As an ace person I am EXHAUSTED by booktok's constant shoving of smut in our faces. I like romance well and good but I'm so so so so so so so tired of everything needing to be spicy to sell.
I feel you so much on this 😭 I've changed my entire feed to dark academia / fantasy readers just so I avoid at least part of the smut craziness even though I love good romance books 😢
@@fuyopon see I love a romance subplot but yeah there needs to be something else going on. The moment a loveinterest is described as “gorgeous” or “hot” etc tho I’m out. I’m so sick of all the attractions being superficially about looks rather than actual connection. I LOVE found family as well tho!
@@fuyoponoh I missed this but yes you're so right! Another thing that bothers me is that we'll have all this political intrigue and all our female character can focus on is which "hot" boy to choose Like no, your kingdom is at stake can you PLEASE care more about it???
The love for smut confuses me so much, I actually avoid it because from what I've seen so far, a lot of authors can't write a good sex scene to save their lives.
It’s generally so bad. There is actual erotica in the world that is actually realistic and good. I don’t know what people are getting out of the smut. Although I feel like the generally energy of smut fans (giggly weird childish vibes) maybe explains it?
Nothing is even "~spicy~" like....it's....so boring and badly written and I'm like...why do people like this. Do published authors need a guide on how to write smut?
Preach on the need for more standalones! Especially trilogies. I don't know about anyone else, but I keep running into the first book being great, the second being meh, and then feeling compelled to read the third book because I want to know how it ends. Or the first two books are good and it gets ruined in the third. So frustrating
I was watching old booktube videos a little while ago and I stumbled across a video with Jesse saying he’d never take the dust jackets off of his books as they’d then be nude on camera and “they wouldn’t do that to him” and I just had to laugh knowing where his shelves are at now 😂
I have a few: 1. I dont preorder books anymore. I know it is super important to authors, but the last dozen books I preordered SHIPPED on release day, so I didn’t receive them till 3-4 days after. If I preorder a book, I expect it to be on my doorstep the day it’s released; that was always the benefit to me. And I preordered from both Amazon and Barnes and Noble, had the same things happen with both of them. Once that is resolved, I’ll happily preorder again! 2. I really hate it when people say “book 1 isn’t good but you’ve just gotta power through because book 3 is-“ no I don’t. I have too many other books I am excited to read to trudge through bad book after bad book, hoping you’re right. Books are expensive and my time is important, I cannot handle the reading slumps these bad books put me through!
The first one is REAL! It's gotten to the point where people would immediately ask 'is there smut?' when someone recommends a book. And some would even not bother with the book if it doesn't have spice like????
it’s bc they only want to read one genre/type of book and like… it’s fine to have preferences but it seems so ridiculous to me to want smut in books where that would feel so out of place in due to the type of book. i very kindly encourage these people to read something outside of their usual genre or not even genre fiction once in a while, familiarize themselves with books that can’t be boiled down to the same tropes and story beats they’re used to reading, something more experimental or literary or non-traditional (and lets be honest, non-western too bc booktok is so predominantly white and whatever little diversity gets promoted is still BIPOC & LGBTQ western-based authors). there’s so much more to literature than just romance/contemporary/romantasy but most of booktok doesn’t want to hear it. (not looking down on those genres bc i read them & enjoy them as well, just encouraging people to broaden their reading scope every once in a while so they can get out of their bubble and get more out of books than just what they’re used to.)
There are a lot of reasons for someone not wanting to read a book without spice. They could be exploring their sexuality/kinks, it could be the only space that is 100% theirs and unshared so all "grown up" material is saved for books, they could like the portrayal of sex and sexual intimacy in books bc they don't have that in real life or bc they don't want it in real life but enjoy the feelings seeing characters have that gives them, they could like the tension sex can give a book. But regardless, its just personal preference and shunning a book for not having what you want to read is not a crime
@@chelsey8737they need to just read erotica then 😭 i’ve seen so many ppl ask this question about books over serious topics or that do not revolve around romance. like if you are so concerned with EVERY book your read having sex scenes, why not just stay in the genre that revolves around it ?
Omg HARD AGREE on the lack of care for shipping books. The worst is when you order a paperback and they put it in one of those cushioned envelopes but there's still a bunch of air in it AND those kind of sealed packages but it's literally just like a plastic covering. I hate when there's no structure or protection with the packaging!
Agree 100% about smut. Best romance books I've read had no smut at all. One of the most notable examples is Jane Eyre which I know a lot of people will categorize as a "boring classic", yet had the most electrifying, slow-burn, full of depth romance I can think of, with two main characters who had absolute chemistry without even touching one another properly. Their smut was intellectual and how I loved that.
I think a lot of these negative opinions on TMI/City of Bones have to take into account that the book is 15 years old! When it came out, YA was still a relatively newly emerging “genre”. The field has grown, developed, and moved on since then. Those tropes weren’t nearly as overdone and played out when the book was published! The success of those books and similar books contributed to the explosion of copycats and oversaturation that see today. It’s not totally fair to judge a book from another time by the standards of today, imo. EDIT: not saying COB is objectively “good” lol (though TMI holds a special place in my heart for starting it all), but when the criticism is specifically related to overused tropes, that’s what gets me
see i would understand this a bit more if my opinions on tmi/cob didn’t originate when those books were coming out?? obviously to each there own but also a lot of the opinions are likely from when they read it yearsss ago
I really don’t think that is the issue. Books for teens and young adults existed long before the genre label existed (Perks, The Outsiders, The Lord of the Flies) as did fantasy. If the tropes were well executed or the dialogue and characters were well executed than those books would be held up as the prime example (like Hunger Games for example-not the first book about dystopian teens fighting to the death, but the break out example in the time of YA that was then copied to death) not nearly universally criticized. I read City of Bones as a teen and even then I knew it was bad, but got through two of them before quitting. 😂 I recently started re-reading the series and it’s so much worse than I remember. Not so much the case with my favourite YA novels from my teen years.
@@eden.elizabeth yeah, there are totally valid criticisms that exist! My point was more so towards the criticisms that are about it having overdone tropes like love triangles
I have an English degree, and sometimes I like to read trash books because life gets a little too much sometimes. Also, I was always love anything by Cassandra Clare even though there’s always tropes.
I agree about there being too much emphasis on books with spice. Especially cause I’m ace, I literally can’t read it and enjoy it. I just end up seeing it in books and being like, well that’s nice, moving on…and then I skip it. Be more ace friendly and recommend more books without spice, and maybe the allos will enjoy it too.
I personally read for fun, I don't need my next book to be a masterpiece of the century. I have enough of serious reading for my job (I am an engineer, I constantly read boring documentation and similar stuff) and serious problems in real life. So yeah, I read what many people would call trashy books and I love when the book has some statigically and wellplaced spice and ain't nobody shaming me for that. Also, since English is not my first language (it's just one of seven languages I speak), but I do mostly read in English, I am not the best judge of writing style or correctness of the writing, so once again I am very okey with so called trashy books, and I don't care an inch if someone thinks I am stupid for that. And yeah, I do read dark romance, but that doesn't mean that I would let something like that happen in real life. It's a book, it's not supposed to be real, we have real life to have real things.
How can you so casually go 'just one of the seven languages I speak'? Like, seriously, how? I struggled learning even a second foreign language so much that I gave it up. This needs to be applauded👏👏
@@Scout_1209 hahaha, thank you 🤣 I guess it's a perk of being born in a bilingual country and I just always found languages fascinating. A few of them I started studying for myself, not for school/business, but just because I love how those languages sound.
@@verob.3802 Wow, I can speak german (natively), english, and a few words of french (that's the thing that I dropped), but literally just a few words and sentences, for example: 'I don't know' (no clue how you spell it in french though) How 'bout you?
