What books do you feel have been "falsely advertised"?

Submitted by switchonthesky t3_10q69il in books

I just finished Legends and Lattes, which is described as "A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes," and, while I enjoyed the book, I felt like the author confused "low stakes" with "small stakes." It actually had a lot more stakes than I was expecting, with the (spoilers) >!guy harassing the assistant, the mafia protection racket, and the attempted theft/burning down of the coffee shop. !<The stakes actually felt more real than "the world is ending" type fantasy, probably because of their small and personal scope (a business owner trying to gain a foothold, etc).

It got me curious, are there other books you've read that you feel had "false advertising," either in their marketing, the way their fans portray the book, or just your own preconceived notions? That doesn't mean the book was bad, just different than you expected.

The other example I'd give is Gideon the Ninth; "lesbian necromancers in space" is, imo, a really inaccurate tagline for this book - it's much more of a psychological horror locked room mystery than I think that tagline makes it seem.

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hannaeus t1_j6o7oka wrote

I was disappointes by "where the crawdas sing" because it was presented by one of the best books on earth and to me it was just okay

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gravitydefiant t1_j6okm9a wrote

Maybe I could have done my homework and avoided this, but I went into Lilac Girls expecting a nice novel about female friendship during a war or something. I was not in any way prepared for the extremely graphic depictions of Nazi atrocities.

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someonesomewhere5744 t1_j6omx95 wrote

Definitely agree with Gideon the Ninth! If I knew that book would be a whodunit/magical competition in what feels like a gothic house I would never have picked it up. That's just not something I like.

Also You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce, specifically bc auf the translated versions cover (& summary) I first picked up. I went into it expecting a YA thriller with some fantasy elements and got a truly disturbing book. It's a shame, cause that book would probably have been praised more if people didn't have false expectations...

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elizabeth-cooper t1_j6oscd2 wrote

I'm almost finished with Legends and Lattes and most of the book is low-stakes. Plus, the serious parts aren't presented in a heavy way. For example, >!Viv is depressed about the fire for two days and then conveniently everyone pulls together to rebuild despite the fact that there's no money for it.!<

I find false advertisement more common in literary fiction, where the person who wrote the summary tries to invent a plot or raise stakes that're not actually there. For example, I just read We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama. Part of the description is:

>When Dolma comes across the Nameless Saint in a collector's vault, she must decide what she is willing to do for her community, even if it means risking her dreams.

This is really not what happens at all.

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That-Nectarine9108 t1_j6p5290 wrote

The Magicians. Somewhere I'd come across something where the author had expressed this deep affection for the Narnia books. I, too, have a deep affection for the Narnia books.

Maybe I misinterpreted something somewhere, but it really seemed like the author kinda hated the Narnia books and was mad about the CS Lewis' use of allegory.

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mooimafish33 t1_j6p6bfz wrote

I was very disappointed by "Anxious People", I went into it expecting a bottle episode type story about people held hostage and dealing with the stress of their potential untimely death.

It was just a bunch of unlikable characters working through their trauma and relationships with really no suspense.

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Dieselsdad t1_j6p6br3 wrote

Devil House by John Darnielle, especially that cover

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spacesandtimes t1_j6p7qsr wrote

The back of our copy of The Jane Austen Book Club talks about what a joyful, light comedy it is, which is definitely not how it felt reading it! Interesting character study, maybe, but it really didn't have the fluffy humor they advertised.

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ideonode t1_j6p928d wrote

Lionel Hutz was disappointed in The Neverending Story...

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silverkiki0527 t1_j6pdtyl wrote

Call Me By Your Name because it is advertised as good and it's awful.

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MorriganJade t1_j6pf82d wrote

The first thing that comes to mind is the ridiculous translation of the title of The girl with all the gifts by Carey to Italian into The girl(as in teen) who knew too much. The girl is a child (and I see this mistake way too much in translation, it seems people forget that girl can mean child) and she actively knows too little for the whole book. I've wanted to suggest the book to multiple people in Italy and the translation is always annoying

Also the loosening skin by Aliya Whiteley, while I like the cover it looks like horror and the author is known for some horror, but it's literary fiction

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AggressiveBowl t1_j6pg2kf wrote

Dan Wells' I am not a Serial Killer. Somehow got convinced that it would be a dark exploration of the deranged mind of a teenager on his path to become a serial killer, some sort of We need to talk about Kevin. Then monsters popped out of nowhere and it turns out that baby Bundy is actually not that much of a bad guy.

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_j6pjmap wrote

Tam Lin but is marketed as fantasy with fair folk. 95 percent of the book is an extremely mundane and idealistic story of a young womans university experience. The book has dorms and dining halls, classes and homework, dates and adventures. It also has a wealth of literary quotes that I thoroughly enjoyed feeling out with. But someone looking for fantasy adventure is going to be deeply disappointed until the last section of the book when the fantasy appears and is then quickly resolved. I enjoyed the book, but it barely matched what it claimed to be.

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