So what exactly do I mean, the art of jumping fences? Well, clearly, this being a book blog, that actually isn't what I'm going to discuss today. Today, we're discussing misleading titles and blurbs.
I don't know about everyone else, but I personally really dislike it when the title of a book or the blurb of a book is misleading. IT'S FREAKING ANNOYING. You go into the book, say, expecting an epic adventure and BAM it's a sappy romance. Or you expect a nice romance and BAM it's erotica.
Recently, I reviewed Vain by Fisher Amelie. The blurb had promised several things, and delivered pretty much none of them. Unredeemable MC? Nope. Not the latest trend novel? Actually, yes, it was. It promised no "I can do anything, now that I've found you" tale. MISLED YET AGAIN.
To be quite honest, I can't remember any other examples (damn you book amnesia), but I do remember feeling annoyed about it before. So, your move:
What books have misled you before? Do you find it annoying to be misled?
p.s. I realise it's totally hypocritical to mislead you all with the title of this post mwahaha
Titles haven't ever misled me but blurbs have on multiple occasions! Besides the blurb that gives too much away, the blurb that misleads is the worst. I wouldn't have picked the book up if I had known there weren't going to be any mermaids like you promised! Grr.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely terrible when a blurb doesn't really match up to the content of a book. But yeah, spoilery blurbs are worse! For example, the blurb of Black City tells you pretty much the whole story...
DeleteOh yes I've totally been misled. I have this thing where sometimes I look at a pretty cover and think, wow this book will be great (I never learn) and never bother to read the synopsis. Whoops. So I'm mostly misled by covers. I know I've been misled by the synopsis and/or title too, but I can't remember a specific example.
ReplyDelete-P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
haha I always do that. I guess that's where the whole "don't judge a book by it's cover" becomes literal :P But whatever, I'll probably continue to do it anyway- all those pretty covers :D
DeleteI feel misled all the time, especially with Dystopian books. They make it all sound fast-paced and filled with action, but most of the time I end up with a tacky love-triangle and far too much romance.. One of the examples I can think of now is Mila 2.0. This book sounds awesome, but it's just.. not.
ReplyDeleteMel@thedailyprophecy.
Yeah, dystopians are definitely a big one. Especially since, a lot of the time, they have really awesome taglines, and it's like O.O ME WANT. And then when you actually get the book, the tagline hardly has anything to do with the book...I actually didn't mind Mila 2.0! Probably because I don't think I actually read the blurb before getting a copy of it. I do that a lot...
DeleteI've been misled a few times. It's not always a bad thing, though. When I recently read a book called The Lake and the Library by S. M. Beiko, I was expecting something sort of contemporary, based on the synopsis. It was actually more of a fantasy, and I quite enjoyed it. So I'm not always angry about being misled, especially if I've gotten a pleasant surprise.
ReplyDeleteBut then there are books like Libyrinth by Pearl North, with its synopsis that ignores one of the main POV characters, and therefore half of the action in the book. Or books like Basajaun by Rosemary Van Deuren, where the synopsis only vaguely resembled the actual story. Or books like Hilary T. Smith's Wild Awake, where the synopsis fails to mention the main driving force behind the story (mental illness) and makes it look like a light-hearted contemporary novel.
I don't know if I've ever been misled by titles, though. It's not like I'm going to pick up a book like I Capture the Castle and then be disappointed it's not about a medieval siege. I think we expect that titles are often dripping with metaphors.
That's true! I suppose there are always good AND bad surprises.
DeleteWild Awake is a book about Mental Illness?! I seriously thought it was a summery contemporary romance, but to be fair, I've only seen the cover and haven't read the blurb.
There was definitely a book where the title was misleading (which is where I got the idea for this discussion) but I can't remember what book it was :( Stupid memory.
It is so frustrating when books aren't at all like their blurbs!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I suffer from book amnesia so I can't think of any books that have misled me because of their blurbs. Sometimes the blurb gives a different feeling than the one promised, but I can't think of a specific case where the events promised were too different than the ones in the book.