I guess this is one example of how different people read for different reasons-some people read to imagine things they wish would happen, other people read just to imagine things happening sometimes even to imagine things happening they know would never happen or they'd never want to actually happen(like because it's a good way to explore your limits on what you would or wouldn't actually find okay to have happen without anyone real ever actually needing to get hurt OR sometimes it can be like 'you-know-what, actually, my real life has it pretty good by comparison'-or it can be like punching a punching-bag instead of punching an actual person or writing down a list of everything that you don't like about someone instead of listing those things off to someone's face just to be mean to them, it gets it out of your system instead of keeping it festering inside until it actually harms you or someone else, and that can actually be healthy too). Among many other possible things. If any of that makes any sense.😅😊😊
@@Scout_1209 I do speak a little German and I also do speak French, even though far from perfectly. My strongest languages are Russian, Romanian, Spanish and English. I also speak Ukrainian.
This is just how I annotate, but I tend to only annotate books I'm super into (or school books). I highlight scenes that i love or that make me laugh so when i flip through it later, i see these happy moments. I use pen for plot things whether I'm underlining something that seems important or it's breaking my heart and I'm just screaming in the margins.
I think spoilers are not that bad, sure it sucks if someone intentionally spoils you, but it will not ruin the experience, sometimes spoilers even enhanced them for me (I've looked up multiple times if a character I despised would die, knowing that they would helped me immensely in finishing the book - also just knowing the fact that something happens usually does not tell you how it happens) I mean maybe I don't mind spoiler because I have a terrible memory, but even if I remember them, they don't bother me much.
The problem is when spoilers aren't that vague. (I mean, sometimes spoilers absolutely can and do spoil exactly how things happen too...not just what.) Or, specifically, when a "surprise"/"twist" was spoiled that you no longer get to experience for yourself if you would have seen coming or not. There's an entire genre based on knowing what's coming and the whole entire point being not to see where things will end up but instead seeing how they ended up there-it's called 'Suspense'. But not everybody likes Suspense, and that's fine; and, even beyond just the intentional "twists" or "surprises", different people just have different things that they do or don't like to just see for themselves if they would have seen coming or not and that's okay too. Everybody's different, and it shouldn't really be this big debate between whether or not people should or shouldn't be fine with spoilers, it should be easy to respect that different people are allowed to feel differently even about the same things(always ask before spoiling someone other than yourself and if making something for the general public always label it clearly so that the general public can choose for themselves what to consume or not-think of it like making food for someone specifically and bothering to ask which ingredients someone might or might-not like or be allergic to versus food that is made for general consumers and comes with a completely ingredients list on the label-but maybe that's just me and my own weird brain way of seeing it Lol). 🙂😁💜
A “friend” spoiled Catching Fire for me when I was literally reading it the DAY it came out 💀💀 it absolutely ruined my experience and stole what should’ve been a huge moment from me. I’m still mad about it to this day and now whenever I even think I’m hearing something that could potentially be a spoiler I lose my mind lol
I think it really depends on what genre you read and why you read. Like if you read classics, you probably already know stuff about the plot and if you read them to analyze the language, the plot doesn't matter that much. But if you read a thriller/mystery and someone spoilers who the killer was then I'm gonna be mad even if I still don't know how they did it. Sometimes though I feel like there needs to be a reading assistant that I can tell my theory and they only tell me if I'm right without additional information (because google will likely tell you more than you'd like to know). I recently read If We Were Villains and I was afraid to look up anythin because people said there's this huge plot twist which ended up to be exactly what I had suspected from the beginning.
My unpopular book opinion: I love love LOVE love triangles. It's my favorite trope and I always manage fall in love with at least one person from the triangle. That's probably one of the major reasons I love Cassandra Clare so much, bc of the love triangles. Also TMI/City of bones is not that bad, sure it's kinda cringey and there's a lot of grammar/spelling errors, but I don't really care, I only read for enjoyment anyway, if a book manages to entertain me from start to end, it's a solid 5 stars for me
How can you love love triangles??? In most occasions I feel like one of the two love interests is too toxic so I just don't see the point. People like you utterly confuse me 😅
@@july3817 True, a lot of the time of the love interests are super shitty, but not if the love triangle's done well (one of my personal favorites is when Tessa has to choose between Will&Jem in the Infernal devices)
There is no wrong way to annotate. Whatever way you like to annotate is the right way for you. I think I annotate differently with every book I read. 😅 I wish I was good at choosing non-fiction to read. I have read a couple I've enjoyed, but most times they are just boring. I haven't given up, but non-fiction isn't the first choice for the books I read.
The only thing i can think of is i think mockingjay is the best hunger games book. It's such a blast, has some fantastic character moments, and i dont hate the ending.
Although I'm one of the people that likes Catching Fire best, I definitely agree with not hating the ending. In fact, I've never understood why people hate it so much.
Didn't expect to see my take on daughter of the moon goddess to make it in 😭 good to hear I wasn't the only one who thought it should've been a standalone
i tip my hat to you my friend. Listen, I love daughter of the moon goddess for the life of me, and getting the sequel as a present from my family rubs me the wrong way. IT IS SO PAINFUL
I totally agree about smut. Enough already! I love your bookshelves as they currently are, Jesse! You should totally keep them! Love the WhittyNovels reference!
HARD AGREE for the spice in books! i feel like almost every book has it now especially YA and fantasy even though that’s not supposed to be their main focus
Whether the writing style is good or not is so different for everyone. I love Sanderson's writing, others might say it's boring. I really can't read flowery prose, others praise it to heavens. Read whatever is digestible for your brain. And if you fall out of love with your favorite author's style, that's okay too, tastes change.
My top two unpopular book opinions are Twilight wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Like it wasn't the best book I've ever read but it wasn't technically trash. I personally enjoyed it. And fantasy is overrated. I love a good fantasy novel but I feel like fantasy just keeps getting pushed in my face when most of them are copies from OG fantasy's. Anyway, love your content Jesse! You always put a smile on my face ♥📚
I love the look of the books without their dust jackets! I kinda want to do it with my book collection but it seems like a lot of time and I have no idea where I would even put all the dust jackets!
with you on not saying a book is trash. I differentiate by recommending some books as "good" (meaning their writing, characters, plot, etc. are the main reasons to recommend) and some as "i enjoyed my time with it" (either less traditionally well-constructed, kind of a niche or odd topic, not the sort to be widely appealing, etc.)
Also, excited that you're reading more nonfiction! I recommend In The Dream House, What My Bones Know and I'm Glad My Mom Died for memoirs, especially ITDH, it's got a very unusual writing style and a kind of haunted house theme? They're all memoirs about abusive relationships though, so watch out for that. Other than memoirs, the best nonfiction I've read recently is How to Suppress Women's Writing, The New Jim Crow, The Transgender Issue and In Defence of Witches.
Unpopular opinion: one does not need to spend thousands of dollars on books to be a reader. Libraries exist for a reason. Aside from books by favourite authors, I won’t buy a book if my library has it. Even upcoming releases-I just periodically check if my library has them on order and put a hold on them once they do. Bam, I have a new release a couple of days after publication and didn’t have to pay a cent. With life so expensive these days, I don’t see the logic of dropping $40 on every new book that piques your interest (especially when, let’s be honest, they’re just going to sit on your shelf unread for months or even years).
Yess. I just think that they need to get used to it. I read a lot of hardcovers all the time since I use the library/BOTM and read new releases. They are so aesthetic and usually they are around the same height!
I feel like paper backs are more durable, mostly because if a pb gets a little damaged most people are like 'oh that's a well loved book' and will have no problem reading it, if a hardback gets a little bit of damage especially on the cover then people are generally more like 'oh wow this is unreadable'
It kind of annoys me that The Cruel Prince is so popular but I also understand it, particularly how the type of story that it is is quite popular, and I think she did do it well here. That being said The Modern Faerie Tales, her Spiderwick books, and The Darkest Part of the Forest are much better, and that includes the fae element as well. I wish these books weren't as slept on as they are. I also want a new fae book from her, and not a spin off from the Cruel Prince (especially considering since how I didn't actually like the stolen heir).
Same here! I started a year ago, but I take a few months break between each series, so I haven't finished yet. I decided to read them in chronological order of the time periods, so I just finished The Last Hours, and The Mortal Instruments will be next. So maybe it's because I started with some of her later works, but I haven't seen anything trashy yet. They're some of the most fun books I've ever read.
I agree with the dark romance. I absolutely love dark romance and sure there’s some questionable things in there but it’s all fiction and not real And I suggest the never after series by Emily McIntire. You don’t have to read them in order but I believe they’re a good starting off point into dark romance.
