Hello, my name is Nick Camarata and I dislike sequels. Yep, I said it. Sequels are not my friends. To me, sequels, most of the time, do nothing but become disappointments in the attempt to keep an IP (Independent Property) going for a lot longer than it should. Movies seem to suffer the most with this issue but I see it flowing in books as well.
Do you sometimes find a book that you just absolutely love? The characters, the writing style, the story, the ending, everything in general? Now in most books, they end up leaving room for another book in the future. It's almost expected in most cases for YA. Then the sequel is released. You rush out and pick and barely pull yourself from it for those annoying real life things. Though, as you read it, you think to yourself, "What is this crap?" or "This is not what I thought it would be." While I haven't really been around YA books for a long time, I've heard my wife give her opinion about a series or two. Twilight and The Mortal Instruments are two series that I remember her ranting about.
Since my start of really reading books on a regular basis, I've come across some great series. Rot & Ruin, Across the Universe, Divergent, and The Name of this Book is a Secret are just a few examples. Out of the 4 series I've listed there, I've only read 1 of their sequels. Sad thing is, I own the sequels to all of them. I just can't pick them up in fear of these great series be tarnished of their greatness. While I have been told that the 2nd outings of each of these books are wonderful, I still hold off as much as I can.
I, however, did sit down with Rot & Ruin's sequel, Dust and Decay, and was very pleased. In fact, I was blown away by it. This series is one of those cases where the sequel ended up being way better than the original. Not that the original was bad. It was a great book. It's just the sequel was phenomenal. I know, I know. I should just suck it up and and pick the sequels of the other series but I just love the first books so much, I just can't bring myself to do it... yet.
Does anyone else out there have the same problem I do? Do they worry so much that their beloved series will be destroyed by the curse of the sequel? Let me know in the comments below so I don't feel entirely alone and crazy on this subject.
I definitely don't like sequels. A lot of times it seems like authors take it for an excuse to drag things out and/or increase their profit margin on a book that was perfectly fine as a standalone.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, there are a few series that I really enjoy and think are tastefully done.
But all told, I prefer single, non-series, no sequel novels.
What can I say? I agree. Although there are some pretty great sequels out there (Little Women, Harry Potter, Perfect Chemistry, just to name a few), most sequels just suck. Besides, as a reader I feel much more complete when the ending of a book is just that - the ending of the book. Not the ending of this first part that supposedly gets you hooked to read whatever comes next no matter how good or bad that 'next' is.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I have a whole rant on my blog about trilogies, which seems like it's the only way people write YA these days. :-)
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