Book Series I Fell Out of Love with Over Time

orangutan list

Hello all! I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about falling out of love with series. I guess part of this comes from realising certain books simply don’t interest me like they used to- which is a pity- but is all part of growing up I suppose 😉 We have our childhood sweethearts and then drift apart… However that’s not exactly what I’m talking about here. What I want to talk about today is the books that leave a sour taste in my mouth, the ones which feel increasingly tainted and the series that really broke my heart. Let’s get to it, before I chicken out…

mortal instruments

Anything in the Shadowhunter-Verse– this is the most obvious to me right now and the inspiration behind making this list. Sorry to the people that are still diehard fans, but the more I think about it, the more I’m bothered by the direction the series took (or in some ways, the lack of direction). The recycled characters and plots, the endless cliffhangers, the insertion of politics- it began really grinding my gears at the start of the Dark Artifices and had driven into a ditch by the end. And while I may continue to look back on my first foray into this world with fondness- ie the Infernal Devices trilogy- the more recent books are actually managing to taint my original view of the series as a fun paranormal romance. Sadly, its lost the entertainment value for me.

divergent series

The Divergent Series– I’m gonna confess, I was never a massive fan of this series. That said, I consistently rated it around 4* for enjoyment alone- always stating “don’t think about it too much”. Well I guess I couldn’t take my own advice, because the more I’ve thought about it over the years, the more I think it fails as dystopic fiction. The world building is nonsensical and the messaging (super important in this genre) is all over the place. And certain decisions in the last book are. so. frustrating (and I’m probably not even thinking of the one you are- which just goes to show how many issues there are with it!!)

twilight series

Twilight– unfortunately I have the awful claim to fame of being one of those peeps that liked Twilight before it was cool (I definitely ought to bury this fact somewhere- but for some reason I keep bringing it up 😉 ). Anyway, I think it’s fairly obvious why I stopped loving a story about sparkly vampires- not only is a concept like that bound to lose its shine over time, but that series GOT SO MUCH WORSE. I’m just sad I staked any energy in it 😉

kingkiller-chronicles-books

The Kingkiller Chronicles– ooh controversial opinion time. I actually LOVED book 1- however I ended up hugely disappointed with Wise Man’s Fear– in a way that made me question why I even liked the first instalment. My increasing despondency to this series hasn’t been helped by the huge wait between books. That said, this is the sole book on the list where I’ll happily read more and the only one that I think has a strong chance of redeeming itself with a killer finale.

poison study series

The Chronicles of Ixia– ah this is another one it pains me to think about these days cos I *loved* the first book. Unfortunately, it didn’t keep up its unique momentum in book 2 and managed to get progressively more generic as the series dragged on. Such was my disappointment that it’s even tainted the earlier books for me and, as much as I still have a soft spot for some of the characters (*cough* Valek *cough cough*), I always feel a twinge of sadness when I think about this series.

maximum ride series.png

Maximum Ride– now I didn’t want to include a lot of books from my childhood, because I know that my tastes have changed over time, I usually just read things based on what was available in libraries and mostly I look back on them with rose-tinted glasses even if they were lousy- BUT I can’t forget how much this series crashed and burned. It started out as a great concept and then flew wildly off track. Such a pity.

There you have it, these are all the series that cut me to the quick! 

broken heart0007

So do you have any series or books you used to love, but don’t anymore? Let me know in the comments! 

58 thoughts on “Book Series I Fell Out of Love with Over Time

  1. I liked Divergent but thought book 2 was ok and DNF’ed book 3. I don’t know if it’s time that has colored my love of the first book or just the fact that the rest of the series was so disappointing. I can’t even bring myself to read anything else Roth writes now.

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    1. I still haven’t read The Infernal Devices or The Dark Artifices in the Shadowhunters world because it’s just a lot of books? And I’m hesitant with historical fiction.
      I think I’ll probably be close to retiring when the third Kingkiller Chronicles comes out 😂
      I totally agree with the Maximum Ride books. My sister and I tried to keep up with all of them but once we got to the 4th or something book it became really confusing and we didn’t know what to do.

