Popular doesn't always equal good. Therefore let's see your controversial opinions on popular book series.

#1

I wish Anne Frank's real diary was released without being edited at all. I want to read the FULL authentic one. Apparently they cut out quite a lot of it before it's release.

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#2

Twilight. The entire series was like watching a train wreck and I don't see why people love it so much. Admittedly, I've never been a big vampire fan but it was dreadful, especially in comparison to other authors I read at the time.

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#3

Severus Snape does not deserve all the love he gets from the HP Fandom. He's a problematic Nice Guy who abused Harry during his school years.

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#4

I.... actually liked twilight. I know, very unpopular, but I enjoyed the books and the movies.

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#5

The Lord of the Rings book series is so boring! I don't need 50 pages to describe what a forest looks like!

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#6

Fifty Shades of Grey is terrible. There, I said it.

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#7

That the Divergent series is a rip off of the Hunger Games and has sub-par world building.

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#8

The Bible is an overhyped work of fiction.

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#9

I love Harry Potter, like so much. But it drives me crazy that the whole story is based on the lazy old trope of all of the conflict being a huge misunderstanding because people just don’t share information with each other. What’s worse is that the adults just shut the kids down before hearing them out, even though they’ve been right and basically saved all their asses like a million times. Or they don’t tell the kids important information because they’re “too young”. They seem to think that they’re not too young to be in mortal danger over and over but sure, let’s preserve their childhood innocence. I started using it in reference to other books and shows. I call it “doing a Harry Potter”. I do something similar with The Flintstones but that’s another story for another day lol.
It’s just now occurring to me that this is probably how kids perceive how adults treat them so maybe it is actually valid, because yeah, it’s a book FOR KIDS. But when Harry’s like “Guys, Draco is totally a Death Eater” and even his best friends are like “Impossible! Don’t be ridiculous!” I want to scream!

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#10

I've read books since I was 5. And I love mysteries and stuff. I'm gonna get killed, but sorry, I can't stand Twilight Saga more then once. Either watching or reading. I found it ridiculous. Because I grown up with nosferatu and Bram stoker's dracula. So it's kinda disappointing

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#11

Game of Thrones has done an irreparable damage on the fantasy genre. It set a trend that everything must be "dark, mature and realistic" which usually means "extremely bleak with lots of graphic, senseless violence and tasteless erotica". I find it sad to see fantasy / sci-fi losing its magic and escapism in favor of "realism".

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#12

Percy Jackson is amazing and I can explain the whole plot to you in 5 hours, and also the Harry Potter books are good because you can make everything gay and p**s off J.K. Rowling.

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#13

That the Maze Runner series sucked after the first book

That the third book of Hunger Games it confusing

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#14

Only the first two or three arcs of the Warriors Cats series were really needed. They kept on creating more arcs, and that led to the decline of the series for me. It got confusing, and of course you could never figure out exactly how to read all of them in order (unless you're a billionaire with money on your hands). Also, they began to focus more on churning them out than actually putting content. (Also- there is no Erin Hunter. It's six writers who make some amazing books on their own, but they do need to let this plot line go.)

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#15

I love really long book series. Like the longer the better. I have a hard time with stories ending. This might not be controversial or unpopular, but since I am probably the biggest reader I know, it seems like I'm in the minority.
My favorite long series includes:
Harry Potter (of course)
The Chicagoland Vampires,
House Of Night series
Percy Jackson and the Olympians,
Soul Screamers,
and so many others.

Other unpopular opinion: as an adult (31 years-old), I prefer to read YA novels instead of adult books. YA is just more fun in my opinion.

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#16

Hunger Games: Story was good, but IMO Peeta was useless and didn't need to be in the series, also I didn't like the forced love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale

Maze Runner: Never liked Teresa's character, also didn't like how Thomas seemed to get special treatment for being The Main Character (scorch trials: tons of gladers die and WICKED doesn't care, he gets shot in the shoulder and WICKED fusses over him?!?)

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#17

Harry Potter is a pass

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#18

How "The Pillars of the Earth" became a reference for historical fiction is beyond my comprehension. The writing style is poor, the characters one-dimensional. And don't get me started on historical accuracy.

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#19

I found Earagon (can’t spelll) to be one of the most boring books I’ve ever read but I’ve heard people defend it with their lives. Maybe the books after the first were good? Never got that far

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#20

I REALLY VERY STRONGLY dislike the Hunger Games. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, sit back and enjoy this Caffeine-Fuelled Two-Thirty-AM scathing rant about why I hate this overrated, pathetic series:

Firstly, the writing. In my opinion, the writing is absolutely horrendous. Multiple lines make zero sense and I have no idea why they weren't cut during editing as there is no point to them being there. The series is not very fast-paced and it took over half the book to get to the actual Games during the second book. As well as this, whilst it's slow-paced, it just doesn't explain certain aspects of the story or fleshes out scenes / actions properly which leaves the reader confused + the dialogue is especially bad.

