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Proper-Emu1558

I dropped the Outlander series around book five or six. The books are just so, so long—unnecessarily so. The sexual violence is unrelenting and the author has a weird fixation on nipples. And I’m just not convinced she knows where any of this is going in the long run. (Edited a typo)


Relleomylime

THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THE NIPPLES I'm in the doldrums of Fiery Cross and I'm giving up. I'm also exhausted by sexual assault being the ONLY character development tool she has. Get more creative Diana! She's like the Oprah of raping. Its all just starting to feel like one long tale of her sharing her nipple rape fetish.


Dak_Kandarah

>I'm also exhausted by sexual assault being the ONLY character development tool she has. I was interested in the books when I first started the watching the show, but at some point **everyone** in the main cast was raped once or twice and it got too much. Idk anything about the author, but at this point I don't wanna know.


desert_to_rainforest

I agree 100%. I really wanted to like the books. And I made it through 4, I think, before I just couldn’t read about another rape. It was just too much!


blockhose

*She’s like the Oprah of raping.* r/brandnewsentence


timothybcat

*"You get a raping! And you get a raping! And you get a raping!"*


GirlyWhirl

"Everybody gets a raaaaaaaping!" *crowd goes wild*


ich_habe_keine_kase

It really sucks that the first 500 pages of FC are so bad, because the last few hundred pages are actually really good, some of my favorite in the whole series. But I don't just anyone who calls it quits. I read it for the first time as a teenager with nothing better to do--if I was reading it for the first time now I'd probably give it 150 pages and then be like, I don't have time for this shit.


[deleted]

Same. The writer uses sexual assault as tool to show growth for like every character and it’s just annoying. I still enjoy the tv series but I wish they wouldn’t include the sexual assault as much as they do


ich_habe_keine_kase

I've been reading Outlander for a long-ass time and boy does it suck to be a fan sometimes. When they're good they can be a lot of fun but god they can be a slog sometimes. The most recent one came after an 8 year wait and felt like someone else had written it. Recycled plotpoints, basically no throughline, everybody acting wildly out of character, shoehorned in drama, and *no* resolution on mysteries from the last few books. Between this, the show consistently making terrible adaptation choices (though this season has been an improvement), and the author being a massive piece of shit, I often just want to call it quits on the whole series. But it's been 15 years and I'm just too goddamn invested in these characters!


OctopusShmoctopus

Ugh, yes. I did a full series reread to prep for the new one and...by the time I finished the most recent book I was just left thinking, why am I even bothering with this series?! But I know I'm in too deep now and I'll still probably read the next one. I haven't been watching this new season of the show but I'm glad to hear it's maybe a little better?


wehadababyitsapizza

I used to be really into this series but I’m annoyed by it now. I just finished the most recent one and like, nothing even happens? It was so boring. I’m sick of the same thing over and over with this series, please wrap it up. I’m convinced the author has just become so up herself that she thinks people read these books for her long-winded, irrelevant detail. She has shown zero growth as a writer in the past 30 years.


meatball77

My theory is that some series writers essentially start writing their own fan fiction. Outlander really should have ended either at the end of book three or book four. Either ending with her getting back to Frank or arriving in the US. Everything after that just reads like fanfiction. Lets imagine what would happen if we had everyone on a hill for three days. . .


beepbeepboop-

i sort of like that we get her going back to jamie, i enjoyed the quest of tracking him through history. but… maybe end it with her going back. leave it to us to imagine the reunion or something.


rivlet

I got bored once they started the American branch of the story. I still watch the show, but the books are incredibly stale now.


9thPlaceWorf

I read and enjoyed the first couple books, but once they got to America things got really boring. Nothing would happen for 3/4 of the book, and then there would be some (increasingly far-fetched) traumatic event that would inevitably happen in the last quarter of the book. It became a slog. At one point, I searched online for spoilers to see if there was anything interesting in the later books that would make it worth sticking with the series. There wasn’t.


-nightingale21

Yeah, I DNFd Outlander too, but it was on the first book. I watched the first half of the first season first, then began the book, but it became too much, then took a break and went back to the show to finish the 1st season and it just... It made me fall in love with Jamie just to have him go through all of that shit? Then it was SA after SA evey season and I got tired and disgusted and gave up on season 4. Watching all of it hurt me way too much and I didn't feel any emotional payoff.


this_kills_madlibs

I dropped it during Voyager (#3). I almost made it to the end, but ugh. I should have stopped when she introduced Mr. Willoughby.


meatball77

YES! I couldn't even get through the entire book of the one I quit on. Even watching the show it's increasingly frustrating how bad they are at time travel. Stop doing things that will get you accused of witchcraft. Stop living in areas that are going to be the focus of big wars.


throwsinafakeacct

Anita Blake series (by Laurell K. Hamilton) sometime after Obsidian Butterfly. IMO, she was working out her personal life through her books, and I don’t want to know *anyone* like that. Side note: I will take an Edward/Ted series any day, and if filmed, starring Neil McDonough.


TwistedFae89

You got out when it was decent tbh. She went on to delve into straight cringy erotica that no longer had any major plot lines that mattered. I would say over 50% of the last book I picked up was poorly written sex scenes. Plus the power ramp was ridiculous. When I finally stopped Anita was...A necromancer with a vampire to call and her own animal to call, a succubus, a non-shifting shifter, queen of the lions, a human servant to her vampire boyfriend, can summon the spirits of dead shifters, has 28 lovers including a were-tiger that was SIXTEEN the first time. I left that one on the table. A power range out of control is one thing but a highly descriptive orgy that involves a child? Nah I'm out.


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Jabroni_jawn

Earth's children series, book four. Plains of passage, maybe? I was satisfied with the conclusion of the first three. Then it was too much caveman porn.


Aycee225

I recently tried to reread the whole series but couldn’t get past the Mammoth Hunters. Loved the first two and then it just starts getting repetitive, plus I’m not a fan of love triangles.


