It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the wonderful blog at The Broke and the Bookish! This week’s topic:
Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders!
The Most Disappointing…
REACHED (Matched #3) by Ally Condie: I actually DNFed this one. I really enjoyed MATCHED (about a 4 star rating) and I was super disappointed with the road that CROSSED turned and… I just couldn’t finish REACHED. REACHED was a BIG. BOOK. I think I made it over 100 pages in before deciding that I was so not enjoying it and I really didn’t want to struggle through 400 more pages. I didn’t like the romance/love triangle, the poems annoyed me, it was way too political (shush, I know dystopians are, but still), and the rest of the plot just wasn’t coming together for me.
[No review due to DNF]
THE DEATH CURE (The Maze Runner #3) by James Dashner: I was pretty much frustrated with this whole book. I didn’t like Teresa or Brenda and the ONE THING I wanted from the series didn’t happen: HIGHLIGHT FOR SPOILER —> Howwwwww does Thomas not get his memories back?!?! That was the most interesting part! That was WHY I was reading the series — I was dying to know. Le sigh. I tried to read the prequel, THE KILL ORDER, in the hopes that I’d find answers for what I didn’t get in TDC, but it really didn’t tie in to THE MAZE RUNNER much and I DNFed it after talking it out with other people who had read the book!
[The Death Cure Review]
It was the best of times… It was the worst of times…
(aka — Series enders I still enjoyed but were just missing a couple things)
MOCKINGJAY (The Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins: When I first finished The Hunger Games Trilogy (I read them all in one weekend), I was really upset with how MOCKINGJAY ended. It just didn’t wrap things up enough for me and there wasn’t as much excitement since there had been a Hunger Games in books one AND two. I re-read it this year and appreciated it a lot more than my first go around, but even still, it’s my least favorite of the trilogy. I did bump it up one more star from my original review though!
[Mockingjay Review]
REQUIEM (Delirium #3) by Lauren Oliver: I know so many readers were upset by the way REQUIEM ended, and admittedly, I was a little bit too. I’ve heard Lauren Oliver speak about it (and I read up on it as well) and she said she intentionally left it open because real life doesn’t get wrapped up nicely and I can totally respect that. Even still, I had hoped for just a tiiiny bit more closure. I feel like Lena wasn’t quite in the safe zone yet and for all I knew, she could have been killed the second after the book ended. I’m sure that didn’t happen, but that’s how I felt! I still really liked the book a lot, loved the split POV with Lena & Hana, and am always in awe of Lauren Oliver’s beautiful writing in that series, but just a tiny bit more wrap-up really would have helped my overall opinion!
[Requiem Review]
SEVER (The Chemical Garden #3) by Lauren DeStefano: I feel like a lot of people were upset with the way the series ended and I guess I can see why, but I really enjoyed it. The only thing I was upset with, really, was the very end — once again, lack of answers — and I could have used a bit more romantic connection because the love triangle was totally one sided and then quickly flipped back. It felt abrupt after showing the one side for the whole book. I also REALLY wanted to know so much more about the titular Chemical Garden. We learn about it in this book but not quite enough to satisfy my curiosity.
[Sever Review]
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (Harry Potter #7) by J.K. Rowling: HEAR ME OUT. Of course I love this entire series and this entire book to death BUT. The epilogue was a bit cheesetastic for me. I totally appreciate that we get to see what happens when the trio’s kids go off to Hogwarts, but every single kid was named after someone and it felt soooo cheesy. I really did appreciate it, especially for closure and inspiring spin-offs and fanfic (which I actually haven’t read but I’m kind of curious!) but that epilogue just felt like a little too much, in parts.
JUST ONE YEAR (Just One Day #2) by Gayle Forman: I absolutely loved everything about it… Until the very end. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book but that ending just really took me by surprise and I was actually angry for a couple of hours before I calmed down. This book really meant a lot to me so how it was wrapped up was sort of how I felt about REQUIEM, except I think I was way more upset with this. I think I had expect to just die like I did with WHERE SHE WENT so it was a bit hard on me!