The funny thing is, there is also a huge disparity between people with English degrees and people with degrees in creative writing! 🤭😂😂 An English major and a creative-writer will give you two very different opinions on what is or isn't "good" writing/grammar/punctuation[/etc.]. Lol ^-^
9:22 Defy the Night is also a Fantasy Romance (according to what I've seen on the internet). However, there are just 2 kiss scenes in it, and it's not really uncomfortable to read.
Unpopular opinion: As someone who loves fae in my books, there is a very certain selection of 'fae' lovers that I will never accept recommendations from. The type of 'fae' books that they read strips them of everything that makes them fae to make them more palatable and, typically sexy. In other words, they are just repackaged werewolves and vampires with wings and pointed ears, usually dumped in a court, in which the court itself does not resemble a fae court whatsoever. They use the word, but they don't write about fae. I am sad to say that this is most fae books now. In doing this, they take away everything that makes fae fun and interesting to read about, and also takes away their actual dark elements. I want more variety when it comes to fae stories, and honestly more recommendations that does them well that isn't Holly Black or An Enchantment of Ravens. I've read a few others such as Heretic from Sarah Singleton, and The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, and a little Charles De Lint, but there hasn't been many. I have the changling by Victor Lavalle on my tbr, as well as some others.
Idk if this unpopular or not, but as a romance book enjoyer I feel like booktok has over saturated the market with hitting all the boxes on tropes. So many books that I’ve read recently just feel like the author had a check list of tropes they wanted to hit, Idk it just makes the book feel stale.
Unpopular Book Opinion of mine: I am so tired of romantic subplots can I please have a NON-ROMANTIC plot line book SOMEWHERE that isn't middle-grade. I love romance when it's written well, but more often than not the romance feels tacked on, a poorly written piece to an otherwise stellar story that would have shined better without it. Like I was all excited for a serious intrigue plot set during the German Witch Trials and then it mentioned romance, and that was an instant vibe kill because nine times out of ten this means that the romance is ALL THE NOVEL will focus on.
I really disagree with the opinion about romantasy! Romantasy is a really good way to separate books inside the romance fantasy genre. If is a Romantasy, it means that the romance plot is the main one and there some fantasy elements to it. Example: ACOTAR And fantasy romance, is when the fantasy plot is the main one, and have some elements of romance sprinkle here and there Example: Throne of glass love your videooos ❤❤
I don't think people with literature/writing degrees are inherently better at distinguishing good writing from bad writing than avid readers who don't have literature/writing degrees. I also think that sometimes people say an author writes badly when really the author's writing style is fine but just isn't what they prefer.
With the series take I can enjoy a good standalone but I like series quite a lot and some books I think would be cool as a series EDIT: Also I do not believe in books be "objectively" good or bad writing. Us humans are vast and we all have our tastes in stories we like
I don't know why... but "romantasy" as a term bothers me too! I think it's the principle behind why most people seem to use it, not just as a quicker or more-fun way of saying the same thing, but instead as a way of almost pedantically trying to differentiate between what they think Fantasy Romance somehow "should" and "shouldn't" BE[ in general]-or because they just fundamentally misunderstand in some way how genres even work or not to begin with sometimes, and they don't fully get how books can be multi-genre sometimes _either_ with a primary genre(like the main meal) and a secondary genre(the unique spices or other flavorings added into it) *_or_* with a hybrid/crossover-mashup of genres you're not even supposed to be able to fully separate at all.🤔 😅 It gives me a bad aftertaste, every time I hear it. Not because of the term itself, but because of the discourse I've personally seen surrounding it often involving borderline reductive debates about how to or to-not "correctly" classify 'Romantasy' specifically versus other things with various combinations of Romance and/or Fantasy elements....or whatever.👀 Buuut maybe that's just me!
Some classics are great---many of them aren't though. If nothing else, I totally feel they offer an interesting snapshot of the time they were published in.
Classics are technically not a genre but a time period so of course most people won't like all the classics and that's completely fine. Unless you are deeply interested in the historical stuff and the language aspects, sticking to classics similar to your general taste is probably best. Of course there might still be books you don't like tho
I didn't like Fahrenheit 451, I found it tedious. That's my unpopular bookish opinion as of yesterday when I finished it. I know it's a "classic", but sometimes the 'canon' needs to be updated, you know?
I don't remember authors names because I rarely even look at an author's name at all, passed like just the fact that it's there on the cover so you it somewhat when you pick a book up, UNTIL *_after_* I have already read a book and liked it enough to be curious to know more about whose mind it came out of and/or whether or not they might have more books I may also be interested in picking up. Lol
omg yes! City of Bones was queen Cassie's first book, obviously if we compare it with her masterpieces that she wrote later (clockwork princess ) it's not that good, but it's a very funny book with a lot of cringe haha. regarding fourth wing I only gave it 5 stars because it gave me the same thrill I felt when I read divergent in 2014. It's a good book and I only accept the super mega hype for the dragons, in itself the book is a solid 3 stars.
Annotating girlie here! There's no right or wrong way to annotate ❤️ Some books I underline/highlight more, some books I write more in the margins, I even doodle and draw in some! Do what feels right for you ☺️
My unpopular opinion is that so many contemporary books are badly written. Like the writing style is so basic and plain and the characters are so flat. Like they’re so non-thought provoking .
Throne of Glass IS a romantic fantasy/romantasy though. Romantic fantasy or romantasy - a fantasy book with heavy romantic subplot Fantasy romance - the romance is the main plot, it just happens to be in a fantasy setting. example ACOTAR
I feel like this unpopular opinion is a little old now, but dark academia is not murder on school campus followed by an investigative mystery. There should be something academic involved in the book beyond the setting.
15:05 First, another man's trash is another man's treasure, what's bad to you or to most people isn't going to be bad to everyone, HOWEVER, I also happen to be an avid lover of 'trash' novels and I fully admit they are objectively trash and that is why I love them. It's kind of like chocolate, yeah I know it's unhealthy and has almost no nutritional value outside of actually consuming something (in this case reading) but we all love to indulge every now and again anyway.
I do NOT think The Fragile Threads of Power can be read without reading SoM. I’m only about a quarter into it, but so far it’s been mostly following Kell and Lila, and now Rhy and Alucard, and it references a LOT of what happened throughout SoM. I think anyone who hasn’t read SoM would be fairly lost with this book!
YES, I'm like halfway through the book and I still struggle trying to remember the plot of SoM. So I definitely would not recommend reading it on its own 😅
@@valerie4018 I considered re-reading SoM to prepare, but thought, nah, this is supposed to be about new characters with a whole new storyline, I'll remember enough about SoM for whatever little references are made. Ha, NOPE, it's about the same characters. Really wishing I'd re-read SoM!
My unpopular opinion is that booktubers should read more nonfiction history books. History is so important as a subject and it's rapidly being banned from schools. To push back against this, booktubers could read history.
I think an unpopular opinion I have is that Booktubers should be allowed to read whatever they want! Not just what’s popular or trendy or “right” but whatever they want :) (no hate btw! Just a different opinion)
Lovely video Jesse! It really made my morning. I too, am slightly scared to try out dark romances. I always want to keep an open mind about books but I just have the feeling that dark romances might be too much for me (If anyone has some beginner recs though, let me know!) Besides the point but has any other german noticed the spelling mistakes in the first chapter of nevernight?(in the german translation of course) I just started reading it and there were two mistakes in two pages and one of them looked like some auto correct issue xD
Unpopular opinion: Just bc u hate a book doesn't mean it's trash or cringey. I absoulutely love ACOTAR, From Blood and Ash, Shatter Me, some dark romance and that entire fantasy romance (with smut) genre. If you don't like that, that's perfectly fine but I'm tired of people getting a superiority complex and judging everyone else on what they read. I think those books are amazing, I think ACOTAR is rly damn good and nothing can change my mind. (Also Lightlark is pretty good)
The funny thing about these "spicy" scenes is that they're actually very bland and boring, nothing spicy is really happening (and it's badly written most of the time, on top of that). Especially as someone who regularly reads (smutt) fanfics, I'm confused about the hype around the so called "smutty/spicy" books since it almost never delivers.
unpopular opinion: books with authors who are questionable people can still be read, just buy it second hand if you don’t want to give them your $$ 💁🏼♀️
You know what? At first I was kinda iffy about you taking the booksleeves off of all your books. But nooow? I'm super into it! I don't think it's disrespectful to cover artist. If it is, then that means book covers are disrespectful to the artists and designers who create the hardcovers :p Plus, some books are way cuter without a dustjacket!
