I have no idea what Veronica Roth was thinking having this like SUPER action packed constant action sceries have the final book be 50% about some old guy rambling on about genetics and DNA and stuff. Oof and then the Four duel POV where his voice was just NOT distinct from Triss at all making it really confusing. It just wasn't a good decision.
Yesssss I finished Allegiant, and then it sat in the trunk of my car for YEARS before I cared enough to donate it... the book was in time out for being so bad
@@theimperialsage Yes! One of my biggest things that can turn me off is when a book series kills the main villain its set up before the series ends. Like what are you going to do now? Whats the point of the series now?
Saaaame, like yes it wasn't what I expected but I still had a helluva fun time and the ending was perfect to me, the jurdan reunion, the epilogue in the mortal world, all of it was just a fitting ending personally
The Shatter Me series went definitely downwill. I read them all at once this year without a big expectation. But I happened to like the first 3 books a lot more than I expected and I definitely felt they deserved a continuation bc a lot of things were left open. But damn that last tree book were just a bunch of why
God it should've stayed a trilogy, I hated the new ones so much, esp the last one. I didn't care about a single character by the end bc they were all so pathetic and character development went so downhill
I found I liked it much better on a reread. It was too short imo. Not enough carden/Jude screen time. Spoiler I was also disappointed that Locke was dealt with off page. That was super frustrating!
the series that always stands out for me as going downhill is the raven cycle. the second book was so good for me specifically but all others were prettg average and the last book just felt insultingly bad to me lol
I agree that the second book was a high for the series, but Maggie’s writing is so far and above her YA peers skills-wise that I still enjoyed the other books.
I think part of the thing was that the author was really really sick while writing the last book. I think she wrote a blog post about it if you were interested.
I really enjoyed the first book, and then didn’t like the rest of the series? 🤷🏻♀️ Agree with @Sarah that Stiefvater writes beautifully, and it’s her writing that really kept me reading. But I didn’t like how she would just drop important revelations and consequential characters out of the sky and onto readers without any buildup or foreshadowing. The plotting across the entire series is messy.
I think I’m the only person who doesn’t mind Queen of Nothing. I liked Wicked King the best but Queen of Nothing wasn’t as disappointing for me as others.
Haha your not alone The cruel prince series was the 1st time in a long time I loveddd a new series. I’m surprised, i did not know most ppl were disappointed by queen of nothing
I recently re-read the ACOTAR series in preparation for the fourth book, and my feelings totally changed! ACOMAF was always my favorite, but after rereading ACOWAR I actually decided that was my favorite (after giving it 3 stars the first time I read it). TOTALLY agree about the Falling Kingdoms series though. Its so sad!
The Three Dark Crowns series was kind of like that for me. All the first three books were fantastic and then the last one just reneged on a lot of the groundwork for me
I had to DNF the series bc I couldn't help but feel like the plot was getting unnecessarily convoluted just to milk the series into more books when originally it wasn't meant to that long
I love love seeing peoples opinions like this bc it's so interesting to me! I know you didn't mention the Throne Of Glass series, but as an example, I've heard so many people say that series went downhill but for me it was a steady incline. I HATED Throne Of Glass but I looooooved Kingdom Of Ash. It's amazing how we can all feel so differently about the same thing!
That series was a roller coaster for me! I enjoyed the first book, but books 2-5 made me almost quit multiple times. Then Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash saved it for me. I enjoyed them a lot, though I still can't tell if it was because I took a year break in between and I also don't know how I managed to finish it after taking that break LOL
I binge read the Falling Kingdoms series because in one of your videos you talked about the angsty slow burn romance between Magnus and Cleo so I read it just for the romance and I really enjoyed it for that aspect. But I wouldn't want to reread it though. Still I had a lot of fun while reading it. So thank you for that recommendation!!
I think shadow and bone went downhill. The first book was really promising but omg did it just get more boring as the series progressed. And the end was just dumb and dull. It made me feel nothing. I think the world is really cool but the characters were extremely boring. But I will be reading six of crows and obviously watch the Netflix adaptation.
I've got a nostalgia one for you! Anita Blake. From Urban Fantasy detective novels with a sprinkle of paranormal romance to just straight up erotica. And really kinky erotica at that.
Gemini was my favorite of the Illuminae Files, but Obsidio did underwhelm me quite a bit. For me, and I know this is an unpopular opinion, but... Shades of Magic by V. E. Schwab went downhill. First book, FLAWLESS MASTERPIECE. Second book... fun, but, where was the plot? Like there is literally no major antagonist in the book until the final chapters. Third book could’ve been great if there had been any build-up for its plot and antagonist through the other books, but nope. It just doesn’t work as a cohesive series, but feels more episodic. Also, Ready Player One is one of my favorite books of all time but Ready Player Two was a total dumpster fire and good LORD I hope there will never be a Ready Player Three.
Oh I thought of another one. The Kate Daniels series. It fizzled out for me around book 6 or 7. I only had the last one to go, but couldn’t bring myself to finish it. It was such a relief to unhaul all those books.
okay, throwback time: anyone remembers the blue bloods series by melissa de la cruz? yeah, i'm still not over it. i couldn't even finish it. i think i stopped after the 4th book? idk. i remember that there was a book and then there was like the "archive files" book and i've read that, but i didn't continue onto the next book after that.