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  2. The fact that it’s been years since the last book in Kingkiller Chronicles and A Song of Ice and Fire makes me less and less likely that I’ll ever finish either one once the next books come out. Assuming they ever come out. It’s been so long since I read either series, I’d have to reread all the books, and I kinda don’t want to do that.

    The Dresden Files was a series I grew tired of over time, just because there were so very many books and the plot kept getting more and more convoluted. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time got to be a slog by the time book nine rolled around that I gave it up. I am planning to give Wheel of Time another chance again this year, so we’ll see if I change my mind about it.

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    1. I so relate! Although (partly thanks to the show) I’m still very much invested in got. I think there are some mysteries I want resolved from kingkiller chronicles as well though.

      Oh I can really understand that about the wheel of time as well. I didn’t get very far into that series (although I wasn’t really in love with it, so couldn’t fall out of love 😉) hope you do end up enjoying the rest of it!

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  3. I DNFed The Name of the Wind 😉 Suffice to say I didn’t take to Rothfuss’ particular type of Mary Sueism. As for Shadowhunters, I’ve read the first trilogy as an intriguing concept wrapped in a guilty pleasure, and never felt an urge to come back to the series – though I believe I’ve read a book about Tessa as well, and the similarities between the first trilogy and the second were a bit too much for me. Glad I didn’t lose out 😉

    Didn’t read any of the other you mentioned, but I have a different series I’ve fallen out of love with – though I finished it and valued greatly at the beginning – it’s Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. It’s due a reread soon, I’ll let you know how it fared! 🙂

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  4. We’ve already talked about the Shadowhunters lol so… Maximum Ride! Omg! I still have to finish the series lmao. I’ve read up to book #5? I think? It was a long time ago. Loved it, but yeah, it kind of derailed. This is one series that I actually want to complete though.

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  5. I never made it to The Dark Artifices – I had previously enjoyed the other Shadowhunters series, but I was deeply disappointed with the last Mortal Instruments book, feeling like it was predominantly a setup for TDA (not unlike the way you described your reading of the third TDA book).

    The others that spring to mind are the Shapeshifter series by Ali Sparkes which began well but got a bit weird when there was some connection to aliens brought into a later book. I feel like there was another series which introduced aliens part way through and I lost interest in because of that, but I don’t really remember.

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  6. Divergent for sure! And Maximum Ride I only read a few years ago, but by the last chapter of the last book, I felt totally betrayed! Twilight I continue to have mixed feelings about, as I honestly enjoyed books 1 and 2, and while I knew it would never be considered classic literature, it was still fun and what’s wrong with that? Shadowhunters I made my peace with already. 😉 But when you first realize a series you really liked is going volcanic, in the worst way, it does hurt!

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  7. This is one of the reasons I’m so hesitant about series, they always start off so strong and then eventually just get repetitive. Same about Divergent, honestly. I liked the first one, but the second one was rough and I never read the last one.

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  8. The ‘Bobby Dollar’ series by Tad Williams. The first book was amazing and a great take on Angels. The second was just so disappointing. I gave up halfway through it and didn’t read any others.

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  9. I completely agree with Divergent. I really enjoyed the first book, and still think it was good, but everything went downhill so quickly in the next books.

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  10. I definitely fell out of love with Maximum Ride – I’m not sure if it’s because I grew too old for them or if like you say they just fell off, which was a shame because I loved the first few.

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  11. I’d read The Divergent series so late in the game I never got the chance to get that nostalgic feel (though I hated the series after book two >.<)

    And I'm reading The Shadowhunter's series now for the first time… I don't think I'll ever be a die hard fan; the books are kind of mediocre for me, but I can see why people love them so much XD

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  12. Recently I have been seriously struggling with the shadowhunter books. I did like the Mortal Instruments but struggled with the Infernal Devices (still haven’t read book 3) which I put down to it being steampunk (I’ve yet to find a steampunk book I love). I have read the first book in Dark Artifices but found it long and I just couldn’t seem to care. It’s definitely started to put me off even the Mortal instruments now and I loved it when I first read it.

