Five Star Book Tag: the books that lived up to the hype, the ones that didn't, and guessing my future 5 star reads

If you're on Bookstagram, you've probably seen this tag floating around. Everyone's hopped on the trend at this point, so I figured I might as well think about the many layers of five star reading. This one was hard for me because I very rarely give books 5 stars. So often, they end up at a 4.5 in my spreadsheet or the reviews, and I mistakenly remember them as 5 star reads. So I tried to stay to the truth, but I also allowed a little wiggle room for my evolving memory over time. It was actually really fun to click around my spreadsheet and consider books from the whole time I've had the blog in compiling this list. I'm always a little skeptical of hype but always drawn in by it in the end, which I think is a theme that threads through this one.

books I thought would be five star reads and were

Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany

I love a fangirl book, and I knew that this one would be good from the start because Kaitlyn Tiffany has written such incredible articles on fandom. Also, the fact that it opens talking about the Harry Styles vomit shrine? Iconic. I love a well-researched nonfiction book that isn't scared to pull from the author's own experience. This has been one of my favorite books for a long time. If you've ever been in a fandom or grew up on the internet, please read this book. 

Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney

This is kind of a lie cause I think I gave it 3.5 stars the first read it. Even after I was sold on Normal People, I hadn't quite grown into what I'd argue to be Rooney's best novel yet. But, when I reread it, I knew it'd be a 5 star read this time. That the book, really, was written for me, and I hadn't lived enough life yet to see it the first time I read it. One of my professors classified it as the book of someone deeply alienated, and he meant it as a dig, but it made me realize why I loved the book. It saw something in my weird life experience that I'd never seemed realized in a book. Alienation, isolation, reaching over gaps to forge relationships. It's a beautiful novel, and I knew going back into it that it was going to be the one.

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

This book I got early because I was seeing Mark H.K. Choi at Teen Book Con, and they let us buy the books early and get them signed. But this is one of the first books I got obsessed with based on the pre-publication promotion in my early blogging days. I mean, look at that cover, and it was set in Texas, which I'd rarely seen, and it was about college-age characters, which was exciting for young teen me. And then I read the book and loved it. It's one of the few YA books I've returned to as an adult, and I think it walks a very thin line between YA and adult.

Writers and Lovers by Lily King

The caveat here is that I put off reading this book for ages because I usually can't handle books where characters grapple with a mother's death. It just triggers my anxiety in a way I don't know how to handle. But I also knew that the book was universally beloved by everyone I knew who shared my taste in books, so I had an expectation that it would be worth taking the risk to read it. I read almost the whole thing in the bath.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

This one was marketed very strongly as For Fans of Sally Rooney, which is not wrong, and it has this gorgeous cover, and I love messy friendships and also messy relationships and university life. So I went in with high expectations and walked away with so much love still.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

This, I think, is an unpopular opinion despite how universally beloved Reid's first novel was, but much like BWWAY, I think this book just hit on the specific convo of my love of the campus novel at the time I read it plus my love of character work. It was thinking about a lot of what I was thinking about, and that felt serendipitous and gave me a real love for the book. So much of 5 star reads come down to the mood you're in at the time. 

 

books I thought would be five star reads but weren't 

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

I mean, new Sally Rooney, I'm going to expect to be obsessed. Except for the fact that I know that it takes a while for Rooney to really settle over me. I find the love in subsequent rereads. I say this more about the stylistic departure that I struggled with more than anything and has stopped me from staging a full reread from my initial one. I want to love this book, maybe one day I will. 

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

I mean, this is mostly by virtue of it being an extremely hyped book with a great cover and a good marketing push and a very cool-girl persona based on her involvement in lit mags and her author photo, which is to say I also went in skeptical. I mean things are only hyped that big to fall. But I went in with a very charitable feeling towards the novel and wanted to like it despite itself, which was an interesting experience. I bought the book before I'd read it, which is a big gesture of faith from me, and I'm not disappointed I bought it. This wasn't a wholesale disappointment but landing just out of bounds.

Heart the Lover by Lily King

This was a genuine, deep disappointment. I loved Writers and Lovers obviously, and I had huge hopes for this one. And it was soul crushingly disappointing. I liked Lost Lambs or at least parts of it. I found this whole book incredibly frustrating and poorly written beyond any expectations, which is not a popular opinion, but oh well.

Audition by Katie Kitamura

This is another that belongs in the more mild disappointment camp because I so deeply loved Kitamura's previous books and this one just didn't live up to previous for me.

books that were unexpected five star reads 

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

I'd heard about this book in creative writing class in college and didn't think much about it until years later. I listened to it on audiobook and then started reading it on paper. I wouldn't have thought I'd be obsessed with an alphabetized diary, but I guess I am.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

This was another random book I read excerpts from in the past and then picked up as an audiobook and was deeply moved by over winter break. When a memoir manages to thoroughly grab my attention and deeply move me, I'm always a little surprised.

What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma

This is a novel I bought before I read it, so I had faith, based on the extreme quality of the first line, but I'd heard nothing about the book before picking it up, so I certainly wasn't anticipating a five star read.

Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney

This book feels like it's in lineage with the All Fours and such of the world, a mode I don't typically enjoy. But I read it anyway and was shocked by how moving and specific and lived in the book felt. It reached beyond the pitfalls I found in other novels that tread this subject matter.

Death Valley by Melissa Broder

I'd been lukewarm on the first of Broder's books that I'd read, and this was about some kind of sentient giant cactus, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't vibe with this book and then I absolutely fell in love. 

The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine

This is more because I didn't know what to expect from this novel when I first started reading it. You have to have a lot of trust in the novel, which I did, but it's seeing it all in hinesight that's so brillaint. Still, it's been blurbed by so many writers I love that I had a feeling it was going to be good.

books on my TBR I think will be five star reads 

Deep Burn by Brendan MacEvilly

I bought this right before winter break, and it sounds incredible, but I just haven't managed to get around to it with all the new releases I need to address. One day we'll get there. 

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

This book has definitely won over the hype machine, and it does sound great. I mean a trad wife influencer has to actually go face the world she's proclaimed to be paradise? What a hook! What a cover! I'm curious to see if it lives up to all the excited chatter.

I Want You To Be Happy by Jem Calder

This is sort of cheating cause I've read a quarter of it already, but if you go back to the books I was most looking forward to in 2026, you'll see that I've had my heart set on loving this book since the start of the year. The book is so narrowly focused on this very modern relationship coming together and granularly scraping through that. I'm so excited to finally have time to devote my full attention to it!

Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh

I heard John Patrick McHugh on Tolka's podcast recently and it reminded me that I've been meaning to read this book for over a year. It's been endorsed by so many authors I respect and also my pickiest professor who maintains this book did not get enough love for how good it is, so I'm ready for it to stop getting shoved down my TBR.