Ever feel you set yourself up for success or failure of expectations before you've even started reading the book? Like you've decided that's my kinda thing and your brain just.... decides to agree?

I love checking out star ratings before I read a book, and sometimes I'll even take a cheeky sneak peak at reviews while desperately trying to avoid spoilers (doesn't always work!). Sometimes this is valuable, as it shows me if a novel is going to be worth my time, and highly rated books sometimes do end up being a 5 star read!

But sometimes, especially with books that float towards the 3 star for a lot of folks, I wonder if I would've enjoyed the book more if I'd just gone in completely blind to public opinion.

I read Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh recently and ate up every word. From the description it was exactly my kind of novel, and I loved it. But looking at it objectively? I know it's maybe not the best example of the genre, but I'd gone in thinking - even "knowing" - that I'd love it.

On the flip side, I read How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu after seeing a couple of reviews thay shared a more negative point of view, and I realised very quickly while reading that yes I agreed with those reviews, and I wasn't having a good time.

What are your thoughts? Do we let public perception interrupt and influence our enjoyment without even really meaning to? Do you fully avoid opinions of books before reading them because of this?