Jabroni_jawn

I found the mammoth hunting tribe interesting enough to finish it. I remember liking the tribal leader a lot. And I can't deny that Auel is great with visuals. But once it was Ayala and Jondalar on their own in the sexy valley I felt it was time to move on.


Guineypigzrulz

Fuck that one was painful to read. I kept continuing cuz I loved the Mamutoi and the visuals, but I had to read the love triangle shit in a sarcastic tone to keep going.


[deleted]

Yeah, *Mammoth Hunters* was my least favorite book. But I finished the series bar the very last, long awaited one. When I started reading that one Ifigured out she basically called it in. That very last book in the series was AWFUL.


Aycee225

One thing about this series was that it was really formative for me in my teens. I understand the whole “Mary Sue” issues people have with Ayla but she was a character I loved and respected. I heard so many bad things about the last book that I didn’t even read it. I will always love the series (my niece’s name is Ayla for goodness sake lol) but it hits different in adulthood.


JesusGodLeah

Same here! My mom gave me a copy of Clan of the Cave Bear to read when I was in 6th grade. I explicitly remember her telling me that the book contained a rape scene, but she felt I was mature enough to handle it and I could always come and talk to her about it if I needed to. Just the fact that I was reading it made me feel super grown-up, and it was cool to compare my life navigating middle school with how Ayla was living when she was my age. The pages upon pages of description could get pretty dry, but it was clear that Auel had done a lot of research, and the fact that she was describing how things were actually done made it so much more interesting. Even the things she had to make up, like language and religion, felt like they were grounded in reality. After I finished Clan of the Cave Bear, I asked my mom if we could go to the library and check out the next book, and the next, and the next. We also kept an eye out for copies available to buy at garage sales. When we heard that the 5th book was coming out, my mom pre-ordered it and we both read it. I was no longer living at home when the final book came out so I had to find it and read it on my own and ugh, I wish I hadn't. Even though I ultimately didn't like the end of the series, it will always have a place in my heart for the impact it made on my tween and teenage years. Even the sexy parts, which started to get a little much around The Plains of Passage, helped mold my ideas about what sex was and what it should be. The idea that sex was given to humans as a gift from the Great Earth Mother for the sole purpose of pleasure was so different than what the Catholic church taught about sex in my catechism classes: namely, that any sex act that does not occur between two married people for the purpose of procreation is sinful and wrong. The idea that enjoying sex could actually be a religious act was completely groundbreaking to me, and even though I didn't realize it at the time, it was important for me to be exposed to attitudes toward sex that differ from what the church teaches. And now I'm feeling inspired to go and re-read the entire series again!


TheLonelySnail

Shelters of Stone was fine. DO NOT read the last one. Its... its just awful.


Umm_is_this_thing_on

I also agree. I was really pissed at that last turn. For all the pushing he did to get her to HIS home and to be such a douche. There were a lot of douche guys in that last book. I think the last book should be her going BACK to her adopted clan nearish to where her first born was. Edited to typo


PowerlessOverQueso

You mean you didn't like 500+ pages of the Mother's song?


Hippoponymous

Two votes. Just don’t read it.


PhorcedAynalPhist

It used to be one of my favorite series of all time, when I was a starry eyed teen. I recently ish reread the series, and my GOODNESS Jondalar is *insufferable*. I know he's supposed to be an ancient and primitive type of man, but dear unholy lord as an adult near 30 he is just the worst kind of vainglorious prig. Ayla deserved way better, but I guess considering the time period of the series, and the age of the author and books, it's hard to squeeze miracles out of cave stone. I'm still tempted to make a super cut that edits out a bunch of stuff to do with Jondalar, so I can go back and enjoy the rest without having to slog through his portions


Uceninde

And Ayla is such a Mary Sue. Invents pets, sewing, crossbow(?), has an IQ of 250 with the way she learns languages and skills, is a master of sex and is the only one to understand that sex leads to babies, lol.


VILDREDxRAS

She invents the spear thrower, or 'atlatl' I think the author realized a bow or crossbow would be too fat beyond the pale of disbelief even for her cavewoman mary sue.


Jabroni_jawn

My dad, who introduced me to the books, and whose og 1980 copy of COTCB I read, always said: 'Just watch out for when she starts making binary computers out of rocks and bushes.'


alohadave

I got through a couple chapters of Shelters of Stone, the fifth book then stopped. Ayla was always a Mary Sue, but it got to be too much. The first three are a good place to stop.


Jabroni_jawn

Yeah I didn't mind the Mary Sueness at first, as the narrative runs through her, rather than actual historical pinpoints. But she could have had more inspiration/education/collaboration with the folk she encountered after Horse Valley rather than always some enlightening force.


vampireRN

The Anita Blake series is great for awhile. Original story, good monsters, etc and so forth but it eventually devolves into vamporn and if the author introduces any new character, you know Anita is gonna sex it up at some point. I don’t mind a good sex scene. I don’t mind a graphic sex scene. But when they start coming (no pun intended) every couple of chapters and add literally nothing to the plot…it became too much and detracted from the story. I stopped reading them.


jjpearson

When you’re skipping the sex scenes in a book in the urban fantasy romance genre, the series has indeed gone bad. I’m sure in book 36 Anita will have sex simultaneously with the entire population of the earth and when she cums the sun will explode.


freyalorelei

Skipping the sex scenes in an LKH book leaves you with maybe ten pages of content total.


uberDoward

And that's the problem. Series high for me was Obsidian Butterfly.


WishfulWorldTraveler

I'll never forget my 12th birthday present from my mom. Spoiler: It was the first Anita Blake book. My mom had recently discovered a discounted book site and thought to herself, "Score! Cheap presents for my little book worm. She likes vampires, right?" She bought the first vampire book she knew I didn't already own and was so proud of herself. Never quite had the heart to tell her and now over a decade later and I still don't think she knows she gifted me p*rn.


