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5 sacrilegious book opinions you can pry out of my cold, dead hands.

Shruti | This is Lit

Hiya, nerds!

I’m supposed to be polishing a thinkpiece about Wuthering Heights I’ve written for the blog, but I just can’t get myself to do it. Sundays are for lazing around. I really don’t want to think about how Wuthering Heights is a gothic deconstruction of traditional romances, ‘kay?

Anywho.

Today, I saw a nice thread on Twitter about controversial book opinions.

The replies are amazing! People have a lot of controversial opinions which were fun to read, even if you don’t agree with them. Like this tweet, for instance:

We all know how much I love literary fiction. But this tweet still made me laugh out loud. And I didn’t even get mad about the fact that they misspelled “verisimilitude”!

So here are 5 spiciest, maddest, most sacrilegious book opinions of mine.

1. John Green’s books aren’t that great.

There, I said it!

I know that everyone loves his books, but I just don’t like them. The Fault in our Stars was great, but man, you gotta stop it with all the SickLit, cliches, and dying! He might be great for a younger audience, but as an adult, I HAVE to say that his books are overrated.

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2. J.K. Rowling is canceled.

If you’re clutching at your pearls in shock, hear me out. The woman is milking the Harry Potter cow for all it’s worth and she needs to stop. She also isn’t a trans-ally, the Nagini debacle just wasn’t tasteful, and I hate that she changes the race of characters years later–that’s not inclusivity, it’s an afterthought.

Related: The Crimes of JK Rowling: Why Won’t She Leave the Potterverse Alone?

that's all folks lol GIF by Super Deluxe

3. Wuthering Heights is not a love story.

…and anyone who says otherwise is an idiot.

Yup, this is the thinkpiece I’m currently working on. The full post will be up as soon as my lazy ass gets to editing it. But here’s a preview: The book is about two very self-destructive people who do not love each other and there is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, romantic about a tortured hero. Stop telling young adults that emotionally manipulative relationships can work.

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4. Books on aliens suck.

This ties back to a bigger and more sacrilegious book opinion that I hold–Science fiction is weird.

scared sutton foster GIF by TV Land

I’m cowering with fear of the backlash for this statement. But really, I find sci-fi odd. I just can’t read it, it just isn’t for me. I LOVE time travel and speculative fiction is occasionally okay, but damn, I can’t stand sci-fi.

But I also think I’m being dismissive of the genre, so if you think there’s one sci-fi book that I will definitely love, do let me know in the comments! I really want to see if my opinion changes.

The fact that I can’t read sci-fi really gets on me because I love all genres! I genuinely enjoy reading books of different types, and yet there’s this one genre I just can’t deal with.

5. A Christmas Carol sucks.

I know that everyone considers it a Yuletide classic, but I just don’t like it. It’s a weird-ass story that’s too communist for my liking. Also, Scrooge’s redemption arc in the end is not him repenting his actions. It’s more self-preservation. If three scary dudes show up in the middle of the night and foretell my dying alone, I would act like a changed leaf in the morning too.

seth meyers shrug GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers

But I do have to say this. If you’re ever in Atlanta, do watch the Shakespeare Tavern’s version of A Christmas Carol! It’s the same sucky story, but the acting is stellar and the music is so on-point! Read my review here.

There you go!

These are my sacrilegious book opinions. Do you agree with any? Even if you don’t, do let me know! I’m sure we can have an adult conversation about this in the comments! 🙂

~ Shruti

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54 thoughts on “5 sacrilegious book opinions you can pry out of my cold, dead hands.”

  1. Hey, I won’t get upset at the fact that you think Green’s books aren’t the best! I share the same sentiment.

    Over the past two years I’ve been reading more sci-fi because of review requests and I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone but I also see where you’re coming from. I still have a hard time getting into them even if they aren’t about aliens. Not my first choice but I’ve read some good sci-fi books that stuck with me after. 🙂

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    1. Haha yay! As for sci-fi, I really, really love time travel! But I just can’t deal with aliens and other planets. I don’t know if I’m not reading the right books, but I just can’t. A review copy on alternative life forms was so bad I went into a reading slump. After DNF-ing that book, that is. 😅

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  2. I agree… John Green books are heavily overrated and pretty mediocre. John Green seems like a nice person in real life, but some most of his books surround a a well off kid with first world problems magically solved by their manic pixie dream girl or guy with the help of their token brown/black/poor side kick friend.

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  4. There’s one Sci-Fi series that I love and that’s the Zodiac series by Romina Russell, I also really loved A Wrinkle in Time, but after reading and absolutely HATING Illuminae, I’m like nope, no more sci-fi for me.

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  5. Nice post!!

    I havent read christmas carol (christmassy anything aint my thing.. although im born 2. Days. After christmas *aherm*) nor wuthering heights. Ive only read ONE scifi book aswell, which i like, but I agree i wouldnt pick thoses on aliens… i just, too difficult.

    I also AGREE for miss Rowling! Oh my gosh, havent read the HP books and stopped watching the movies after the 4th one… just way too many for me. Only watched the first fantastic beast as Alex liked it and we didnt really had anything else to watch xD (we barely watched 30mins though..) and yeh, John Green aint too up my alley either 🤷🏽‍♀️ Only read that one book.

