Dishing Junk is a new feature that we will be starting on the PJV. The girls and I have realized that we need a place to sort of vent our book troubles. It might be something small and inconsequential that we thought was inappropriate to mention in a review – or it might be a genre-wide gush. This is going to be where we dish it out. Welcome to the first episode.
Sophomore Slump?
wiki: or sophomore jinx refers to an instance in which a second, or sophomore, effort fails to live up to the standards of the first effort. {source}
Recently in my reading travails I have noticed that I’m not quite looking forward to seconds in the series. Not because I didn’t like the first book, just because it’s been so long since the last book was out I’ve gotten into new characters or books. It’s like starting to date a boy I dated a year ago. You might have been completely awesome and we left on good terms…but he left me. I wanted to stay. I wanted closure…and now a year later you are coming back in my life. To make it worse. I know you are going to do it to me again, since your author clearly states that this is an open-ended series. How can you do this to me?
Can’t a girl just find a good stand-alone Paranormal in the Young Adult genre or how about the Urban Fantasy adult books?
This is where I prompt you for recommendations or if you want to dish up your opinion, we are all ears. Are you still loving all over series, or do you get tired of them?
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I have a love/hate relationship with series. I love them because I get to spend more time in that world. But I hate them because I have to wait for every book to come out. Take Angelfall by Susan Ee, is she ever going to get book 2 out? It’s driving me insane!
I have the SAME problem! I’m terrible about reading the 1st book and never going farther (I even created a reading challenge to try and overcome this problem). After I’ve waited a year for a second book it’s just not as exciting anymore, and I’ve forgotten most of what happened in book one.
Plus, series intimidate me for some reason. Maybe because I’m lazy. >.>
Great topic!
OMG I have a love /hate with 2nd in series. They usually fall flat, and only bring the story somewhat closer to the ending. Yes nodding my head in agreement
Rachel,
I totally agree! Many times, before I even pick up the next book I have to re-read the first book just so I can get the feel of it again. I’m at some point where I don’t want to read series anymore. But then again I do cause they get addicting fast! UGH!
I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO feel ya. I’ve gotten to the point that I try to avoid reading anything I can tell is going to be a trilogy.
I am totally torn with this. On one hand I love the series because I get more of the characters I love, but on the other hand there are times I feel a book should have ended with the first one. There are times I just really want a one book read. That is probably why I like a lot of suspense novels. Their idea of a series works differently. It is a series that has the same character, but the stories are all different. They don’t read like a continuation like most YA series. It is great for a nice break! Great topic!!
It is so hard……
It is so hard. I like those mystery books, just one same character but new stories…
I’m getting tired of them. God, especially after the Matched series, which was such a let down. I’ve been reading holiday stand-a-lones the last couple of weeks, and it’s been great to meet the characters and then say sayonara 200-300 pages later. But I feel like there is a big push for authors to create series books, for that cash money. Get readers invested in your characters, create a cash crop, boom. Money.
Just write a good book for me and that’ll make me happy. I’ll even read your other books.
I’m ok with the Paranormal Romance series, same world, just a different character each time. I think it is just wearing on me, these series with abstract, sort-of cliffhanger endings and you have to wait a whole year to move along. Especially when the book is like 250 pages! How about we just have a big book?? Huh?
I didn’t like the first Matched book, so I never read on. But, I can imagine. I waited so long for Maggie Stiefvater’s Forever, the ending to her Wolves series — and when I finished that book it ruined the whole series for me.
Many years ago, I would wait till a whole series came out or at least until several books came out before I even started them. I do kind of prefer stand alone books because there is a complete story. Open ended stories kind of frustrate me. Many times because it’s just hard to catch lightning in a bottle time and time again. Of course some series are better than others.
It does seem like there are an awful lot of series lately, doesn’t it? I’d love a few good stand alones, so please share if you find any!
I love coming late to a series for that reason. I can start the series knowing I won’t have to wait a year or longer for the next book.
Me too — but do you know how long it has been since I’ve picked up a new series?? Debut debut. Yet — I just got Kitty Rocks the House in the mail and I’ve literally only read the first book – that is going to take a lot of reading to catch up to this book.