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  13. Wow, I’m on the same boat as you for some of these! I actually just gave away my Divergent books yesterday, which I was a HUGE fan of at like age 15, so it felt a little like saying goodbye to my teenager-hood 😂 And I definitely fell out of love with the Shadowhunters books…I think I’ve started but never finished most, if not all, of the series (oops). Maximum Ride too! I always forget about those books, but I was a massive fan for a short period of time! Even though they are, objectively, not that great! 😂

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  14. I remembering loving Poison Study (and trying to read as much as possible in the bookstore before I had to go. And then coming back and getting the book) but for some reason, I didn’t even finished Magic Study (I think? I don’t remember finishing it but I remember starting it). Didn’t even know there were other books in the series 😅😅😅 I think it would have been stronger as a stand-alone.

    Same with Maximum Ride! Think I read the first few books and the manga and just didn’t complete it 😝

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  15. Agree with Twilight! I also liked it before it became a huge deal, read them in 9th grade and I really liked it! As for the Shadowhunters I tried liking the first book but it was so bad, the plot and the characters didn’t make sense for me /hides/

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  16. Oh God! The Twilight series.😡 I loved the first book, was disappointed with New Moon but read the rest of the books anyway because I’m either an optimist or a masochist.🤦🏻‍♀️ I think the biggest series disappointment I’ve had though, is the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I LOVED the first 10 books, and then it got this whole sadomasochist sort of vibe, and it went from having vampires, werewolves etc. to having weird things like were-swans. That did it for me!☹️

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  17. I feel the same about the Kingkiller Chronicles. Loved this series and used to recommend it to everyone, but every year that passes with no news of the next book, I’ve stopped. No sense in getting someone hooked on a series when there’s no telling when it will be finished. I’m pretty over my excitement for the series now too,

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  18. I am soooooo with you on the Shadowhunter-Verse, Divergent and Twilight. I think it all boils down to the moment when the author decides to over-complicate for the sake of shock. It gets confusing.

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  19. Oh there are a fair few series I’ve fallen out of love with (our reading tastes just change too much for us to always love everything) and you’ve featured some of my main ones in this post. I loved the Study series, and I still love the first three books, but the latest three just didn’t have the same magic, and actually I still haven’t read the last one.
    With Twilight and Divergent I feel like I look at them through rose-tinted teenage glasses. I loved them when I first read them so I’ll never try and re-read them because I don’t want to ruin the memory I have of teenage me reading them (I do know if I read them again today I’d hate them probably!)
    Great post. 🙂 ❤️

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  20. ah, Divergent! Read the first book and then kept kidding myself for over a year that i’ll continue. I don’t think it’s actually gonna happen.

    Had similar feelings with Wise Man’s Fear. It was soooo not like the first book. It had the humour and all, but the story itself was not that interesting overall.

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  21. I’ve never liked Twilight I’m afraid. I was hating on it before it was cool to. I totally agree on Divergent and Maximum Ride though! The first couple of Maximum Ride books were good (i was about twelve or thirteen at the time) but then it got really bizarre from what I remember and I stopped reading because I didn’t care :/

    I read Name of the Wind but it took me a while because it kept me curious but not gripped. I didn’t bother with the second one.

    Two that aren’t on your list that I fell out of love with are the Maze Runner books (I felt they got more and more redundant with each volume, then the writer had no idea how to finish the series) and the Inkheart books. I loved the first one but by the end of the series, it felt like it was obvious what needed to happen and she was just dragging it out for all it was worth. But if you want a really good series, I 100% recommend the Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart (illustrated by Chris Ridell) but don’t start at the beginning, start with Beyond the Deepwoods.

