Top 5 Tuesday: Series I Won’t be Finishing

So I’m pretty sure it’s been 23948329 years since I’ve done a Top 5 Tuesday. But I’m BACK AT IT. And I love this topic.

Top 5 Tuesday is a meme by the fantastic Bionic Book Worm, and it explores a different bookish topic each week. If you’d like to join in, check out the rest of her Top 5 Tuesday May Topics!

When it comes down to it, I think the biggest reason for me not to continue a series is the characters. I can suffer through the most mundane, nonsensical of plots if I like the characters and care about where they go (i.e. why I read all 13 books of the Series of Unfortunate Events). That said, all of the following series had characters that just did not enter my heart for one reason or another. I didn’t even find all of these books bad. It’s just that sometimes, the only thing that follows book one is a Wikipedia summary of book two.

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

This one saddens me, since I loved Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles so much, but I have zero interest in continuing this series. I felt like the writing was such a lower quality than her previous books, and it used a lot of typical tropes when I thought it might be more innovative. Mostly, this book just downright bored me and I really just don’t care what happens next.

Monsters of Verity series by Victoria Schwab

I read This Savage Song recently and was on the fence about continuing on to the second book, but now I’m pretty sure that I just don’t have enough interest. I actually saw it at the store the other day, flipped through it, and felt…no intrigue. I liked This Savage Song, but neither the plot nor characters really inspire me to keep going. Honestly, the only real incentive is that I love Victoria Schwab and want to read everything she’s written, but….this may have to be an exception.

 

Warcross by Marie Lu

I can see why this book is so hyped and loved, but it kind of fell flat for me, and I think a lot of that has to do with the romance. Typically, a romance doesn’t make or break a book for me, but so much of this book surrounded the main character Emika’s relationship with the creator of the Warcross game, Hideo, and it just felt so flat to me. This book had a lot of strengths, and an intriguing ending, but unfortunately I have no interest in spending more time with these characters.

Timekeeper by Tara Sim

If this book had better writing, I may have considered continuing this series when book two is released. The characters weren’t terrible, and the universe it was set in was creative and intriguing. But as it is, I have absolutely no interest in continuing this series. I wasn’t a fan of the writing at all, it just felt so…flat, and it took me completely out of the story. Also, there is a truly terrible case of instalove, which doesn’t make me care about where the characters or their relationship go next, not if I’m barely convinced of it in the first place.

Passenger series by Alexandra Bracken

Passenger put me to sleep like no other book has. I mean seriously, I fell asleep like 5 or 6 times while reading this. The only way I would possibly read Wayfarer is if I suddenly developed severe sleeping problems and had to resort to joining Etta on her painfully slow-going journey again to get some sleep. SORRY NOT SORRY.

Did you read any of these series in their entirety (if all the books have been published)? Do you think I’m tragically mistaken in not continuing any of them? Let me know what you think!