[Review to come soon!]
The Grandest of Finales…
WHERE SHE WENT (If I Stay #1) by Gayle Forman: When I thought it couldn’t get any better then IF I STAY and the couplet followed up with WHERE SHE WENT… even as a re-read… I died. WHERE SHE WENT was so emotional and I LOVE ADAM. It was the perfect ending and I could not ask for more.
[Where She Went Review] // [Where She Went Re-Read Review]
BREAKING DAWN (Twilight #4) by Stephenie Meyer: Yes, I loved TWILIGHT. Yes, I loved BREAKING DAWN. Um, HI, we get to hear the vampire side of things. That’s what I wanted the whole series!!!! The transformation, the feelings, the powers. Hell yeah! Things got a little weird with Renesme but I was willing to look past that! Everything ended the way it should have and I felt like it was nicely wrapped up!
I KNOW THESE WILL BE AMAZING WHEN THEY END
WINTER (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer: Because yes to everything about this series. Marissa Meyer knows how to kill it!
RUIN AND RISING (Grisha Trilogy #3) by Leigh Bardugo: Because Leigh Bardugo is fantastic and the Grisha are fantastic and fantastical things will happen in book three! She doesn’t shy away from making Alina both light and dark and I am SO interested to see what kind of epic battle takes place in the last book!
27 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – October 8, 2013: Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders”
I totally agree with you about The Maze Runner–I can’t believe Thomas didn’t do that! Arrggh. I haven’t read The Kill Order yet… And I agree with you about wanting Bella to become a vampire, but I just thought that ending was anti-climactic. I need to finish so many of the other series you mentioned. Awesome list!
I totally agree on Reached! I felt semi-positive about it when I finished it because my expectations were so low, but I dislike it more whenever I think about it. I’m one of the few people who really enjoyed Mockingjay. I’m not sure why, but I just didn’t have some of the same issues with it that others did. I put Harry as the best series ending, BUT I know what you mean about the Epilogue. In general, Epilogues are very hit-or-miss for me.
Fantastic list! I absolutely agree with just about everything you’ve said in your post, from the worst to the hope-they’re-awesome. 🙂
My TTT
Mary @ Mary Had a Little Book Blog
I totally agree with you about the epilogue to HP & the Deathly Hallows. I don’t think we had to have so many kids names after characters who had died. I am concerned that some of those kids are going to get teased because of their huge names.
I read The Hunger Games trilogy early last year and I still don’t know how I feel about Mockingjay. That said, I’m seeing it on a lot of these disappointing endings lists today! Don’t even get me started on Breaking Dawn.
The Death Cure–how could I have forgotten that one!? I was so disappointed with the ending. And I can’t recall if I finished Reached. I know I didn’t like it if I did (or I might have given up).
My Friends Are Fiction’s TTT
Mockingjay actually made my best list because, even though it was sad, I thought it was an appropriate ending. Lauren Oliver…I understand that real life doesn’t get wrapped up nicely, but that’s pretty much why I read fiction. I want (and need) closure. And I hated how she made a certain character so sullen and different from who that character was before, that character was barely recognizable.
I feel like Where She Went is just so perfect that it’s nearly impossible for other sequels to live up to that level of amazing. And maybe that’s why you and I and a few other people I’ve seen where kind of taken aback at the ending for Just One Year.
I think that is a big part of it, now that you mention it! We got a LOT of closure with Adam & Mia and it felt so, so perfect so naturally I was expecting something similar in JOY!
I recently finished the second book in the Grisha trilogy and can’t wait to read Ruin and Rising! I have no idea what to expect but I really hope it’s good =D
RIGHT?! This is easily one of my favorite series ever. I cannot wait for Ruin and Rising!
Thanks so much for commenting 🙂
I put Requiem on my worst list too. The ending was way too open. And I hated Reached and the epilogue of Mockingjay made me want to throw the book across the room. But…I really liked the Death Cure and Sever. Bummed that you didn’t like them. Oh well, to each his own right?
