Recently I wrote a post about all the series I wanted to catch up on, and while looking through my Goodreads shelves I’ve realized that 😳 there are so many series I have no interest in finishing anymore, whether because I was disappointed in the sequel or because I’ve outgrown the author.
Today I’m sharing five of them and explaining why I decided to abandon them. Call it the Anti-Great Series Read Project, lmao. I’m so curious – do let me know what you think of my list!
Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Listen – I used to be the biggest fan of Victoria Schwab’s books but I have to admit that they’ve lost their appeal along the years. Have you ever felt like you had outgrown an author? Because that’s how I feel. Her books don’t hold the same magic anymore, and the reason why is a mix of “her writing is boring, actually” and “her specific brand of feminism annoys me now”. Oh, well. I know I will never finish Shades of Magic, and I sure won’t read about that Addie woman who can’t visit non-western countries even though she’s eternal. *shrugs*
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
The truth is, back when I read A Court of Thorns and Roses, I didn’t like it, mostly because Tamlin made my skin crawl and his romance with Feyre managed to infuriate me and bore me to tears. Enters A Court of Mist and Fury, and I felt so vindicated when SJM destroyed that dude that I breathed through it and honestly? I enjoyed it rather uncritically, and my review of it does make me cringe a bit now. This said however, this short moment of interest has long passed and I will never come back to this series – or to this author, to be honest. Neither her romances nor her writing style appeal to me, and I’ve read enough reviews of her other works to know that I will not give my money to those boring white fantasies when so many authors of colors write wonderful stories every day.
The Mistborn Saga by Brandon Sanderson
Even if I was able to look past his old homophobic statements – and that’s a big if : I wasn’t aware of them when I read Mistborn and wouldn’t have started it if I knew – I wouldn’t read anything from him again because – please don’t hate me – his books are so very boring??? As a Fantasy reader they’ve been recommended to me so many times since I’ve joined the English-speaking book community that I genuinely believed that I’d love them. I did not, however, and if I forgave Mistborn‘s flaws and had a good enough time, I had to DNF The Well of Ascension : glacial pacing aside, I found it so tedious and so full of telling rather than showing, oh my god. Also, I know it’s an unpopular opinion but I’ll die on that hill : having a woman as a heroine doesn’t mean that the book isn’t sexist (it is).
The Mirror Visitor by Christelle Dabos
This series *shivers* – my 1 star review for the first book must be the one for which I got the most hate on Goodreads, and as a French woman, I can say it : French people have no chill. Seriously. Now it mostly makes me laugh – some people wrote long-ass bullet points comments!!! in Italian!!! – but back in 2016, not liking this book crushed me. I was so ready to be engrossed in a French Fantasy series for once, I didn’t expect to find such a sexist tale and a daily dose of private messages insulting me for weeks. This was not the first time I had to flag comments under a review of mine, but I’ve now realized how much more vulnerable I feel when people insult me in my native language. With the barrier of English, everything feels different – it doesn’t mean that I won’t mind hurtful comments, of course, but they’ll hit differently. Anyway – I hated A Winter’s Promise, and I’ve long lost any desire to give the rest of the series a chance.
The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey
My problems with The Fifth Wave are plural, but they can be summed up like this : I was bored to tears, and Evan was a creep. Add that I didn’t hear great things on the rest of series, and you’ll get why I never bothered to find out what happened next.
Yeah Schwab is a very ahem WHITE brand of feminism that annoys me. Sanderson, in my mind, is just the white cis male version of SJM.
THIS IS VERY TRUE!!!
Oo this was quitw interesting! Nice post! I’m interested in The Mirror Visitor Series, but we’ll see lol.
Thank you Saniya!!! I hope you’ll enjoy it more than I did!
I DNFed A Darker Shade of Magic, ACoTaR, and The Fifth Wave as well, all for much the same reasons as the ones you listed. I’m glad to see someone else recognize that Evan from The Fifth Wave was an absolute creep! He made me so uncomfortable, I couldn’t believe how many people actually liked the romance in that series. Yuck.
omg thank you!!!!!! He certainly WAS a creep, ugh. I don’t get how I was supposed to care for the romance, either.
I have abandoned SO MANY SERIES. I wouldn’t even know where to start. However, I haven’t had a great track record with Sanderson yet, either. I’ve read 2 of his books, DNFed a 3rd, and I’m not sure that I will ever enjoy the bulk of his work. Oh well. There are too many other good books out there for me to fret over the ones I don’t like for very long! 😀
I agree!!!! I’ve never tried anything else from him since trying The Well of Ascension… I really think him and I aren’t meant to be!
I have tried two of his YA books from different series, and one of his adult books. I liked the adult book (Legion) well enough so I’m willing to give him another try, but I am done with his YA. I just don’t like his YA protagonists.
Ohhhh I’ve actually read and liked Legion as well, I didn’t remember it was him 😂
Yup, that was Sanderson! I remember because it was so different than the previous Sanderson book I’d read. 😂
It really was!!!!
okay so i haven’t read ANY of these series except for acot&r, but tbh i’m not interested in even starting them haha 🙈 love your post! 💖
Thank you!!! Haha yeah I get that!
I’ve only read ACOTAR 😂. The rest are on my tbr (not sure if I’ll get them a try though). V.E. Schwab has been at the top of my tbr for a while but never got around to reading her books, especially after reading some reviews of Addie LaRue.
Ugh yeah, I get that!!! Reviews for Addie Larue definitely didn’t make me want to try it!
A Court Of Thorns And Roses is on my never finish list as well! And I wish I hadn’t continued after The 5th Wave myself… Other popular series I won’t be finishing include Shatter Me, Caraval, Pretty Little Liars and Daugher Of Smoke And Bone for example. xD
Ohhhh I DNFed Daughter Of Smoke and Bone too, I was never interested and found the romance creepy?
I did finish it, but kind of wish I didn’t? I loved the first part and all the descriptions, but as soon as the romance appeared I was hugely turned off by it all. Creepy is a good word for it!
definitely agree about the V.E. Schwab books, especially the Darker Shade of Magic series. the first book was just…not good lol, at least for me. 🤷♀️
Yeah, I used to love her books but… they really don’t interest me anymore!