Totally with you on daughter of smoke and bone! Stuff that was added did nothing and I really feel like she doesn't want to kill off characters. Plus the Illuminae series as well. I think it could've been 4 books to finish it better
When I saw the title I was wondering if The Book of the Ancestor would show up. I still haven't gotten over Holy Sister, which hurts a lot because Grey Sister is one of my favourite books of all time. The short story in between Grey Sister and Holy Sister is good though.
So some recent ones: Cursebreakers by Bridgid Kremmerer and the Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin (although the series isn't finished yet) and an OG one that still hurts: Sookie Stackhouse - True Blood ..... I am still mad at the stupid ending
I read all those damned Sookie Stackhouse books only to stop before reading the last one because I couldn't anymore. I should just read it for completion's sake 😅
@@heatherpruchnicki7870 I know right? The author got us thinking the story was going in one direction and then suddenly in the last book she was like LOL no!
For me, The Villains Series. Vengeful has nothing on vicious and I'm not even gonna read the next one. The Hunger Games at first it was more like "It wasnt a massive drop" when it came to Mockingjay. It was my least fave book but it was still very good and a good enough ending, just I liked the first two books better. Then A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and probably the same for any other Hunger Games Universe books, because they're blatantly only there to milk the cash cow of a series thats OVER. I HATE when series that are over and done with get dragged out and continued purely so they can keep making money off of it.
I had the same experience with both the Cruel Prince and ACOTR lol. They did the opposite of what usually happens in trilogies where the middle book is only filler to get to the last book.
i do think the queen of nothing was pretty lackluster but i did still enjoy it because at that point i loved the characters and just wanted to see them have a happy ending (or as happy of an ending as they could get lol)
I haven't finished A Court of silver flames but it's fantastic so far, and ACOFAS is just a novella so not much happens but it serves its purpose in furthering the story especially where Nesta is concerned. Also ACOWAR at least to me may not have been as fantastic and epic as ACOMAF but I think it was still great I mean especially the final battle was very crazy and mostly had a satisfying conclusion.
i'm a big book of the ancestor fan (i literally write fanfic for it) and big agree with you about holy sister. it had some great moments, but overall a couple of writing choices really dragged it down for me
I've only read one of these series and completely agree with you that the Daughter of Smoke and Bone went downhill, that last book definitely didn't wrap it all up. I think Arc of the Scythe would go on my version of this list too :/
There are really few series I can think of that keep their mojo all the way through. Going back through all the adult SFF I’ve read, I honestly can’t think of very many that were consistently good past the first couple of books. The Dresden Files had a solid run of 5-6 books before it got wobbly. The Old Man’s War series stayed strong. Both sequels to Altered Carbon were much better. The Expanse goes up and down but has been generally good. But so many others - Dune, Ender, Riverworld, Amber, Wheel of Time (which I will argue was never that good to begin with) - just went to hell in a handbasket.
Good video! Quite helpful for me as I have the first books for some of the series you mentioned and now I'll be more careful with purchasing their sequels. Would love to see a video on series that were consistently good or got better.
Hi Sam Enjoying these updates of past videos. Agree with the Bromance BC series. Stopped after the first book. Also thanks for the Clockwork Angel rec. Have decided my favorite sub genres of fantasy are historical paranormal and gothic. Right now I like my fantasy creatures to be the traditional ones that we know of witches vampires etc. I'm not the biggest monster fan as they can scare me.
The sequels in the Defy the Stars series were a pretty big disappointment for me. I LOVED that first book. I fell in love with the characters and the world,, and it had one of the most perfect endings I think I've ever read in an adventure story. I finished it and then listened to the audiobook while I waited for the sequels, but they seemed rushed and a bit meandering. I do highly recommend Defy the Stars, especially if you read it as a stand-alone.
I agree 100% of the acotar series, but I just started the 4th book and it has sooooo much potential, soooo good so far !! I want to see how you feel about it bad lol
Fun fact about the falling kingdoms series I saw one of you end of year videos about Gathering Darkness and I was in a slump so thought I'd buy it used. Books comes and I see it's the THIRD BOOK in the series. Couple years go by and I pick up Falling Kingdoms from a library because why not. I'm about 20 pages in when I see you say the series tanked. Now Gathering Darkness is just sitting on my shelf. Gathering dust.
For me it's the Divergent series. Divergent and Insurgent were so good and I went into Allegiant with high hopes only to be severely disappointed to an almost disrespectful level. I also didn't like how V. Roth responded to her fans feedback on it either. She was very condescending about it. I still can't get over it.
I agree with you on Book of the Ancestors. It felt like Mark Lawrence wanted to fool us along with fooling the antagonist and I did not appreciate that sneakiness
The Lunar Chronicles, sadly. I loved Cinder so much! Scarlet almost feels like it was written by a different person, and there were some parts I found embarrassing to read.
The Temeraire series. I never loved any of the proceeding books as much as I enjoyed that first one and it just got to a point where I didn't even bother to pick up the last one in the series.
A book series that I finished last year that was part of my childhood was Artemis fowl. Every book in that series pretty much was solid except for the last 2. The villian in book 7 was a let down and so was the story and the ending in book 8 was so dumb and disappointing.
I didn’t like the Cruel Prince either and thought about continuing the series bc I heard The Wicked King was good, but I’m glad that I didn’t bc I haven’t heard good things from Queen of Nothing....
