tuesday 10: unfinished series

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is series we haven't finished (for whatever reason), and this is probably going to be a more negative than usual post because the vast majority of series I don't finish get dropped because I don't like them.

1. Delirium

Lauren Oliver

As amazing of a writer as Lauren Oliver is (Before I Fall is one of my all-time top books), I could never fully buy into the society presented here and the characters and story didn't capture me. I read Delirium and I liked it okay, but not enough to read its sequel, Pandemonium, or the final book (which I don't think is out yet, but I could be wrong). 

2. The Chemical Garden series

Lauren DeStefano

So I read Wither and, to be honest, I was pretty impressed. It was seriously, seriously good. But by the time Fever came out my intense want to see what happens next had waned quite a bit (this is sometimes a problem with series) and a few negative reviews by those I trust put it way down on the list for me. And I still haven't gotten around to it, though I'm not saying I won't.

3. Divergent

Veronica Roth

I heard such, such great things about this book when it came out. But it just wasn't my thing. I found it too violent (and whereas the violence in The Hunger Games series felt warranted and there for the specific purpose of showing how horrible it is, here it just seemed, to me, gratuitous) and never connected with the characters, especially the main character of Tris.

4. Deadly Cool

Gemma Halliday

I read the first book of this series (Deadly Cool) for the Cybils last year and while there was nothing especially wrong with it, it's a sort of episodic series, which works great for me in television but quickly loses my interest in novels.

5. Seeds of America series

Laurie Halse Anderson

This is an odd one. Forge is another book I read for the Cybils and it's actually the second in the Seeds of America series. I really liked the book (although I did feel a little lost with it being the second) and there's really no reason I haven't read the rest of the series. If I ever make myself finish all the half-started series that I've liked, this one will totally be on the list.

6. Sky Chasers series

Amy Kathleen Ryan

Alright, this is maybe even odder than the last one. I read Glow as a coverless galley and was, kid you not, completely entranced in the story, the world, everything. There were some parts that didn't sit well with me, but the book was nearly impossible to put down and it wasn't until after I'd finished and was thinking about the book that I realized how much I really didn't care for it. It was unputdownable, but in the end the way faith, love, and the characters themselves were portrayed really bothered me. And the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. So needless to say I haven't read the sequel.

7. Bright Young Things

Anna Godberson

I absolutely adored Godberson's first Gossip-Girl-esque historical fiction series, Luxe, and was hoping to replicate that feeling with this series set in the 1920s. I'm not quite sure what happened. I know Bright Young Things wasn't as great (for me) as The Luxe was, but I definitely liked the book. Most likely what happened was I got distracted by other books and by the time the second in the series came out I'd all but forgotten about it. (Like I said, a hazard of series.)

8. The Giver

Lois Lowry

Um. Honestly did not realize this book was the first in a four-book series until the annual ALA this year. I've only read this one.

Oh wow, look! I could only come up with eight series. Claps all around. Honestly, I'm pretty good at finishing the series I want to finish. Or maybe it's just that I have less series to read because of how many I give up on. I don't know.