From "What?!" to "WOW!"
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Every week they post a new topic/top ten list and invite everyone to share their own answers. I'm so obsessed with lists - so it makes perfect sense that I'd love this feature!
I usually just do my Top Ten Tuesday post in numerical order, but I decided to do things a little differently this week! Since the topic focuses on best and worst series endings, I decided to start at 10 and count down to 1 so I can highlight the worst (10) to best (1) YA series endings. So, let's begin!
Worst
10. Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty - I'm probably in the minority with my feelings on this series overall, but I particularly don't even want to get started on this final installment.
9. Boundless by Cynthia Hand - This book totally derailed my feelings for the series overall! It seemed like Clara morphed into a completely different character, the love triangle resolution frustrated me, and a number of other issues in this ending just made this series fall apart for me.
8. Requiem by Lauren Oliver - So, this is technically cheating because I haven't actually read this book. But I did decide to just read the ending. So, yeah, I have like zero desire to read the lead up to that open-ended mess.
7. Reached by Ally Condie - I didn't dislike this book as much as I did book two, but I think that's because I had such low expectations going in. I'm not sure what exactly it was, but I don't think I was the right reader for this series.
6. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder - This is another series that completely went off the rails. I'm not a huge fantasy reader, but I really loved the first book! The second one was a little frustrating, but I had hope for the third. And then I read it, and I wished I'd never even started this series in the first place. It was all over the place, and the series felt like it lacked cohesiveness.
Best
5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - I know that not everyone loved this ending, but I just adored it. There were so many moments I enjoyed in this one, and it's just gotten better for me upon re-reading. And that conversation between Peeta and Katniss? I die.
4. Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta - I thought the first book in this series was a little confusing, but Marchetta totally won me over in book two and three. This make have had a slightly neater bow than I'd anticipated, but I didn't care at all. I was so happy with how she resolved each storyline!
3. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare - I was hesitant to start this series, and then I considered setting it aside after the first book. I gave it some time, and then I was ready to finish this one off. Much to my surprise, I ended up loving book two and this conclusion more than I'd even imagined I would!
2. Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead - I loved this book so much, and the few things I felt needed a little more resolution have come up in the Bloodlines series so that makes me perfectly content with this ending. In fact, I already want to re-read this whole series!
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - Did you expect anything else?
Great books, i have a couple of the same ones as you but in the opposite opinion, i do agree with Last Sacrifice though, loved that series and book :)
ReplyDeleteMy TTT
Yeah, I didn't expect to the Vampire Academy series as much as I did! Such fun reads and a great ending to that series :)
DeleteI love how you made it into a little graph! That's so perfect.
ReplyDeleteI was SO upset with Reached. Absolutely. I LOVED the ending of HP but didn't quite like the epilogue :( And I'm glad to see another fan of Mockingjay! I actually didn't quite like it my first read because I was expecting SO MUCH but I re-read it recently and appreciated it so much more!!
Thanks girl! I'm glad you agree on Reached. The whole series just went downhill and became so boring. I actually didn't love the epilogue because it felt a litttttle cheesy, but I still think that series ending overall was fantastic. And so glad you liked Mockingjay, too! It's definitely a divisive ending in terms of people's opinions on it, but I really did think it was fitting for the series.
DeleteHave I ever told you how much I hate Tucker from Unearthly?? If not, now you know. I thought that ending was dumb. Not a fan. Especially that fighting scene in the barn.... yeah right. It was the climax and was over in a paragraph! I'm calling Bull$hit on Clara's out of nowhere, kick-butt abilities! Ok, now I'm irritated. Please don't ever put Boundless on a list again. I haven't thought about that book in a loooong time. :)
ReplyDeleteHahahaha! I actually liked Tucker better than Christian BUT I still hated that ending. UGH! That series just lost me with that last book. Clara was like a different character, the love triangle SUCKED and everyone made me irritated. But I do love that it's provoked such a strong reaction from you haha!
DeleteHarry Potter is at the top of my list, as well! It's probably my favorite series ender of all time, with The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman close behind.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Boundless, because i wasn't a huge fan of Hallowed. I did really like Unearthly though. It's just love triangles piss me off. SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Christian pissed me off too. And Clara for kissing him. I mean, it's Tucker! Plus, she was dating Tucker, so kissing other boys is NOT OKAY.
So I never wanted to read Boundless. Although I am curious about it, because I've seen it on a few lists today, where people were saying they were disappointed.
Yay Harry Potter!
