I’ve noticed that I tend to shove the final books in a series into three categories: Perfect -- 50/50 -- Hated. There might be some overlapping here and there, but for the most part, my final opinions will be pretty close to one of those three categories.
A couple of weeks ago I talked about my most satisfying series conclusions that I’d read to date, and as you can probably guess from the title, today I’m sharing the endings that left me feeling either underwhelmed, disappointed or even worse, completely outraged!
I’m splitting this list into two parts. I’m going to start out with those series that would fit into the 50/50 label. You know the ones, the ‘I LIKED it… but’, or the ‘It was alright… but’ ones. Then I’ll venture into the endings where I’d happily allow the book to wallow in a lovely lava lake and encourage Hades to torture it regularly.
Just a little note: I’m not going into any specifics or spoilers, just a quick overview of my feelings. If I wrote a review for the book, I’ll leave a link if you’d like to find out what I thought about it in more detail. (My reviews are spoiler-free, unless stated!) Also, these are just my opinions and reactions to reading the books I've mentioned, and they’re not meant to offend anyone.
The 50/50 Endings
End of Days by Susan Ee
To this day Angelfall remains one of my all-time favourite books, but the last book in the trilogy? Oooh boy. I liked some stuff, but then some other stuff… ehh, not so much. There was so much potential for a really epic ending, but I did feel really let down by some of the things that happened.
Winter by Marissa Meyer
Okay, this will definitely be a controversial one! See, I LIKED what happens. I really did! It was the journey I wasn’t a fan of. Oh, and the boredom. It’s never a nice feeling when you’re wishing for a book to be over. :/
Endgame by C.J. Daugherty
The fourth book in this series was my favourite book of 2014, so I had HUGE expectations for the grand finale. It’s the same again, I LIKED the ending… but yeah, okay, alright, I was a bit miffed with a non-ending for a certain character! There were just too many loose ends and it stopped me from being completely satisfied with the outcome.
Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
We went through all that… for THAT anti-climactic ending?! When I read it, I had lovely rose-tinted glasses on. (Ahh, the lovely Twilight bubble that got me back reading again!) If I’d read it now, I’d probably have rated it quite a bit lower than I did at the time.
Hades, My Dear, I Have Some Sacrifices For You
Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
I know there’s a new continuation trilogy following Yelena and Valek, (and yes, I’ve read the first book in that trilogy, but DNF’d it,) so I’m classing Fire Study as the last book just for simplicity sake. Simply put, Fire Study felt completely pointless. The first two books were awesome, but absolutely nothing happened in Fire Study. It was too drawn out, and I remember it took almost two months to get through.
Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Okay, so it pains me to include this book here. The Lux series used to be one of my favourite series… and then this book came along. I was completely crushed with how half-hearted and cliché the ending turned out to be. It felt like we were just going through the expected motions just to conclude the series. :/
Out of Breath by Rebecca Donovan
The first two books in this trilogy were amazing… but the last one, oh boy. Everything changed, and it was like I’d picked up the third book in a completely new series. The characters were completely unrecognisable!
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
I will confess that this book takes the grand prize for being my most hated series conclusion, ever. Honestly, it was a complete disaster. The horrible thing was I could see it coming, but I was holding out hope that things would turn around. But, alas, they didn’t. What makes it harder to take: it’s a 13 book long series! Actually, I think this makes it hurt twice as much… *sobs*
Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!
This is one of the reasons why I don’t read a lot of series. So many of them have disappointing endings. It’s hard to read a big, long series and then end up disappointed.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I read the first three books in the Lux series but never continued on. I actually haven't heard very much about the ending. I don't think I'll finish the series since I've lost interest. It just doesn't have the same pull as before....
ReplyDeleteYeah...End of Days was one that cut me deep, but yet wasn't terrible. Like you said 50/50. Really think it came down to the once 5 book series being squashed into a trilogy. Really wish it would've stayed at its longer projected length.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I was really effected by Winter in one way or another. I liked it, felt not issues really. But yeah, maybe at times it dragged a bit.
Despite reading the Twilight series, I really had no love for it. It didn't have an impacting effect on me since I was already thick into the vampire YA world...however small it was at the time. I think I read these books around the third one's release? Definitely before all the movies released. It was just blah. But yeah, the end of the series involved a lot of eye rolling for me.
I'm going to pretend I'm not seeing the Study or Lux series here...as they're among my top favorites. ;) But since I know not every series is for everyone, I'm just gonna ignore it here. Lol.
Dead Ever After...oh so much went wrong here. When we started this series in the very beginning, I loved it! I loved all the mystery and even though it usually involved a murder, I found it entertaining and thrilling! Then...I think it was around book 8 or 9 maybe...things changed. I felt like the mystery element was getting weaker. Even if it didn't involve a murder, there still was hardly any mystery to solve. And the initial name of this series was The Southern Vampire Mysteries. I think it was about book 8 or so when it became the Sookie Stackhouse Series. The mystery element was totally gone. I should've quit then, but I didn't. At the time I felt loyal to the series and wanted to see it through. I think I could foresee where things were going in book 12 and yeah the last book confirmed things. I think I was upset. I always liked Bill, Eric got on my nerves after a few books of their relationship being so serious. I enjoyed Quinn as well...but then her choice just felt so blah. I even bought that little book 13.5 After Ever After...or some such nonsense, because I was left wondering what happened to nearly everyone else. That one just left too many things unsaid with too many characters. While that little read wasn't overly exciting, it did provide exactly what I wanted, details on what happened to everyone else. And it was everyone! Not sure if you ever read it or cared to, but it was at least satisfying in the answer department. I wasn't expecting a story from it, so I wasn't disappointed on that front.
I think one ending that always left me upset was Richelle Mead's Shadow Heir. I just remember feeling a little upset about certain choices and how that was just it! There's nothing more! It was like grr!!
Wow. Long comment. Didn't realize I talked that much! LOL!
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