For me it's The Winner's Trilogy, the trope that is used in the third book just ruins all of the build up in the second book (which was sooooo good!) imo
I don't even know what the point of that third book was. It took the wind out of the series. Maybe if it had been 4 books, that whole "memory" issue would have had more time to make an impact. Definitely went downhill :(
In my school library, we had the first 4 books of the falling kingdoms series. I really loved the story and especially Cleo and Magnus and was always bummed out that I never got to see the 2 last ones and some spin offs as well. If it really went downhill then I guess I never read the last 2 books for a reason. Kinda irks me that I have to leave it at a cliffhanger that left a very interesting hint about Magnus' dad's past (been so long since I read the books that I forgot one of the big bad's name lol).
Man you have half my tbr in that pile. At least it makes it slightly more manageable. I have to say that I disagree with you about the illuminae series; I loved it all. Gemina did repeat some of Illuminae's tropes but I still enjoyed it. Also I loved the ending of Obsidio.
I couldn’t even finish the second book in the A Curse So Dark and Lonely series. I guess I can’t comment on the rest of it since I didn’t actually finish it but 🤷♀️ It’s the most recent one that popped into my head.
I read _Flowers in the Attic_ and actually really liked it! I was excited to pick up its sequel, _Petals on the Wind,_ thinking we were gonna see the children receiving help and healing from the abuse they'd endured. Nope--instead, it's just more pain and torment inflicted by new characters! I couldn't even finish it, and am willing to treat the first book as a stand-alone, with the version in my head of what became of the Dollangangers after they escaped.
Is that Brandon Sanderson on your book shelf? Those whir books on the bottom right I’m useing UA-cam on my phone so I can’t see it clearly I recognise Brandon’s Sandersons books? Allow I have only the first three mistborn books the now.
I agree about the Cruel Prince Trilogy going downhill. The Wicked King was the best book in the trilogy setting high hopes for Queen of Nothing but it felt like it was rushed and the plot twist is just too literal for it to be a “revelation” why Cardan did what he did.
For me its any series that is continued beyond the initial story meant to be told. They're especially worse when its clear that no more story can really be told in that universe so any sort of sequel series or companion novel is just blatantly for money and just obviously not needed. So I'm talking about the likes of Restore Me, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Midnight Sun, Vengeful, the list goes on and on nowadays. Its becoming more of a trend which i sworrying. And not every sequel series is like that, there are some but they're pretty rare and they're always when the author is like "I finally have another story to tell in that universe" and not the publisher blatantly going "This series is really popular we wanna make more money off of it and the movie industry wants to adapt more movies make more books" and the author sighs and goes "Okay.." and just bullshits out some book.
Since I'm reading the acotar trilogy right now, I have slightly different thoughts about it. I was prepared to not like acotar AT ALL since you and other ppl didn't like it but I actually started to enjoy it around 50%. I'm reading acomaf right now and i love it. vary scared for acowar so I'll probably wait a few months 🤣 I have fingers crossed for Silver Flames cause I love Nesta a lot 🤞🏼🙏 A book series that. Went downhill for me was The Raven Cycle, book 1 was good book 2 was my favorite last two very meh 😔
The darkest minds series by alexandra bracken was also disappointing for me, after reading "In the afterlight" i decided not to continue the series anymore because i don't know where the story is heading😭
ACOTAR was the first that came to mind - I really enjoyed the first two but the third was a slog to get through and I had a hard time finishing it. It desperately needed some trimming down and editing, too many pages of self indulgent far niente. HOW DARE YOU about Daughter of Smoke and Bone? Unfriended, unstanned, and cancelled. /s
I love the Folk of the Air series, but I think Holly Black really rushed the ending. IMHO the main driver of the story is actually Jude’s family dysfunction (moreso than her rivalry with Cardan), but Black doesn’t resolve any of Jude’s grievances with her father and her sisters on the page. She just skips straight to the resolution where everything is worked out already (after characters apparently had a conversation working out their issues off the page 🙄). The plot of Queen of Nothing is fine, but like, as the author, you need to resolve the conflict you set up in the previous two books on the page! You can’t just have everything important happen offscreen! Our Dark Duet hurt me. I thought there was so much potential in This Savage Song. Sloan and Alice are both interesting villains. Again, there are a lot of interesting family dynamics to explore in there. But then, all of this potential for good character work gets tossed out for ... some mediocre action scenes? Characters die without being fully developed, and when a major character finally dies at the end, I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Interesting to see so many comments about Holy Sister. Still want to read the series tho. Really think authors need to work harder on sticking the landing!
I know Holly Black and Cassandra Clare are really good friends. CC had to postpone the release of her book and I think that opened up the door for Holly to release her book sooner. (WK and QoN came out the same year I believe). She didn’t want to compete with her friend so I feel like she might have rushed to get her book out early and probably shouldn’t have done that. I find it odd that the whole series get shorter by page length with each book. Usually it’s the opposite.
@@JJ367 Huh, that’s interesting. Yeah, also authors usually take longer to get the last book out, sometimes taking 2 or so years to write it and wrap everything up. Whereas in Black’s case, it felt like she was taking less and less time to write the sequels?
I have such an unpopular opinion about the ACOTAR series. For me it started going downhill from ACOMAF. I was so mad that SJM twisted Tamlin's character around and completely destroyed him. I'm still mad about it now. I agree with Falling Kingdoms. I've forgotten so much about that series but I loved the first few so much and just remember the last two being a disappointment. I loved the entire Illuminae Files trilogy. Each book was 5 stars for me.
It would be the “Chaos Walking Trilogy” for me. I loved “The Knife of Never Letting Go” but then the series really started hitting on tropes and themes that aren’t my cup of tea. A lot of things started to feel gimmicky to me, and those books are way too big to just push through.