Secondly, the main character herself. Katniss is an EXTREMELY unlikeable protagonist, she's riddled with self-doubt and whilst usually this would give the character an opportunity to grow and expand in their confidence, Katniss stays SO PATHETIC throughout the entire series. I know this may be to exemplify the horror of what she's are living through but it simply unenjoyable for a reader to have to read page after page about how the protagonist hates herself, feels she is useless, always messed up, will fail her family, etc. I STRONGLY dislike her character.

Thirdly, the rest of the character & the pathetic attempt at a love triangle. Almost every character is NOT expand on character's motives, flaws, ambitions, etc. (quick example: Prim. We know she's Katniss's innocent younger sister, but we have zero insight to what she wants in life, her inner struggles, anything. It's just "oh look her Katniss has a cute sister you need to like her because we're going to kill her off later so YOU MUST BE SAD!!)
I have taken zero liking to ANY characters, although in the first book I grew fond of a few but they just ended up getting killed off and no new likeable characters were introduced throughout the rest of the series. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER (sorry for caps!) is extremely one-dimensional and I feel the author made no attempt at writing relatable, or even remotely LIKEABLE characters. Also, the love triangle is extremely poorly written and it was obvious what was going to happen right from the start.

Next, there is too much focus on the politics and far too little on the Hunger Games themselves. As I said earlier, it takes over half the book for them to start in the second one, and THERE ISN'T EVEN A HUNGER GAMES in the third!! What I came to read about is a dangerous, high-stakes, kill-or-be-killed death game between intelligent, skilled, and yet VULNERABLE young people who will use their wits to outsmart the others and struggle with the morality of killing throughout their journey; to make allies and enemies and to end up learning a greater lesson in the end. But NOPE, instead we get long, droning, bland, tasteless political garbage that I could barely stay awake reading. And this is all that was happening during the third book, I HATED that one with a burning, fiery passion.

Lastly, expanding on my previous point, there is SEVERE lack of inner torment for the characters involved with the games. This is probably my greatest gripe with the series. There is ZERO, and I mean ZERO, inner troubles about having to literally KILL CHILDREN. I wish Katniss had set a trap, caught a defenseless child, and had to kill them, probably while they begged for mercy. THAT would give her something to feel bad about. But NO, all we have is ruthless murderers and psychopaths, reading to slit the throats of toddlers. WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLDS. Surely at least ONE of them would feel bad? But of course, no! Each character, despite seemingly being very young, seems to have the mental age of twenty. This is incredibly unrealistic and believable. The ONE THING that could VASTLY improve the entire series is to GIVE YOUR CHARACTERS A DAMN CONSCIENCE.

There are no redeeming qualities to this book. Overrated and Horribly Written.

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#21

Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas. It's WAY too overrated to be considered good, and I picked it up thinking it would be a good fantasy book. The first book in the series was good, but it quickly became more and more erotic as the stories went on. I know a lot of people enjoyed it, but I found it dull and simplistic.

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#22

Gale is better than Peeta!

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#23

War and Peace, so overly detailed that I wanted to scream. Would read a few chapters and then read something else before trying again. Favorite two books:. Catcher in the Rye and Crime and Punishment. Life changing reads for me. Keep reading, it's so good for you 😊.

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#24

Wings of Fire is amazing! But she can work on more explanations, and getting to the point

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#25

OK go for the lowest hanging fruit. Harry Potter is derivative of just about every other successful fantasy book series. J.K liberally nicks from everyone else like C.S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, Tolkein, Jill Murphy (particularly Jill Murphy, the worst witch series predates HP by a good 20 years or so yet Hogwarts is basically a rip-off of Miss Cackles Academy for Witches). So it's weirdly satisfying to see her popularity dwindle away now she's turned out to be a weird TERF / transphobic

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#26

My boyfriend is reading Dracula to me, we're still in the begging but damn I think dude (Jonathan) is overreacting, like, dude, chill, Dracula hasn't done anything yet.

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#27

Heartstopper is underrated, it needs more love!

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#28

I don't see people talking about this much but The Selection series was only good until The Heir book, then it took a turn into incredibly boring. I really enjoyed hungar games and Divergent and I think Katniss and Tris were really interesting characters except for the last books of those series which I had to force myself to finish. Also I love Twilight, the movies are terrible but the books are fun and filled with diolague, maybe not the best written love story in the world but I found it to be a light and enjoyable read.

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#29

LotR as a book contains long sentences explaining things that don’t need to be said. I don’t need 17 sentences saying how round the ring is(an exaggeration)

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#30

Hunger Games - what an idiotic series. It takes people 75 years to get angry and rise up against getting their kids killed. And why did the president snow just kill her? The other victors talked about how their loved ones where killed or after they won, they were forced to sleep with other rich people...but he just lets her go about her business with just vague threats.