I agree that Ninth House was long and often boring. With that said, I did read Hell Bent and felt it was much better. 🤷♀️ also fourth wing isn’t about dragons being spicy but that’s a fair guess given that that’s what most people talk about. To me it was divergent + Enders game + hungry games if it was voluntary + dragons + smut 😊
I am one of the people that doesn't get hate reading, but I also do enjoy watching and engaging with criticism. So these hate reads are always fun for me to watch. But when I personally 'hate read' a book, it is not that at all. It is usually me wanting to like a book or give it a real chance, and many times my suspicions were confirmed. Like Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. I want fae in my books, I want more variety with fae books, and I want it to not rely on a fae romance. This did promise that, as well as doing fae accurately. I also liked the description of the character in the premise, and I enjoy reading about academia. A romance though? I'd rather not. Cosy fantasy and cosy academia, I can tell you that is not for me. I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. I gave it a chance, and I gave it a three star and it should have been a two. Many would say I hate read this book, but I didn't. I gave it a chance and it didn't impress. I very much wanted to like it.
If you want to see an online book store that actually does shipping well, The Broken Binding were tagged in a tweet a few days back by someone who's box turned up absolutely DESTROYED - I'm talking torn to shreds, soaking wet, flat-pack no longer box shaped.... and the book was in PERFECT condition. Like. Come on. Big companies can afford to invest a bit more in packaging, if TBB can do it.
Unpopular opinion: advertising a book by the aesthetics of it is a terrible way to go about it and tells me that it has nothing else to recommend it (even if I know that this isn't true). I am also admittedly not a cover person so a pretty cover will never make pick up a book, never mind buy it or read it. A good title is how you get me.
Unpopular book opinion: I never ever EVER touch a book before i have it covered in plastic covering. I like to keep my books as perfect as possible and preserve them till the end of time.
I definitely agree with the cassandra clare opinion I loved the books when they started but I fell out of love with them. During the last trilogy the one based in la I did not like it at all and couldn't even finish the last one. I am going to finish the current trilogy once I get chain of thorns but after that I'm finished. It's always the same everytime and it got old really fast. Although if she puts out anymore with magnuson and alex I'm totally down for that.
Ashley Poston and CoHo are not even comparable. Ashley Poston's books are droplets of heavens, I ❤ them. CoHo books make me want to throw them across the room, stopped reading her books 2 years ago.
The Infernal Devices has one of tbe best love triangles ever written and I will die on that hill! Also, my unpopular opinion is that it's okay to DNF books if you aren't enjoying them
My unpopular opinion is that there are a lot of book adaptations that are better than the book. Examples (only includes books I've read): The Haunting of Hill House, Shadow and Bone, The Princess Diaries, Enola Holmes, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, The Witcher, Matilda, The School for Good and Evil, and Younger.
Because you like Fredrick Backman's books...Would you consider to give other books written by Swedish authors a chance? One that think would find crazy and super funny is: 'The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared' by Jonas Jonasson. Or even just watch the movie. It's so fricking crazy 😂 Or if you want o experiences a childhood nostlagia you never had...Astrid Lindgren could be a fun choice. Like her middle-grade fantasy stand-alones: Ronja the Robber's Daughter, Mio My Son and The Brothes Lionheart
Other unpopular opinions: Authors are trying too hard with their titles. Why does every book need to have some sort of building structure followed by two dramatic words that are pulled together by "and?" "The Court of Blood and Ash," "The House of Darkness and Flame," "The Castle of Heartache and Fear" (these are all made up, by the way). It was interesting at first, but now they all sound like they belong to one giant series. Also, it sounds like the author/story thinks too much of itself or takes them-/itself too seriously. I agree with the smut issue: everything has it in it, even stories that don't need it to progress the plot. What really freaks me out is seeing graphic scenes in children's/older children's books. It's not age appropriate content for kids. I know kids get a hold of things if they really want to, but to blatantly offer smut disguised as a kid's story to a child is awful. Even as an adult, there have been books that I've loved to read and then, WHAM!, random smut thrown in. There was no point to it and the plot would have done just fine without it. Just because I'm an adult, does not mean I want to read that in every book I buy. There is more to falling in love than smut. Honestly, most of the time you spend in love is outside of smut in a real relationship. It makes me think either the authors are doing it because it's trendy/edgy; because it's they've never experienced healthy love before; or they don't know how to write good love stories and use the smut as a cover. Some (not all) authors and readers seem to think smut = good chemistry. To me, good chemistry is dialogue, body language, and an overall way of two people working well together while functioning as themselves. I feel like most smut books are "smut with a side of plot." Everything revolves around it and the story and character growth is a secondary thought. Smut in a story is okay, so long as the reader is aware it's there (no surprises) and the smut isn't the "goal" of the romance and is just one of many offshoots of the characters' love for one another. unnecessary Finally, I 100% agree with the person who said the covers are looking the same. To further that, I constantly lament that books, particularly in the Fantasy and YA/NA sections, are all black, grey, red, or some other dark color. What happen to the fun colors? Why does everything have to be so edgy? I miss the super creative covers, or the beautifully elegant books. Again, it's like the smut issue. Cursing in a book can be character defining.
As an ace person I am EXHAUSTED by booktok's constant shoving of smut in our faces. I like romance well and good but I'm so so so so so so so tired of everything needing to be spicy to sell.
I feel you so much on this 😭 I've changed my entire feed to dark academia / fantasy readers just so I avoid at least part of the smut craziness even though I love good romance books 😢
Yes! This!
@@fuyopon see I love a romance subplot but yeah there needs to be something else going on. The moment a loveinterest is described as “gorgeous” or “hot” etc tho I’m out. I’m so sick of all the attractions being superficially about looks rather than actual connection. I LOVE found family as well tho!
@@fuyoponoh I missed this but yes you're so right! Another thing that bothers me is that we'll have all this political intrigue and all our female character can focus on is which "hot" boy to choose
Like no, your kingdom is at stake can you PLEASE care more about it???
real. it’s gotten so sickening to go to the comments in a booktok video and al the comments are “spice??!”
The love for smut confuses me so much, I actually avoid it because from what I've seen so far, a lot of authors can't write a good sex scene to save their lives.
Yeah this is my problem with it too - I'm no prude, I like a good sex scene! Emphasis on "good" though lol
It’s generally so bad. There is actual erotica in the world that is actually realistic and good. I don’t know what people are getting out of the smut. Although I feel like the generally energy of smut fans (giggly weird childish vibes) maybe explains it?
fr I felt like I was going to throw up into my own mouth during ACOMAF 😂😂… maybe I *am* just a prude tho idk
Nothing is even "~spicy~" like....it's....so boring and badly written and I'm like...why do people like this. Do published authors need a guide on how to write smut?
I agree. If I want smut I look to fanfics
Preach on the need for more standalones! Especially trilogies. I don't know about anyone else, but I keep running into the first book being great, the second being meh, and then feeling compelled to read the third book because I want to know how it ends. Or the first two books are good and it gets ruined in the third. So frustrating
I was watching old booktube videos a little while ago and I stumbled across a video with Jesse saying he’d never take the dust jackets off of his books as they’d then be nude on camera and “they wouldn’t do that to him” and I just had to laugh knowing where his shelves are at now 😂
HAHAHAHA
I have a few:
1. I dont preorder books anymore. I know it is super important to authors, but the last dozen books I preordered SHIPPED on release day, so I didn’t receive them till 3-4 days after. If I preorder a book, I expect it to be on my doorstep the day it’s released; that was always the benefit to me. And I preordered from both Amazon and Barnes and Noble, had the same things happen with both of them. Once that is resolved, I’ll happily preorder again!
