The title of this post might be a touch misleading (or at least over dramatic), since I wouldn't say I've fallen entirely out of love with the series that inspired this post, but it's definitely a feeling I have experienced in full. Eeven if it's something we in the bookish blogosphere don't talk about much, since we tend to be of the obsessive OMG <3 4EVA bent (which is the happy neighborhood I usually reside in these days).
But it's pretty natural for your feelings to shift over time, as we grow older/wiser/crankier/pick one. Like I hated ketchup when I was little and now I recognize it as one of the Holy Condiments of Our Era. Or I used to think Edward Cullen was the single most romantic figure ever created by literature, and now, well, I get that maybe breaking into a girl's room to watch her sleep is slightly creepy, no matter how much he sparkles.
So why do I always feel such GUILT when I fall out of love with a series? Why is it so terribly sad? I feel like I've lost something, somehow. I MOURN FOR THE LOVEY DAYS OF YORE.
Okay, so the reason for this post is because of...Throne of Glass. Now, it's not entirely accurate, because I still do love this series. I think Heir of Fire is basically one of the best books I've ever read in my life, and I'm still invested, and, well, I was on the blog tour for Empire of Storms. I have made and continue to sell ToG fan art. I'm not off this train by any means.
Which is TOTALLY FINE. (It's fine. Don't yell at me.) But gah, I don't know why it's so hard to reconcile my changing feelings for a favorite series! I didn't mourn when I fell out of love with Eragon, which I was balls to the walls obsessed with as a teen. I went on a trip with one of my friends in eighth grade and carted that giant blue book around with me (it was a reread) and accidentally outed myself as a gigantic nerd, because dragons weren't cool back then, kiddies, but I was a dedicated Eragoner. I read book 1, book 2, book 3...and then somehow, by the time book 4 came around, I was like meh. Shrug. I'm good with stopping here.
It's so weird that that happens.
And then there are series that will always be my uber faves, like the Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima, but I am going to go on pretending VERY AGGRESSIVELY that the spinoff series, started with Flamecaster, does not exist. Seriously, it's not a real book. Don't tell me it is. I've never heard of it. So, like, my dedication to the original series is DEEP but there are borders it will not cross and that border is the opening chapters of Flamecaster. And then there's The Mortal Instruments. I binge read the first three books back in 2011, before I became a blogger, in a haze of obsession, and then somehow...found no need to read further.
(I know a lot of people feel this way about the ever-expanding Harry Potter universe, but I super duper do not, because HP is damn near holy to me, and I saw Cursed Child on the stage and one day I'll vomit out a post about how fucking fan-diddly-tastic it was but today is not that day)
I tend to be very loyal to series. I also have a completist nature, so most of the time I finish the ones I've started (at least, if I've gotten two books or more in). But sometimes, you just fall out of love. The luster comes off the shiny premise, or the characters develop in ways you don't like, or you just plain old develop different tastes. You used to like angst, now you don't. You used to like paranormal, now you don't. You used to like happy endings, and now your soul is dead. Whichever. Pick one.
Have you ever fallen out of love with a series? Let me know I'm not alone!
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I am so glad that I am not the only one who has to completely eradicate books from their mind. Do you do this with TV shows too?
ReplyDeleteGOD, YES
DeleteI feel that I have done this with at 3 series that I can think of! TMI being one of them. I think that when the story starts to repeat itself, just with different characters that I start to feel that way. That's why I stopped with the first 4 of The Iron Fey too. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI feel that I have done this with at 3 series that I can think of! TMI being one of them. I think that when the story starts to repeat itself, just with different characters that I start to feel that way. That's why I stopped with the first 4 of The Iron Fey too. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI definitely have fallen out of love with a series, actually Eragon was probably one of the first. Also a whole crapload of new adult novels that I just developed very meh feelings for. Also C.L. Wilson's Lord of the Fading Lands books. And really that's just in the last year or so (except Eragon).
