is a good world builder and it’s that I love about the series. The lore and mythos is amazing and I love fan theories it’s actually this I love more than the main series books.

They are bloated and at times prone to spending many chapters on filler that could be cut and make no difference to the story.

The tales of Dunk and Egg are better stories over all.

 

[Juliko]

So I've been reading The Grapes of Wrath, and...ehhh, while I like it better than Of Mice and Men, it has a lot of strange filler chapters that don't really add anything to the story. The regular chapters by themselves are too long, and I think the book could benefit from having the more frivolous chapters cut out, or having the regular chapters be shorter. It's such a slog to read, and it also tends to jump around randomly at times. Seriously, Steinbeck, reign your writing in a little.

On the subject of books I actually like, I started on some new ones, and one recently released one called Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos is sooooo good. I've also started reading some new manga such as Witch Hat Atelier, Land of the Lustrous, The Promised Neverland, Little Witch Academia, Snow White with the Red Hair, and some others.

 

[Weiss]

So I've been reading The Grapes of Wrath, and...ehhh, while I like it better than Of Mice and Men, it has a lot of strange filler chapters that don't really add anything to the story. The regular chapters by themselves are too long, and I think the book could benefit from having the more frivolous chapters cut out, or having the regular chapters be shorter. It's such a slog to read, and it also tends to jump around randomly at times. Seriously, Steinbeck, reign your writing in a little.

On the subject of books I actually like, I started on some new ones, and one recently released one called Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos is sooooo good. I've also started reading some new manga such as Witch Hat Atelier, Land of the Lustrous, The Promised Neverland, Little Witch Academia, Snow White with the Red Hair, and some others.

Such good manga tastes UwU

i’ve not heard of Snow White with the Red Hair I’ll check it out thank you.

 

[Midorikawa]

Hunger Games is overrated. The first book is amazing, but the other two get ruined by the love triangle and take away from what made the first so great. Suzanne Collins other series The Sunderland Chronicles is way better in just about every way.

Twilight is actually good. The books at least. The movies did not do them justice.

Probably not an unpopular opinion but rather a misconception, Adult romance novels actually tend to have good stories and are not all adult scenes. In fact some have less and less adult scenes as the series progress. Later books in series that center on the same characters develop the characters and tend to delve more and more into who they are.