Yep. I’d love to read more stand-alones. I just don’t have the time to keep up with so many series. Lots of times, I don’t want to wait to see how it all ends…sigh…I love your new feature. Looking forward to your next topic!
I completely agree! I got so excited recently when I finished reading “The Shadow Society” by Marie Rutkoski because it is a stand alone. I loved the ending, because it was just that, the ending. I tend to hate the second book, especially in a trilogy. It just seems like the second book is filler and all the exciting stuff happens in the first and third books.
Yes, just the filler parts in the middle. There are of course exceptions. Like, Catching Fire — but they are rare gems.
Well, it’s not on purpose, but in effect, I am reading lots of “standalones” because I read the first book and then never read any of the others LOL. Plus, I hate cliffhangers so I usually try to avoid those unless the series is already finished. They definitely don’t serve their intended purpose with me. By the time the new book comes out, I typically can’t even remember whether there was a cliffhanger so it makes me no more likely to pick up the new book.
I learn to love cliffhangers. But, really they’ve killed me. Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series was literally torture for me. I’ve reread those books maybe five times just to catch up — and now with the release of this new spin-off series she is fruggin’ killing me.
I love books in a series but I don’t like the wait either. It was great when I was first discovering series that were already over, where all the books were out and I could do a marathon read, devour the series and totally fall in love.
If a book and its characters are awesome, I will always love that there are thousands of pages of the story rather than just several hundred.
But I’m starting to think that I might just wait until a series has ended before I pick up that first book. Using your dating comparison, I’d rather wait for the dude to have his flings, then glom onto him when he’s ready for a long term relationship.
I also haven’t yet found the series that I loved into the double digits. I was all about Southern Vampires through book nine and then not so much at all.
My biggest problem with series books is that without having at least a couple books available to read, I won’t have made that strong a connection with the characters unless I re-read the book, and things will be a bit fuzzy when the second book comes around a year or more later. Where I often decide to hold off on reading that next book until I can re-read book one.
So I’m probably going to start holding off reading some series until at least book two is out so I can get sucked in deep enough that I’ll remember things in the year or so until book three is available.
Of course I joined the party late for Night Huntress and Chicagoland Vampires and I am dying for the next books in each series. Though I am pretty solid about characters and plot so re-reading isn’t a must.
And I love this new feature. Your discussion posts are always awesome!
So I’m less of a series girl and more of a trilogy girl. If I really like a world and characters, I’m rarely satisfied with a stand alone book. I want an overarching plot that is so epic, it can’t fit into one book. I want the world-building that really only works if characters have the chance to have three adventures, since otherwise one plot ends up too scatterbrained. That being said, I like trilogies better than series because I know that there is a solid end. Trilogies are still basically one connected story, just spread across three books. Series usually end up feeling like those TV shows that focus on the plot of the individual episodes and there isn’t really an overarching meaning to the whole series…. There are obviously lots of exceptions to this, but I feel like I’ve been running into this problem a lot, and this fear is why I haven’t been reading the second books lately unless I’m sure it’s a trilogy….
Well I think sometimes it’s up to the publishers. Publishers want to make money. Best way to do that is series, because they know readers will buy the series. Series are hard to invest in them especially if they go more than 10 books.
Grace
I’m in complete agreement. I would love a great standalone, but even then, I think I’d still feel the same at the end. I want it to go on forever sometimes, and I forget it cant. Thats why I prefer series’ that are almost all out, and I can pick u book after book without worrying that I’ll have to wait for the next to come out. It allows me the long term relationship that I so crave.
I’m getting burned out on series, particularly paranormal romance ones. By the end of the first book NOTHING is solved. There isn’t much character development. And you know that every single one of the characters (particularly the annoying best friend) will not only make it to the end of the story, but also be there in the second book…annoying you.
I don’t mind reading the first book of a series if it’s not yet finished, but if it can’t function as a stand-alone novel – I’m not reading the next book. To hell with cliffhangers.
And I think that the second book should ALSO be able to be read as a stand alone novel. Just because it is in the middle of a series, doesn’t mean the book shouldn’t have a beginning, middle, and ending.