Do we share one or more unpopular bookish opinions?
10 Unpopular Bookish Opinions
I’m linking up today with That Artsy Reading Girl for Top Ten Tuesday: Unpopular Bookish Opinions. I’m not shy about bookish opinions, and I’ll attempt to make this post different from my 10 Bookish Pet Peeves post. Reading is a uniquely personal experience, and my opinions might differ from yours.
1. Stop With the Dysfunctional Family Fiction
Although I enjoy complicated family drama, I draw the line at dysfunctional family drama. If the dysfunction involves harming children, it’s an automatic DNF. In general, I avoid stories of unhappy people living miserable lives and seek out redemption, hope, and reconciliation.
2. Dispense with Excessive Profanity
UGH. Write more creatively! I am quick to DNF a book with excessive profanity, and will not read future work by the author.
3. Don’t Disappoint Me with an Unsatisfactory Ending
Authors need to stick the landing! After investing a great deal of time and energy in reading, I don’t want to be disappointed by the ending. I don’t need the ending to be happy or tied up in a perfect bow, but I do need it to be satisfactory. I often take one star away from my overall rating if the ending is unsatisfactory. I wrote a post about Endings here.
4. Books Need Spice/Steam Ratings
Although I prefer closed-door romance, I can deal with some spice. However, there is no need to be overly explicit. I’ll skip the literary porn in favor of sweet romance.
5. Misleading Blurbs Negatively Affect a Reading Experience
Very often, books that are described as “hilarious” or “laugh-out-loud” funny are not humorous at all. I wonder if the blurb writers have even read the book when their blurbs miss the entire tone of the story.
6. Stop Using the Miscommunication Trope
Please, romance writers! In general, readers do not enjoy a miscommunication trope for the third-act breakup. We’re all adults and should realistically have better communication skills. Miscommunication is often silly and, hopefully, would never happen IRL.
7. Heavy-Handed Author Agendas are Annoying
Whether I agree or not, I don’t enjoy heavy-handed author agendas in my reading selections. You might think you’re being subtle, but you’re not! I prefer to think for myself. I avoid certain authors for this reason.
8. Give Me Some Plot in Character-Driven Stories
Yes, I appreciate lovely, interesting, or quirky characters, but I need some conflict or tension to move the plot forward.. Fredrik Backman is the master! My ideal story is a balance of plot-driven and character-driven.
9. Too Many Modern Ideas in Histfic
There are a few hisfic authors who can’t resist giving women in the past modern ideas (and even modern slang). I admire hisfic writers like Stephanie Dray and Marie Benedict (for example) who carefully research and strive to write the most authentic and accurate historical fiction.
10. WWII Histfic Might be Overdone
(You might think I’m running out of unpopular bookish opinions!)
I might have reached my saturation point with WWII histfic! While it’s important to honor the stories of the innocent victims of the Holocaust, the atrocities take an emotional toll on readers. Lately, I’ve been intrigued by WWII home front stories and stories of real-life individuals who took part in the resistance by rescuing children. Overall, I’ve been more selective in my choices of WWII historical fiction.
Unpopular Opinions QOTD:
Do you have reading opinions? Do you have unpopular bookish opinions?
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Yes to all of these! I recently read and reviewed Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J Klune mind you i love The House in the Cerulean Sea but the sequel was so heavily politically driven it took away the joy from the story and made me icky. Same with the endings torally agree with you there I also hate open ends. The dysfunctional family is so overdone and I perosnally cannot deal with anything that harms children and animals and exploits and promotes paedophilic content/agendas which is way often disguised as “romance”! Which leads me to the misleading blubrs! Time and time again i stumble upon books that are NOTHING as discribed on the blubrs and i Dnf them or it just ruins my whole experience. I spoke too about thr misunderstanding trope it is boooring it is stupid people in real life talk thing out! Lol yes to all of the rest!
lol! We must be book twins! Thanks for the solidarity!
hahaha we might as well be! 🙂 Hope you have a lovely week!
Yes to all of this!!!
Thanks for the solidarity! 🙌
I agree with most of your unpopular opinions! Especially WWII hisfic being overdone.
Happy reading! My TTT https://readwithstefani.com/my-unpopular-bookish-opinions/
Yet, I can’t stop reading WW2 histfic! Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Hopping over to you now!
