Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted by Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Since April 2022, the meme moved to another host, Aria @ Book Nook Bits. Let’s Talk Bookish is a meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and share their love by visiting each other’s posts.

First of all, it’s my birthday and I turn 32 today! But it’s also a Friday and that means it’s time for another Let’s Talk Bookish post. This week it’s a freebie week and I like to dive into the rich archives of this meme. During this deepdive, I found an interesting topic, The Hype Train (click to see the original post). This was published on April 17, 2020 and since I have a love/hate relationship with the hype train, I found this topic speaking to me.

Prompts: Do you follow the hype train? What’s your favorite hyped book? Do you think that hyped books are too good to be true, or is there some hope that they will be as good as everyone says?

Do you follow the hype train?

I’m actually a little ashamed, but yes. I mean, I know I won’t like all hyped books, but there are several I really enjoyed. They were surprisingly good and I’m glad I’ve read them. However, i always tell myself I have to calm down and not jump on the hype so fast, but my curiosity always gets the better of me. Hypes I really didn’t enjoy are The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi, A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmererer, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and when looking back, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. At the time, I enjoyed these books though, but thinking about them now makes me cringe LOL. With the other hypes mentioned, I already had a great deal of problems while reading. Examples of hypes I’m glad I jumped on the train with are: Fourth Wing, Things We Never Got Over, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Twisted Love. Theseb ooks really surprised me and I had a great time reading them.

What’s your favorite hyped book?

Well, I think I have to go with a few of my all-time favorite books then. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a hyped book that already had it’s momentum in 2017/2018, but is coninuously hyped on Booktok. I’ve read the book in 2018 and I truly understand this hype. The same goes for all books by Sarah J. Maas. Speaking about newer hypes, Fourth Wing is an absolute pleasure to read. The fact that Rebecca Yarros was already one of my autobuy authors didn’t change that, but only added up to this I think. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was a bit hesitant at first since this was her first book within the fantasy genre, she published lots of romance books beforehand.

Do you think that hyped books are too good to be true, or is there some hope that they will be as good as everyone says?

To be honest, yes. Sometimes they are too good to be ttrue. One of these hypes is an old one, After by Anna Todd. It’s incredibly toxic and unhealthy and not that good in terms of quality as well. Unfortunately, many hyped books lack quality and depth and I find this more and more important. Especially the depth. Sometimes I find out the hard way about a hyped book being too good to be true, because I wish I would have made it a DNF instead of pushing through. I’m not sure if Hotel Magnifique has really been a hype, but this one was actually too good to be true. The Spanish Love Deception was also a hype I didn’t really get. And sometimes I’m lucky and hypes are really as enjoyable as everyone else thinks. However, they are in the minority for me.

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What do you think of hyped books? Do you follow the hype train or do you avoid hyped books as much as possible? What are books that you didn’t understand the hype for? What are your favorite hyped books? Do you think hyped books are too good to be true or are you optimistic and do you hope hyped books are as good as everyone else is saying?