Series I Probably Won't Finish

 

         Just because I read and even liked the first book or two in a series doesn’t mean I want to make the commitment to read the following books. Whether it was because I was no longer interested in the direction the story was heading, the plot’s progression came to a screeching stop, or because my favorite character died and I cannot bear to go on without him/her the result stays the same.

Snow Like Ashes

  I read the first book and thought it was okay, but it ended on a very different note than I was expecting. Spoilers for Snow Like Ashes ahead. I thought the entire trilogy would be about the Winter People taking back their home kingdom. Except that all occurred during the last quarter of the book. (It should not take a hundred pages to take back a country). The book also ended with what looked to be the set up for a love triangle which I have personally seen enough of, so I decided to call it quits.

Throne of Glass

  My favorite character died (won’t say who because spoilers) so I couldn’t go on without them. I wish I could say more, but there really is not much to it.

Heroes of Olympus

  I loved the Percy Jackson books in early high school. Percy’s first-person narrative was especially enjoyable including the modern take on classical mythology. After I closed the final installment in the Percy Jackson series, I jumped right into the sequel Heroes of Olympus. However, I forced myself to finish the first one, The Lost Hero.

  Now it should be noted that Percy is not a main character in that book so I assumed my lack of enjoyment was because of it. The Son of Neptune is the sequel where Percy returns as a major character. It had the same enjoyable take on classical mythology, but Percy’s first-person narration was gone, and I feel the series lost much of its charm because of this.

Legacy of the King’s Pirates

  I read this book in high school back when I was young enough to like things. (Please don’t take that too seriously as I still like things that I read and watch. It’s the things that I write that I don’t like.) However, my taste changed as I read the fourth book not realizing it was the fourth book. I found the other book in the series to not be as enjoyable and contained material that really irked me so I decided it wasn’t particularly worth it to continue if I wasn’t enjoying it.

          

A Series of Unfortunate Events

  I didn’t realize how many there were when I picked up the first book. I don’t’ not know if this says anything about me and my inability to commit. Then again, I finished all 12 volumes of the Jacky Faber series so there is that. However, I enjoyed Jacky’s voice in the narration much better than Lemony Snicket. I found him to be pretentious and talking down to the reader. Also the books kind of have the same set up. The kids move in with a new adult and everything goes wrong which some people love, but I found it to be a bit too repetitive. 

Conclusion

I want to say if I listed one of your favorite series here that does not mean I think poorly of your reading taste. The reason I do not like a story could very well be the reason someone else loves it. An example is how I listed that I decided not to read on after Snow Like Ashes because I saw a love triangle in the future, but other readers really enjoy love triangles and look for books that have them, and there is nothing wrong with this. 

What I learned from all of this is that I do not need to finish a series if I am not enjoying it anymore. When I was younger I felt I had to finish what I started no matter what and I wasn’t enjoying reading anymore.