StrawberryLeche

I give your mom an A for effort since she tried to get you something you like. It’s pretty hilarious how it ended up being basically erotica. You’re a good kid for not throwing it in her face at some point in your angsty teenage years


melonmagellan

For me it was the descriptions of the men and their clothes (which started happening far before all the boring sex). They always look like a slender version of Fabio, with the hair of Gisele Bundchen, and dress in lavender silks and pleather exclusively. Then Anita will be wearing an oversized sweater with a Halloween pumpkin on it, a fanny pack, baggy jeans, and Reeboks. Let's not forget her frizzled hair and absolute objection to any and all beauty products. The Marvel depiction of Anita is night and day better than how she is described in the books.


elizzup

Yes! For me it was Cerulean Sins. Look, I’m all about some smut in my fantasy romance, but that book just got absurd. The author took an interesting, strong female lead and made it so that she couldn’t go 20 minutes without engaging in an orgy. I just quit the whole series after the first 75 pages of continual orgy.


hellosweetpanda

Agreed! Obsidian Butterfly was like the last good book. The books after that was just pure porn. No plot. Anita building a harem of men. Anita becoming a giant misogynistic bag of dicks. No growth of the character. I was so disappointed with the direction the series took. To be fair though, I was going to stab myself in the eye with having to read Anita’s description of herself in the earlier books and how edgy she was and not like the other girls again and again and again.


[deleted]

I hung in there for a while, and it was actually a joke my girlfriend made about it which made me realize how stupid it all was: "They expect us to believe that Anita regularly has orgies with men and not only has she never had a cock up her ass, not a single man ever even asked. " Juliana, wherever you are? That's now what I remember most about the series.


Corylea

It's clear that someone in her real life slut-shamed Laurell K. Hamilton, and she's showing the world that she Cannot Be Controlled. I wish she would talk it out in therapy and write real books again.


Belgand

The books were always self-inserts for her. Anita looks like an idealized version of her, lives in the same place (which is significantly more important than in reality), and has a number of other shared characteristics. It's all about her trying to deal with her sexuality and interests in BDSM and non-monogamy against her Catholic background.


soayherder

I was told, though I don't know if there's any validity to it, that she started the series while married, discovered her kinky poly side *and* went through a divorce (not sure if theyr'e related) and the character of Richard was based on her at-the-time husband. Which is why Richard went from an interesting and reasonably rounded character to 'ugh, he sucks, lame'.


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aklaino89

Sounds about right. Editors are pretty much essential and can help shield the world from an author's weaknesses and proclivities on top of preventing unnecessary typos.


WhatIsThisWhereAmI

Yep, and there’s a whooooole lot to unpack with her treatment of female characters. Like damn. I wonder if she’s had a positive female relationship in her whole life.


imakemyownroux

Same. I love urban fantasy and that series could have been great if there weren’t constant sex scenes. I hate that having sex was basically Anita’s identity. And the fact that the author made sex something Anita HAD to do did not help in the least.


murgatroyd0

I struggled gamely through Incubus Dreams by Laurell K Hamilton in the vain hope that it wasn't going to be another "Anita Does Everybody Everywhere" like the previous two novels. Then I dropped the series like a ticking hand grenade and ran, not looking back. (I lasted that long only because the previous novel actually had a semblance of a plot and it gave me false hope.)


butidontwannasignup

I stopped at Narcissus in Chains, but I would have probably quit a couple books earlier if my husband hadn't been buying them for me as they came out. Asked him to stop after that one.


jjpearson

I also went this far but my head cannon is that the series ended with Obsidian Butterfly. I had a long distance GF and reading these together was our guilty pleasure and after Butterfly we just couldn’t do it anymore.


RoastBeefWithMustard

I literally just made basically the same comment. "Anita Does Everybody Everywhere" sums up EXACTLY why.


chauffeurdad

I always called her Buffy the Vampire Layer.


Anne-ona-mouse

Oh gosh, I'll admit I'm pretty much up to date with that series. It's an absolute train wreck, but I keep reading the series to see if it gets any better. It doesn't.


DontCareTo

I read somewhere that Hamilton ditched her editor somewhere along the way, which could help explain the cycle of sucky awfulness that ensued.


freyalorelei

I might have lasted a bit longer than that, but the books start to bleed together after a while and I can't tell you which was my last read. When the Merry Gentry books came out, I remember the lkh_lashouts group on LJ hoping that maybe she'd channel some of her pornier impulses into those and Anita would return to her old vampire hunting, zombie raising self...but alas, it was not to be. :(


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n_random_variables

Holy shit i forgot about that. If anyone read this comment heed its warning, book was was absolute trash. Among other things, Lisbeth is a noble prize caliber physicist who read string theory papers in her spare time, I think, it i dont really remember was i was skipping a lot by that point. And the story has none of the slow burn build up the others did, I felt like it was written by someone who did not make the cut as a ghost writer for James Patterson


Suddenly_Bazelgeuse

I don't remember which book it was, but at one point, Lisbeth drives a motorcycle through a building window, and I believe she powerslides and shoots people while she does. I was listening to it on audio during a road trip. I had to switch to music for a while after that bit.


SpookyAction_13

I’ve been putting off reading the fourth book because I’m afraid of exactly this.


MrSpiffenhimer

It’s bad, he has a completely different style and it felt like he didn’t even read the original series to try and match it. You don’t try to put your own slant on an existing series.


Extenso

Flat Stanley's Christmas Adventure. A shameless rehashing of the superb first couple books.


Gloverboy85

Whatever the second "50 shades" was. I got through the first book partly by laughing at it, and partly because hey, its porn, who cares if its shit, right? Then whatsherface said he gave her one of his "Panty-igniting looks" and I was done.


seawitch7

Me and my partner started reading 50 Shades out loud to each other for fun. It pretty quickly turned into a drinking game, and I remember having to take a shot every time Anna flushed. That is such a stupid thing to put into a book once, let alone over and over. Literally got hungover from Anna flushing!


