What’s a book that completely surprised you?

The first book in the series “A Song of Ice & Fire” – “A Game of Thrones” completely surprised me.

I expected the usual epic fantasy world filled with wonderful characters and heroic journeys.

What did I get instead?

At the end of the very first book, Ned Stark dies.

I was genuinely shocked. This was almost 10 years ago, and I still remember that feeling. The storyline felt brutal and unpredictable.

In a way, it introduced me to a darker and more realistic perspective of the world, especially knowing that the series was inspired by the Wars of the Roses.

Until then, most of my reading journey had been filled with adventurous and hopeful stories. This series opened the door to a much darker kind of storytelling.

I finished the first two books and even bought the entire series, but I still haven’t continued reading them.