Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week’s theme is unpopular bookish opinions! (You can share opinions surrounding being a reader, a book reviewer, etc. OR you could share your opinions on specific books that go against what everyone else is saying. Are there any books you loved that most people didn’t, or vice versa?)
Special thanks to Meghan from Meghan Plays Games for helping me brainstorm these ideas!
UNPOPULAR BOOK OPINIONS
1. Negative and DNF reviews are just as important and valid as positive reviews.
Before I got into the reviewing world, I never realized this was a topic that was even up for debate. It just seemed like a simple fact to me that reviews are opinions and subjective to the person who writes them. The reader of the review doesn’t have to agree with the opinions of the review. But after entering the book blogging sphere, I quickly received a plethora of comments saying that I should be more objective, that the books I gave a negative review “deserved better,” or that I couldn’t have an opinion on a book I hadn’t read entirely. I write reviews because I want to help other readers decide whether or not they might enjoy a book and because I love discussing books with other readers. That means talking about the positives and the negatives.
2. I would read an entire series where the main couple hasn’t gotten together yet.
I’m here for the slow-burn/yearning. I find insta-love to be a huge turn off. It’s okay if there’s initial attraction from the get go, but I pretty much draw the line at anything more than that. In that same vein, I feel that friends-to-lovers is the superior trope to enemies-to-lovers. I feel like the latter trope is barely ever written well and that there is way more at stake in a friends-to-lovers relationship.
3. The standards for young adult novels have gone down.
I feel like books, such as Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword (which was originally published in 1982), show a level of sophistication that is no longer required in young adult books. I think this is why authors such as V.E. Schwab have been faced with prejudice and condescension for writing young adult books and they are not seen as “real” novels.
4. I don’t like footnotes in fiction.
It’s one thing in a textbook, but having to read all of the footnotes in A Chorus of Dragons about killed me. If it’s important, why not put it in the main body?
5. I hate When Trilogies are Turned into Series.
Too much of a good thing isn’t always a good thing. I hate when books are surprising breakouts and wildly successful because suddenly, the publishers want to make even more money and turn what was planned to be a trilogy into a series. This often turns what was a planned, cohesive story into a bloated, meandering mess because authors are suddenly forced to find new plot points and story arcs. This usually means that there’s suddenly wild goose-chases, new villains appearing out of thin air, characters acting completely out-of-character and doing things they never would have done for the sake of drama, eleventh hour break-ups and resolutions, and all kinds of other cheap storytelling elements that weaken the story and turn it into a shadow of what it could have been.
6. I hate when characters are magically healed from a disability or injury or when they are forced to give up their powers at the end for some greater good.
As someone with multiple chronic illnesses, nothing upsets me more than when a character magically gets their injury, illness, or disability magically cured so that they can finally be a badass. Let me see them struggle, let me see them overcome with what made them who they are. I also hate when characters have to give up their powers in order to save the world or their loved one. It feels like a cheap way to explore character development. It’s a bummer to deal with the fallout of the characters living a mundane existence and there’s usually some kind of secret way for them to acquire a new power, so it just seems like a giant waste of time to show a different side of the character, which could be done without resorting to the loss of powers plot device.
7. i hate when books are marketed as something extremely popular meets something else extremely popular.
These are the novels that are emblazoned with remarks like “Pacific Rim meets A Handmaid’s Tale.” All this does is set typically false and high expectations for readers and makes it more difficult for them to enjoy the novel based on its own merit, instead of comparing it to the other works that it inevitably falls short of.
8. I hate when villains who have had a change of heart are killed off in some grand sacrifice.
It’s lazy and predictable. Give me a redemption arc where the character has to face all of the wrongs they’ve committed and make amends with the people they hurt the most.
9. When protagonists have to be innocent and pure goodie-goodies.
I hate when protagonists have to make a tough choice, such as murdering someone, and they have to agonize over it for half the book, usually before and after they do the deed. Like, please, if characters want to be leaders or saviors of the world or whatever, they have got to learn to make the difficult calls and to live with them. Do we have to go through this self indulgent moral crisis for the entire novel before they get a grip?
10. I’m tired of romantasy novels.
I feel like they’re so popular right now that a lot of them are being rushed to publication for profit. And I think unfortunately that a lot of the time that means quality and polish are sacrificed. I also can’t stand when the titles are blatantly trying to copy already successful romantasy series, like A Court of Thorns and Roses, with incredibly similar titles and covers.
What are some of your unpopular bookish opinions? Do we have any of the same or do you disagree with any of mine? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I absolutely agree with you about everything! But especially negative and dnf reviews. My thing is reading is so subjective I like to hear why it didn’t work for someone. If I think I will have the same problem as that person I might decide not to read it. Or if I think it’s something I can overlook then I might still give it a try. It gives me a heads up on what to expect.
Ha! The trilogies turned into series is one of mine too!
No way! Great minds 😂🤭 hopefully if we spread the word, this will stop happening!
I agree with all of these!
Glad I’m not alone!!
I usually don’t care for footnotes in fiction, but there are a couple that really worked for me.
Oh, really? That’s interesting! What do you think made footnotes work for you in those titles?
I agree with quite a few of these, especially negative reviews, footnotes and (of course) disability rep! I come from an academic background so for me footnotes belong there, not in fiction. Essentially it’s an author’s trick to saving their word count but STILL out the info in, and I feel that it’s quite lazy.
Footnotes are the WORST! I also hate #6, it’s so unbelieveable, even for fantasy. And I also agree on #7 and definitely on #1.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/04/15/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-tbr-i-avoid-reading-and-why/
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who has these opinions! 🤭
Some great points!
Anne – Books of My Heart
Thank you, Anne!
Re: #7…yes! The way books are marketed today is a pet peeve of mine too. It’s not about a story, it’s just tropes, tropes, tropes! I feel like that is the trend now because it’s safer for publishers to put familiar elements front and center rather than take a risk on not enough people liking a specific plot-pitch. Not a fan.
One of my controversial book opinions is: humans don’t always have to be the real monsters. Stephen King does that a lot in his stories and I get it; humans are pretty awful to each other and their environment, but I see enough of humanities ugliness in real-life. I’d like a break from that when I read, so I want the ghost/monster/alien to be the actual worst character in the story.
That is such a good point about the tropes! I know people have shorter attention span these days and that using tropes is a quick way to get people interested, but it feels cheap somehow and also like I don’t know anything about the actual content of the novel.
Oh, that’s another great bookish opinion and such a good point! It kind of feels a bit like Scooby Doo, when the supernatural villain is unmasked and it’s just the human jerk of the week.
That first one is a big one! Haha, it’s been interesting to see how ‘controversial’ negative reviews have become over the years… I agree that negative reviews have a place in the blogosphere. I’m just here to share my thoughts on what I’m reading, and sometimes those thoughts are negative, lol. I have a hard time with bloggers who exclusively post positive reviews. I feel like there’s no point in me reading what they have to say in that case…
It really did surprise me that negative reviews could even be considered “controversial” in the first place. But I feel exactly the same as you, I wouldn’t be able to trust the opinion of that reviewer if they only ever wrote positive reviews.
Romantasy is being milked for all its worth.
I also love a good slowburn. <3
I completely agree. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing when its done well, but I feel like the majority of them have been rushed lately for profit.
Me too 💙