2. I really hate it when people say “book 1 isn’t good but you’ve just gotta power through because book 3 is-“ no I don’t. I have too many other books I am excited to read to trudge through bad book after bad book, hoping you’re right. Books are expensive and my time is important, I cannot handle the reading slumps these bad books put me through!
The first one is REAL! It's gotten to the point where people would immediately ask 'is there smut?' when someone recommends a book. And some would even not bother with the book if it doesn't have spice like????
it’s bc they only want to read one genre/type of book and like… it’s fine to have preferences but it seems so ridiculous to me to want smut in books where that would feel so out of place in due to the type of book. i very kindly encourage these people to read something outside of their usual genre or not even genre fiction once in a while, familiarize themselves with books that can’t be boiled down to the same tropes and story beats they’re used to reading, something more experimental or literary or non-traditional (and lets be honest, non-western too bc booktok is so predominantly white and whatever little diversity gets promoted is still BIPOC & LGBTQ western-based authors). there’s so much more to literature than just romance/contemporary/romantasy but most of booktok doesn’t want to hear it. (not looking down on those genres bc i read them & enjoy them as well, just encouraging people to broaden their reading scope every once in a while so they can get out of their bubble and get more out of books than just what they’re used to.)
I hear “if there’s not romance in it I’m not reading it” a lot
There are a lot of reasons for someone not wanting to read a book without spice. They could be exploring their sexuality/kinks, it could be the only space that is 100% theirs and unshared so all "grown up" material is saved for books, they could like the portrayal of sex and sexual intimacy in books bc they don't have that in real life or bc they don't want it in real life but enjoy the feelings seeing characters have that gives them, they could like the tension sex can give a book. But regardless, its just personal preference and shunning a book for not having what you want to read is not a crime
@@chelsey8737it is ridiculous though. Don’t ask people for book recommendations if you don’t actually like to read 💁🏾♀️
@@chelsey8737they need to just read erotica then 😭 i’ve seen so many ppl ask this question about books over serious topics or that do not revolve around romance. like if you are so concerned with EVERY book your read having sex scenes, why not just stay in the genre that revolves around it ?
Omg HARD AGREE on the lack of care for shipping books. The worst is when you order a paperback and they put it in one of those cushioned envelopes but there's still a bunch of air in it AND those kind of sealed packages but it's literally just like a plastic covering. I hate when there's no structure or protection with the packaging!
Agree 100% about smut. Best romance books I've read had no smut at all. One of the most notable examples is Jane Eyre which I know a lot of people will categorize as a "boring classic", yet had the most electrifying, slow-burn, full of depth romance I can think of, with two main characters who had absolute chemistry without even touching one another properly. Their smut was intellectual and how I loved that.
"Reader, I married him" when I tell you I cried my eyes out to this. I love classics for that innocent type of romance.
I think a lot of these negative opinions on TMI/City of Bones have to take into account that the book is 15 years old! When it came out, YA was still a relatively newly emerging “genre”. The field has grown, developed, and moved on since then. Those tropes weren’t nearly as overdone and played out when the book was published! The success of those books and similar books contributed to the explosion of copycats and oversaturation that see today. It’s not totally fair to judge a book from another time by the standards of today, imo.
EDIT: not saying COB is objectively “good” lol (though TMI holds a special place in my heart for starting it all), but when the criticism is specifically related to overused tropes, that’s what gets me
see i would understand this a bit more if my opinions on tmi/cob didn’t originate when those books were coming out?? obviously to each there own but also a lot of the opinions are likely from when they read it yearsss ago
I really don’t think that is the issue. Books for teens and young adults existed long before the genre label existed (Perks, The Outsiders, The Lord of the Flies) as did fantasy. If the tropes were well executed or the dialogue and characters were well executed than those books would be held up as the prime example (like Hunger Games for example-not the first book about dystopian teens fighting to the death, but the break out example in the time of YA that was then copied to death) not nearly universally criticized. I read City of Bones as a teen and even then I knew it was bad, but got through two of them before quitting. 😂 I recently started re-reading the series and it’s so much worse than I remember. Not so much the case with my favourite YA novels from my teen years.
@@eden.elizabeth yeah, there are totally valid criticisms that exist! My point was more so towards the criticisms that are about it having overdone tropes like love triangles
it's crazy there's a point where YA was new, now it's its own planet
I honestly think the YA genre has only gotten worse and worse over the years....
I have an English degree, and sometimes I like to read trash books because life gets a little too much sometimes. Also, I was always love anything by Cassandra Clare even though there’s always tropes.
I agree about there being too much emphasis on books with spice. Especially cause I’m ace, I literally can’t read it and enjoy it. I just end up seeing it in books and being like, well that’s nice, moving on…and then I skip it. Be more ace friendly and recommend more books without spice, and maybe the allos will enjoy it too.
I love fluff romances within a story with deep lore.
Do you have any recs??
(I love those too)
I personally read for fun, I don't need my next book to be a masterpiece of the century. I have enough of serious reading for my job (I am an engineer, I constantly read boring documentation and similar stuff) and serious problems in real life. So yeah, I read what many people would call trashy books and I love when the book has some statigically and wellplaced spice and ain't nobody shaming me for that. Also, since English is not my first language (it's just one of seven languages I speak), but I do mostly read in English, I am not the best judge of writing style or correctness of the writing, so once again I am very okey with so called trashy books, and I don't care an inch if someone thinks I am stupid for that. And yeah, I do read dark romance, but that doesn't mean that I would let something like that happen in real life. It's a book, it's not supposed to be real, we have real life to have real things.
How can you so casually go 'just one of the seven languages I speak'?
Like, seriously, how?
I struggled learning even a second foreign language so much that I gave it up. This needs to be applauded👏👏
@@Scout_1209 hahaha, thank you 🤣 I guess it's a perk of being born in a bilingual country and I just always found languages fascinating. A few of them I started studying for myself, not for school/business, but just because I love how those languages sound.
@@verob.3802 Wow, I can speak german (natively), english, and a few words of french (that's the thing that I dropped), but literally just a few words and sentences, for example: 'I don't know' (no clue how you spell it in french though)
How 'bout you?
I guess this is one example of how different people read for different reasons-some people read to imagine things they wish would happen, other people read just to imagine things happening sometimes even to imagine things happening they know would never happen or they'd never want to actually happen(like because it's a good way to explore your limits on what you would or wouldn't actually find okay to have happen without anyone real ever actually needing to get hurt OR sometimes it can be like 'you-know-what, actually, my real life has it pretty good by comparison'-or it can be like punching a punching-bag instead of punching an actual person or writing down a list of everything that you don't like about someone instead of listing those things off to someone's face just to be mean to them, it gets it out of your system instead of keeping it festering inside until it actually harms you or someone else, and that can actually be healthy too). Among many other possible things. If any of that makes any sense.😅😊😊
@@Scout_1209 I do speak a little German and I also do speak French, even though far from perfectly. My strongest languages are Russian, Romanian, Spanish and English. I also speak Ukrainian.
This is just how I annotate, but I tend to only annotate books I'm super into (or school books). I highlight scenes that i love or that make me laugh so when i flip through it later, i see these happy moments. I use pen for plot things whether I'm underlining something that seems important or it's breaking my heart and I'm just screaming in the margins.
I think spoilers are not that bad, sure it sucks if someone intentionally spoils you, but it will not ruin the experience, sometimes spoilers even enhanced them for me (I've looked up multiple times if a character I despised would die, knowing that they would helped me immensely in finishing the book - also just knowing the fact that something happens usually does not tell you how it happens)
I mean maybe I don't mind spoiler because I have a terrible memory, but even if I remember them, they don't bother me much.
The problem is when spoilers aren't that vague. (I mean, sometimes spoilers absolutely can and do spoil exactly how things happen too...not just what.) Or, specifically, when a "surprise"/"twist" was spoiled that you no longer get to experience for yourself if you would have seen coming or not.
There's an entire genre based on knowing what's coming and the whole entire point being not to see where things will end up but instead seeing how they ended up there-it's called 'Suspense'.
But not everybody likes Suspense, and that's fine; and, even beyond just the intentional "twists" or "surprises", different people just have different things that they do or don't like to just see for themselves if they would have seen coming or not and that's okay too.