Completely agree with you about excessive profanity. It can be too much and far too distracting.
https://damppebbles.com/2025/04/15/toptentuesday-15th-april-2025/
I’ve mentioned it in reviews before and inevitably someone will comment that he or she never noticed the profanity! 🤷♀️😬😂
I love this list and completely agree with all of them. I really want a spice rating as I don’t mind some spicy scenes but sometimes it just reads like pornography to me. I wouldn’t watch it so why would I want to read it? I agree about WWII fiction being over done too. I still read a couple of authors whose work I enjoy but mainly I steer clear of that period now.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Janette! I appreciate the solidarity!🙌
I’m also over WWII books
Yet I’m still tempted to read them! 😂 Thanks for stopping by and commenting Heather!
I agree with all of these! I can very rarely handle fiction about dysfunctional families if the plot covers something else I’m very interested in, but generally those types of books are a pass for me as well.
They hurt my heart too much! Thanks for stopping by and commenting Lydia!
Yes! Especially 1, 6, 7, and 10. I pretty much avoid WWII stories, while I’ve read some great ones, they are overdone. Author agendas make me want to scream. Also, one for me is political correctness in storylines or characters. Most new fiction books I can “check off” all the boxes the author was writing for. It’s unfortunate because, usually I DNF as soon as I notice it.
Yes! I should have included “the check list” …so obvious! 😂😂😂 maybe I’ll edit my post! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
I agree with so many of these! Miscommunication now just feels like a lazy way to progress the plot in romance. 7 made me really think – I do think a lot of authors struggle to subtly insert their agenda into their books and very few do it well! And fully agree with 8.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting and for the solidarity!
Books with slogans like “hilarious” or “laugh-out-loud” are immediately ignored by me. I also agree on the oversaturation of WWII histfic. I have to be selective as well as many of these books aren’t that great at all.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/04/15/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-tbr-i-avoid-reading-and-why/
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Laurie! I’m hopping over to read your post now!
I know what you mean about modern opinions in historical fiction!
🙌💯 Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Carol, I agree with ALL of the above. You’re definitely my book twin and I appreciate your years’ worth of work on your blog!!
Thanks so much Susan! I appreciate the solidarity!🙌💯
A great list. I definitely agree with your points. I am getting more into Historical Fiction, but I’m not a fan of War based stuff as it’s a bit too emotional for me 🤣
Have a great week!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2025/04/15/top-ten-tuesday-my-unpopular-bookish-opinions/
The tragedy of WW2 can be so emotional! thanks for stopping by and commenting! I’m hopping over to your post now!
It can. I suppose that these days maybe we need reminding of the horror of it 🙄
Thank you 😊
I wholeheartedly agree with number 5. There have been too many times a book blurb just didn’t acurately describe the book. Or worse, it gave everything away! Don’t tell me the plot twist in the summary, and then not have it come until over halfway through the book.
As for the WWII fiction, I agree there’s enough of the dark side of the war. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of dark stuff that happened. But how did the people back home handle things? Also, why are all of them set in Europe. The war happened in Africa and Asia as well.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/books-that-dont-deserve-the-hype-my-unpopular-opinon/
Book blurbs can be so frustrating and misleading! I’m hopping over to read your post.
I agree about too many modern ideas in historical fiction and needing a break from all the WW2 books. It’s oversaturated. Warnings about how much steam/spice is in a book would be nice too.
I appreciate the solidarity! 📚🙌 Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
I keep thinking the same thing about WWII fiction. How do they keep coming up with new stories? Wasn’t that trope tapped out years ago? I guess when there is a true villain it is worth a million stories.
My list is off-topic today: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2025/04/ttt-excerpts-from-new-to-me-poems-i-like.html
I’m always tempted by one more story! It’s amazing how many angles there are. I especially love the ones based on real life heroes! Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I’m hopping over to read your post now!
AMEN to All! I am so angry at the holaucust novel industyr. It cheapens and deameans instead of educating. My opinoin, but I’m sticking to it. I’m sick to death of female spies and women who somehow [magcially] get to hold positions they never had in the era]. I don’t like unsatisfactory endings, but I also don’t need a ‘rest-of-their-lives” epilogue with every 250 page novel. Good post!
😂 Thanks for sharing Lisa! I always appreciate your well-articulated opinions and insightful observations!