Agree completely about the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. The first one was so good, the second okay and the third one was very disappointing to me.
While I agree with you on a lot of these (Illuminae anyone?), I actually disliked Daughter of smoke and bone and almost DNFd the series until I found out that she switched editors between books one and two and I liked the rest of the series much better
I actually plan to skip the book with the Russian because I hate how he's been made into an absolute caricature and used exclusively for humor throughout the series. Idk that just rubs me the wrong way.
Yes to Falling Kingdoms. Book 5 was definitely a downward slide but it was still alright but book 6 was unbearable. Honestly I still really liked the second Illuminae book but the third was just too much of a rehash, with too many of those "gotcha" moments at the end
ACOTAR for sure. ACOFAS was absolute garbage as it was clearly pandering to the fans, unnecessary, and a blatant cash grab. I’m going to attempt ACOSF soon, but I’m giving it a 100 pages and if it doesn’t work I’m happily returning it to the library and donating the series.
To me the one series that left a disappointed hole in my heart is The Mirror Visitor, I don't think many people here have read it because it's French though. The first two books are *chef's kiss* and the third while not as good was still really solid, but the last one went to a weird direction that has left me confused. I would still reread though because I adore the world and the writing, but probably skip the last one.
To me all the Cruel Prince books were just “good” i gave them all 4 stars and enjoyed my read of them. I’m not die hard obsessed with them and I often forget about them, but i enjoyed them and they were like candy to me. One series that comes to mind for me is The Poison Study series. The first two were AMAZING and the third one just felt like a copy of the second one, nothing new and almost the same plot.
Series that went down hill? -All of them. IMO. I only read stand alones now. I'd be really interested in a video about series that are good all the way through.
The only ones I can think of ended up getting revived at a later date and continued beyond the original trilogy/plan and then ended up downhill because the series gets dragged out.
I loved The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King was okay and The Queen of Nothing was horrible. Can’t believe it ended like that. So underwhelming and pointless!
Definitely the Divergent series for me for that last book
I have no idea what Veronica Roth was thinking having this like SUPER action packed constant action sceries have the final book be 50% about some old guy rambling on about genetics and DNA and stuff. Oof and then the Four duel POV where his voice was just NOT distinct from Triss at all making it really confusing. It just wasn't a good decision.
Yesssss I finished Allegiant, and then it sat in the trunk of my car for YEARS before I cared enough to donate it... the book was in time out for being so bad
Agreed. I wasn’t impressed by the second. Never read the third because I was spoiled and I don’t have any regrets about that. Lol
Agreed! I would have been happy with the series ending after the second book.
@@theimperialsage Yes! One of my biggest things that can turn me off is when a book series kills the main villain its set up before the series ends. Like what are you going to do now? Whats the point of the series now?
The maze runner was a series that went from being intriguing to wtf is going on real fast. Very convoluted and messy by the end.
Seconded, what a damn mess
I actually liked the Queen of Nothing. I don't remember the details, but I just have a good feeling about it.
Saaaame, like yes it wasn't what I expected but I still had a helluva fun time and the ending was perfect to me, the jurdan reunion, the epilogue in the mortal world, all of it was just a fitting ending personally
The Shatter Me series went definitely downwill. I read them all at once this year without a big expectation. But I happened to like the first 3 books a lot more than I expected and I definitely felt they deserved a continuation bc a lot of things were left open. But damn that last tree book were just a bunch of why
God it should've stayed a trilogy, I hated the new ones so much, esp the last one. I didn't care about a single character by the end bc they were all so pathetic and character development went so downhill
I was so disappointing in the Cruel Prince’s last book, I feel like it could have been so much better!
I found I liked it much better on a reread. It was too short imo. Not enough carden/Jude screen time.
Spoiler
I was also disappointed that Locke was dealt with off page. That was super frustrating!
@@alicet5123 too true I think more Carden/Jude would have made a huge difference
Yes! So many scenes that should have been included happened off page! But Wicked King was a hard one to follow!
I had no clue most people ended up not liking The queen of nothing! Very surprising
@@jadyk.231 I still loved it. I was just disappointed by some things. I had a really high standard for the ending bc the first 2 books were so good.
I haven't even watched this yet it was only updated like 5 mins ago but SHOW ME THAT FALLING KINGDOMS
Me too
😏
I haven’t read all these but I agree about the ACOTAR series, the cruel prince series and the daughter of smoke and bone series.
the series that always stands out for me as going downhill is the raven cycle. the second book was so good for me specifically but all others were prettg average and the last book just felt insultingly bad to me lol
I agree that the second book was a high for the series, but Maggie’s writing is so far and above her YA peers skills-wise that I still enjoyed the other books.
I think part of the thing was that the author was really really sick while writing the last book. I think she wrote a blog post about it if you were interested.
I really enjoyed the first book, and then didn’t like the rest of the series? 🤷🏻♀️ Agree with @Sarah that Stiefvater writes beautifully, and it’s her writing that really kept me reading. But I didn’t like how she would just drop important revelations and consequential characters out of the sky and onto readers without any buildup or foreshadowing. The plotting across the entire series is messy.
I think I’m the only person who doesn’t mind Queen of Nothing. I liked Wicked King the best but Queen of Nothing wasn’t as disappointing for me as others.
