College Students! discussion

I hate when I'm so excited to read a certain book--I've heard rave reviews, I've seen it everywhere, people I trusted liked it--and then I read it and it was just one big disappointment.

What books have been like that for you? I always wonder if it was me that just didn't "get" the book, if it was the book itself, or if it was the build up of how AWESOME a book is that is the problem. Anyone know what I mean?

I hated and . They're both very popular on the YA scene but I hated them. And I do know what you mean. The more popular a book is the more disappointing I become if it's a flop.

I just posted a review for a book like this today! Khaled Hosseini's books--both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns--were unexpected letdowns for me. I was disappointed by The Kite Runner several years ago, despite its best seller status. I'd heard lots of people say they liked A Thousand Splendid Suns even better, so I gave it a shot. But...it didn't do much for me.

I guess there's no one book that works for every single person who reads it.

Erin wrote: "I just posted a review for a book like this today! Khaled Hosseini's books--both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns--were unexpected letdowns for me. I was disappointed by The Kite Runner..."

I loved that book, which was surprising because I usually read YA and contemporary romance. I was really disappointed with Never Let Me Go.

I hated City of Bones too! Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater was a HUGE letdown and so was Beautiful Creatures by Kamie Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

I'm surprised this hasn't already been mentioned.Breaking Dawn. I enjoyed the other books (not great works of literature, but still entertaining) but this book... Ugh.

Sashana wrote: I was really disappointed with Never Let Me Go.

Uh-oh...I have that one on hold at the library!

I am with Kimberly, but it wasn't Breaking Dawn. I think that one was my favorite of the 4, if you made me pick a favorite. I just don't get the Twilight mania.

OMGSH ANNA! Lol I loved The Catcher in the Rye, it's one of my favorite books. A lot of people don't like it though, I got into an argument about it once with my comp professor. :)

Shiver and The Gargoyle were both really disappointing. Heard so much about both, but I didn't like Shiver and The Gargoyle was okay, but I don't think it's worthy of all the hype around it lately...

And my biggest disappointment was An Echo in the Bone, the newest of the Outlander series. Didn't like the format of it at all. Hopefully the next one is better.

Whew! I thought I was the only one who disliked Shiver.

Erin wrote: "Sashana wrote: I was really disappointed with Never Let Me Go.

Uh-oh...I have that one on hold at the library!"

Erin, I'll definitely want to know what you think about it.

Breaking Dawn was pretty bad.. I was also really disappointed in Halo, the cover is so beautiful and the story had a lot of potential, but it just sort of fell flat.

Sashana wrote: Erin, I'll definitely want to know what you think about it."

When my copy actually comes in, I'll be sure to let you know.

I liked Shiver, but I hadn't heard anything before hand. I had no expectations. I also LOVED the Gargoyle. Isn't it funny how different all our tastes are?

I liked Shiver too, but I hadn't heard anything about it beforehand. I just liked the cover and book trailer, lol.

I was disappointed with The Historian. It sounded so great in the reviews and I was really excited to read it, but I found it to be pretty boring. It actually made me rethink ever reading Dracula.

I also didn't care for Life of Pi.

Kayla, I was disappointed by specifically the end of Life of Pi. I loved the majority of it, but the ending was just very blah to me.

Kayla and Natanya -- That's a good one. I was very disappointed by The Life of Pi. I couldn't understand the hype at all.

I was REALLY disappointed with Me and Emma. I read it earlier this year, and I had it figured out after maybe 20 pages.

I was really disappointed with Mockingjay (Hunger Games, #3)..so much anticipation for that one and blech..but I won't go into detail.

I was also pretty disappointed with The Kite Runner

I was really disappointed with Ape House. I LIKED it but I was prepared to be wowed like I was in Water for Elephants but it just didn't happen.

The Secret Life of Bees completely disappointed me. I'd heard it was great....but it still took me a really long time to read it. I wasn't wowed.

The same goes for Uglies. I'm not at all interested in reading the rest of the series.

