I went into Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes thinking it would be a real eyeroller as I’m not to fond of YA dystopian sci-fi, but seeing as how the film adaption was around the corner and the time I sank into the Hunger Games trilogy (and being the unapologetic asshole who believes the words “the book was better” to be Mosaic Law), I said fuck it and gave it a read.

And I was surprised be how I wanted to keep going after the end of every chapter. I enjoyed getting into the head of Coriolanus Snow and his possessive infatuation with Lucy Gray and the inner working of Capitol class structure.

That’s not to say I don’t have issues with the book. The pacing is inconsistent, the actual Hunger Games are a relative bore, and some characters could have benefited from more focus.

But through it all, I don’t feel my time has been wasted reading it and am curious to see how the film adapts it.

Any books you’ve read that you thought you’d hate but ended up enjoying? Why?

  • lushsweet@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    The House in the Cerulean Sea. I did the audiobook and thought what is this a kids book? Man this is so cheesy! But I kept listening and by the end of it as quite teary-eyed. I think the narrator did a great job.

    • ShiftedLobster@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Same here! I have no idea what possessed me to check out a somewhat hokey fantasy book but man, I absolutely loved it. The audiobook narrator knocked it out of the park! Unfortunately the other books by Klune have been duds but I still love and recommend Cerulean all the time.