Everybody's different, and it shouldn't really be this big debate between whether or not people should or shouldn't be fine with spoilers, it should be easy to respect that different people are allowed to feel differently even about the same things(always ask before spoiling someone other than yourself and if making something for the general public always label it clearly so that the general public can choose for themselves what to consume or not-think of it like making food for someone specifically and bothering to ask which ingredients someone might or might-not like or be allergic to versus food that is made for general consumers and comes with a completely ingredients list on the label-but maybe that's just me and my own weird brain way of seeing it Lol). 🙂😁💜
A “friend” spoiled Catching Fire for me when I was literally reading it the DAY it came out 💀💀 it absolutely ruined my experience and stole what should’ve been a huge moment from me. I’m still mad about it to this day and now whenever I even think I’m hearing something that could potentially be a spoiler I lose my mind lol
I think it really depends on what genre you read and why you read. Like if you read classics, you probably already know stuff about the plot and if you read them to analyze the language, the plot doesn't matter that much. But if you read a thriller/mystery and someone spoilers who the killer was then I'm gonna be mad even if I still don't know how they did it.
Sometimes though I feel like there needs to be a reading assistant that I can tell my theory and they only tell me if I'm right without additional information (because google will likely tell you more than you'd like to know). I recently read If We Were Villains and I was afraid to look up anythin because people said there's this huge plot twist which ended up to be exactly what I had suspected from the beginning.
My unpopular book opinion: I love love LOVE love triangles. It's my favorite trope and I always manage fall in love with at least one person from the triangle. That's probably one of the major reasons I love Cassandra Clare so much, bc of the love triangles. Also TMI/City of bones is not that bad, sure it's kinda cringey and there's a lot of grammar/spelling errors, but I don't really care, I only read for enjoyment anyway, if a book manages to entertain me from start to end, it's a solid 5 stars for me
How can you love love triangles??? In most occasions I feel like one of the two love interests is too toxic so I just don't see the point. People like you utterly confuse me 😅
Can you recommend some books with a love triangle but with a slow burn romance?
@@july3817 True, a lot of the time of the love interests are super shitty, but not if the love triangle's done well (one of my personal favorites is when Tessa has to choose between Will&Jem in the Infernal devices)
I genuinely will not read or watch anything if it contains a love triangle. 😭😭😊
WOW a new video from Jesse what a great way to relax after working all day 😃
There is no wrong way to annotate. Whatever way you like to annotate is the right way for you. I think I annotate differently with every book I read. 😅
I wish I was good at choosing non-fiction to read. I have read a couple I've enjoyed, but most times they are just boring. I haven't given up, but non-fiction isn't the first choice for the books I read.
The only thing i can think of is i think mockingjay is the best hunger games book. It's such a blast, has some fantastic character moments, and i dont hate the ending.
Although I'm one of the people that likes Catching Fire best, I definitely agree with not hating the ending. In fact, I've never understood why people hate it so much.
Didn't expect to see my take on daughter of the moon goddess to make it in 😭 good to hear I wasn't the only one who thought it should've been a standalone
I feel extremely strongly about this sentiment 🫣
i tip my hat to you my friend. Listen, I love daughter of the moon goddess for the life of me, and getting the sequel as a present from my family rubs me the wrong way. IT IS SO PAINFUL
I totally agree about smut. Enough already! I love your bookshelves as they currently are, Jesse! You should totally keep them! Love the WhittyNovels reference!
I submitted the one on contemporary romance covers looking the same 😂 loved your take on it and loved this video
HARD AGREE for the spice in books! i feel like almost every book has it now especially YA and fantasy even though that’s not supposed to be their main focus
Damaged books on mail is so on point. Recently I've got lot more damaged books than good ones from online bookstores
YESSSSS PLEASEEE. I NEED A READ AND RANK DARK ROMANCE.
Whether the writing style is good or not is so different for everyone. I love Sanderson's writing, others might say it's boring. I really can't read flowery prose, others praise it to heavens. Read whatever is digestible for your brain. And if you fall out of love with your favorite author's style, that's okay too, tastes change.
My top two unpopular book opinions are Twilight wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Like it wasn't the best book I've ever read but it wasn't technically trash. I personally enjoyed it. And fantasy is overrated. I love a good fantasy novel but I feel like fantasy just keeps getting pushed in my face when most of them are copies from OG fantasy's.
Anyway, love your content Jesse! You always put a smile on my face ♥📚
So many interesting perspectives. Love this idea!
I love the look of the books without their dust jackets! I kinda want to do it with my book collection but it seems like a lot of time and I have no idea where I would even put all the dust jackets!
with you on not saying a book is trash. I differentiate by recommending some books as "good" (meaning their writing, characters, plot, etc. are the main reasons to recommend) and some as "i enjoyed my time with it" (either less traditionally well-constructed, kind of a niche or odd topic, not the sort to be widely appealing, etc.)
Now due to that Aaron Warner opinion I might actually start reading Shatter Me (I'm a horrible mood reader so it will take at least another 5 months)
Also, excited that you're reading more nonfiction! I recommend In The Dream House, What My Bones Know and I'm Glad My Mom Died for memoirs, especially ITDH, it's got a very unusual writing style and a kind of haunted house theme? They're all memoirs about abusive relationships though, so watch out for that. Other than memoirs, the best nonfiction I've read recently is How to Suppress Women's Writing, The New Jim Crow, The Transgender Issue and In Defence of Witches.
Unpopular opinion: one does not need to spend thousands of dollars on books to be a reader. Libraries exist for a reason. Aside from books by favourite authors, I won’t buy a book if my library has it. Even upcoming releases-I just periodically check if my library has them on order and put a hold on them once they do. Bam, I have a new release a couple of days after publication and didn’t have to pay a cent. With life so expensive these days, I don’t see the logic of dropping $40 on every new book that piques your interest (especially when, let’s be honest, they’re just going to sit on your shelf unread for months or even years).
Such a great video! Thank you! 👏
Blessed with a video from you the day before my birthday yay, early birthday present. I was watching old videos of yours. I just love your videos 😊
ah! happy early birthday to you! hope it's a good one!
@@jessethereader Omg thank you so much, Jesse! 🤍 You are a comfort booktuber for me 🫶
💖
@@jessethereader 😱💓
You should do a reading Vlog for the Final Throne of Glass book Jesse, I’m sure a lot of us would love to see that
My favourite thing about this channel is that Jesse thrown the gauntlet and they get back in spades.
I love your creativity. These videos are always so funnnn❤️
My unpopular book opinion: till this day I still prefer hardcovers. Sure floppy books are nice but they get destroyed so easily!
Yessss aesthetics on a bookshelf over comfort reading. Although I don’t think hardcover is uncomfortable either!
Yess. I just think that they need to get used to it. I read a lot of hardcovers all the time since I use the library/BOTM and read new releases. They are so aesthetic and usually they are around the same height!
I feel like paper backs are more durable, mostly because if a pb gets a little damaged most people are like 'oh that's a well loved book' and will have no problem reading it, if a hardback gets a little bit of damage especially on the cover then people are generally more like 'oh wow this is unreadable'
It kind of annoys me that The Cruel Prince is so popular but I also understand it, particularly how the type of story that it is is quite popular, and I think she did do it well here. That being said The Modern Faerie Tales, her Spiderwick books, and The Darkest Part of the Forest are much better, and that includes the fae element as well. I wish these books weren't as slept on as they are. I also want a new fae book from her, and not a spin off from the Cruel Prince (especially considering since how I didn't actually like the stolen heir).
Love the 'naked' book look of your shelves Jesse. And aggressively agree to no all classic are everyone taste.
I was very late to the shadow Hunter party (I finished it last year) and I don’t even care how trash they are… they’re so fun 😤
Same here! I started a year ago, but I take a few months break between each series, so I haven't finished yet. I decided to read them in chronological order of the time periods, so I just finished The Last Hours, and The Mortal Instruments will be next. So maybe it's because I started with some of her later works, but I haven't seen anything trashy yet. They're some of the most fun books I've ever read.