Thank you
Unsatisfactory endings are my biggest disappointment when reading. I stilll haven’t forgiven Amor Towles for the ending of ‘A Gentleman in Moscow.’ <3
Yeah, that was a bear to get through all for an ambiguous ending! 💯
I agree with all your points! Thank you for posting them! Especially the Profanity point, the WWII oversaturation (and hard to read viciousness of it), the need for spice ratings, the blurbs and unsatisfactory endings. I’d like to add 2 more: I am tired of the trope I read in SO MANY BOOKS—the woman main character’s best friend is a guy. I am 67 years old and I have NEVER known any woman who’s very BEST friend was a man. Maybe a good buddy at the local bar, maybe a good partner at work, or roommate, but not their BEST friend. I can see that a woman Could have a gay guy for a best friend, that could work, but not a straight guy. I haven’t known ANY. And in the books, indeed, it doesn’t work. It’s never just a side point, it becomes a main plot point—one of them is in love, or both are in love but don’t dare say anything and ruin the friendship—but eventually it comes out, they get together and they live happily ever after. Or they each have boyfriend/girlfriend troubles and it becomes an issue, because of their feelings. Or one marries and the other mopes.
I just think it’s unrealistic and probably rare. I have read tooo many books with that plot. Is this true in real life?
My other pet peeve (which is mine alone, probably!) is that it seems like every female character has a boyish nickname. They think it’s cute. Not even mentioning James or Vincent, but they go by nicknames like Jon, Mick, Charlie, Pete, Donn, Ronnie, Willie, Bobbi, Stevie, Rick—-Can’t a girl just have a girl name??
Thanks for commenting! I hadn’t thought about how unusual it is for a woman to have a male best friend. Yet we see that trope so often! Interesting! Re names, I think that girls having gender neutral or even traditional guy names is trending these days. My new niece is named “sterling” and I was told that it’s so trendy! I guess our own names are extremely old fashioned now!
My daughter’s best friend is a guy, in fact, she was his best woman when he got married. I think when it is used in books, like Suzie said, they end up falling in love and so on.
Good points all, Carol. 💖📚
Thanks Sandy!
Every time I think I am at saturation point with WWII fiction I find something that I have never read about before!
Right?! I do the exact same thing! 🙌
I have two that I would add. Don’t give away the whole story in the blurb. It takes away the surprise when reading. My other is please don’t have characters obsessing about their physical appearance, whether it is size, shape, or bits that need to be improved upon. I like your list, Carol. Some of these don’t necessarily bother me, but I can see how others were not be fans.
Good additions to the list Carla! Thanks for sharing!
Great list! I agree with all of your opinions. Especially the one about profanity, it just seems a little tacky to include many swear words in books, it certainly doesn’t make me connect with the characters. I hate reading spicy content so a spice rating would be a great way to know which books to avoid 🙂
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairyreads.wordpress.com/2025/04/15/top-ten-tuesday-unpopular-bookish-opinions/
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! I’m hopping over your post now!
I agree with so many of these!!! I absolutely wish books came with a steam rating. Explicit scenes are such a turn-off, but sometimes there no way to know what to expect until I’m already in the middle of the book — and thanks but no thanks, I got enough anatomy lessons back in school! 🙂 I agree also about WWII fiction; I’ve reached a saturation point, and don’t think I’ll seek these out for some time (although I do still enjoy a good homefront story). Same re not tolerating misleading blurbs — don’t marketers understand that doing this just makes your readers mad when the books don’t live up to what you’ve promised? And I agree too about miscommunication as a trope. Spare me! Adults should be able to talk to one another — I’ve rarely seen this one done well. Great list!
Thanks for the solidarity Lisa! 🙌💯
Agree with you about excessive sexual detail – one of the Booker shortlisted books last year suffered badly because of that. It’s not a question of being prudish but we all have imaginations so why not let us exercise that ability instead of painting every detail
Exactly!
Thanks for your ten unpopular bookish opinions, Carol. I agree with nine of them. I don’t need steam ratings, but I’m with you on the rest.
What about my unpopular opinions? For brevity’s sake, here’s just one. A big one, not on your list.
I’m sick of boss-girl protagonists, so-called strong heroines. Control-freak women have devastated my real life. I refuse to read fiction that celebrates them.
There are other types of female characters who have great literary potential. And haven’t been done to death. They might appeal to readers, but how would we know? They’re being ignored.
All this is why I don’t read romantasy. I love romance & fantasy. But I can’t find ANY romantasy novels that don’t revolve around a cliché strong heroine.
Do you or your blogging buddies know of any?
Keep up the good work!
😂😂😂 I agree with you about romantasy! The strongest heroines I know are from my WWII stories, ordinary women doing heroic and extraordinary things in tragic and difficult times. My fav stories are about unsung heroes! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts Mary Ann!
Not romantasy…but how about a real life bad ass woman? This is my current read.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51788120