Kelly--BOTH of those were books people raved about and I just found to be ok reads. I found Pretties at a used book sale for 50 cents so I just bought it and decided to give it a try and hope it gets better!

I may do that if I find a really really really really really cheap copy, only because it was left at a cliffhanger!

I find that I need to stop listening to other people half the time. I end up feeling too judgmental if I don't like books they rave about..if that makes sense..

Haha I totally know what you mean! I feel bad when I don't like something that somebody raved about.

Just finished The Wives of Henry Oades this morning and that was really disappointing. I heard so many good things and it's apparently based on a true story, but the whole book just seemed kind of pointless. There wasn't really much a plot.

Kelly, Jamie. The Pretties is easily the best in the series. The first is okay, the second pretty interesting, and the third is even better except for a stupid ending.

Aw, I LOVED Secret Life of Bees! But I read that when I was 15, maybe it had a different impact on me than it would have if I'd read it now?

My biggest disappointments were books I just read within the last month: Sarah's Key & The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I honestly don't understand what the hype was all about for either of these books, but just like Erin said no one book is gonna do it for every person, so ...oh well. Wish I hadn't read them, though. :(

Life of Pi was also a disappointment.

I liked The Secret Life of Bees a lot, but I thought the movie was even better!

I really loved The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo! Sad that it was a stinker for you. I think sometimes a book like that is really good but gets overly hyped and becomes disappointing!

I was kinda 'meh" about TGWTDT. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't knock my socks off either. I've heard the series just gets better though, so I'll definitely read the next one.

Oh, and another disappointing book for me, and I'm going to make a lot of people sad by saying this. A Wrinkle in Time. Everyone told me how much they loved this book, that they'd reread it many times. I just did not like it! I don't want to go into details of the things I didn't like, because I know how much a lot of people love it. But I was just disappointed because I had thought I would love it.

The Passage was disappointing to me. At first, I was really into it, but then I had to force myself to keep reading it, and then eventually I gave up. A Great and Terrible Beauty was another disappointment because I know people who love this series so I had high expectations that were definitely not lived up to.

Although, I have to say.. I love some books that others were disappointed by.. especially Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander is probably my favorite character ever. Although, it is true that the second book is better than the first.

Kimberly wrote: "I was kinda 'meh" about TGWTDT. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't knock my socks off either. I've heard the series just gets better though, so I'll definitely read the next one.

Oh, and another di..."

Kimberly, I've been wanting to read A Wrinkle in Time. It's one of the many children's classics that I missed out on. Did you not like it because you felt you were too old for it or was it something else?

Jenna wrote: "A Great and Terrible Beauty was another disappointment because I know people who love this series so I had high expectations that were definitely not lived up to.

I'm totally with you about A Great and Terrible Beauty -- I picked it up because at the time it was all the rave, and when I finally read it the book turned out to be a big womp womp for me. Glad to know I wasn't the only one who felt let down.

I really liked A Great and Terrible Beauty, but I had never heard of the series before I picked it up. I bought it because I liked the cover and the description on the back, lol.

Kayla- I'm really not sure why I didn't like it. I read a lot of children's novels, so I wouldn't say it's an age thing. I just didn't like the characters, and the story was interesting but parts of it were just strange. BUT don't take my word for it, read it. You may find that you love it. Do NOT get the audio version though, it's read by the author. Which normally would be really cool, but she is terrible she sounds like my Grandmother when she has her teeth out, lots of spit. And she makes all of the voices screechy. I only listened to about an hour of it and gave up. I owned a real copy of it so I just read it instead.

Jamie wrote: "I really loved The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo! Sad that it was a stinker for you. I think sometimes a book like that is really good but gets overly hyped and becomes disappointing!"

I know, Jamie, that's why I felt so bad! 'Cause yours was the first friend rating that popped up on the book page and I was like, awww man, I realllly don't want to talk shit on a book that someone else really liked! But I really didn't like it, so I felt like I needed to be honest. It was a bummer though...