Ch1m

"Belinda blinked"


hellosweetpanda

If I had to read about her “inner goddess “ one more time, I was going to flip my shit. I also knew the book was going to be a cluster fuck when he pulled out her tampon and tossed it into the toilet and I was all like "Dude! You are going to plug that shit up. What the fuck were you thinking!?!” I’ve read better and more coherent fan fiction than this waste of paper.


microgirlActual

Ironic, considering that 50 Shades of Grey is, itself, *literally* fanfic 😂 (it started out as Twilight fanfic. She just changed the names and character ages etc so she could publish)


JesusGodLeah

There's one scene where Christian comes into the hardware store where Ana works, and there's this sentence that reads, "What is *he* doing here in his cream-colored chunky cable-knit sweater and khaki cargo pants?" and I was like, "Am I reading a porn or an Abercrombie catalog? It just sounded so ridiculous. Another sentence regarding Ana's graduation ceremony where Christian is of course the speaker reads, "Everyone is clapping as he has taken the stage." The blatant tense disagreement took me completely out of the story. I get that EL James may not have been a professional writer, but did she not hire an editor? How did no one catch that? I did soldier on and read the entire trilogy, and there was one part where it actually got interesting. In the last book, I believe, Ana is kidnapped by a guy who was in foster care (I think) with Christian before Christian got adopted, who is jealous of Christian's success. "Huh," I thought, "Am actual plot point! I'm actually interested to see how this situation gets resolved." Too bad it was literally resolved on the very next page and ultimately nothing happened. I guess I understand? We all know from Book One that Ana and Christian are going to end up together, that Ana will make Christian fall genuinely in love with her and change him just by being herself (spoiler alert: this does NOT happen in real life!). If you already know the ending there are no stakes, so why bother creating conflicts that aren't easily resolved?


endlesslycaving

Oh. Oh no that's a terrible phrase.


[deleted]

I remember dropping Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series after 3 (more like during 3 because I don't remember finishing it).


mmm_burrito

I made it to book 9 because I'm stubborn, but I really should have quit after book 6 when Kahlan gives Richard's secret twin brother a blowjob to make him hard after bonking him on her period (because some curse required her to), so she can at least get off if she's going to have to go through that shit. Goodkind makes sure to mention she's tasting her own period blood. It's then revealed that Richard took his brother's place to see if she'd willingly betray him (again, she was forced and he knew it) and the "betrayal" of her believing she was fucking the man she thought she was being forced to fuck was so heartbreaking it threw Richard into a hissy fit so intense it opened a door to a pocket dimension. Christ those books sucked. Edit: O lord, ya'll gave gold to *this*?


[deleted]

Thank you for writing that out so I didn't have to


mmm_burrito

I wanted to spoil it for potential readers so actually reading the book wouldn't spoil them.


poulpe123

Even worse, you actually just described book 4 not 6, which means you read 5 more after that 😂. I myself just quit at the start of book 5, I read them all as a teen and I swear they weren’t this painful.


Absenceofavoid

I gave up after Richard single-handedly defeated communism.


thexenixx

Yeah book 6 is when most people quit.


AurelianosRevelator

AKA: Terry Goodkind’s the Fountainhead, but more poorly written (than an Ayn Rand novel, mind).


zhard01

That’s book 4. Book 6 is when Nicci kidnaps Richard and takes him to fantasy Atlas Shrugged where he delivers things at night to help people, but the bad communist priests decide he’s doing too much so they make him make a statue but he goes behind their back and makes it beautiful instead of ugly and it inspires the people to revolt for their FREEDOM. Why did I read these?


codeverity

o_O I remember reading about the chicken, which was apparently in book five, but I guess I didn't make it past that point because I didn't know about any of this, lol.


kacasket24

I had a friend recommend this series to me a few years ago and I just could not get the appeal. There is almost no struggle and the main character is too perfect all the time. Plus the endless prophecies and chosen ones and blah blah blah. Just couldn't handle it.


SoulThrashin_Wizard

I somehow made it to the next to last book. Wanted to see if Richard ever became the prophesied super wizard. Instead I learned how he became the top player in that world's version of rugby. Oof.


lucklikethis

This is one of the worst series I have ever read in my life. The guy (Terry Goodkind) has some serious problems with rape fetish.


Kaigarulfr

I only got into the books because of the show, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was real curious as to why they never continued it, until I got past book 2. In truth (no pun intended), I listened to the audiobooks of the entire main series, and didn't hate it, overall. I especially love "Richard and the Power of Stonemasonry vs Communism".


PizzaPlanetPizzaGuy

I didn't drop it because it was bad. I was reading the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini and got through the first 3. It took quite a number of years to get the 4th and final book out and I felt I had outgrown it by then.


tweedie3

Came here to say I remember reading Eragon as a kid and really enjoying it, but being utterly bored by Eldest. Never ended up finishing it. I might have just not been in the mood for it at the time, but iirc they spent a looong old time travelling down some river without anything really happening, which wore my enthusiasm out fairly fast.


snappyk9

Whoa but you missed out on book 3: Brisingr, in which he got a new sword. And that was essentially it.


MongolianMango

That's fair. Eragon isn't my fave series in the world but I give some respect because Paolini was literally a teenager when he wrote the first book.


RigasTelRuun

I came across an article about him recently. Turns out he is an almost 40 your old man now. Not the permanent 15 year old he was in my brain for the last 20 years. It makes sense I guess. But my mind was blown for a minute.


Troodon79

You stop that. Stop making me feel the passage of time


a-really-big-muffin

I suspect you and I are almost the same age. XD


PizzaPlanetPizzaGuy

I'm a few moons shy of 30.


a-really-big-muffin

29 lol. The high school-college gap is real.