Haha your not alone The cruel prince series was the 1st time in a long time I loveddd a new series. I’m surprised, i did not know most ppl were disappointed by queen of nothing
Yesss rise QoN fans ♥️ my fav was wicked king too but the last was nice too
I recently re-read the ACOTAR series in preparation for the fourth book, and my feelings totally changed! ACOMAF was always my favorite, but after rereading ACOWAR I actually decided that was my favorite (after giving it 3 stars the first time I read it). TOTALLY agree about the Falling Kingdoms series though. Its so sad!
The Three Dark Crowns series was kind of like that for me. All the first three books were fantastic and then the last one just reneged on a lot of the groundwork for me
I totally agree! Like she brought up so many plot points and then didn't use any of them for the finale.
I had to DNF the series bc I couldn't help but feel like the plot was getting unnecessarily convoluted just to milk the series into more books when originally it wasn't meant to that long
Totally unrelated, but your entire aesthetic is giving me life today.
I love love seeing peoples opinions like this bc it's so interesting to me! I know you didn't mention the Throne Of Glass series, but as an example, I've heard so many people say that series went downhill but for me it was a steady incline. I HATED Throne Of Glass but I looooooved Kingdom Of Ash. It's amazing how we can all feel so differently about the same thing!
That series was a roller coaster for me! I enjoyed the first book, but books 2-5 made me almost quit multiple times. Then Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash saved it for me. I enjoyed them a lot, though I still can't tell if it was because I took a year break in between and I also don't know how I managed to finish it after taking that break LOL
Same! Throne of Glass is my favourite SJM series but most people seem to prefer ACOTAR. ToG also got better with each book for me.
I binge read the Falling Kingdoms series because in one of your videos you talked about the angsty slow burn romance between Magnus and Cleo so I read it just for the romance and I really enjoyed it for that aspect. But I wouldn't want to reread it though. Still I had a lot of fun while reading it. So thank you for that recommendation!!
A lot of these series suffer from trilogy syndrome - stories that could have been told as a stand alone but were deliberately dragged out.
I think cruel prince suffers from the opposite. It should have been much longer and fleshed out. Agree that some of the others were dragged out.
@@alicet5123 I personally really don’t like that series, but appreciate that others love it!
@@alicet5123 on the contrary for me i think the CP would have been much better as a duology
The way I realised I've also started curating my reading more, good to know I don't waste my time on books I think I won't enjoy!
I think shadow and bone went downhill. The first book was really promising but omg did it just get more boring as the series progressed. And the end was just dumb and dull. It made me feel nothing. I think the world is really cool but the characters were extremely boring. But I will be reading six of crows and obviously watch the Netflix adaptation.
I've got a nostalgia one for you! Anita Blake. From Urban Fantasy detective novels with a sprinkle of paranormal romance to just straight up erotica. And really kinky erotica at that.
For suuuuure
I kept going with this series for way longer than I should have hoping it would go back to where it started fighting monsters and it never did
And Anita was a not-so-subtle-in-fact-hilariously-obvious self-insert.
Gemini was my favorite of the Illuminae Files, but Obsidio did underwhelm me quite a bit.
For me, and I know this is an unpopular opinion, but... Shades of Magic by V. E. Schwab went downhill. First book, FLAWLESS MASTERPIECE. Second book... fun, but, where was the plot? Like there is literally no major antagonist in the book until the final chapters. Third book could’ve been great if there had been any build-up for its plot and antagonist through the other books, but nope. It just doesn’t work as a cohesive series, but feels more episodic.
Also, Ready Player One is one of my favorite books of all time but Ready Player Two was a total dumpster fire and good LORD I hope there will never be a Ready Player Three.
You know they'll make a Ready Player Three just to milk that dead cow... I want to burn my copy of RPT 🥲
Oh I thought of another one. The Kate Daniels series. It fizzled out for me around book 6 or 7. I only had the last one to go, but couldn’t bring myself to finish it. It was such a relief to unhaul all those books.
I rarely continue with series in general (although I want to in some cases) so all I can think of is the Arc of Scythe series... and Divergent :- D
Throne of Glass, ACOTAR, Illuminae Files, Furyborn, Vicious (because of Vengeful), Shatter Me cycle 2... I'm still bitter and pissed
Vengeful made me so angry. I actually took it back for a refund.
@@thefriesofLockeLamora lol! Well, I can understand that 😁
okay, throwback time: anyone remembers the blue bloods series by melissa de la cruz? yeah, i'm still not over it. i couldn't even finish it. i think i stopped after the 4th book? idk. i remember that there was a book and then there was like the "archive files" book and i've read that, but i didn't continue onto the next book after that.
Totally with you on daughter of smoke and bone! Stuff that was added did nothing and I really feel like she doesn't want to kill off characters. Plus the Illuminae series as well. I think it could've been 4 books to finish it better
When I saw the title I was wondering if The Book of the Ancestor would show up. I still haven't gotten over Holy Sister, which hurts a lot because Grey Sister is one of my favourite books of all time. The short story in between Grey Sister and Holy Sister is good though.
agreed but I wish that short story was actually part of the novels where it belonged
@@ThoughtsOnTomes yup, the fact that it isn't and it's not acknowledged is one of my issues with Holy Sister
So some recent ones: Cursebreakers by Bridgid Kremmerer and the Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin (although the series isn't finished yet) and an OG one that still hurts: Sookie Stackhouse - True Blood ..... I am still mad at the stupid ending
I read all those damned Sookie Stackhouse books only to stop before reading the last one because I couldn't anymore. I should just read it for completion's sake 😅
I’m still mad as hell about the Sookie series. Like what was that.
Dude I just read the last book of Cursebreaker series last month and was so disappointed.