Some dark romance recs: the losers duet by harley laroux, hooked by emilymcintire, the dark one by nikki st. Crowe, the mindf*ck series by s.t. abby
I agree with the first unpopular opinion that’s why I’m going to be reading Dragon’s Kiss by E. A Winters because she writes no spice fantasy
I agree with the dark romance. I absolutely love dark romance and sure there’s some questionable things in there but it’s all fiction and not real
And I suggest the never after series by Emily McIntire. You don’t have to read them in order but I believe they’re a good starting off point into dark romance.
The funny thing is, there is also a huge disparity between people with English degrees and people with degrees in creative writing! 🤭😂😂
An English major and a creative-writer will give you two very different opinions on what is or isn't "good" writing/grammar/punctuation[/etc.].
Lol ^-^
Went to a book store recently to buy books and my jaw dropped to the ground and broke tiles. Also, cute looking books should cost less.
9:22 Defy the Night is also a Fantasy Romance (according to what I've seen on the internet). However, there are just 2 kiss scenes in it, and it's not really uncomfortable to read.
Unpopular opinion: As someone who loves fae in my books, there is a very certain selection of 'fae' lovers that I will never accept recommendations from. The type of 'fae' books that they read strips them of everything that makes them fae to make them more palatable and, typically sexy. In other words, they are just repackaged werewolves and vampires with wings and pointed ears, usually dumped in a court, in which the court itself does not resemble a fae court whatsoever. They use the word, but they don't write about fae. I am sad to say that this is most fae books now. In doing this, they take away everything that makes fae fun and interesting to read about, and also takes away their actual dark elements. I want more variety when it comes to fae stories, and honestly more recommendations that does them well that isn't Holly Black or An Enchantment of Ravens. I've read a few others such as Heretic from Sarah Singleton, and The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, and a little Charles De Lint, but there hasn't been many. I have the changling by Victor Lavalle on my tbr, as well as some others.
Idk if this unpopular or not, but as a romance book enjoyer I feel like booktok has over saturated the market with hitting all the boxes on tropes. So many books that I’ve read recently just feel like the author had a check list of tropes they wanted to hit, Idk it just makes the book feel stale.
Jesse's face when he opens The Fragile Threads Of Power😂
Unpopular Book Opinion of mine: I am so tired of romantic subplots can I please have a NON-ROMANTIC plot line book SOMEWHERE that isn't middle-grade. I love romance when it's written well, but more often than not the romance feels tacked on, a poorly written piece to an otherwise stellar story that would have shined better without it.
Like I was all excited for a serious intrigue plot set during the German Witch Trials and then it mentioned romance, and that was an instant vibe kill because nine times out of ten this means that the romance is ALL THE NOVEL will focus on.
I really disagree with the opinion about romantasy!
Romantasy is a really good way to separate books inside the romance fantasy genre.
If is a Romantasy, it means that the romance plot is the main one and there some fantasy elements to it.
Example: ACOTAR
And fantasy romance, is when the fantasy plot is the main one, and have some elements of romance sprinkle here and there
Example: Throne of glass
love your videooos ❤❤
See this is what I thought the difference was too. Some people think it’s the same thing.
I don't think people with literature/writing degrees are inherently better at distinguishing good writing from bad writing than avid readers who don't have literature/writing degrees. I also think that sometimes people say an author writes badly when really the author's writing style is fine but just isn't what they prefer.
With the series take I can enjoy a good standalone but I like series quite a lot and some books I think would be cool as a series
EDIT: Also I do not believe in books be "objectively" good or bad writing. Us humans are vast and we all have our tastes in stories we like
As for the ribbon bookmarks: You can knot them at the end so they won’t fray. Of course don’t do it if you don’t want the knot lol
Or run clear nail polish over the end if you don't like the knotted look :)
Or burn the edge with a lighter be careful tho but it seals the end so it won’t fray
I don't know why... but "romantasy" as a term bothers me too! I think it's the principle behind why most people seem to use it, not just as a quicker or more-fun way of saying the same thing, but instead as a way of almost pedantically trying to differentiate between what they think Fantasy Romance somehow "should" and "shouldn't" BE[ in general]-or because they just fundamentally misunderstand in some way how genres even work or not to begin with sometimes, and they don't fully get how books can be multi-genre sometimes _either_ with a primary genre(like the main meal) and a secondary genre(the unique spices or other flavorings added into it) *_or_* with a hybrid/crossover-mashup of genres you're not even supposed to be able to fully separate at all.🤔 😅 It gives me a bad aftertaste, every time I hear it. Not because of the term itself, but because of the discourse I've personally seen surrounding it often involving borderline reductive debates about how to or to-not "correctly" classify 'Romantasy' specifically versus other things with various combinations of Romance and/or Fantasy elements....or whatever.👀 Buuut maybe that's just me!
Jesse I don't think you would like any dark romance 😅
Some classics are great---many of them aren't though. If nothing else, I totally feel they offer an interesting snapshot of the time they were published in.
Classics are technically not a genre but a time period so of course most people won't like all the classics and that's completely fine. Unless you are deeply interested in the historical stuff and the language aspects, sticking to classics similar to your general taste is probably best. Of course there might still be books you don't like tho
I didn't like Fahrenheit 451, I found it tedious. That's my unpopular bookish opinion as of yesterday when I finished it. I know it's a "classic", but sometimes the 'canon' needs to be updated, you know?
I don't remember authors names because I rarely even look at an author's name at all, passed like just the fact that it's there on the cover so you it somewhat when you pick a book up, UNTIL *_after_* I have already read a book and liked it enough to be curious to know more about whose mind it came out of and/or whether or not they might have more books I may also be interested in picking up. Lol
I have to ask... what did you do with the dust jackets? PS: Loved the video! Loveeeed the editing
omg yes!
City of Bones was queen Cassie's first book, obviously if we compare it with her masterpieces that she wrote later (clockwork princess ) it's not that good, but it's a very funny book with a lot of cringe haha.
regarding fourth wing I only gave it 5 stars because it gave me the same thrill I felt when I read divergent in 2014. It's a good book and I only accept the super mega hype for the dragons, in itself the book is a solid 3 stars.
Annotating girlie here! There's no right or wrong way to annotate ❤️ Some books I underline/highlight more, some books I write more in the margins, I even doodle and draw in some! Do what feels right for you ☺️
My unpopular opinion is that so many contemporary books are badly written. Like the writing style is so basic and plain and the characters are so flat. Like they’re so non-thought provoking .
Disclaimer I read like depressing classical books so maybe that’s why 😭
Throne of Glass IS a romantic fantasy/romantasy though.
Romantic fantasy or romantasy - a fantasy book with heavy romantic subplot
Fantasy romance - the romance is the main plot, it just happens to be in a fantasy setting. example ACOTAR
I feel like this unpopular opinion is a little old now, but dark academia is not murder on school campus followed by an investigative mystery. There should be something academic involved in the book beyond the setting.
I am not afraid to say that I will not read hetero or lesbian romance. ever. If the romance involves women I don't want to hear it.
15:05 First, another man's trash is another man's treasure, what's bad to you or to most people isn't going to be bad to everyone, HOWEVER, I also happen to be an avid lover of 'trash' novels and I fully admit they are objectively trash and that is why I love them. It's kind of like chocolate, yeah I know it's unhealthy and has almost no nutritional value outside of actually consuming something (in this case reading) but we all love to indulge every now and again anyway.
I do NOT think The Fragile Threads of Power can be read without reading SoM. I’m only about a quarter into it, but so far it’s been mostly following Kell and Lila, and now Rhy and Alucard, and it references a LOT of what happened throughout SoM. I think anyone who hasn’t read SoM would be fairly lost with this book!
YES, I'm like halfway through the book and I still struggle trying to remember the plot of SoM. So I definitely would not recommend reading it on its own 😅
@@valerie4018 I considered re-reading SoM to prepare, but thought, nah, this is supposed to be about new characters with a whole new storyline, I'll remember enough about SoM for whatever little references are made. Ha, NOPE, it's about the same characters. Really wishing I'd re-read SoM!
Interesting! I only mentioned that, because I saw VE Schwab say you could read it that way.
Early!!!! Love your videos Jesse!!!! You're so funny!!!!
thanks sarah! have a great day.
