Haunted Week 2012: Tricked or Treated

[Learn more about my HAUNTED WEEK meme here.]

Sometimes you dive into a book thinking you know exactly how it's going to go—what the characters will do, where the plot will take them—but some books take you completely by surprise. You never really know what you're going to get from a book: it could be an absolute treat, but you could find yourself being tricked.

Here are five books I read that trick-or-treated me completely.

1. Unwind
 by Neal Shusterman

It's no secret that I'm a total cover-judger. If I like its cover, I'm much more likely to read a book. However, the opposite is also true. So when I decided I didn't like Unwind's cover, I dismissed it, thinking I wouldn't like it. It was only after it was highly recommended to me that I reluctantly picked it up—but I was definitely in for a treat. (And by the way, I actually like the cover now—which just proves how amazing of a book it is—it's clouding my cover skills!)

2. Matched
by Ally Condie

Oh, my terrible cover-judging. You can't get much prettier than that gorgeous dress, the mesmerizing bubble, and the simplicity of the cover. Not only was I head over heels for the cover, but I'd been reading a lot of dystopian books at the time and I was completely ready to add another book to my growing list of dystopia loves. I know a lot of people adored this book, but it just wasn't my kind of read. The book was, at least for me, a trick.

3. For the Win

by Cory Doctorow

All I knew about this book, from what I had read about it online, was that it was about online gaming. Now don't get me wrong—I have nothing against gaming. But since it's not something I've ever done, I figured I'd have zero interest in a book all about it. But then I read another book by the same author, Little Brother, and fell in love with Cory Doctorow's writing. This book made the whole gaming world fascinating to me—it was a complete treat.

4. Everybody Sees The Ants
 by A.S. King

You might have heard of another of A.S. King's books—Please Ignore Vera Dietz. I'd read it and absolutely loved it, so when I  heard she had a new book coming out, I eagerly added it to the top of my TBR list. I tore through the book when I got it—and was just left wondering what happened. I know, I know, the problem was in part me psyching myself up for this amazing book, but I still feel disappointed when I compared her two novels. Everybody Sees The Ants was a definite trick for me.

5. Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card

A friend of mine had read Ender's Game for school and lent me a copy of the book, but I was wary about picking it up. I knew it involved aliens in some way, and even after all of the paranormal and fantasy books I've read, with the weirdest mythical creatures, I've still never been able to wrap my head around aliens. They're too unbelievable. But I did read it—and, as you can probably guess, thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a total treat of a read.

So what books surprised you when the fog cleared? Were any of your book predictions ever wrong?