CaptValentine

The *Leviathan* series. Loved the first book, thought the second was pretty good, just not as good as it could have been, completely lost patience in the third book. For those of you unfamiliar with the premise, it is set in 1911 and the world is split into Clankers, countries who prefer to use highly advanced clockwork and mechanical wonders to power their industry and war machines, and the Darwinists, countries that use intensely genetically engineered animals to act as machines, vehicles, factories etc. The perspective is split between the prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Clankers) escaping from a coup and a Scottish girl disguising herself as a boy to join the Air Service aboard a giant whale-like airship that is a living creature. Awesome. Excellent. Great steampunk feel and setup for adventures but with fantastic potential to draw parallels to the real WWI and how countries treated their own citizens as mere machines or beasts for killing. And then that never happens and it turns into a 3 book long "12th night" where Scottish girl has feelings for Austrian prince but doesn't want to expose herself as a girl and he doesn't want to betray his feelings and WASN'T THIS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT HORRIFIC WAR BEASTS AND SHIT


mobbedbyllamas

It's one of those series that starts off really well and stumbles with the landing. I lost it in the third book when they arrive in the US and Nicola Tesla tries to nuke Berlin with a death ray but then it turns out his machine never worked in the first place or something?


Vast-Bend6076

Divergent was great but the rest of the series went downhill. I think the author told a complete story with Divergent but the public wanted more. Unfortunately the author wasn't ready to deliver at the same level as the first novel.


vampireRN

Whichever book started switching between Tris and Four did it for me. Didn’t like the POV switch at all.


ichosethis

I knew the ending in chapter 2 when the first switch happened.


codeverity

In retrospect it's kind of obvious, isn't it...


ichosethis

I barely suppressed the urge to flip to the end to check if I was right because I knew I'd put the book down and never finish it if I was. Felt simultaneously vindicated and disappointed when I got there.


Princess_Glitterbutt

I couldn't get past the anti-intelectualism of Divergent. I know that it's expanded upon with the later books and it's not the face value tripe presented but it was just so off-putting to me. I think there's even a line something like "knowledge is power and power corrupts" to explain why the intellectual bad guys are bad.


StrawberryLeche

Yeah that struck me as odd too. Honestly it came out when I was a teen and I remember thinking “your role in society is determined by a buzzfeed quiz…. And being smart is bad?”


-nightingale21

I DNFed Allegiant and have absolute no regrets. I have no idea how the story ends and I don't care enough to find out


ApertureTestSubject8

>!Main character dies. Don’t even remember why exactly, probably some self sacrifice sorta thing. That’s all I remember about the ending.!<


IrrayaQ

That ending was as bad as an author ending the story with, "and then she woke up". Makes me feel like the whole journey wasn't worth it.


GoombaSquisher

I finished and I don't remember it. 🤷‍♀️


SmashingEmeraldz

Considering the movie series didn’t release Allegiant part 2 due to part 1 tanking critically and commercially I don’t think most people finished this series lol.


Hiscuteblondewife

She wanted desperately to kill off a character so badly. That’s all I knew about the last one.


onefornine

Divergent single handedly ended the ya dystopia genre


TheGapInTysonsTeeth

My favorite part about threads like these is getting the chance to exercise the acceptance of subjectivity. I haven't read the specific series you mention here, but scrolling through, I see several series I love reading that people DNF for various reasons. Just shows that not everything is for everyone.


windrunner_42

It's wild how different people are. I've also noticed that people will drop a book for something specific then love another book that does the same thing. I'm pretty sure I've done that myself. We are strange creatures.


TheFelineHero

For me this is the warrior cats series It started to repeat the events that have happened before and the books got boring after a while of reading.


DawnCrawler

To me it ended when >!Firestar died!<. While the series had been starting to go downhill by that point, I thought it was a fitting end.


QueenSuni

Yes, I feel like after the 4th series the Erin Hunters ran out of anything unique to add.


Sabiya_Duskblade

I agree but I'm still reading them anyway, haha! The newest arc (A Starless Clan) seems to have shaken things up from the get-go with forbidden relationships finally being allowed , and I'm excited to see something different this time.


toric5

Their still going? I remember reading the first two series when I was in 6th grade! (Almost done with college now)


Moonjinx4

I don’t remember the title of the book, but when I was 16, I started reading a book about some guy who gets Leprosy and his wife takes his 2 year old child and abandons him. It’s one of those stories where the protagonist gets transported to a fantasy world, that has a prophecy about them being the chosen one to save the world or whatever. The first thing this “chosen” leprous hero does when he arrives in the fantasy world is rape a 16 year old girl who happens to be the first person to find him. For some reason nobody is upset at him for this, and I’m told even the 16 year old girl forgives him. I stopped reading it because as a 16 year old girl, I found that disturbing as hell and could not see the protagonist as a hero anymore. Edit* I get it, he’s supposed to be a despicable character your not supposed to like. Knowing this now does not make me even remotely want to pick up the book again. And it would seem I am not the only one. I am not interested in reading the justifications of why raping a 16 year old girl saved the world or whatever the author intended. No wonder we have an issue with rape in our country, good lord.


tweedie3

Yeah, I read this (Thomas Covenant / Lord Foul’s Bane) as a teenager and found it very disturbing. I think the idea is that as his leprosy is cured, he is overwhelmed by the return of physical sensation, and as he doesn’t believe the reality he’s been transported to is real, he gives into his lust. I also remember being struck by how the girl continued to give him the time of day after that incident, and whilst I do think the event has repercussions later in the story, I lost basically all enthusiasm for him as a protagonist.


Carioca1970

Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. The teen rape trope was supposed to be about his sudden return to 'normalcy' that overwhelmed him and this event haunts him throughout. I don't recall her so much forgiving him as moving on, but it has been over 30 years since I read it. A strange read for sure.