@@leilajaafari8436 I think it should have been a standalone. I started to hate all the characters in book 2 and that has ruined the series for me.
@@heatherpruchnicki7870 I know right? The author got us thinking the story was going in one direction and then suddenly in the last book she was like LOL no!
For me, The Villains Series. Vengeful has nothing on vicious and I'm not even gonna read the next one. The Hunger Games at first it was more like "It wasnt a massive drop" when it came to Mockingjay. It was my least fave book but it was still very good and a good enough ending, just I liked the first two books better. Then A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and probably the same for any other Hunger Games Universe books, because they're blatantly only there to milk the cash cow of a series thats OVER. I HATE when series that are over and done with get dragged out and continued purely so they can keep making money off of it.
I had the same experience with both the Cruel Prince and ACOTR lol. They did the opposite of what usually happens in trilogies where the middle book is only filler to get to the last book.
i do think the queen of nothing was pretty lackluster but i did still enjoy it because at that point i loved the characters and just wanted to see them have a happy ending (or as happy of an ending as they could get lol)
I haven't finished A Court of silver flames but it's fantastic so far, and ACOFAS is just a novella so not much happens but it serves its purpose in furthering the story especially where Nesta is concerned. Also ACOWAR at least to me may not have been as fantastic and epic as ACOMAF but I think it was still great I mean especially the final battle was very crazy and mostly had a satisfying conclusion.
2:38 literally so glad I’m not the only one. I liked 1-4 but 5-6 tanked so bad. And yes it felt like a betrayal for me too lol
The Divergent series went down hill and the cursebreaker series also went downhill too.
i'm a big book of the ancestor fan (i literally write fanfic for it) and big agree with you about holy sister. it had some great moments, but overall a couple of writing choices really dragged it down for me
I've only read one of these series and completely agree with you that the Daughter of Smoke and Bone went downhill, that last book definitely didn't wrap it all up. I think Arc of the Scythe would go on my version of this list too :/
a few people have mentioned that series which makes me hesitant to start it
House of night series by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast I loved the first 3 or 4 and then after that it was downhill from there .
Stay away from the Otherworld sequel. It's just horrible.
It was such a good guilty pleasure read in the start before it got so bad like steaming pile of garbage bad, not even the fun kind of bad
There are really few series I can think of that keep their mojo all the way through. Going back through all the adult SFF I’ve read, I honestly can’t think of very many that were consistently good past the first couple of books. The Dresden Files had a solid run of 5-6 books before it got wobbly. The Old Man’s War series stayed strong. Both sequels to Altered Carbon were much better. The Expanse goes up and down but has been generally good. But so many others - Dune, Ender, Riverworld, Amber, Wheel of Time (which I will argue was never that good to begin with) - just went to hell in a handbasket.
Good video! Quite helpful for me as I have the first books for some of the series you mentioned and now I'll be more careful with purchasing their sequels. Would love to see a video on series that were consistently good or got better.
Ngl that queen of nothing mention hurt me a little but that metallic lipstick is like 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽♥️
All the series you mention that I've read I agree so hard Sam. I always trust your opinions ❤️❤️❤️❤️
will you be reading ACOSF? i think its the best book in the trilogy, and definitely sjm's best work!
Hi Sam Enjoying these updates of past videos. Agree with the Bromance BC series. Stopped after the first book. Also thanks for the Clockwork Angel rec. Have decided my favorite sub genres of fantasy are historical paranormal and gothic. Right now I like my fantasy creatures to be the traditional ones that we know of witches vampires etc. I'm not the biggest monster fan as they can scare me.
The sequels in the Defy the Stars series were a pretty big disappointment for me. I LOVED that first book. I fell in love with the characters and the world,, and it had one of the most perfect endings I think I've ever read in an adventure story. I finished it and then listened to the audiobook while I waited for the sequels, but they seemed rushed and a bit meandering. I do highly recommend Defy the Stars, especially if you read it as a stand-alone.
I agree 100% of the acotar series, but I just started the 4th book and it has sooooo much potential, soooo good so far !! I want to see how you feel about it bad lol
Fun fact about the falling kingdoms series I saw one of you end of year videos about Gathering Darkness and I was in a slump so thought I'd buy it used. Books comes and I see it's the THIRD BOOK in the series. Couple years go by and I pick up Falling Kingdoms from a library because why not. I'm about 20 pages in when I see you say the series tanked. Now Gathering Darkness is just sitting on my shelf. Gathering dust.
The two timelines were weird. I also think he used Holy Sister to help set up the story for the new series The Girl and the Stars.
For me it's the Divergent series. Divergent and Insurgent were so good and I went into Allegiant with high hopes only to be severely disappointed to an almost disrespectful level. I also didn't like how V. Roth responded to her fans feedback on it either. She was very condescending about it. I still can't get over it.
I agree with you on Book of the Ancestors. It felt like Mark Lawrence wanted to fool us along with fooling the antagonist and I did not appreciate that sneakiness
Red Queen. It’s my favorite series but the first book is by far the best of the 5
I'm with you on Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Loved the first one, but the other two didn't do it for me. Especially book 3
The Lunar Chronicles, sadly. I loved Cinder so much! Scarlet almost feels like it was written by a different person, and there were some parts I found embarrassing to read.