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#31

Sorry to all of the LOTR fans, but the books and movies are way overated

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#32

Not the book series (The entirety of my childhood)itself just the two failed attempts I’m trying to turn it into a movie cough Percy Jackson

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#33

Honestly I love the first book of the hunger games, but I hate after that.

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#34

The Sword of Truth series after 9/11. I love the series, the characters, the story, but after 9/11 it was a bit too on the nose on (American) patriotisms and libertarian ideas.

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#35

The Wheel of Time. The people all suck. It is said that Robert Jordan must have hated women because of the way he wrote them. The men any better in their own ways. And on top of the frustration of shitty, bickering, manipulative jerks/idiots you have the boredom of hundreds of pages of nothing good. I only read three books and about 200 pages of the fourth book. There may be a good story in there somewhere but haven't the time nor inclination to mine the petrified poo in which it is encased.

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#36

I find it dumb how in the Harry Potter series the young wizards have so many different teachers for the defense against the dark Arts class. What's the point of the class if half the teachers turn to the dark arts

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#37

House Of Leaves is a beautiful, mediocre, overrated, gimmicky piece of s**t.

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#38

I'm a professional reader so I read ~a book a day with some exceptions. Like right now I'm reading a school book and it will probably take me a week to finish it. Sometimes I read smaller books in between.

I'm going to start with Marie Kondo. Not a series per se but she has 2 related books and I gave her a very long 2-star review on Amazon. She's inappropriate and thinks she's better than thou. Believe me, she's not. And my review will show why.

Ann Omasta/Callie Love Man of the Month Club. Phoebe's apps doesn't work that well and the error is mostly human; if she wants to keep clients, she has to do things right. She has bad news every single month; I don't think it's fair for anyone. It's also unprofessional. All the ladies at the table never get their chance. It's mostly the last one in that gets the guy. I read 6/12.

Autumn Macarthur Love in Store series. Maddie is supposed to be a "practicing" "devoted" Christian, and yet, she divorces her husband Brad because she's not happy. She's not happy because she expected things to happen, never shared them with Brad, and of course, they didn't happen. Then she takes the advise of someone she barely knows and divorces her husband who has no clue what happened. Then he goes after her and apparently the whole town knows "he didn't treat her well", except Brad doesn't know, who's the main one who should know. Don't you think? I read 2/9.

Wendy H. Jones Cass Claymore Investigates. The end got me face-palming. During the story we are told many times that young Theo cannot sleep without his teddy bear and his mother and sister are not sleeping either because of that. Everyone is on the brink of going mad. When Cassandra finds the teddy, she has a choice of calling the mother to get the teddy so everyone can have a wink or go get a bite. Guess what she chose? The whole book is worst than the end. I read 1/1.

Whitney Dineen/Melanie Summers An Accidentally in Love Story. Worse love stories ever. A lot of hidden abuse. I read 2/4.

Jonas Jonasson The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared and The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man. These were excellent books and I gave both a 5-star review. I thought it was over-the-top funny with unbelievable adventures, interesting politics and history bits. Funny, sad, awful, with fun name-dropping included but always entertaining.

I'm going to finish off with Agatha Christie. I've read all her books in High School, now I'm going through them again because they appear on Prime. The editing is awful. Missing words, wrong words, etc., many repeats. Also, it's almost impossible to find the culprit so we get a full chapter to explain what happened. Those are not fun mysteries. I'm not sure I'm going to finish.

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#39

Harry potter... not a great series. I didn't read it as it came out, I read it in high school after the hype... it... was just okay, nothing special. Take away the nostalgia and I think you would agree.

Ftr I was an Artemis fowl and hitchhiker's guide kid when Harry potter was becoming big.

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#40

Red Queen. I guess I can see why people liked it, but it's slow paced and not very descriptive at all. I couldn't get attached to any of the characters, either. I nearly couldn't finish the series.

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#41

I ..... like the court of thorns and roses series. Mostly because I sense gay tension and its hilarious seeing them brush it off like it's just from the years of war

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#42

I like Dumbledore from Harry Potter. I know several potterheads loathe him but I think his actions were more or less justifiable. He gets a lot of hate for leaving Harry with the Dursleys but that was the only way Dumbledore could ensure that Lily's blood protection for Harry. Making sure he was alive to kill Voldemort in the future was the only way the wizarding world would be protected. He possibly couldn't have known that Voldemort would be regenerated much much later. And don't get me wrong I really feel bad for Harry and the fact that he had to grow up in a very abusive household but by doing so he ensured that Harry was safe and that there was a chance that he would defeat Voldemort and save the wizarding world.

