Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Breaking Up with a Book Series

Smart Bitches Trashy Books wrote a great post that has some great comments about when/why you break up with a series, or why you don't.

Whose series were most noted?
J.R. Ward
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Laurell K Hamilton
Christine Feehan
Charlaine Harris
Janet Evanovich
Mary Janice Davis

Obviously it's no suprise that a ton of people have broke up with Anita Blake... which got me thinking... I don't think I ever really break up with these series, I am just not as urgent to read them. I know the Blake books have become trash, yet I can't help to read them. I think I am actually kind of looking forward to the next book coming out even though I feel bad for wanting to read it. I still have hopes it might get better. I won't buy it the day it comes out - I may just wait until my library gets it.

I won't name the unlisted series, but when my favorite character got killed off, I am having a hard time wanting to read the new books. I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday to buy it, even though it had been out since February and decided not to when I found out I would have to pay over 27 dollars for it - it just wasn't worth it.

Some people are getting to the point of wanting to quit Sookie, but I have found that I still very much enjoy them (and Eric of course) so next may I will be in line the day it comes out at the time the store opens. Now if they killed of Eric, I probably wouldn't be that interested in reading about Sookie, and I would be quite angry. I would probably eventually buy the book afterwards (if ever that did occur which I pray it won't).

I also found that the Tanya Huff series ended a book later than it should have. SPOILER ALERT - it just wasn't worth reading after she was turned. Sometimes books are hard to continue reading when you read 5 that focus around a chase and book 6 the get what they were looking for - well book 7 gets a bit boring.

What makes you break up with a book or lose interest?

6 comments:

Lori T said...

I have to admit that I have a hard time actually breaking up with a series...I guess I am just steadfast and feel that I should remain true. I do have series that I get tired of and all that happens to these is they get bumped to lower on my tbr pile which is absolutely ginomourous (not sure that this is spelled correctly). I just cannot seem to truly give up on a serious.

The Scarf Princess said...

I definitely agree with divorcing Feehan's Carpathian series. I got extremely bored with it after noticing that the same basic storyline was just being recycled over and over.

Wicked said...

I have a very hard time breaking up with a series. Which is why it took me so long to finally break up with the Anita books.

Actually.. come to think of it, I think it's the only actual series I've broken up with in recent years. There are a few where I didn't get far into the first book before stopping it, so those can't really count as I didn't get into the "series".
Oh... I guess the only other one that I never finished the series on, would be Anne Rice. I just couldn't finish The Tale of the Body Thief. But technically I still have the book on my shelf and I haven't fully given up on someday reading it again.

Generally, it's the "same old, same old" formulaic writing that makes me want to quit. With the Anita books, it turned into a formula of badly written p^rn. (LHK even admitted in a blog that she uses a formula.)

Dracenea said...

Sometimes I don't even make it through book one in a series. I will give it a few chapters though.

The main reasons I leave a series is when the plot becomes too similar or the writing sucks. There was a book that I read one time that said "God's Blood" every other sentence. It was their way of cursing and it got uber annoying. I don't remember the book, of course.

Lexie said...

I 'broke up' with three of the series mentioned (Feehan, Harris and Evanovich). I mean the Sookie books started to become a little ridiculous when she would switch love interests back and forth, I had the same issue with the Stephanie Plum books...its one thing if she changes partners and that's the end of the romance. Its entirely another for the chick to repeatedly go back and forth between two or more guys.

Feehan I had a very brief and passionate love for--I must have bought the first ten in one fell swoop. Unfortunately I grew less interested as time went by because it felt like we were just couple-jumping. Even when familiar characters/events are mentioned I didn't feel like it mattered much to the current love pair.

I do admit to one thing though, the Rogue Angel series (by 'Alex Archer') is a series that I keep buying even though I fell out of interest in it around book 6 (its up to book 20 almost I think). That however is a serial adventure--romance isn't even a factor, its just good old action/mystery. Its more like a TV series (like Relic Hunter) to me then a book series.

Lindsay said...

The series that I broke up with, not mentioned above, is the "Dark Ones" series... they were all pretty much the same with different names changed. I enjoyed several of them, but I haven't brought myself to read the last 3 that are out...

I also broke up with the Twilight series. I still haven't read the last one and I don't really care to.