Little Mushroom (maybe) controversial opinion

I don't think I actually enjoyed reading it. Now let me preface this by saying I absolutely recommend this to everyone, it was a wonderful story with deep world-building, good pacing, and just well-written in general. We all have our preferences so if you haven't read it yet I suggest giving it a try if you're into angst, sci-fi, and apocalypse stuff+slow romance.

Little Mushroom is objectively a 4 or 5 stars but subjectively, for me at least, a 2 or 3 stars. Y'know when you read a trash novel that's definitely 1 or 3 stars but you enjoyed it so much that at least during the time you finish reading it's a 5 star? Yeah, that's this but switched around. It's a beautiful story but it didn't...appeal to me? Maybe that's not the right word because I love its premise. Apocalypse, sci-fi, little romance, angst, I love all of these things but when I read the actual story I had to force myself through it.

To be honest, my feelings on it are quite contradictory. The angst was great but dull, the relationship development was beautiful but I didn't enjoy the ship's dynamic, the characters were well written but none of them really stuck with me, and so forth. In the end, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Maybe I wanted a tragic ending instead? But then again I'm not sure if that would change my mind. I guess it's a story that stuck with me despite it not being appealing.

Perhaps what really changed my view was that I bought into the hype and ended up being disappointed which brought my rating down. So take this with a grain of salt because, after all, external factors can influence us easily. I find it quite fascinating that this is my reaction and I can't help but wonder how I'd react differently if I never saw the hype in the first place. Anyway, I actually love interacting with the fandom (hooray for the manhua!!!) but maybe it really isn't for me.

Does anyone else feel this way, what's your opinion on it? And are there any other novels that made you give a different objective rating versus a subjective rating?