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  22. This is such a good idea for a post, I love it! I have to say that,if I liked the Divergent series before, I feel like I wouldn’t love it so much now anymore :/

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  23. I’m so glad to hear I’m not the only one who was disappointed by Wise Man’s Fear, it made me dislike the main character. But I’ll probably still read the third book, cause the first one was great! I DNF’d the Divergent series like two pages into book 2, I just didn’t care at all.

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  24. I was one of those “read Twilight before it was cool” people as well. Now that I look back, I can’t take the series seriously. In addition, I don’t like the novels message about “love” as depicted between Bella and Edward … it’s unhealthy. Yup — I’m being a bum — but I can’t help it!

    I LOVED Shadowhunter’s when it was just a trilogy — but then Clare started adding all these other books years later and by that point, I was so connected to the original trilogy (again, read this series before it was cool and growing) and didn’t see the need to add more.

    And Divergent … UGH!!! I hated that last book. It ruined the whole thing for me … RUINED!

    Love this post — I like having the opportunity to vent about books ha-ha!

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  25. I made it pretty deep into the “Wheel of Time” series before getting tired of pretty much all the characters. Complex world-building only kept me enchanted for so long before the womanizing men and shrill manipulative women got on my nerves.

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  26. Agree with you on the Divergent series there, I really enjoyed them when I read them (when I was a teenager, I think?) and I enjoyed the movies too but I never picked them up again, because they’re just not that interesting except for escapism (and who reads dystopian novels for escapism, right?). For the most part it was because my friends were reading them/watching the movies and it was a cool bonding thing for us!

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  27. Funny about the Shadowhunters — I read the first three books like a woman possessed, but I felt like the story was done at that point, and didn’t feel the need for more. Weird, right? I was also a Twilight fan back in the day, but the more time passes, the more the entire story makes me cringe.

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  28. I don’t know if Anne Rice’s Vampire stories are considered a series, but I read the first, Interview with the Vampire, because everyone else was reading it. I found it a bit creepy but her writing held my attention. Shortly after I’d completed the book, I learned there were many others in the series, but I got my fill (bloody pun) with the first and felt no reason to read more. We do grow up, don’t we?

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  29. I totally get what you mean here. I was once a fan of the Twilight books too. I even don’t entirely mind them now, but I certainly realize they’re not well written and are mostly shallow and some very weird stuff goes down in book 4 lol. It definitely doesn’t have the same appeal it once did. People’s tastes change over time and sometimes the author changes and just isn’t interested in the work anymore and it suffers, etc.

    I agree with Sharon about Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Honestly they become formulaic after Body Thief but I kept reading. And reading. And now the entire series has jumped the shark and I just can’t stop laughing at it.

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  30. I only read the 1st Shadowhunter book, but I couldn’t get into it. I really wanted to, but couldn’t do it. I’m glad, since I suspect I would have fallen out of love with it too, if I had continued.

    I agree about the Divergent series and Poison Study, though. I really liked the first books, but the rest of the series? No thanks.

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  31. I have not read any of these series. Actually I don’t read much of book series at all so I can understand what you say! I hope you have not become series averse like me though!

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  32. I loved the first two books in the divergent trilogy! I’ve lost my interest on Allegiant after hearing a lot of negative reviews on it but I still hope to give it a shot someday in the future. I loved the first book in TMI series but haven’t read rest of the series yet.

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  33. Oh man I have the same feelings about Twilight. I also loved it before it got famous and then my interest started declining as it got more and more famous, but it had nothing to do with me not liking hyped up things and more to do with maturity. This is also an admission that I hesitate to make LOL!

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  34. I’ve had a couple of people know say that after Poison Study the series takes a bit of a dive, which I’m so sad about as, like you, I loved the first book! I do have the box set though so I’ll have to give the rest of the books a try, just in case.

    Twilight is still a guilty pleasure of mine though if I fancy a more relaxed reread haha!

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