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#43

I feel like the Percy Jackson books (at least the first one) were a little boring. I couldn't finish the second book. I love reading but I don't like Percy Jackson very much.

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#44

Twilight books are good. Especially New Moon is amazing. It's mostly about werewolves, the lore around them and Jacob's transformation. Sadly, for the movie they adapted only the scenes with Edward and Bella in it.

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#45

David Bramhall's "Greatest Cape" novels. Well written, but too long, too many characters with outlandish names, and the whole concept of the little isolated town with no name and virtually no contact with the outside world is slightly absurd. And what is it about the author and clergymen? Was he frightened by a vicar as a child, perhaps? And teachers, for that matter? ... still, I suppose we've all been threatened by a teacher at some time. His "Kitty" books are better.

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#46

Harry Potter is mid.

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#47

50 shades of grey, its abusive and completely gives the wrong impression on bdsm, what people may not realize, thanks to this badly written twilight fanfic, is that if a partner gives the "safeword" thats a sign that something isnt right and you need to stop, if you ignore that and carry on it becomes sexual assault/rape

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#48

also (braces myself for the "hate flood" of classic enthusiasts) romeo and juliet was rubbish and macbeth wasnt much better

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#49

The Hunger Games series. By book number 3 I had had enough of Katniss Everdeen. I wanted to send out killer wasps and murder her.

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#50

"Foundation" series by Isaac Asimov... brilliant concept ...but story is a bit c**p....

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#51

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has a great concept but the book itself really needed an editor. It almost feels like a joke how much pointless details are included in the story. You're introduced to a captain who is travelling across the artic, he's sending letters to his sister detailing his journey and eventually his encounter with Dr. Frankenstein who is chasing after a man or "Creature".

This is all just been a framing device for Dr. Frankenstein to tell his story, the actual story of the book. There was no need for this captain and his sister, they hold no relevance. At one point Dr. Frankenstein is talking to the monster and who then takes over the narrative and is telling the doctor and us about the time he went to live next door to a family and was helping them by collecting wood and stuff. It's actually the best part of the book but you now have a guy explaining to his sister, about the time he met a doctor who told him about the time the monster he created lived in the woods. It's like inception or something. Also lots of pages are wasted talking about hills and trees.

It's not a bad book, I mean it's still read 2 hundred years after it was written but like I side it could have benefitted with an editor.

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#52

Every single book of the Hunger Games ends flat. They're good books overall but when you get to the end they just end abruptly, like running headfirst into a brick wall. It's very odd.

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#53

Sword of Truth. I really wanted to like it. I was hooked since book one. But each subsequent book... Well...contained a summary of all the previous books. And the summary kept getting longer and longer. It was filler to make money on number of words written. I haven't read it in a while but just the thought of what Terry Goodkind did makes me want to cut out all the repetitive junk and have him sign that copy. Just write the story and if people like it go back and read the whole series (Sorry if my memories of it are skewed)

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#54

Pip and Flinx novels. Annoying money grab by Alan Dean Foster. Book one... Amazing... Book 2 set in the heros adult future good I think... Book 3 to 15, oh cr@p we have a popular series, let's back track and undo all the progress and stretch it out.
Literally the first book the young child hero pretty much understands almost all his psychic powers by the end, by book 3 he's basically back to square one. But that backtracking seems to repeat every book until#15 (audiobook so I listened to them all). Learn a great ability, forgets by next book so he's not too powerful... again and again. Really mad about this because I really wanted to enjoy it. Haven't been able to read it since I managed to trudge my way through it then never looked back. ( 2nd submission. I could do a dozen more but need sleep lol)

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#55

I’m talking about The Hunger Games, like many other posts here; straight to the point, most of Snow’s reasons for not killing or at least seriously threatening Katniss were b******t. Suzanne Collins attempted to cover up plot armor with some really bad “deep” lines between the two, and it threw me off so bad.

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#56

Harry Potter movies are better than the books.

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#57

Harry Potter isn't that good. Especially with all the s**t the authour has done, I don't really like it anymore. Also the way she had Dumbledore lie to Harry so much.
Honestly, the fanfiction is much better. I found some really great ones on ao3 called Hogwarts Bouquet and one called I'm Fine.
HB is about transfem Harry (Rose) (yay) and IF is about Harry with PTSD and depression and Remus is a therapist and also Wolfstar raises Harry and anyway I need to shut up

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#58

Honestly, I think the Cursebreakers series (by Brigid Kemmerer) is awesome but I really hate Lia Mara for inexplicable reasons. Harper is awesome and she and Rhen are pretty cute together. In my opinion. Feel free to disagree. (HAHAHA that rhymes)

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#59

Percy Jackson was bad for Greek mythology.

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#60

Little House on the Prairie. Contain(ed? s?) racist terms. (Note: Yes, I know it's outdated)

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