Yeah, I can remember feeling annoyed about it, but can't really remember that many examples of it...DAMN YOU BOOK AMNESIA
DeleteGrrr, HATE THIS! Definitely one of my top pet peeves, as well. I find it often happens with romantic dystopians that they try to sell as straight dystopians, when in reality very little of the world is explored and the romance takes over the book. I also hate it when blurbs tell you too much of the story!
ReplyDeleteIt's the worst with those dystopians. Especially because usually in those titles, the world building is crappy. AND WORLD BUILDING IS SO IMPORTANT IN DYSTOPIANS ARGH!
DeleteOkay, right now, I'm suffering the same thing as you are. I can't remember a thing about a book that's misled me, just the feeling of annoyance.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, it's just so annoying. It actually helps a little that I tend to forget blurbs when I'm reading ARCs or ebooks. But print books? I flip to the back.
haha so true, I always forget blurbs by the time I actually read the book. I just see that it's on my TBR and I'm like, it must have sounded good back then, so it'll probably sound good now and then don't actually end up reading the blurb again. Even with print books, I sometimes go straight into them without reading the blurb. Most of the time though, I'll read a bit of the book then read the blurb and then go back into reading the book. I don't even know why I do this haha.
DeletePlease don't remind me of this. The last few days were bad enough for me reading books that totally fooled me. There's Fangirl which Amazon blurb said it was funny. I finished it days ago and heck, there was not a single laugh that came out from my mouth while reading it. Grrrr.
ReplyDeleteAnd just now, I finished reading Broken by A.E Rought. It's suppose to be a Frankenstein retelling and what did I get, a romance story. Damn. I was almost on the verge of throwing my phone-cum-ereader to vent my frustration. What stopped me is the thought that the book isn't worth the cost of my phone. *sighs*
Really? But so many people have raved about Fangirl! I guess it's the hype monster again...
DeleteUgh that's terrible. Especially since that's a massive discrepancy- horror vs romance!
Hmmm. The blurb for Another Little Piece suggests that it's like Pretty Little Liars and it was nothing like that. It was good, but very different from what was suggested. I usually try to avoid books whose summary promises that it's "just like X book" because it never ends well. But it's cruelly misleading and it can make a reader hate a book even more because of it.
ReplyDeleteAnother Little Piece looks a lot darker than PLL! I haven't actually read it, but it looks pretty interesting (better than PLL at any rate...)
DeleteGod, I hate that. Like "fans of X will love this book!" -_-
Hahaha, yes, I love how you also used a misleading title :P. Heheh, you reminded me of My Life Next Door - were you thinking of that by any chance or no?
ReplyDeleteWhat titles do you think are generally misleading? There are a few that make some books seem more poetic or action oriented than they are, but the titles don't bother me as much because you could compare to the synopses. I definitely identify with blurbs being misleading - for one, I always thought it was weird that Becca Fitzpatrick blurbed All Our Yesterdays, though I heard that had quite a substantial romance too. Still sci fi vs. PNR? Confusing. And NA books, like Vain -- I've stopped reading most of them because it's not just the blurb and title that are misleading. They're not promising an epic adventure, but they say it's in college and as you said, a lot are just erotica.
Have you ever run into an unredeemable MC? If you are looking for one, check out The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp. It's mostly about addiction, but it's not actually written like an issue book at all. I don't know if that made sense, so if that does interest you, the first few pages perhaps?
:) I hope your future reads are not as misleading!
haha now that I think of it, it does remind me of My Life Next Door! The actual reason I used it though is because at this science/leadership forum thing I went to a few years back, we had to do impromptu speeches, and that was one of the topics someone had to talk about!
DeleteIt's funny you ask that, because there was actually a specific title that was misleading that made me think of writing a discussion about misleading titles, but I didn't write it down, and now I've forgotten what it was. I had a look through my recent reads, but it doesn't seem to be any of the ones there. A total mystery...
