Book Hype: Do You Buy It? Have You Been Burnt By It?

A bunch of hyped books that I didn't fall in love with

 *Warning! This post includes some discussion on plot development in We Were Liars by E.Lockhart that you may want to avoid if you haven't read the book.

Ah, book hype. Don't you just, um, hate it?

I'm not talking about reader hype here - that'll come later - I'm talking about marketing hype. Let me tell you, if I've been burnt once, I've been burnt a thousand times by those emails and adverts heralding the 'must read' titles of any given year. I used to be pretty good at avoiding books that were publisher-hyped. I mean, of course everyone 'in-house' is going to say good things about a book they are publishing. It's a no-brainer. And so, in the past,  I was always wary of any kind of excessive marketing hype.

But lately, I keep falling for it.

Last week I read what are most certainly two of the most hyped books of 2014: We Were Liars by E.Lockhart and Half Bad by Sally Green.

In its defence We Were Liars has garnered just about as much early-reader hype as it has publisher hype. And, We Were Liars is a good read. But it's not The Best Book You'll Read This Year, nor is it Amazing, nor will it Change Your Life.

I mean, I don't think so. You might.

Also, I have a quibble with the marketing hype for We Were Liars. The publishers are desperate, DESPERATE,  not to have anyone reveal any spoilers for this one; I've had emails about this. Maybe you have too. They've even set up a dedicated Tumblr where you can join a 'Read-and-Don't-Tell Alliance' in order to encourage readers to not reveal the ending of the book. All that this does (in my opinion) is make certain curious readers look for answers and predict twists. Now, if I had never heard a thing or received an email about We Were Liars and I picked it up at the book store, would I have liked it more? I really don't know.  Would I have been lulled into a false sense of security by the glorious summer setting of We Were Liars and been a little more shocked by certain happenings? Possibly. No, definitely.

The marketing hype for We Were Liars is huge and omnipresent, and it did lead to me reading the book, so in that respect the hype worked. I just have a feeling that in their hopes of not giving all the spoils, the publishers have, in fact, given all the spoils.

And what of Half Bad? It's Sally Green's debut novel and has already sold in 42 languages worldwide. The press release for Half Bad calls it the literary franchise of 2014 and goes onto say that 'Half Bad will do for witches what Twilight did for vampires.' So, no pressure, huh?

Half Bad didn't work out for me. I should have listened to my head because this book initially wasn't on my TBR for 2014. But instead I listened to the hype. And I wanted to like Half Bad (it started off well), but sometimes the hype surrounding a book elevates reader expectations to levels that no book can ever live up to.

Have you been burnt by marketing hype? If so, what books didn't work out for you? Or do you think that marketing hype is a great thing. Maybe it's because of  this kind of publisher hype that you've found some of your very favourite reads. This totally happens too.

Marketing hype is possibly what led me to picking up Gone Girl and Divergent - two books I really love -although I think that reader hype played a large part there too. I didn't read Divergent until a year after its release - and that was pretty much the same as Gone Girl. Maybe from now on I should let the hype die down a little before I pick up books like We Were Liars and Half Bad. 

Reader  hype is totally different animal to marketing hype. If a book shows up on my radar purely due to reader hype, I generally know I'm onto a good thing. Case in point: On Dublin Street by Samantha Young, which was originally self-published, and loved by EVERYBODY on Goodreads, so much so that it was picked up by a traditional publishing house.

Anna and the French Kiss is another book that was really championed by the blogosphere on its release, and I have yet to encounter anyone who didn't fall in love with that one.

But reader  hype doesn't always work out for me, either (maybe I'm just really picky!) I picked up Fangirl due to the fact that almost everyone I know loved it. Me. I liked it OK. But I didn't love it. I guess it didn't help that I found the fanfiction parts of the story pretty unnecessary.

A couple of my favourite reads have from the past while have been books that I really didn't know anything about until I was offered them for review. I don't usually accept books for review unless I already have them on my wish list, but sometimes, I take a chance, and sometimes taking chances really pays off. I love it when this happens. There are two books in particular that stand out as my great reading surprises for me.

Tempus by Holly Lauren: When Holly Lauren contacted me regarding Tempus I admit I had never heard of the book. Added to that, my review list was full at the time. So, why did I accept Tempus for review? I'm really not sure. It may have had something to do with the author's warm yet professional approach and also the extract of the book included in her email. I was able to read that and decide. An extract helps. Also, I started reading Tempus just to check out a few chapters, and didn't put it down until I was done. So much fun. It's the best YA I've read in ages. I'll be posting my review later this month.

Impostor by Susanne Winnacker. This one kind of flew under the radar for me. I hadn't heard all that much about Impostor until I was offered it for review, and even when I accepted, it wasn't really top of my TBR. But Impostor is so, so, so good. I know a lot of my blogger friends think so too.

So, guys, let me know what you think of marketing hype? Are you so over it? Do you think it's sometimes too overdone, too in-your-face? I guess you could say: just don't read the emails. Just avoid the hype. But, as a book blogger who likes keeping up to date on the latest releases that's pretty much impossible! Or maybe it's not. Maybe you can recommend a way to avoid the book hype!

Have you picked up many a hyped book only to have been let down? Or does marketing hype totally work for you? Is it how you find your next great read?

Let me know about your experiences with marketing/publisher hype, reader hype and those books that may not have received a whole lot of hype, but which are very special to you.