Books That Surprised Me!

Hello fellow bookworm! Top Ten Tuesday is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Most of us are familiar with Top Ten Tuesday by now, but if your new to this, a topic is given every Tuesday and the blogger then produces a top ten list of books to fit the weekly subject. The topic this week is Top Ten Books That Surprised Me. This can be either in a good or a bad way, so I’ve included 5 books which were unexpected in a nice way, and 5 which were unexpected in a not so nice way for me…

Pleasantly Surprising…

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this story was! I was worried it wouldn’t be to my taste, being aimed at slightly younger readers, but also having a scary edge to it. I proceeded to read the rest of the series which was fairly enjoyable, but the first book was definitely my favourite!

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

I had heard good things about this book, but I never expected to be as hooked as I was. The storyline was so compelling and there was no way I could’ve guessed the ending!

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I was worried about buying the entire Mortal Instruments series, because I had absolutely no idea what I would think, but I was so surprised at how much I enjoyed the first book. I’m so glad I read it, and then carried on to read all of the other Shadowhunter books Clare has ever written!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I had read Eleanor and Park, and it wasn’t really what I expected, especially after all of the good things I had heard, so I was a bit worried going into another on of Rowell’s books. However, I enjoyed Fangirl so much, the characters were a lot more relatable and the storyline as a whole was more driven in my opinion.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

I knew this book was for younger readers, but this was my first Patrick Ness book, and I never knew how amazing his writing was! I pretty much spent the entire book in tears, and devoured it in a single day!

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Unexpectedly Not So Great…

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

I really enjoyed The Girl on the Train, so I had quite high expectations for this book, but I found it to be not so great in the end. There didn’t seem to be any major plot twists or intertwining story lines, and the end was quite predictable. A bit of a let down for me.

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

Everyone had said how amazing this book is, and all other books by Silvera, but I was disappointed. I thought the characters were good, and the writing style made me want to try out another Silvera book, but I just wasn’t compelled by the storyline as much as I though I would be. It also promised to make me cry, and I do cry at most things, but I barely shed any tears reading this!

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and J.K. Rowling

Everyone on the entire planet was excited about a new Harry Potter book, despite the fact that it was a script and not a novel. I think I was blinkered when I first read it because it was Harry Potter and there’s no way I could ever be disappointed, but on reflection, there were some parts of the story that were a bit far fetched for me. However, because it is a script, as soon as you see it on stage, you experience the story in a completely different way! Reading the script was surprising not so great for me, but seeing the play was a completely different story!

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I mentioned this when I was talking about Fangirl, but I had really high hopes for this book, and it just seemed a little bit flat to me. I didn’t really feel the romance between the two main characters, which was really disappointing.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I tried reading this years ago, and I couldn’t get into it, but I thought I would try again when the Netflix series was released, so I could watch it along with everyone else. Sadly, my experience was indifferent to the first time. I managed to finish it, but I wasn’t moved by the storyline at all, and what was supposed to be the climax of the plot was a bit of a let down.

All cover photos taken from Goodreads. Click on a book cover to see its Goodreads profile.