ReplyDeleteI'm curious what the caveats are for you for the TOG series... I don't think I would love the series as much as I do had I started it now, but I'm also not out of the lovey dovey honeymoon with these books yet. SJM does bother me a bit because I feel like her first books really pale in comparison to the later ones in the series'... anyway. Just curious why you aren't feeling the EOS love :)
You know QoS is my least favorite of the series and most people love it but for me it just didn't have the same feel? I don't know. HoF is my favorite and I did really love EoS. I can totally relate to this post because this totally happens to me too. And yeah, I feel a bit guilty! Which is weird, haha
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading Lisa Lutz's Spellman Files after book #5, and I wish I'd stopped after #4.
ReplyDeleteUm, no, I've never done this, Gillian. I ALWAYS LOVE THINGS. ALWAYS.
ReplyDeleteOkay, alright, stop laughing.
"and now, well, I get that maybe breaking into a girl's room to watch her sleep is slightly creepy, no matter how much he sparkles." I love how sparkles was so hot back then, like all guys would be better if we could just dip them in glitter.
Well to be fair The Mortal Instruments was supposed to be just three books, but then the cash cow had to be milked so. I quit after book four.
I've quit a shocking number of series, some of which I loved, but I can't list them here bc seriously SHOCKING.
I adored QoS and I found EoS sort of... let me down? It was much slower. It focused so much on trying to be steamy that when reflecting I sort of went "Oh, right, there was that great dramatic battle in there. It wasn't just characters looking sexily at each other for 500 pages and then Plot."
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd quit TMI after the first 3 books... Or before (incest, even fake incest, is really not my thing) but I'm glad I stuck around just for the Infernal Devices.
I have a terrible habit of forcing myself to see series through to the end. I read all of Artemis Fowl, for gods sake. All of it.
The 100 tv show went some way to losing me with season 3. I know, I know, but it felt like it was trying to be Game of Thrones for teens and like, if I wanted gratuitous graphic violence I'd just watch GoT? I don't need to see someone's heart cut out. Thx. But I'm still here for now, because Bellamy.
Please expand upon your feelings for the ToG series because I feel like we are of a like mind on those. I loved Heir of Fire, I regretted reading Queen of Shadows because it often felt like a thirteen year old wrote it, and Empire of Storms went off the deep end and into the abyss of terrible plot and chosen one-y-ness.
ReplyDeleteWhat's made you fall out of love with Throne of Glass?? I'm super curious, since I was gung-ho over the books for a while, but after QoS and its ending (which left me feeling SO ripped off because it's clear the ending was merely so more books could happen in the series) I haven't felt an intense desire to read EoS. It's been sitting on my bookshelf since my pre-order arrived and I don't know when I'll ever pick it up. *shrug*
ReplyDeleteI'm super curious about your feelings for the ToG series, because I'm in the same boat. LOVED the novellas and books 1-3, but when I read QoS it was like...whomp whomp. I was definitely in the "disappointed" camp, which was disappointing in itself. And EoS has been sitting on my shelf since my pre-order arrived and I don't really have much of a desire to pick it up. I know I will eventually, but I didn't have that same burning MUST READ IT ON RELEASE DAY feeling I've had with the other books.
ReplyDeleteOh how I relate. I think my guiltiest, saddest revelation right now is the Harry Potter stuff. I get a little more disillusioned everyday and have to burrow back into the books and remind myself that it's ok that I feel this way. Because it feels awful. 5 Fantastic Beasts movies?! I don't know man... just give me Hogwarts Founder historical fantasy. You and I are like minded on ToG; I developed major caveats with Queen of Shadows and I think it's the speed at which she's changed her characters. The first few books felt gradual, earned, and a good mixture of angst, romance, action, and worldbuilding. And we all know what happened in EoS. It's not even about ships for me, but how quickly the ships have shifted or materialized. It's like she's a different writer from Crown of Midnight to Empire of Storms. Although I might forgive her if she gives me Chorian.... (which she won't). Flamecaster makes me sad because I feel like she alienated a really core readership by GOING THERE in the first chapter. It's actually not a terrible book and I think the second book will be better, but I understand why people feel that way. Honestly, it was lazy writing. Falling out of love with series happens more to me with tv than books I think. ToG will haunt me though. I'll always wonder what could have been if we had that early Sarah writing them. Less soul-mate sex on the beach, more politics and stabbing and bisexual witches please.
ReplyDelete