Monday, October 29, 2012

Haunted Week 2012: Tricked or Treated

{This Girl Reads}
[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!)


Matched (Matched, #1)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.


For The Win3. 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.


Everybody Sees the Ants
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.


Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
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?

14 comments:

  1. Dude, I still haven't read Unwind! Matched was the same for me--just meh. I'm going to read it again though, just to see if my opinions have changed. Some books are just better the second time around!

    I loved Please Ignore Vera Deitz too! But I haven't read anything else by A.S. King--never got around to it. Girl, read PATHFINDER!! It's amazing, and it's totally worth the 650+ pages...lol.

    Thanks for stopping by my post, Chey! ;D

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    1. Hahaha, I know, I almost put something like "And everyone should read it. Especially Megan." I think the same thing about Matched—books are really different the second time around, and I have the sequel, Crossed, so I think I'll be re-reading Matched before I read Crossed.

      Yay! Mutual book love! :D

      Ooh, I was totally going to check out Pathfinder, but now I'm even more excited for it! (:

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  2. Admitted cover-judger here!!One of my surprise treats is Nevermore by Kelly Creagh. I was SO put off by the cover and its emo-angsty vibe. Then it turned out Creagh's writing was gorgeous, her characters were memorable, and Edgar Allan Poe's work kept turning up throughout the story. Nevermore, FTW! (Sorry, couldn't resist after seeing #3 on your list ;)And I also loved The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, even though I completely misjudged what it was about based on the cover.
    Sarah@Sarah's YA Blog

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    1. Haha, I'm not the only one! (: I'll definitely have to check out Nevermore. (I have no idea why, but I kept thinking that it was like, the ninth book in some series, so I'd been ignoring it whenever I heard about it.)

      Hahaha, no, that was totally a FTW moment. ;)

      Thanks for stopping by! (:

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  3. Matched was definitely a trick for me too! The cover is gorgeous and I liked the world building but the story was so SLOW and Cassia bugged me.

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    1. Hmm, and I thought more people liked Matched... I completely agree! (:

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  4. I really liked Unwind as well. I have started UnWholly a couple of times, but for some reason, I can't. I did like Matched, mainly because it was the calmest dystopian book I have ever read. I was reading a lot of similar books (Delirium, Pandemonium, Divergent, etc.) and this one got me because everyone is so nice...

    Here's my list: http://inkandpage.me/haunted-week-2012-tricked-or-treated/

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    1. Ooh, I've been trying to get UnWholly since it came out! Yeah, it definitely is a calm dystopian. Everyone likes different things!

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  5. I have a tendency to judge a book by its cover sometimes too. Like Matched, I picked that one up last year because of the pretty color and in the end I was all like 'nope, not my type of thing.'
    And Unwind, that one sounds good. I'm definitely adding it to my TBR list :)

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    1. Ooh, definitely check out Unwind! It's a favorite of mine. (:

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  6. I found Matched frustrating too. It's like the raw materials for an enjoyable dystopian are al there, but the lack of ending really ticked me off. I've checked Crossed out of the e-library twice, and both times it expired before I got very far. I'd like to find out what happens next, but it just doesn't pull me in enough!

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    1. I'm surprised by how many people felt the same way I did about Matched—I really thought I was in the minority with my opinion.

      Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one whose e-books expire before I finish reading them! I'm so lucky they don't have e-fines ;)

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  7. I'll have to check out Unwind, seems good!


    Check out my slightly delayed post here: http://abeautyandthebook.blogspot.com/2012/10/haunted-day-day-6-tricked-or-treated.html

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    1. Definitely check it out! It's great! (:

      Thanks for leaving me your link!

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