Yeah, Becca Fitzpatrick blurbing All Our Yesterdays was weird. Maybe it was just because it was a YA...who knows lol. I tend to ignore blurbs by authors to be honest :P
The Spectacular Now! I really want to see the movie of that, so I should probs read the book soon too :)
That sound you hear is me removing Vain from my to-read list. I read a really convincing review, but no no no to that.
ReplyDeleteUmmm, Ultraviolet, I guess, because it has a genre change twist midway through? I generally read the blurbs so far before the book that I don't really know. Sometimes the covers lie too. And, sometimes, I should have listened to what the blurb said. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea WILL be a creepy romance that I hate. Oh well.
haha totally don't blame you. A LOT of people have raved about it though, and it has such a high rating on GR that I thought I'd write a review for it explaining why I didn't like it so much.
DeleteOH GOD BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA. I saw the cover of that and was like GIMME but the actual book was just so weird! The "romance" was ridiculous...
Oh yes, it's always frustrating when a book turns out to be nothing like you expected. And Vain is a great example for it. I thought it was going to be something special/wonderful/magic and it was none of that. But at least the title was spot-on...
ReplyDeletehaha the title was spot-on at the start of the book, but not so much towards the end. I reckon she was redeemed by the end (she was practically a different person...)
DeleteHaha. I am not sure if I have ever felt mislead. Like, I know there are times when the book made me think it was all about adventure and that romance ended up taking over, but I don't blame the blurb. I blame the entire genre of YA! haha.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I try to ignore blurbs. I'll read them when I add them to my wishlist, but by the time I read the book I forget it all because I have horrible memory and so I go into it without those expectations. Go me! :P
haha I agree, YA sometimes has much too big a focus on romance, especially with dystopians and things.
DeleteI have to admit sometimes I don't even bother reading blurbs. If the cover is nice enough, or if it's an author I like, I just add it to the TBR :P
I usually will read the blurb before actually buying the book though haha
Oh Gosh. This is my NUMBER ONE Pet Peeve. It annoys me SO. MUCH. I mean, can't people at least try to write a blurb that is actually true to the novel? On several occasions (Which I can't remember but have mentioned in some of my reviews) I have started reading the book, paused and though: How does this got anything to do with what I read on the blurb? It's so frustrating! Thank you for finally addressing this issue! Haha!
ReplyDeleteRita xx
It is pretty annoying! I don't know why you'd write a misleading blurb. All you're doing is making the reader angry haha
DeleteI hate it when this happens. My most recent example was The Silent Wife, which was marketed as a psychological thriller and the next Gone Girl. Well, I haven't actually read Gone Girl, so I can't speak to that part of it... but there was nothing thrilling about The Silent Wife. I could maybe forgive calling it a thriller (there are lots of different kinds of thrillers, and just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it wouldn't work for all) if it had used the word "literary" just once. But I'm sure that, even with some negative reactions from those of us who were misled, this book made more money than if it had been honest and marketed toward its true audience... and, of course, that's the bottom line.
ReplyDeleteI actually haven't read Gone Girl yet either haha. I feel like I should, though, so many people rave about it.
DeleteIt is misleading that the book wasn't really "thrilling" but like you said, it might still have been thrilling for others. But I don't know about using the word literary. I don't think a lot of literary books actually have that word in their blurbs. I could be wrong though, because for a lot of literary books I actually don't read the blurbs haha. It's more so the reputation, so I'm like, okay, I'll give that a read.
I don't know, maybe with most literary books it's more clear that that's the sort of book it is. This one definitely wasn't. The summary made it sound like a chilling and suspenseful story about a woman willing to do anything to hold onto her comfortable life... and instead I got a rather boring story about a woman in denial, and by the time any suspense was introduced, I was beyond the point of caring. It was more of a character study than anything else, which to me just screams "serious literature."
DeleteAh makes sense. I guess that's true, you can usually tell when a book is going to be literary from the blurb :)
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