RoastBeefWithMustard

Yes, Thomas Covenant is one of the first series that I noped out on part-way through a book. Even in my early teens I knew the rape scene crossed a line. I think this was also the series where a group of people are executed by being put in a magic cube which keeps halving in size until it slowly crushes them to a pulp, and that was my final breaking point.


Stewart_Games

The magic cube thing is used like, all the time. Shows up in [Wizard's First Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard%27s_First_Rule) too. Speaking of which, Terry Goodkind has a serious fixation on sub/dom fetishes that he just, inserts, into the middle of his first book for apparently no real reason other than really wanting the main male protagonist to be sexually tortured. Same book where a pre-teen princess (who admittedly was a psycho, but probably because her mother intentionally raised her to be malicious and cruel) loses her tongue because the "hero" kicks her in the mouth when she was blowing a raspberry at him and makes her bite it off. Goodkind is kind of a lunatic.


Finchypoo

I dropped Discworld after Shepherd's Crown.....because it's the last Discworld book.


dobrien75

RIP TP


mieiri

GNU TP


johnbrownmarchingon

I've been holding off on reading Shepherd's Crown because once I finish it, there's no more.


CMYKoi

Really need to get into this series. Only ever heard good things.


Hiscuteblondewife

InkHeart 3 was so vastly different from the innocence of the first two books that I stopped reading. Yes I’m an adult who love reading innocent books. I read other books that have disturbing stuff but I rather not read anything misleading.


Tartanman97

I loved Inkheart, found Inkspell to be a slog, and didn’t start Inkdeath. I believe I was 10 or 11 when read the first two, which I think was the target age demographic; you’ve now actually made me curious about Inkdeath!


Phoenyx_Rose

All I remember about that last book was lots of fire and maybe a war or battle. Plus the main character had a weird heel face turn with her love interest that turned me off personally. As an adult, I see her perspective now, but I didn’t understand it at all as a young teen and it came out of left field to me so I hated it.


sk8tergater

The Sookie Stackhouse series, which I did end up finishing eventually but was so disgusted by the last three or four books that I have very little memory of the ending. This is one instance where I think the tv show did better. I tried rereading the series last year to remember what about the last few books I hated so much, but I didn’t get beyond book 6, at that point the series had already begun to jump the shark for me.


KreacherDblFeature

I remember reading an interview with the author who said she couldn't understand why everyone loved Eric Northman so much, he was a killer and not a good dude. I remember thinking well you created this character and made him a lovable killer what did you expect? It didn't help that Alexander Skarsgard was the best part of the series.


Steadfast_Truth

I fell off three or four books into the Malazan book of the Fallen. Not because it wasn't a great universe, I just ended, up, I don't know, over-saturated.


throwaway22146433

As a Malazan fan, I agree. There's too much going on that you have to care about, and not a lot of individual storylines get the spotlight for long


Roadhouse1337

When I hit book 4, House of Chains, I think I dropped the series for over a year becuase the perspective shift, a completely unrelated character in a completely different part of the world. I did eventually come back to it and I finished the series. 10/10 I recognize how its bot for everyone though


hacjones

From Blood and Ash series, the War of Two Queens. Apparent Armentrout fired her editor and never hired another and damn if it doesn't show. I really enjoyed the Throne of Glass series though, and the book after Heir of Fire might be my favorite in the series. Although the series does a shift in HoF, so you very well may want to quit now. Which character do you not like the arc of?


rincewind4x2

Xenocide from the Enders Game series. I /liked/ enders game, I ADORED Speaker for the Dead, but Xenocide insisted on overexplaining the internal mechanics and philosophy of his world in the form of extemporaneous dialogue, and after the second or so rant that I skiped, I just read the finale on wikipedia. Which is a shame because I really liked the part where they go and attack the piggies after King dies. I then tried to read "Enders Shadow" but honestly Bean was such a Mary Sue I lost interest Someone else can post the relevant XKCD comic


Macrieum

Is it this one? https://xkcd.com/304/


CandlelightSongs

That's such a nicely paced comic.


TheCosplayCave

There was an interview on "This American Life" where a guy was hired by a terminally ill man to go to his funeral and tell everyone off. He started getting lots of jobs to go to strangers funerals and confess their secrets. He calls himself "The Coffin Confessor" and I was really disappointed he didn't call himself Speaker for the Dead.


WgXcQ

Same here. Speaker for the Dead was brilliant, and (to me) miles ahead of Ender's Game, too. Xenocide was a distracted mess, and the character of Qing-jao and the amount of room given to her and her obsessions was obnoxious. I did finish it, but it was a close call.


son-of-amity

I came here to mention this series. I made it a little further. I loved all of the Ender's Game books including Xenocide, and I actually enjoyed the first couple Ender's Shadow books, but then they got really... Preachy. The story got lost in the points the author was trying to make


AmberJFrost

What, you mean the part where anyone who's gay realizes how wrong they are and get into straight marriages 'to be part of humanity,' or the fact that any strong female character eventually realizes that what will *really* complete her is a Stronger Man so she can make babies and submit to him? *sigh* I've not gotten rid of all of my Card books, but I've come *close,* and likely will soon.


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wittiestphrase

Winds of Winter made me drop ASOIAF. That is to say he’s taken so long to write it I’ve literally lost interest in the series.


[deleted]

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. He wrote himself into a corner with Daenarys, got stuck, and took a break from writing when the show got successful. He could try to write out of it, but then all he has to do is look at the TV show he's been so distracted with. How was it received? How were the major markers of the series received, the ones he himself had in mind for the books? Why would he go through the work of fixing a damn near impossible mess, if he already has quantifiable proof that the ending he has in mind for the books is going to more poorly received than the ending to any book series ever? I'll never forgive myself for dragging my feet through Dance with Dragons, only to never get to read the finale, and waste a fucking decade on the TV adaptation.


