The Great Indifference: Books I Feel Differently About

TOP TEN TUESDAY IS A WEEKLY FEATURE HOSTED BY THE BROKE AND THE BOOKISH! EACH WEEK, A NEW TOPIC IS PUT INTO PLACE AND BLOGGERS SHARE THEIR TOP TEN ACCORDINGLY. This week’s feature is all about books that you feel differently about (Do I love it now? Hate it even more? Maybe it’s complicated?)

The Mortal Instruments is definitely a series I no longer enjoy. I first read the series a couple of years ago. My initial thoughts were “seems cool” but as I grew older I began to be more aware of the many problematic issues within her novels. And it doesn’t help that Clare blocks fans who point out problematic content rather than discussing it and, hopefully, try to fix it.  (If you’re wondering what my thoughts are on Shadowhunters: I think it’s much better than the book series in every way possible, giving us better POC representation, removed the girl hate trope, and actually conveyed the Downworlders-Shadowhunters racist metaphor much better than the books. I could go on…)

I actually used to like Twilight. Back when I was a eleven year old kid who would read whatever her sister did. Never did like the idea of sparkly vampires though. But after the first film I reread the series and realised “wow, this is not good at all,” There were so many things that eleven year old me didn’t pick up that I made me realised how much I don’t like this series.

I used to love TFIOS but I don’t know how to describe why I don’t anymore. I’ll just link my review of TFIOS.

I warmed towards An Abundance of Katherines, only because it had a Muslim character. (who was actually disappointing to read) To be honest, I thought John Green’s novels were great until I became more read in contemporary novels.

There’s nothing wrong with this novel but with it’s publisher, Full Fathom Five. After finding out about the shady stuff that went on, it changed my opinion on this book and I will no longer be supporting anything book that FFF publishes.

This is another case of “Because of the Author” scenario again. I liked the concept but honestly I didn’t like this after a reread a couple years down the road. But I can’t support an author who says shit like this, “There are not too few books for marginalised young people. There are hundreds of them, thousands of them.” As someone who strongly advocates diversity in novels, especially in YA and Children, I couldn’t support someone like this and this really affects whether I can enjoy their books or not.

I reread this a couple of weeks ago and it just reminded me to never reread books I didn’t like to begin with.

I love Divergent, but Insurgent and Allegiant? Not so much.

If you follow me on Tumblr, then you would know how much I love this series. But I didn’t start off liking it to begin with. But after completing the series and despite the rocky beginnings I had with the series, it is one of my favourites.

I’m rereading all her books now and I truly did not appreciate Malorie Blackman during my primary school reading groups.