Highly rated fantasy books that I didn't like as much

No book will appeal to every reader. That is true no matter what the book is or how well-written it is. On this blog, I've documented my reading history with well-regarded books, including my positive experience with Goodreads Choice Awards finalists in 2021 and my less positive experience with NY Times bestsellers in 2020. I thought it'd be interesting to look back on which books from my read shelf have the highest Goodreads ratings that I didn't like. In this post, I'll focus on fantasy books since that is my favorite genre (closely followed by sci-fi and thrillers). I may list books from other genres in future posts.

In alphabetical order by title, here the top eight highly rated fantasy books that I didn't like as much:

1. A Clash of Kings (4.42 Goodreads rating) - Ten years ago (!), I talked about how my dislike of the Game of Thrones books was the reason why I was late to watching the TV show. I didn't read past A Clash of Kings because it was so painful to finish, but I finished the TV series.
2. A Day of Fallen Night (4.34 Goodreads rating) -  I thought The Priory of the Orange Tree was good but too long. A Day of Fallen Night wasn't as good and still too long. Maybe I would've liked it if it was under 400 pages rather than over 800.
3. The Fifth Season (4.30 Goodreads rating) - I thought The Fifth Season was boring until the twist at the end. It boggles my mind how this book won so many awards. Needless to say, I didn't continue reading the series.
4. A Game of Thrones (4.45 Goodreads rating) - See A Clash of Kings above. A Game of Thrones wasn't as awful as A Clash of Kings, but I still didn't like it.
5. House of Earth and Blood (4.46 Goodreads rating) - Before Sarah J. Maas fans berate me, let me say that I really enjoyed her Throne of Glass series. It turns out that I don't like her romantasy books as much, or romantasy in general. 
6. Iron Flame (4.37 Goodreads rating) - This is another case of my not liking romantasy very much. I thought Fourth Wing was fine, mainly because the novelty of the dragons and the training outweighed the romance aspect. That didn't happen with Iron Flame.
7. The Lies of Locke Lamora (4.31 Goodreads rating) - I'm still confused why I didn't like this book. It had all the elements of a story I should like, but the story wasn't quite interesting enough, the characters not quite likeable enough, and the writing not quite good enough, so the end result was a book that was just meh.
8. The Stand (4.35 Goodreads rating) - This applies to just about every Stephen King book because I've yet to come across one I really liked. The Stand happens to be the highest rated of the ones I've read.