The Year Of Disappointing Sequels



I can't catch a break this year. I've started catching up on book series I missed but even when I originally loved the first book or the series, there's something missing that stops it from being a fantastic read overall. Let's have a look at what went wrong so far this year:


The Chemical Garden Trilogy
I was obsessed with Wither when it was released back in 2011. The writing was gorgeous, the dystopian plot about a girl married to man she did not want (like Handmaid's Tale) really appealed to me and I knew that the next book would be amazing. I finally binge read the series as a whole when I started reading again this February and was so disappointed. Fever completely lost the gorgeous writing, the love interest Gabriel became little more than cardboard and the plot was ridiculous (a carnival brothel only Rhine magically kept her virginity because some reasons). Sever and it's truly awful cover followed (it's a green screen. come on.) and just never really took off, Rhine meandered around for the majority of the book, the Chemical Garden was barely mentioned and the ending was wrapped up as fast as possible. Plus characters were kiled off that shouldn't have been. BOO. HISS.


The 5th Wave Trilogy
 In this series defense, I did not think it was mind blowingly amazing when I started it, giving The 5th Wave just 3 stars. However the sequels got 4 stars each so they did pick up the pace. When I started the 5th Wave it reminded me that I'd watched the movie at Christmas and I couldn't help but think that the movie was better, it was less messy. The other two books felt pretty long but there was plenty of banter between the characters to keep me reading. Actually there was probably too many characters, there was a lot of different POVs used. The final book did use a trope that I know a lot of readers can't stand, which I won't mention for spoilery reasons. It's a pretty great sci-fi/apocalyptic story, I just think it could have been done better.


The Selection... Trilogy. Sort of.
Officially The Selection is a trilogy however there's a second series, The Heir, making 5 books in total, not including novellas. These three are dedicated to America Singer, a girl who signs up for a dystopian version of The Bachelor after her parents promise her she can start making her own money. With no desire to marry a Prince she doesn't know, she never expects to be selected. Obviously, she is. I did rate these books 4, 3 and 4 but they just didn't have the same wow factor as the first time I read them. I began to depise Maxon by the last book and the love triangle really got on my nerves at times. I probably rated them higher for nostalgia if anything.


The Illuminae Files Trilogy
No-one can hear you swearing in space. No, really, because every use of a swear word is blacked out. Which is only about 10 times a page. Each book is about 600 pages long, so that's only 18,000 times I had to fill in the blanks. This space opera romance series is pretty freaking amazing and the use of files and documents to tell a story really works but Obsidio was a complete let down. It introduced two more characters after we already have 5 main characters from the previous books, when instead it should have concentrated on them. I didn't care for the couple and the swearing really started to grate.


Ultraviolet Duology
Ultraviolet is another book that I read back in 2011. A big reason I'm doing a sequel catch up now is because Goodreads now allows re-reads, whereas before I couldn't remember the first book when the second was released, so I'd leave it as I wanted it to count towards my goal. Ultraviolet was amazing, the story of a girl trapped in a mental hospital with synesthesia after a girl she fought with disappears. The second book switched the POV to a different girl and the writing just fell apart. It was pretty cliched, there wasn't much plot and I left feeling pretty disappointed after Ultraviolet was so good.


 Shades Of London Series
Guess when I first read The Name Of The Star? 2011? Ding ding ding we have a winner! Apparently to stop reading bad sequels I need to just avoid everything off of my 2011 list. I re-read The Name Of The Star and loved it all over again, a bloody tale of a modern day Jack The Ripper. So naturally I couldn't wait to get stuck into the next two books and find out what ghostly mysteries we would be solving. Well that never happened because both of those books and likely the next book which hasn't been released yet is centered around this 1970s cult and ghosts really don't feature that much. I bloody hate cult stories.


Everlife Trilogy
I was initially a bit wary of this series as Gena does usually write what looks to be steamy paranormal romances. However the first two books proved to be pretty good, about a girl who has to choose between two realms when she dies, I loved the unique concept. After being let down by second book syndrome so much I was pleased that I really enjoyed Lifeblood. However a dual POV between Ten and Killian, the main couple was a terrible idea because Killian had no personality whatsoever. All he thought about was how great Ten was and that was half of the book. All the of plot advancement was in the last 25% so I was pretty bored.


That's all the series that I've read this year so far and I've been disappointed in every single one of them! I realised that I'm chasing the same high that I got when I finished The Winner's Trilogy and I'm really hoping at least one series this year lives up to that. I'll do a second post later this year with the next series that I read and see if there's any better ones!

Comments

  1. Finding GOOD and satisfying series finales is really hard!! I totally get that too! I'm really sad you didn't like the finale of Obsidio though...I still have to read it but I'm kind of nervous hahaa. But I did adore the first two so hopefully it'll work for me?! (I kind of think blacking out the swearing is dumb, because it's not like we can't guess what they're saying. 😂) I don't even think I've finished any series this year?! Oops. 😂

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also adored the first two books just to warn you! Something about the couple in the final book just didn't work for me but I hope you love it!

      Delete
  2. I remember feeling slightly upset with how Th 5th Wave series ended, but not in that OMG I HATE THE AUTHOR NOW feeling most people got with another popular series. Both times I had zero problem with it, I was always sad about the people left behind and their reactions to it all.

    I LOVED The Illuminae Files, but I will admit the different characters each time was a tad overwhelming. I mean the second one wasn't too bad in terms of not being overwhelmed but it was rather overwhelming at times with Obsidio. I feel like we didn't even really get to know the new characters. Still loved it though! I guess I've been around or seen too much swearing in movies because for the most part I felt like I knew what was being said and blacked out! Lol!

    The only thing that upsets me about The Shades of London series is how it looks like there will never be a final book. I can't quite remember the series since it's been years but I remember a sort of cliffhanger at the end of the third one. Goodreads shows an untitled fourth one but since Maureen started a new series I have my doubts about a finale.

    And finally, I get to Gena's series which always gives me mixed emotions. I was a HUGE fan of her first YA series which was canceled before the final book. Never getting those answers to everything upset me. Greatly. She wrote a summary of what would have happened, but I noticed at least one rather large "event" wasn't acknowledge whatsoever. I loved her Alice in Zombieland series so I thought I would try this one. I honestly kind of hated the first book. Could not see why this series got all the love while her first series didn't. Still greatly hurt by all that! Lol!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's nothing worse than uncompleted series. A long time ago I read a book quite similar to Shade's Of London, Hell's Underground by Alan Gibbons. I really loved it - the first book came out in 2007 so I've had them quite a while. It was about Jack The Ripper too, and went on for 4 books - except it left the 4th on somewhat of a cliffhanger and that was back in 2010. I hate feeling let down by authors/publishers.

      Delete
  3. I totally agree with you on Obsidio! I felt like Gemina and Obsidio just recycled the same formula as Illuminae. How disappointing about Wither though! I've been meaning to read that series forever!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm hoping Jay Kirstoff's new book LIFEL1K3 isn't too much like Illuminae because I'm really excited about it!

      Delete
  4. I find it hard to find series I want to finish too! I love Showalter and I haven't read Everlife precisely because I didn't hear it was that good. I cannot agree more about The 5th Wave Trilogy either!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love comments! Spam comments will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Many Covers Monday - ALL THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

Many Covers Monday: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Many Covers Monday: One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus