Mundie Moms

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Thoughtful Thursday- Book Series Fatigue

We are huge fans of books series. There's a lot of awesome series out there and Mundie Moms was started because of a wonderful series by Cassandra Clare. Every now and then there's a series that comes along that leaves me wondering why it was made into a series, especially if the only book that really worked well for it was the first book in the series. A few days ago Sophie & I were discussing book series fatigue. This stemmed from me sharing my thoughts on a book I'd recently read that was the third book in a series. I shared with her that I felt this book was a let down to the series, and may hinder fan's desire to pick up the next and final book in that series. I felt the series should have ended with the third book.

We talked about both the pros and cons with book series. Especially the cons for those series that ended up being stretched out to include one more book than it was originally going to. We see both the benefits and the harm that comes from that. There's been times we've both read the first book in a series and felt that, that book could stand on it's own or we went on to read the rest of the series and ended up not liking it. There's also been times we have read the first book and thought it was good and ended up loving the next book in the series. Our discussion went on to include multi-books series that worked, and ones we thought should have ended sooner than they did.

We totally get why some fans end up wanting to step off of a series they love when the series continues to drag on, or when you no longer buy into it. Some examples of the bigger series that we know about are the Twilight Series, Harry Potter, Hush, Hush series, The Vampire Academy, Blue Bloods, the Wicked Lovely Series, Beautiful Creatures series and The Mortal Instrument series, and the list goes on and on. We know there's more than those, but these are the ones we hear a lot about. We've personally had fans mention to us they stopped reading the TMI series after City of Glass. While Sophie and I both adore this book and see their point to wanting to end with seeing Jace & Clary happy, Cassie's got us wanting to know what happens next. We're both totally invested into this series and bracing ourselves for the heart breaking impact we know Cassie has yet to give us. This is one series we're glad hasn't stopped after the third book.

Not all books need to have sequels or become a series. We feel there's been some great two books series and stand alone books that have left us wishing they were a series. There's been times lately that we've both felt some series have been stretched out and that's hurt both the series and our desire to pick up the next book. We really admire authors and publishers that don't feel the need to stretch out a fabulous stand alone or 2 books series to be more than it is. Those books have ended on some great notes. They've left us wanting more and feeling totally satisfied with their endings all at the same time.

Here's a list of books that Sophie & I discussed (they're certainty not all the ones we love) and broke down into lists, based on some of the books we've enjoyed either via a series, stand alone etc. This list does NOT reflect all the books we've enjoyed, nor does it reflect the large variety of YA books out there. These are just some of the books Sophie & I talked about together.


Stand Alones:

- Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
- Candor by Pam Bachorz
- Anna & the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
- Lola & the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
- A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink
- The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
- Entwined by Heather Dixon,
- Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg
- Falling in Love With English Boys by Melissa Jenson
- Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt
- Sea by Heidi Kling,
- Forgotten by Cat Patrick,
- Queen in Exile by Donna Hatch
- This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
- Between the Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys,
- Fateful by Claudia Gray


Two Book Series (finished):

- Always A Witch series by Carolyn McCullough
- Suite Scarlet by Maureen Johnson


Multi-book series (finished):

The Gone Series by Lisa McMann
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
Demon's Lexicon series by Sarah Rees Brennan
Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld
The River of Time Series by Lisa Bergren
The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Forest of Hands & Teeth series by Carrie Ryan
The Prophecy series by Michelle Zink


Series/Sequels still in progress: (this is only a sample of some of the series Sophie & I discussed who have more books being published)

The Mortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare
The Infernal Device series by Cassandra Clare
Curse Workers series by Holly Black
The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa
The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter
Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins
The Nightshade series by Andrea Cremer
The Firelight series by Sophie Jordan
The Heist Society series by Ally Carter
Paranormalcy series by Kiersten White
Divergent series by Veronica Roth
Die For Me by Amy Plum
Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margie Stohl
Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon
Hourglass series by Myra McEntire
The Vespertine series by Saundra Mitchell
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Siren by Tricia Rayburn
Delirium series by Lauren Oliver
The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton
Matched series by Ally Condie
The Dark Divine series by Bree Despain
Unearthly series by Cynthia Hand
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Shade series by Jeri Smith-Ready
Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey
Haunting Emma series by Lee Nichols
The Books of Bayren series by Shannon Hale
Wings series by Aprilynne Pike
Fire & Thorns series by Rae Carson
Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick
Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs
13 to Life by Shannon Delany
Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck
The Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting

What are your thoughts on a series. Have you felt series fatigue lately? Do you lose interest when the series becomes more than a 2 book series? We'd love to know.

Clockwork Angel Read Along Day 2: Chapter 1



It's day 2 of our Clockwork Angel Read Along! Please be sure to visit our link here for our schedule, guidelines and to fill out the form to be entered to win some fabulous prizes.

Today's discussion is about chapter 1. We still don't know a lot about what's going on, but we do learn about Tessa's gift and that the Dark Sisters live up to their name.

* Here we learn that the Dark Sisters not only kidnapped Tessa, but Tessa herself has a very unique gift. As the story progresses what kind of role do you think her gift will play in her relationship with the Shadowhunters?

* The Dark Sisters seem to up live up to their name. What motive do you think the Dark Sisters have in "grooming" Tessa with her gift and making sure she's ready for the Magister?

Please feel free to discuss any one or all of the questions below in the comments. There's no right or wrong answer.

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