Once I decide to read a book I try not to look at the book page till after I'm done reading 'cause I don't want to be spoiled and I don't want to have certain expectations so I literally didn't know what I was getting into with that book. For that reason it was partially my fault too.

I agree about the overly hyped thing, it happens with movies a lot too.


Kimberly wrote: "I was kinda 'meh" about TGWTDT. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't knock my socks off either. I've heard the series just gets better though, so I'll definitely read the next one."

I really hope so... I already have the next one, and I was just gonna skip it but everyone keeps saying this. So now I'm wondering if I should just give it a try...

Amanda wrote: "Ahh I am in love with the A Great and Terrible Beauty series. The first one took me a couple attempts to actually get through, but the series is amazing and just gets better in my opinion"

I knew that A Great and Terrible Beauty was part of a series, and I was actually still interested in reading the sequel (Rebel Angels). Maybe I'll give it another shot, since you said that it gets better :)

I was really really disappointed with Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I couldn't read more than 100 pages.

I thought The Help was not nearly as good as it was hyped to be. Still haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I don't hold overly high hopes for it.

Recently I was really disappointed by Remarkable Creatures. I've always thought Mary Anning was an awesome historical figure. I have no idea how a book about her could end up so boring! I also thought that the entire The Hunger Games Trilogy was not worth the fuss everyone made about it. It was a mediocre YA dystopia, but not much more than that.

I also found the 7th Harry Potter book to be really disappointing. It was more like Harry Potter and the Extended Camping Trip. I also felt like she added a bunch of stuff in at the end that didn't need to be there. She could have left out the Deathly Hallows entirely and not messed up the plot too much.

Misha wrote: "I was really really disappointed with Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I couldn't read more than 100 pages."

I wish I had only read the first 100 pages. I read it all because a friend said that they didn't think I could finish it. I'm not one to give up on a challenge! Gault's 70 page speech was one of the most grueling reading experiences of my life.

Just finished Little Women recently and was really disappointed. I never read it as a kid, and now I really wish I had cause I think I might have appreciated it more back then. Either that, or I wouldn't have had the attention span to get past the first 50 pages.

Sarah wrote: "Just finished Little Women recently and was really disappointed. I never read it as a kid, and now I really wish I had cause I think I might have appreciated it more back then. Either t..."

I read that recently too, and I was also really disappointed. I wish I had read it when I was younger.

Yeah... At first I enjoyed the quaint descriptions and pleasant imagery... but that really seemed to be all there was. No real plot or anything- just description and really in-your-face life lessons for young girls...

Erin wrote: "I just posted a review for a book like this today! Khaled Hosseini's books--both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns--were unexpected letdowns for me. I was disappointed by The Kite Runner..."

Something similar happened to me. I read TKR first because everyone told me ATSS was better and I didn't want ATSS to taint my reading of the other book. I adored TKR but didn't like ATSS nearly as much as I was supposed to. I much prefer TKR.

For me, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was an almost unforgivable letdown. I also was sorely disappointed in Pride and Prejudice.

Tara wrote: "Erin wrote: "I just posted a review for a book like this today! Khaled Hosseini's books--both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns--were unexpected letdowns for me. I was disappointed by Th..."

I feel the same way about Hosseini's books. Lucky for me, I read The Kite Runner years before ATSS came out. I hope he comes out with something new soon, even though ATSS wasn't great he's still a really good author.

Agreed, Sarah, I will be really excited for his next book! But I'm afraid he might be done. Has he mentioned if he's working on anything new?

One of the worst books I've ever read... Songs of the Humpback Whale.

I was very, very disappointed by Breaking Dawn. I'm a huge Twilight fan, but that book is just bad on so many levels. I also expected a lot more of The Alchemist. Everyone seems to think it's the most amazing, enlightening book ever, but I don't see it.

@ Tara: I agree with you on Pride and Prejudice, that was a bit of a letdown for me as well.

Nikki yeah me too .. breaking down was the worst in the series