DeleteSo, if the love triangle bothered in you in Hallowed, I'll be VERY curious on your thoughts if you read Boundless. That was one of my biggest problems with the book. It was a really frustrating and disappointing handling of something that I thought had been done pretty well up to that point. And yes to Christian and Clara pissing you off. That made me mad too!
Can you believe I still haven't read Mockingjay?
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! Hope you read it soon :)
DeleteI loved Mockingjay, too! "Real or not real?" "Real." AH! I haven't read Perfect Fifths yet, but I love all the others. Now I'm a little nervous to read it! Great list! Cait @ Book Love
ReplyDeleteOMG - the real or not real thing was PERFECTION.
DeleteIf you liked all the others, I think you'll probably still enjoy Perfect Fifths. I was pretty frustrated with the series as a whole, so the ending was that much more of a dud for me.
I've actually seen Perfect Fifths on so many lists today that I'm pretty sure I won't be reading it. Or at least it'll take something huge for me to go any further in the series. I love the discussions we had about Boundless and how mad we were. I feel like if you'd have read Requiem, we'd have ended up just as mad. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI can't remember how far you are into the series - is it just the first two books? Of the whole series, I liked those two best (although I'm not really a fan of the series to be honest).
DeleteHaha! I was thinking about our Boundless discussions while I was writing this! I just had to laugh and laugh about how mad me were with everything - and the fact that we really just wanted a book with the "bad guy" as the main character.
And yeah, I think we would have had some angry Requiem rants if I had ever gotten around to reading it. Haha!
I love this timeline thing, it's so awesome! Clockwork Princess and Deathly Hallows were great ;)
ReplyDelete-Scott Reads It!
Thanks so much! Glad you agree that those series endings were wonderful :)
DeleteI completely agree with you on Reached. I loved the Matched. I guess I just liked Cassia, but then the series took a weird turn in Crossed and it wasn't what I wanted from the series at all.
ReplyDeleteMockingjay... Ugh, I cried for most of the book when I read it last year so I am rereading it soon.
YES! I liked Matched, too, but found myself really bored and disconnected while reading Crossed. I considered not finishing the series, but I was curious about how Condie would end it.
DeleteYay to a Mockingjay re-read! I love that series more each time I read it :)
YES! to loving CP2, Harry Potter, and Quintana! And BOOO to Boundless! i totally, totally agree--those made my list as well, Hannah:)
ReplyDeleteYAYYYYY! Good series taste :)
DeleteI really don't think you're in the minority with Perfect Fifths. I thought it was just a really awkward way to write the final installment and end the series. I had invested so much in this series and these characters, and the ending wasn't satisfying enough for me. And I agree about Fire Study too. I binge-read Magic Study and Fire Study and was mostly invested in them as I read them, but after reflecting on them I started to realize how much they paled in comparison to the awesomeness of Poison Study. *sigh* And glad to see that you also enjoyed Mockingjay's conclusion. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm actually happy to hear that. I feel like I'm definitely in the minority with my feelings on the series overall, but I'm glad you think Perfect Fifths was a frustrating end. It really was just awkward and unsatisfying!
DeleteAnd YES to Fire Study. I binge read those books and was like WHAAAAAAAAT??? by the time I got to the end. I feel like there wasn't a clear plan or vision for those books, and it felt like Snyder hadn't really thought out what was going to happen. It makes me sad/mad too because Poison Study was AWESOME! And glad you loved Mockingjay too <3
I've got to give Vampire Academy another chance! I read the first one, and I didn't dislike it, but I just didn't fall in love with it like I expected to. I hear that it gets better as you go, so I'm going to try it again! And Harry Potter-- Oh yes, no other series will ever have a better ending <3
ReplyDeleteI totally love how you made this list into a countdown, btw :)
Yes! I actually read the first book and was meh on continuing with the series. I would definitely agree that they get better as you go along! And yay Harry Potter!
DeleteThanks so much! Glad you enjoyed my little countdown thing :)
I actually loved the ending of Requiem. No it may not have wrapped everything up with a pretty bow, but it just ended so hopeful and so full of promise. It was also different from a lot out there, which made it stand out to me.
ReplyDeleteI totally get that! I have a few friends who felt the same way, so you're definitely not alone. Open endings are hit or miss for me. Sometimes I find them fitting, and sometimes they leave me really frustrated. Glad this one stood out for you in a good way!
DeleteIt makes me so gosh darn happy that Deathly Hallows is your number one! That series ended on such a great note for me, and I really liked how Rowling wrapped it all up. I'm also in agreement with Quintana of Charyn -- that book gave me WAY more feels than I could ever have anticipated!
ReplyDeleteYes, that ending was SO good! And totally agree on Quintana - I did not expect to love that ending the way that I did.
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