@KAITLYN KENNEY I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's one of those situations where I'm envious of people who liked it, because I really wanted to. :)
The Temeraire series. I never loved any of the proceeding books as much as I enjoyed that first one and it just got to a point where I didn't even bother to pick up the last one in the series.
oh boo. I do wonder if I will have a similar reaction to them as I continue.
maybe the fourth book in the bromance bookclub will be better since it's like, second chance kind of thing which worked so well in the first one
A book series that I finished last year that was part of my childhood was Artemis fowl. Every book in that series pretty much was solid except for the last 2. The villian in book 7 was a let down and so was the story and the ending in book 8 was so dumb and disappointing.
I didn’t like the Cruel Prince either and thought about continuing the series bc I heard The Wicked King was good, but I’m glad that I didn’t bc I haven’t heard good things from Queen of Nothing....
I can’t wait to read the Jessica Clueless books. I’ve heard mixed feelings on the series but it’s one I definitely want to dive into
For me it's The Winner's Trilogy, the trope that is used in the third book just ruins all of the build up in the second book (which was sooooo good!) imo
I don't even know what the point of that third book was. It took the wind out of the series. Maybe if it had been 4 books, that whole "memory" issue would have had more time to make an impact. Definitely went downhill :(
I actually blocked that book out of my brain lol I do remember being disappointed but I read it in one day and retained none of it.
I really disliked Illuminae! Glad to know it wouldn't have gotten any better for me 😅
In my school library, we had the first 4 books of the falling kingdoms series. I really loved the story and especially Cleo and Magnus and was always bummed out that I never got to see the 2 last ones and some spin offs as well. If it really went downhill then I guess I never read the last 2 books for a reason. Kinda irks me that I have to leave it at a cliffhanger that left a very interesting hint about Magnus' dad's past (been so long since I read the books that I forgot one of the big bad's name lol).
I totally agree with holy sister The first books were so good. I can't even really point out what was wrong with it but it just felt so meh.
right?! glad I'm not alone.
Man you have half my tbr in that pile. At least it makes it slightly more manageable. I have to say that I disagree with you about the illuminae series; I loved it all. Gemina did repeat some of Illuminae's tropes but I still enjoyed it. Also I loved the ending of Obsidio.
I couldn’t even finish the second book in the A Curse So Dark and Lonely series. I guess I can’t comment on the rest of it since I didn’t actually finish it but 🤷♀️ It’s the most recent one that popped into my head.
I feel the same way.... the 2nd book is so slow and uneventful.... and the stakes are actually lower than in the first one so it is underwhelming
@@Nightsky1 Glad to know I didn’t miss anything by not finishing it! 😄
I read _Flowers in the Attic_ and actually really liked it! I was excited to pick up its sequel, _Petals on the Wind,_ thinking we were gonna see the children receiving help and healing from the abuse they'd endured. Nope--instead, it's just more pain and torment inflicted by new characters! I couldn't even finish it, and am willing to treat the first book as a stand-alone, with the version in my head of what became of the Dollangangers after they escaped.
The first one was definitely written with intent and cunning but the rest of it was so wtf, a never ending torture porn and spiral of depravity
Is that Brandon Sanderson on your book shelf? Those whir books on the bottom right I’m useing UA-cam on my phone so I can’t see it clearly I recognise Brandon’s Sandersons books? Allow I have only the first three mistborn books the now.
yep those are Brandon Sanderson books.
I agree about the Cruel Prince Trilogy going downhill. The Wicked King was the best book in the trilogy setting high hopes for Queen of Nothing but it felt like it was rushed and the plot twist is just too literal for it to be a “revelation” why Cardan did what he did.
Agree on Illuminae and Bromance Book Club (but I will read the Russian one)! Haven’t read the last two Falling Kingdoms, now you’ve got me scared.
For me its any series that is continued beyond the initial story meant to be told. They're especially worse when its clear that no more story can really be told in that universe so any sort of sequel series or companion novel is just blatantly for money and just obviously not needed. So I'm talking about the likes of Restore Me, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Midnight Sun, Vengeful, the list goes on and on nowadays. Its becoming more of a trend which i sworrying. And not every sequel series is like that, there are some but they're pretty rare and they're always when the author is like "I finally have another story to tell in that universe" and not the publisher blatantly going "This series is really popular we wanna make more money off of it and the movie industry wants to adapt more movies make more books" and the author sighs and goes "Okay.." and just bullshits out some book.
Since I'm reading the acotar trilogy right now, I have slightly different thoughts about it. I was prepared to not like acotar AT ALL since you and other ppl didn't like it but I actually started to enjoy it around 50%. I'm reading acomaf right now and i love it. vary scared for acowar so I'll probably wait a few months 🤣 I have fingers crossed for Silver Flames cause I love Nesta a lot 🤞🏼🙏
A book series that. Went downhill for me was The Raven Cycle, book 1 was good book 2 was my favorite last two very meh 😔
The darkest minds series by alexandra bracken was also disappointing for me, after reading "In the afterlight" i decided not to continue the series anymore because i don't know where the story is heading😭
ACOTAR was the first that came to mind - I really enjoyed the first two but the third was a slog to get through and I had a hard time finishing it. It desperately needed some trimming down and editing, too many pages of self indulgent far niente.
HOW DARE YOU about Daughter of Smoke and Bone? Unfriended, unstanned, and cancelled. /s
I love the Folk of the Air series, but I think Holly Black really rushed the ending. IMHO the main driver of the story is actually Jude’s family dysfunction (moreso than her rivalry with Cardan), but Black doesn’t resolve any of Jude’s grievances with her father and her sisters on the page. She just skips straight to the resolution where everything is worked out already (after characters apparently had a conversation working out their issues off the page 🙄). The plot of Queen of Nothing is fine, but like, as the author, you need to resolve the conflict you set up in the previous two books on the page! You can’t just have everything important happen offscreen!
