Top Ten Tuesday 4

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
This week's theme: Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders

The Best:

Monsters of Men is the third book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. This is one of my favorite series, and this book really took my breath away. You get to see things from so many perspectives, and it's really hard to figure out who the "good guys" are because everyone believes they are doing the right thing. The characters are amazing and the ending was just perfect. I can't say enough good things about this book!

Quintanta of Charyn by Melina Marchetta was a beautiful ending to a very beautiful series. I have read almost all of Melina Marchetta's books, and they are all incredible - they have very real characters that go through such painful situations with such grace that I have to remind myself that these people aren't real to keep myself from sobbing. Above all, there is always hope and love, and I find that message inspiring.

Where She Went is the sequel to If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I thought the first book was very well-written and poetic, and the second book is equally as lovely. This story is far more bittersweet, and I loved the way Forman got so much emotion out of me in such a short book.

Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud is the third book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy, a series that I'm especially fond of. I discovered Bartimaeus when I was 12, and I loved his witty banter and rebellious spirit. The third book shows you sides of the main characters you've never seen, and the ending had me gasping. This book is just so great!

Clockwork Princess was an excellent end to Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices trilogy. I liked this series much better than the Mortal Instruments because of the historical setting and the amazing characters - this is the only love triangle I have ever read where all the characters treat each other with love and respect. I thought this was a very satisfying ending to a great series.

I don't think I need to explain this one. Let's just say I would have been annoyed if Harry Potter magically defeated evil once again, and I would have been angry if he died trying. I'm glad JK Rowling found middle ground - it was a brilliant way to handle the situation.







...and the Worst:

I loved the Chronicles of Narnia, but some of the books weren't as good as the others. Unfortunately, The Last Battle was my least favorite of all - I don't even remember much about it except a donkey and an ape.

I realize that someone is going to virtually punch me for this, but I didn't like the last book of the Hunger Games Trilogy. Mockingjay was just...dull. Katniss became nothing more than a pawn, and I felt like there were a lot of aspects of it that were unnecessarily drawn out and contrived. I loved the first book, but this was not a great ending.

Another case of "Liked the first book, downhill from there" - The Death Cure was so convoluted that I didn't enjoy it very much. There were so many random plot twists and crazy things happening and the actual resolution of the series conflict was really weak in my opinion. Not only was it an unsatisfying explanation, a lot of other things were never answered. Although the very last bit of the book was interesting, I didn't think this was a great series ending.





I don't have as many "worst series endings" because I usually abandon series halfway if I don't like them. I just don't have the patience to see if things get better (although I did give the Forest of Hands and Teeth series a shot, and each book was much better than the previous one).