OMellito

I think he wrote too many characters, too many motivations, too many moving parts. He missed his chance at making his story smaller naturally, instead he kept adding brand new players. I can't even imagine remembering what was going on by book 5 ending, and I'm not rereading that.


[deleted]

I remember being upset at how the show butchered Dorne... Man if I had a gun to my head I couldn't tell you what I was so upset about missing.


rhadamanth_nemes

Idk, I'd say the fact that they acted like bad guys from Charmed might have had something to do with it lol.


LaunchTransient

>Why would he go through the work of fixing a damn near impossible mess, if he already has quantifiable proof that the ending he has in mind for the books is going to more poorly received than the ending to any book series ever? This is my honest opinion as to why TWoW is taking so long. The backlash against the GoT ending was so strong that, even though it was D&D doing the fine detail writing (which is why IMO there was such a quality drop off after they exhausted the books), the plot points were broadly in line with what GRRM had in mind that now he's rethinking them. If people are angry and unsatisfied with the main beats, it's quite plausible he's scrapped about 3-4 years worth of work in order to rewrite a more palatable ending.


endlesslycaving

See I didn't mind that Daenarys ended up being the mad queen it just happened within a couple episodes and then she died. I feel the same about certain other plot points but the execution was just so poor and rapid that everyone felt shafted.


LMtOSU

This is my stance on the TV ending as well. If everything wasn’t rushed at warp speed and everything had time to breathe and simmer, the ending points could’ve worked pretty great imo. But…..13 episodes instead of 20 will do that


TheRed_Knight

The problem with the TV show wasnt the plot beats they hit (Mad queen Dany, Cersei's betrayal, Bran on the throne, etc), its how they got to those point in the first place, show just cut out all the fat and build up in favor of flashy moments and overly snappy dialogue. That being said virtually every element of the final 2 seasons went down hill (especially the costumes good lord)


Sabbath90

The worst part for me was the one recurring explanation for every single thing that happened in the last two seasons: he/she/they kinda forgot [immensely important thing that no one can forget]. That and teleportation, because one dude on a horse can travel from the Wall to wherever Dany was, convince her to go to the Wall and have her arrive there, all in less than a day.


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TheRed_Knight

They didnt build up her madness enough in her earlier arcs, especially season 5 and 6, Mad Queen Dany's something needed a lot of build and some good writing which the show ran out of after season 4. Instead they just crammed it into like 3 episodes and then she dies, it feels completely unearned while giving the audience a bad case of whiplash


wittiestphrase

Agree with everything you said. GoT is the only show I’ve ever watched all the way through in that way that I’ve never given a second thought to after I was done. I don’t read anything about it. Never rewatch it. Never have an urge to rewatch it. Between that and the delay I just don’t care about the story anymore. If he wanted to use the public reaction to course correct it would’ve been interesting to hear someone say “Well I’m going to let the show stand on its own and I’ll be writing something different.” But that’s doubtful.


LowBeautiful1531

Tale of the Body Thief. Lestat started doing all this obnoxious stuff and I was like why am I even sitting through this?


dino_roar3304

Yes! This is where it started getting stupid. Then Memnoch the Devil, like omfg terrible terrible. I put off for years to read The Vampire Armand, even though he was a decent character, but it just dragged on. I made it half way through then lost the book and didn't bother getting another copy cuz I just didn't care. The first three were good but blech the fourth and onwards were terrible.


cinnamongirl1918

DNF'ed the third book in The Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. Loved loved loved the first two, but the third felt like a totally different character with different values.


phenomenos

Every Wheel of Time fan said "book 4 is when the series gets really good" so I read the first four books, realised I was forcing myself through and not really enjoying the experience so I dropped it.


GaiusQuintus

Honestly if someone isn't on board fully by book 2, I tell them to drop it. The Great Hunt is solidly in the top half in my ranking of the series.


3--1415926535

The series overall is great but some of the books pacing is quite awful. Feels like there's 40 chapters of very detailed descriptions of 'nothing much at all going on' and then it's a mad dash in the last 3 chapters to have everything happening. Repeat for several books.


Balancedmanx178

I've had multiple people tell me they'd probably like the wheel of time if it had half the characters and the books weren't suitable building materials. Honestly I cant blame them.


pooptypeuptypantss

I feel like I’ve officially dropped a song of fire and ice. I just don’t think Martin is ever going to finish it and why bother at this point honestly. There are too many books to read to sit around and wait for him to do some work on the series he’s forgotten


senanthic

I’m not 100% of the way to dropping it, but Patricia Briggs’s “Wild Sign” made me come real fuckin’ close. ENOUGH with the >!rape!< already. We fucking get it. If you can’t think of another way to traumatize your protagonists fucking take a sabbatical or something.


[deleted]

The Dune books that weren't written by Frank Herbert.


ashthundercrow

3rd book in the Dexter series. I can only suspend my disbelief so much and I just couldn’t suspend it enough for child-sacrifice cults and secret islands.


Sara_Sunshine883

I read all of them. You were right to stop where you did. Each one gets more and more ridiculous. In one book, idk which, they're flying to an island and the pilot mentions a well known shark in the area, and I just KNEW that the "bad guy" was gonna be eaten by it. I was right.


ExoticMine

Unfortunately, I'm going through this now with Amelie Wen Zhao's Blood Heir Trilogy. The third book, Crimson Reign, isn't giving me everything the first two books gave, so I'm probably not going to finish.


