Why I'm Questioning My Bookish Judgement

Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Combining both a passion for all things bookish with an obsessive love of list-making, this rad meme was born. This week's post is Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like More/Less Than I Did.

It's always a nice surprise when you go into a book and end up liking/loving it more than you initially thought you would. I can get down with those! But it's the ones that you end up disliking despite the high expectations and added praise that end up being so disappointing. These are the kinds of surprises I can usually do without. This week's good, the bad and the ugly leaves me questioning the merits of my own bookish judgement. Eh, you win some, you lose some I guess.

The Bold & Beautiful

Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse by Nina Post - If you recall from my review, I pretty much called this book the most WTF book I've ever read. To date that still holds true. But what's so surprising is just how much I ended up loving the series because of that weirdness. What can I say? The weird will stick together, I suppose!

Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi - To tell you the truth: At the point when I read this, I was kind of getting sick of the predictability of the YA formula. But Rossi restored my faith in the genre and totally blew me away, even after the rough start. And don't even get me started on the sequel. I LLUUUURRRVVVVED IT!

  

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins - If you know me then by now you'll know that this makes virtually every TTT I've participated in. I wasn't surprised so much by the fact that I loved the series but rather more because of how much it truly affected me afterward. I was incredibly moved and I owe my hard-core YA love to these books.

Mind Over Monsters by Jennifer Harlow - Initially I figured this would be another Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood ripoff. Boy, was I wrong! In the end, I liked it even better.

The Mist by Stephen King - This movie made my round-up of most disturbing films ever and with good reason. Honestly, despite how controversial the ending was, the shock value is what made me love it so. Only Stephen King could do that type of scene in such a way where I'd think it was okay. He's just masterful like that.

The Overrated & Disappointing

The Strain by Chuck Hogan & Guillermo del Toro - I'm a MEGA-HUGE fan of Guillermo del Toro, so I was super excited for his vampy collaboration in the book world. For a story that starts out with such a bang so it was surpisingly long-winded and kind of dull. This one was probably my biggest bookish disappointment, like, ever.

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips - I love me a good Greek myth, so when I read the synopsis about Greek gods causing mischief and mayhem in the modern world, I thought I was in for a real treat. Welp. It turns out I was wrong. Poor plotting and unlikeable characters had me wishing I was a DNF-kinda girl.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner - Okay, so this wasn't a book that I totally hated, I thought it was so-so. I think the reason it was so disappointing is that I had really high expectations going in. It's one of those series that garnered plenty of praise and dystopia is one of my favourite genres, so I was expecting a lot out of it. It had enough potential to keep me invested in the other two books , but overall, it wasn't all there for me.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Graham Smith - I should've known that this wouldn't be a book for me, but after loving Pride and Prejudice and Zombies I figured it would be a hit. It all boils down to the fact that though I enjoy history, I am not a fan of presidential history. This isn't really a book about vampires, it's a book about ol' Honest Abe, and that's okay. It was just boring. And don't even think about watching the movie. Good god, it's so much worse.

Survivors by Z.A. Recht/Thom Brannan - This is the final chapter in what is probably my favourite zombie series of all time. Unfortunately,the author passed away after starting the final book and Brannan was forced to pick up where Recht left off. I don't blame Brannan for this, but it was evident that things weren't going to be the same. In addition to the cop-out ending, the characters were mere shells of themselves and the action was poorly paced. Had this been a book in another series, I'd have been more apt to deal with it but it was a poor substitution for the ending I'd been waiting for. Again, not Brannan's fault but still a disappointment. Recht --- you are missed!

So, I'd like to know --- what books have surprised you? Do you think you're a good judge of bookish character or are you all over the place like me? If you've read any of the books of my list, did any of them surprise you in a good/bad way? Why?