I went to see Six. The musical where the Tudor women meet the Spice Girls. And maybe I had heard too much about it - the Edinburgh Fringe origin story, the Taking Back the History story… But, here’s the thing: I didn’t get it. It’s clever, it’s camp, the audience whooped, but somewhere between the glitter and the girl power (and the borrowed costumes from Starlight Express) I sat there wondering if I’d missed the secret handshake.
That’s the point. The hype machine tells us something is unmissable, revolutionary, the Next Big Thing. Sometimes it is. Often it isn’t. Sometimes it’s just… fine. And sometimes, whisper it, you might actually dislike the Very Important Cultural Moment everyone else is queueing for. I’m not saying that Six is trying to be that Very Important Cultural Moment - but other musicals have done.
Books are no different. We’ve all bought that bestseller because it was everywhere (remember The Davinci Code?) airport stands, Instagram posts, the smug friend who declared it “life-changing”. Then you open it and realise you’d rather clean out the fridge. That doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It means the hype is a blunt instrument. Consensus flattens taste.
Here’s the liberating thought: you don’t have to like the book everyone else is reading. You don’t have to declare Sally Rooney the voice of a generation. You don’t have to pretend the Booker winner changed your worldview. Reading is supposed to be a conversation between you and the page, not you and the marketing campaign.
So here’s a list of texts from current English curriculums that really are worth the hype:
Macbeth: Yes, the one you were force-fed at school and your child may still be battling with. Believe the hype. It’s the original binge-watch thriller: witches, ambition, blood, guilt, more blood. Still feels like it was written yesterday. I love Macbeth!
Anything by Maggie O’Farrell: She actually earns the Instagram swooning. From Hamnet to The Marriage Portrait, she does the rare thing: novels that are both clever and devastatingly readable. I am currently eking out This Must be the Place chapter by wonderful chapter.
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez): For the IB crowd. This isn’t a novel; it’s a fever dream you wake up quoting. Magical realism that actually lives up to the sticker on the front. Oh, and for the Drama nerds amongst us the play 100 (inspired by this novel) was another Edinburgh hit that really does have moments of sheer brilliance.
That’s why, when I tutor, I want students to spot the difference - between the glitter of hype and the grit of texts that actually change how you think.
I reread 100 Years of Solitude very recently - just sublime. In the 30 years or so since I first read it, I had forgotten just quite how good it is. I must read O'Farrell. Your description sounds very much like how I regard Shafak whose work blows me away.