Wednesday 30 March 2016

Top 5 Wednesday || Least Favourite Book in a Series


When I first saw this topic I didn't think I'd be able to come up with a list... but after staring at my bookshelves, I think I might be able to pull this one off.

So! My least favourite book in the series:


I really did enjoy Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy. Siege and Storm is my favourite book of the three. So I had high hopes for the conclusion Ruin and Rising. And that's not to say this was a bad book, because it wasn't. I was frantically flipping the pages to see what happened next. But there was something anti-climactic about that ending. And no, not because of the romance aspect--I was fine with that, actually. But there was just something that left me wanting. Like, we could've had it all... but Bardugo just didn't go there. Things felt too neatly tied up. Too easily resolved.



Unfortunately Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy is one that just kept going downhill for me. The first book, Feed, was like 5-star level unbelievably good. And I liked Deadline, but not as much. And then Blackout was all right, but man it took things in a different direction. Some of the plot points were too out of left field for me. And I don't know... "it's not incest since we're not technically related" is just never a plot device that works for me. Again, this conclusion just felt too tidy in places. And it made all the suffering from book 1 lose its impact.



And now the opposite. The Captive Prince trilogy was one that got better and better for me as the books went on. In fact, I read the titular book 1 and was kind of baffled about the hype. There were so many people falling all over themselves because of this series and I liked Captive Prince well enough, but it wasn't inspiring any kind of manic devotion in me. And if that sounds like your experience HOLY SMOKES READ BOOK 2 PLEASE. Everything took off for me from there and I totally get the hype now. I'm actually really interested to reread this first book knowing what I do now. I think it'll be a very different experience.



Another series where my favourite was book 2 (Days of Blood & Starlight) and my least favourite was book 3. Dreams of Gods & Monsters was gorgeously written and surprisingly quick to read despite its size. But it features this weirdly important subplot that has never really been mentioned before and then relies basically on deus ex machina to solve the major problem of the series. And it was just disappointing. I still adore this series, and Laini Taylor's writing in general, but this conclusion made me feel a little confused and underwhelmed.



Okay, this is kind of cheating since I haven't finished the Lunar Chronicles series yet, but barring some monumental upset, I feel like my answer will be the same regardless. All the books in the series were improvements on the last here. But something about Fairest just didn't do it for me. Reading about Levana was interesting, but I guess I wanted more totally unrepentant villain than I got. In her own narrative, it makes sense that Levana wouldn't see herself as the villain, but she was a bit too... I don't know, childish? in her approach than I expected. Own that badness girl, and take take take. Anyway, still enjoyable, but not super mind-blowing.


And there you have it! What are your least favourites in a series? Let's chat in the comments!