Our Dark Duet hurt me. I thought there was so much potential in This Savage Song. Sloan and Alice are both interesting villains. Again, there are a lot of interesting family dynamics to explore in there. But then, all of this potential for good character work gets tossed out for ... some mediocre action scenes? Characters die without being fully developed, and when a major character finally dies at the end, I just couldn’t bring myself to care.
Interesting to see so many comments about Holy Sister. Still want to read the series tho. Really think authors need to work harder on sticking the landing!
I know Holly Black and Cassandra Clare are really good friends. CC had to postpone the release of her book and I think that opened up the door for Holly to release her book sooner. (WK and QoN came out the same year I believe). She didn’t want to compete with her friend so I feel like she might have rushed to get her book out early and probably shouldn’t have done that. I find it odd that the whole series get shorter by page length with each book. Usually it’s the opposite.
@@JJ367 Huh, that’s interesting. Yeah, also authors usually take longer to get the last book out, sometimes taking 2 or so years to write it and wrap everything up. Whereas in Black’s case, it felt like she was taking less and less time to write the sequels?
I thought I was the only person who felt the same about Holy Sister!!
The fallen kingdom series still hurts like whyyyy
I have such an unpopular opinion about the ACOTAR series. For me it started going downhill from ACOMAF. I was so mad that SJM twisted Tamlin's character around and completely destroyed him. I'm still mad about it now.
I agree with Falling Kingdoms. I've forgotten so much about that series but I loved the first few so much and just remember the last two being a disappointment.
I loved the entire Illuminae Files trilogy. Each book was 5 stars for me.
Folk of air series and a court of Wings and ruins .... Right
Falling Kingdoms went so bad so quick for me, along with the arcana chronicles by Kresley Cole
I also really liked This Savage Song, but I did not like Our dark duet so much. What a pity!
LOVE this lip color!!! 😍
It would be the “Chaos Walking Trilogy” for me. I loved “The Knife of Never Letting Go” but then the series really started hitting on tropes and themes that aren’t my cup of tea. A lot of things started to feel gimmicky to me, and those books are way too big to just push through.
The novella, A Court of Frost and Starlight, is awful. The Nesta book, A Court of Silver Flames, is better than ACOMAF.
I expected the Red Rising Trilogy to be in this list tbh 😌
Ooh do you mind me asking why you didn't like the third book?
@@stegobookosaurusrawr4153 Oh, I loved Morning Star, but I didn't think Ms. Samantha did. 😅
Agree completely about the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. The first one was so good, the second okay and the third one was very disappointing to me.
While I agree with you on a lot of these (Illuminae anyone?), I actually disliked Daughter of smoke and bone and almost DNFd the series until I found out that she switched editors between books one and two and I liked the rest of the series much better
Agreed on the Book of the Ancestor. The last book was a 2 star read, and I just...didn't care about it or anyone in it.
I totally agree about the Bromance series! I have tentative hopes about the next book with the Russian but oh man did I dislike the second book.
I actually plan to skip the book with the Russian because I hate how he's been made into an absolute caricature and used exclusively for humor throughout the series. Idk that just rubs me the wrong way.
Falling Kingdoms was soooo disappointing for me because I liked the first three books, but DNF'd the fourth. I didn't finish the series.
Video on series you DNFed? ;) Please.
ooh good idea!
Yes to Falling Kingdoms. Book 5 was definitely a downward slide but it was still alright but book 6 was unbearable.
Honestly I still really liked the second Illuminae book but the third was just too much of a rehash, with too many of those "gotcha" moments at the end
ACOTAR for sure. ACOFAS was absolute garbage as it was clearly pandering to the fans, unnecessary, and a blatant cash grab. I’m going to attempt ACOSF soon, but I’m giving it a 100 pages and if it doesn’t work I’m happily returning it to the library and donating the series.
To me the one series that left a disappointed hole in my heart is The Mirror Visitor, I don't think many people here have read it because it's French though. The first two books are *chef's kiss* and the third while not as good was still really solid, but the last one went to a weird direction that has left me confused. I would still reread though because I adore the world and the writing, but probably skip the last one.
I’ve still yet to read Gemina 🥲
same for This savage song. loved book 1 but was soooo bored in book 2 ! It was my first book i read because of youtube hype lol
To me all the Cruel Prince books were just “good” i gave them all 4 stars and enjoyed my read of them. I’m not die hard obsessed with them and I often forget about them, but i enjoyed them and they were like candy to me.
One series that comes to mind for me is The Poison Study series. The first two were AMAZING and the third one just felt like a copy of the second one, nothing new and almost the same plot.
obsidio was literally so bad lol
Mentally adding Stalking Jack the Ripper series to this list...
Series that went down hill?
-All of them. IMO. I only read stand alones now. I'd be really interested in a video about series that are good all the way through.
The only ones I can think of ended up getting revived at a later date and continued beyond the original trilogy/plan and then ended up downhill because the series gets dragged out.
I totally agree about this savage song and our dark duet as well as the cruel prince. That ending was awful.
Ooft, yeah Queen of Nothing was a mega disappointment!
the curse breaker series.
I loved The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King was okay and The Queen of Nothing was horrible. Can’t believe it ended like that. So underwhelming and pointless!
Bromance book club was SO GOOD but my God! The two other books gave me the worst book slump ever!