SAME with Ninth House!
right!! i wanted to love it so bad.
My unpopular opinion is that booktubers should read more nonfiction history books. History is so important as a subject and it's rapidly being banned from schools. To push back against this, booktubers could read history.
I think an unpopular opinion I have is that Booktubers should be allowed to read whatever they want! Not just what’s popular or trendy or “right” but whatever they want :) (no hate btw! Just a different opinion)
Lovely video Jesse! It really made my morning.
I too, am slightly scared to try out dark romances. I always want to keep an open mind about books but I just have the feeling that dark romances might be too much for me (If anyone has some beginner recs though, let me know!)
Besides the point but has any other german noticed the spelling mistakes in the first chapter of nevernight?(in the german translation of course)
I just started reading it and there were two mistakes in two pages and one of them looked like some auto correct issue xD
Unpopular opinion: Just bc u hate a book doesn't mean it's trash or cringey. I absoulutely love ACOTAR, From Blood and Ash, Shatter Me, some dark romance and that entire fantasy romance (with smut) genre. If you don't like that, that's perfectly fine but I'm tired of people getting a superiority complex and judging everyone else on what they read. I think those books are amazing, I think ACOTAR is rly damn good and nothing can change my mind. (Also Lightlark is pretty good)
My unpopular opinion is that I don’t like spice in books, I’m Demi sexual and it’s just kind of uncomfortable.
The funny thing about these "spicy" scenes is that they're actually very bland and boring, nothing spicy is really happening (and it's badly written most of the time, on top of that).
Especially as someone who regularly reads (smutt) fanfics, I'm confused about the hype around the so called "smutty/spicy" books since it almost never delivers.
That "Meow" at the very end had me giggling! xD
unpopular opinion: books with authors who are questionable people can still be read, just buy it second hand if you don’t want to give them your $$ 💁🏼♀️
Lol, the bare covers. I love the look too.
You know what? At first I was kinda iffy about you taking the booksleeves off of all your books. But nooow? I'm super into it!
I don't think it's disrespectful to cover artist. If it is, then that means book covers are disrespectful to the artists and designers who create the hardcovers :p Plus, some books are way cuter without a dustjacket!
ooh a twist!! haha
I tried no annotate while reading but after I did it I hated it so I just use sticky book markers where I highlight something.
if you loved a "trash book" well then to you, you didn't think it was trash
idk if it’s unpopular, but the ballad of songbirds and snakes shouldn’t have been written before literally ANY other hunger games prequel
"Classic ≠ Good" ....I think actually depends on specifically in which sense of the word 'classic' you do or don't mean to be referring to.
Cute shirt and cute vibes ❤
I agree that Ninth House was long and often boring. With that said, I did read Hell Bent and felt it was much better. 🤷♀️ also fourth wing isn’t about dragons being spicy but that’s a fair guess given that that’s what most people talk about. To me it was divergent + Enders game + hungry games if it was voluntary + dragons + smut 😊
I am one of the people that doesn't get hate reading, but I also do enjoy watching and engaging with criticism. So these hate reads are always fun for me to watch. But when I personally 'hate read' a book, it is not that at all. It is usually me wanting to like a book or give it a real chance, and many times my suspicions were confirmed. Like Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. I want fae in my books, I want more variety with fae books, and I want it to not rely on a fae romance. This did promise that, as well as doing fae accurately. I also liked the description of the character in the premise, and I enjoy reading about academia. A romance though? I'd rather not. Cosy fantasy and cosy academia, I can tell you that is not for me. I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. I gave it a chance, and I gave it a three star and it should have been a two. Many would say I hate read this book, but I didn't. I gave it a chance and it didn't impress. I very much wanted to like it.
If you want to see an online book store that actually does shipping well, The Broken Binding were tagged in a tweet a few days back by someone who's box turned up absolutely DESTROYED - I'm talking torn to shreds, soaking wet, flat-pack no longer box shaped.... and the book was in PERFECT condition. Like. Come on. Big companies can afford to invest a bit more in packaging, if TBB can do it.
I hope you do more unpopular book opinions from TH-cam instead of Instagram because some of us (like me) don’t have Instagram
Unpopular opinion: advertising a book by the aesthetics of it is a terrible way to go about it and tells me that it has nothing else to recommend it (even if I know that this isn't true).
I am also admittedly not a cover person so a pretty cover will never make pick up a book, never mind buy it or read it. A good title is how you get me.
unpopular opinion: too many "no plot, just vibes" books!! i hear the words "character study" and my brain says "no satisfying conclusion"
Unpopular book opinion: I never ever EVER touch a book before i have it covered in plastic covering. I like to keep my books as perfect as possible and preserve them till the end of time.
Totally unrelated, but what is the mic that you're using, the sound is so nice🥺
Absolutely love your content✨
I definitely agree with the cassandra clare opinion I loved the books when they started but I fell out of love with them. During the last trilogy the one based in la I did not like it at all and couldn't even finish the last one. I am going to finish the current trilogy once I get chain of thorns but after that I'm finished. It's always the same everytime and it got old really fast. Although if she puts out anymore with magnuson and alex I'm totally down for that.
Ashley Poston and CoHo are not even comparable. Ashley Poston's books are droplets of heavens, I ❤ them. CoHo books make me want to throw them across the room, stopped reading her books 2 years ago.
The Infernal Devices has one of tbe best love triangles ever written and I will die on that hill!
Also, my unpopular opinion is that it's okay to DNF books if you aren't enjoying them
My unpopular opinion is that there are a lot of book adaptations that are better than the book. Examples (only includes books I've read): The Haunting of Hill House, Shadow and Bone, The Princess Diaries, Enola Holmes, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, The Witcher, Matilda, The School for Good and Evil, and Younger.
Because you like Fredrick Backman's books...Would you consider to give other books written by Swedish authors a chance?
One that think would find crazy and super funny is: 'The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared' by Jonas Jonasson. Or even just watch the movie. It's so fricking crazy 😂
Or if you want o experiences a childhood nostlagia you never had...Astrid Lindgren could be a fun choice. Like her middle-grade fantasy stand-alones: Ronja the Robber's Daughter, Mio My Son and The Brothes Lionheart
Other unpopular opinions:
Authors are trying too hard with their titles. Why does every book need to have some sort of building structure followed by two dramatic words that are pulled together by "and?" "The Court of Blood and Ash," "The House of Darkness and Flame," "The Castle of Heartache and Fear" (these are all made up, by the way). It was interesting at first, but now they all sound like they belong to one giant series. Also, it sounds like the author/story thinks too much of itself or takes them-/itself too seriously.
I agree with the smut issue: everything has it in it, even stories that don't need it to progress the plot. What really freaks me out is seeing graphic scenes in children's/older children's books. It's not age appropriate content for kids. I know kids get a hold of things if they really want to, but to blatantly offer smut disguised as a kid's story to a child is awful. Even as an adult, there have been books that I've loved to read and then, WHAM!, random smut thrown in. There was no point to it and the plot would have done just fine without it. Just because I'm an adult, does not mean I want to read that in every book I buy. There is more to falling in love than smut. Honestly, most of the time you spend in love is outside of smut in a real relationship. It makes me think either the authors are doing it because it's trendy/edgy; because it's they've never experienced healthy love before; or they don't know how to write good love stories and use the smut as a cover. Some (not all) authors and readers seem to think smut = good chemistry. To me, good chemistry is dialogue, body language, and an overall way of two people working well together while functioning as themselves. I feel like most smut books are "smut with a side of plot." Everything revolves around it and the story and character growth is a secondary thought. Smut in a story is okay, so long as the reader is aware it's there (no surprises) and the smut isn't the "goal" of the romance and is just one of many offshoots of the characters' love for one another.
unnecessary
Finally, I 100% agree with the person who said the covers are looking the same. To further that, I constantly lament that books, particularly in the Fantasy and YA/NA sections, are all black, grey, red, or some other dark color. What happen to the fun colors? Why does everything have to be so edgy? I miss the super creative covers, or the beautifully elegant books.
Again, it's like the smut issue. Cursing in a book can be character defining.
Because it was a trend.
Agree 100% with the smut! Best romances I've read had no smut at all