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      1. THANKS ❤️❤️

        Yeah- ive seen some questionnable things she did on twitter .. as of which I couldnt say in detail what it was but.. i feel its easier when you havent grown up on Harry Potter 😂 not having that attachment do help

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  8. Ok I agree w everything except sci fi – that genre is my one true love😂😁
    And idk WHY Wuthering heights is seen as romance???? Literally reading the book itself was emotionally draining (maybe when I grow older my opinion might change?).
    Great post and merry Christmas btw!! 😀

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  10. After reading your post I came across a guest post on Jenn’s blog with recommendations for sci-fi books. Maybe you’ll be able to find something you’ll enjoy from this list! https://jenniely.com/sci-fi-recommendations-for-non-sci-fi-readers-by-the-disasters-author-m-k-england. Personally, sci-fi is the hardest genre for me to get into as well. I have no idea why but there is something about it that turns me off.

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    1. Same! I can’t explain why it turns me off. I think a lot of it has to do with my obsession with family drama, depressed Vermonters, and reality. I think I just lack the imagination to read SFF.

      But I’ll check out Jenn’s post! Thanks for sharing it! 😊

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    1. Hahaha yesss! I like John Green’s writing. It’s the stories and cliches that I hate. Like, I hated Looking for Alaska, but one of my favorite quotes is from that book (the labyrinth one).

      I’m not even going to talk about JKR. 😂

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  13. I actually agree with EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE. However, I particularly fist pumped John Green and J.K. Rowling. Funnily enough, I love Dickens but A Christmas Carroll is one of my least favorites. It’s so different to the rest of his work and no matter how many times I try to like it or any adaptations, I just don’t :’D

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    1. Haha! I like Dickens’ other books too! But A Christmas Carol is just bad. It’s not a Yuletide classic because he doesn’t reform out of goodness in his heart. He changes because he’s afraid of dying alone. And that’s a stupid storyline.

      I really loved Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern’s musical interpretation of it, though. Same story, but the music and acting is brilliant!

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      1. Haha, agreed! I watched The Man Who Invented Christmas last week, which is based around Dickens life as he was writing A Christmas Carol. I imagine it’s not very historically accurate, but it did portray him going through some interesting things at the time that may have influenced the storyline which is quite interesting. I definitely need to get my hands on a biography of Dickens so I can find all these sorts of things out. 😀

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    1. IKR! I think it’s mostly young adults who appreciate John Green’s books and that’s okay! At least they’re reading. 😅 I hope they realise there’s better YA out there, though.

      As for JKR, *shudders*. It’s so difficult to separate the books from the author, but that’s just what we can do at this point. 😅

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  15. I’d recommend Illuminae because it’s sci-fi but I don’t think there are any aliens in it. There’s a virus, so sort of plague zombies at one point, but other than that it’s mostly humans being human which is scarier IMO.

    Maybe All Systems Red by Martha Wells? Murderbot is an awesome AI system that was programmed to be a security bot but it hacked its system and now just wants to read and watch programs, but has to pretend it’s still doing the job so it won’t be scrapped. Book 1 was really good. 😀

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  16. You are so funny Shruti… damn my sense of humor is zero when it comes to writing 🙄🙄
    And I think I agree with most of what you’ve written here… I haven’t read John Green yet because even the premise doesn’t interest me… and sicklit is not my thing…
    I never read sci-fi too because I just don’t understand it… aliens are not my thing at all… But I did read A Spark of White Fire this year which is supposed to be sci-fi because it’s set in space, but I loved that it felt more like a fantasy… I would have never read it if it wasn’t based on Mahabharata…

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  17. Pingback: December’s Blogsphere Highlights #2! (2018) | BiblioNyan

  18. OMG I AGREE WITH SO MANY OF THESE!

    I really don’t get what people see in John Green and A Christmas Carol. Both are mehhhh and do not deserve the hype. That set aside I did like TFIOS and Looking for Alaska buy nope. I got tired of John Green after that.

    YES JK ROWLING IS CANCELLED. I keep advocating my friends about why. I literally gave them this seems while watching the Philosopher’s Stone.

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  19. I totally agree with you about John Green. And Wuthering Heights. And I really don’t like alien stories though I do enjoy sci-fi somewhat (like the Lunar Chronicles, Illuminae Files, In Death series) – basically, not pure sci-fi, I guess. Always a mix of several genres.
    I do like A Christmas Carol, it’s one of my favorite classics (and I’ve only read 2 or 3 so that’s a big thing for me). It’s too hard for me to read classics otherwise. I’ve been trying to read Pride and Prejudice since a couple years and I still haven’t finished it.

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      1. Oh it’s not the book, or the author, I mean, I don’t think. I like the story, I love the adaptations I’ve watched. It’s just the writing is different from what I prefer. It takes me longer to get through each chapter and then I feel like reading something more fast-paced and intriguing and I just haven’t felt like picking it up since over 2 years ago now🙈 I still want to finish it though. 🙂 It’s just classics, in general, they were mostly slow and quite verbose, from what I’ve seen.

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          1. 🙈🙈 I remember I went through a phase where I wanted alllll the classics but thankfully, my uncle advised my parents that I wasn’t ready for them, I was too young and probably wouldn’t have grasped everything and maybe even stopped reading altogether. That sounds so scary to me now, what would my life be like if I didn’t read..😱

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