Top 5 Wednesday #5 || August 3rd || Books You Feel Differently About

It's August! Which means new T5W topics! This month, we have five Wednesdays and you know what that means~ As always, for more informations on this bookish meme, check the links below:
Lainey: Gingerreadslainy
Samantha: Thoughtsonthomes
Goodreads group: Top 5 Wednesday

This week's topic is Books You Feel Differently About, I had quite a hard time making my list because once I develop an opinion about a book, it's rare that I change it.

• August 3rd, 2016 || Books You Feel Differently About:

"Talk about the books that you feel differently about after you've had time to think about them or re-read them. These are books that you gave a low rating, and then thought about it or re-read it and ended up loving. Or a book that you loved when you first read it, but after you've thought about it or you've gotten older, you see how many problems it had."

My five picks, ladies and gentlemen:

5. Poisoned Apples: Poems For You My Pretty by Christine Heppermann:

Okay so here's the thing, I've never read poetry before and the idea of feminist poetry mixed with fairytale retellings intrigued me so I picked Poisoned Apples by Christine Heppermann and for quite some time, I thought I enjoyed it. Loved it even. But after I thought about it, I realized how shallow the whole thing was. Not to mention depressing (Although depression and poetry are two faces of the same coin). The poet did indeed highlight the struggles of women in society and the misogynistic way they're treated in the media but the poems were poorly written. The more I think about it, the more flaws I manage to extract. It's was just cliché.

4. Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: 

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and I'm not taking that back, it does deserve that rating and it is one of the fluffiest romance contemporaries ever. But when I finished it, I was indeed oblivious to the problem of cheating in this book. Now I don't want to spoil anything, but there was a character (whom I loved and I still relate to in other ways) that was mind-cheating on his girlfriend from the beginning to the almost the end of the book. I know people would not consider mind-cheating as a serious problem (I know I didn't, back then) but It's severe once you shed the light on it. I don't love this book any less now that I'm aware of that issue, but I really want those who read it to to acknowledge it as well.

3. The Witch Of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare:

This is the very first book I read in English. I borrowed it from my friend my freshman year and it helped me become the bookworm that I am today. I remember falling head over heels over this book, I remember being crazy about the outfits, the setting, the slow burning romance, the plot. It was obsession. However, now that I think of it, I can't help but cringe over how flawed it was. My main problem with it was the damsel-in-distress trope. I can't believe I didn't notice that before. I'm not saying that Kit was a bad protagonist, she was fierce, smart and strong-willed. But her love interest was a your typical knight in shining armor showing up out of nowhere whenever the heroine faced hardships just to save her. One more problem, the characters (except Kit) were flat. No one really undergoes any change in the course of the story. I still appreciate what this book did to me and it will always hold great meaning to my life.

2. The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell:

Ah! Even the memory of this book pains me. How I hated going through every single page of it. Finishing The Darling Strumpet was emotionally challenging. It wasn't sad or angsty but I just wasn't familiar with this genre. This is not a book that I either hated after loving it for a while or vice versa. This is a book that I hated going through. Like I said, every page felt like someone added extra weight on me. It took me over a week to finish it but here's the thing, it was when I finished the last page that I realized how much I grew attached to it. I do not wish to re-read this book ever but I cannot deny that the more I think about it, the more I appreciate it.

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell:

I need to give this book a break, I really do. For a long time, I truly disliked Fangirl just because I couldn't like Cath as a character. I'm not sure what my problem with her was and that frustrated me a lot. It has been a couple of years since I read it and now that I think of it, I believe the reason why I didn't enjoy this book was because I couldn't relate to it. Here's the thing, In middle school and my freshman year in High School, I was an avid fan of everything Korea-related and I must admit I no longer am (I still follow some groups but I stay away from all fandoms). My sophomore year was a year of transition from the Korean culture craze to the world of books and at some point that year I picked Fangirl hoping that I'd enjoy it. But to my biggest surprise, I couldn't. I blamed the author, the characters, the plot, the writing and forgot to blame myself. The true problem with this book was me. The timing I chose to read it was absolutely wrong. I didn't know much about bookworms back then, I didn't read nor watched Harry Potter back then, I didn't even care about fanfictions back then. How on earth could I find it interesting! I regret breaking up with this book too soon and I'm sure that if I re-read it, I'll enjoy and appreciate every little reference I didn't notice before.

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That's a wrap! I'll be back soon with another T5W topic~ Are there any books you felt differently about?