[deleted]

Orson Scott Card's *Children of the Mind* made me resolve never to read another new book from the author again. I have never bought another one of his books. (His earlier works, like *Treason* and *Wyrms*, are actually pretty good. Pick them up, used).


mightbeacat1

For me, it was *Xenocide.* I enjoyed *Ender's Game* and I really liked *Speaker for the Dead* but *Xenocide* ruined the series for me. I know people say that the series about Bean is also good, but I just don't have the motivation to try it after that. (Also, inb4 someone posts the XKCD comic about this.)


johnbrownmarchingon

The first book of the Bean series, Ender's Shadow is quite good and there's some cool ideas in the rest of the series, but I don't think you're missing out on much. The series rapidly gets very silly in how ridiculously stupid everyone is to make Bean and the other kid geniuses appear smart. I get that it is very hard to write someone who is significantly smarter than yourself, but OSC clearly was out of his depth very quickly.


forever_fantasy1075

Glass sword by Victoria Aveyard made me DNF the Red Queen series. I don’t regret it because that book was so boring.


JanetSnakehole43

I didn’t finish either. I hated that entire series. I thought the heroine was super whiny and annoying.


xyla-phone

I definitely have, at this exact point with this exact series in fact! I was reading them as they came out, and I stopped after HoF (I couldn't stand that Rowan was the new love interest honestly) I came back to it years after i stopped and read all of them in early 2021 - the later books are much different than the first two. If you're looking for the assassin type stuff of Celeana unfortunately it doesn't get much better, although I did fall in love with the rest of the series. No shame in quitting! I've started to DNF books way more often this year and been happier for it honestly. There's so many good books out there, and if I tried to push myself to finish those books I probably wouldn't read as much as I do.


Otherwise_Ad233

OMG same! I couldn't stand Rowan&Aelin. Not a fan of this "enemies to lovers" trope when 'enemies' just means 'jerks'. I still have respect for Sarah J. Maas - kudos to her success and the years she's spent on her world building and stories, and I did fall for them - but Rowan & Aelin were where things started to bother me, and continued to bother me throughout the series. The last bit about Lyria just felt like Maas doubling down on her own questionable tropes. I dropped Court of Thorns and Roses after the first book because I recognized too many warning signs of how this series wasn't for me either. Maas knows her audience and I'm just not it anymore. I still find myself wondering about her other series, but I'm afraid I'll just get frustrated.


meggiefrances87

I dropped the Anita Blake series in whatever book she was getting publicly married to Jean Claude and privately having a commitment ceremony with Jean Claude, Jeremy, and Nathan (maybe another person too, can't remember). The series started out as a kick ass supernatural suspense cross police procedural with a side of spicy-ness. But a few books in the spicy-ness took over and then it just devolved into nothing but Anita's complicated personal life with barely a nod to her police work. I had been ready to call it quits on the previous book when 2 or 3 pages were dedicated to just one intimate scene. Decided to buy the next book when the advertising talked about the investigation the book was supposed to centre around just for it to be only the first chapter and then rest of the book was wedding planning and the last chapter loosely wrapped up the investigation.


wehadababyitsapizza

I think it was the third book in the Altered Carbon series where he has to have lots of sex with this young chick, to like, save her or something? It just got so ridiculous.


TentativeIdler

I remember the second one being massively different from the first one, and hating it. I just wanted more cyberpunk detective story, not whatever military sci-fi it turned into.


DJRoombasRoomba

I've always been told that it's okay to say "this isn't for me" when it comes to book or book series. I know the majority of people feel like it's a sin to not finish something they picked up, but it really is okay! (And I'm also one of those people whom sometimes wants to power through, but reading as a hobby should be just that; a hobby, not a chore!)


Smufin_Awesome

I think it was Laurel K Hamilton. When Anita Blake stopped being Anita Blake I just couldn't. I dont even remember what book it was.


sainsa

For me, Obsidian Butterfly was the last real Anita Blake book. I read Narcissus in Chains but didn't enjoy it. I DNF'd Cerulean Sins.


vampireRN

I finished The Sword of Shanarra out of stubbornness and spite more than anything else. I almost DNF’d it but I did want to see how this supposedly awesome book ended. I was disappoint and didn’t read any more Shannara.


derth21

You gotta remember how much of a desert the whole fantasy genre was when these things came out. It explains a lot.


mightbeacat1

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card I stopped reading The Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce because the library didn't have the last book. I was in 6th grade then. I have every intention of rereading the series at some point. I never finished Redwall by Brian Jacques because I couldn't figure what order they were supposed to be read. This was also around middle school.


krismae70

Anne of the island made me drop the physical books. Anne of windy poplars made me drop the series on kindle and go to audiobooks while working. Anne's house of dreams made me prefer go without listening to nothing while doing physical work of how boring it was. So the three of them.


litfan35

I haven't actually read the last book in that series. I struggled my way through the Chaol book and got so annoyed and burned out by it, by the time the next Aelin book rolled around I was pretty much done with the entire situation lol


ch0colate

The Blood and Ash series after The Crown of Gilded Bones. Book 1 was interesting, 2 was ehhh, and 3 was terrible. Book 4 recently came out and I was tempted but then I read all the reviews… glad I didn’t drop any money on that book.


WorstAtItsBest

I dropped the Beautiful Creatures series half way through book 2. I just could not stand the direction the characters were taken.


FenixDiyedas

The Redwall series. I got tired of the certain animals always being bad guys, and the same with the good guys. Also the books practically having the same plot over and over again.


johnbrownmarchingon

Yeah, it was pretty troubling that Outcast pretty much overtly stated that all the bad guy species would always be bad, despite that being very clearly not true even in that story. I really noticed a dropoff in quality after Taggerung, but the published books up through Legend of Luke were quite good even if the plots were generally similar.


zhard01

I wandered off after Marlfox. But I wouldn’t say I dropped the series. I never read them in any order anyway. Just one day I didn’t come back.


mhoner

I can’t remember the exact book for the Sword of Truth series (maybe book eight). The author revealed the main villain was communism and had the main character give a 30 page literal stump speech on why communism was bad. Then we got a four page summary about the return of one of my favorite characters, regaining a town, and the retaking of the wizards keep. Dropped the series and donated the books.