I was just shocked and disappointed with The Death Cure but I’m glad you liked it!!! 🙂 I really did like Sever! Did I accidentally put that in the wrong place!? Eek! I was hoping for a few more answers but I did enjoy the way the series ended!
Thanks for commenting 🙂
The Death Cure. Requiem. Sever. Yes. Yes. Yes. I had problems with all of these. LOVED Where She Went. Glad to see this book gracing so many lists today. And I too expect awesome things from Winter and Ruin and Rising (although I still need to read Cress). Great list!!
Wasn’t WSW soooo perfect? Sigh. The Death Cure totally killed me. I actually liked the first two books a lot. After that, I couldn’t even recommend the series anymore!
I wasn’t a huge fan of the epilogue of the last Harry Potter book either. It’s nice to know where they’re at, but I think it would’ve been more powerful to finish just before that!
I read someone else’s comments on it and she said it wasn’t as well-written as the rest of the book… And I think that’s it! I liked seeing what happened, but it was just a little too cheesy for me after SUCH a powerful ending! 🙂
I’ll admit, I put Harry Potter in at #1 on my best endings list. When I read it for the very first I wasn’t a big fan of the epilogue, as the idea that HP could end made me want to cry but now that I’ve read the series a few times I’m glad she included it. I only made it to 5 in this week’s post as there are so many series that I’ve begun but haven’t finished, or the final book hasn’t been released yet.
I absolutely loved the way HP wrapped up – it was just that tiny epilogue that just threw me a bit! 🙂 Honestly though, I am kind of glad that she included it because it gave us even MORE answers and allowed us to know where Harry & co. are today!!
Reached was SO disappointing. It made my list too. 🙁
TTT @ Krista’s Dust Jacket
Indeed – so disappointing to me!! I’ll have to check out your list. Thanks for commenting!! 🙂
This list was hard for me, just because I don’t always read to the end if I’m not enjoying a series–so the worst series enders were difficult! I agree about the Deathly Hallows epilogue, but the actual ending to the book is one of my all-time favorites! I just pretend the epilogue doesn’t exist(and that Harry has better naming skills than what he demonstrated). I’m one of the few people who really LOVED Mockingjay, but it took me three re-reads to get there. And I DESPISE the ending of Requiem. The book in general was disappointing but that ending. I do enjoy open endings, so I sort of get Lauren Oliver’s point, but to me there’s a difference between an open-ending and a non-ending, and Requiem was on the wrong side of it.
I agree! I had a hard time picking which is why I included so many haha!
I’d love to re-read THG AGAIN because I think a third time around would really get me to like Mockingjay even more! I think first time around it was the surprise – Second time, I was expecting it to be bad. So maybe third ends REALLY well! 🙂
I almost put Reached too. I made myself finish it because I knew I was going to see Ally Condie speak, but gosh it was painful. I think I ended up appreciating what she was trying to do with the language and writing style, but I couldn’t say I enjoyed it.
I bought reached BECAUSE I was going to see Ally Condie speak haha. Then I got it personalized. Oops.
I really liked Sever as well, even if some questions were kind of unanswered. I wanted MORE of a love triangle, which is odd, because EW love triangles. But there was one, and it just seemed totally one sided, and I wanted more of Rhine and Landon, to be honest.
I was disappointed with Mockingjay as well, and I felt like it didn’t really do the awesomeness of the rest of the series justice. I haven’t done a re-read yet, so I may appreciate it more the second time around. I hope I do, anyway!
Other than Breaking Dawn, which I wasn’t a HUGE fan of, I haven’t read any of the other books on your list :O I am so behind on so many series. 🙁
My Top Ten post 🙂
I can agree with that! I’m not always one for love triangles but it really was one-sided in Sever!
I think a re-read might help with Mockingjay – It did for me at least! I was prepared to not like it as much so instead, it pleasantly surprised me 🙂
Thanks for commenting!!