When Bad Sequels Happen to Good Books
In my many years as a reader I’ve read some disappointing sequels. I never really felt the love for Rose in Bloom, the sequel to Louisa May Alcott’s Eight Cousins. Something about the book never really captured me the way the initial story of Rose and her adventuresome cousins did. To be honest, I didn’t love Jo’s Boys either. In fairness, the books might have suffered from Fabulous First Book Syndrome, a condition where the original novel is so spectacular that no book can possibly follow it.
This might also explain my lack of adoration for Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books (to a near manic extent) something about the final novel never clicked. I loved the pairing – I was always Team Peeta – but the rest of the story didn’t quite satisfy. I admired some of what she did with the tale – especially the death of a key character that brought us full circle from book one – but I did not feel the love. The same is true of Cress and Fairestby Marissa Meyer. Cinder was brilliant, Scarlet good but these two? If the series wasn’t so close to a conclusion I would probably give it up.
The Inkworld series by Cornelia Funke was another that went from brilliant to pfft. The first novel, Inkheart, is a magical, lyrical tale about books coming to life and the magic and mayhem that that leads to. It’s an incredible story and not to be missed. The sequels Inkspell and Inkdeath had none of the charm so prevalent in the original book and the magic was lost.
These were disappointing but some books get a sequel so awful it never should have been written. Such is the case with Sliver of Truth by Lisa Unger. In the first novel, Beautiful Lies we learn that Ridley Jones has a lovely life. Or had a lovely life. When an act of heroism has Ridley’s picture splashed all over the news she learns the truth. That wonderful family and fairy tale upbringing? They are all part and parcel of a series of beautiful lies covering a horrific truth. I loved Beautiful Lies and eagerly grabbed up Sliver of Truth only to find that the author twists everything to create the sequel. It was a redundant, nonsensical tale that just about destroyed the joy I took in the first book.
I hadn’t expected to like Andrew Fukuda’s The Hunt, a violent YA thriller about murderous vampires but I did. I became thoroughly engrossed in this story of a group of humans in a world where they were food, considered the rarest and most delicious form of delicacy. Both The Hunt and its sequel The Prey set us up for a big payoff in book three. But that book, The Trap? The payoff never came and what we learned and how it ended made me want to smack it against a wall. (I had it on e-reader, there was no way my Kindle was paying the price for this travesty so it never got the beating it so richly deserved.)
In romance my most disappointing sequel was one I shared with many others fans. Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockmann, part of her Troubleshooters series, was the sequel to Into the Fire. In these two novels Brockmann broke up couples she had been setting up for several books in the series to give us whole new pairings. It was a nightmare for many, who had voted in polls and participated in discussions which strongly indicated that the original duos would be the ones we would see finalized in print. Some readers, myself included, took her off their buy lists. Others were so angry they sold all the novels they had originally loved as well. I can’t remember another book that caused such universal ire in the romance community.
So now it’s your turn. What book(s) was the most disappointing sequel for you?
AAR’s Maggie
I agree with another post – Jennifer Ashley’s Mackenzie books have gotten weaker, starting with book 4 The Duke’s Perfect Wife. The characters are still great, but the plots are much weaker and erratic (and not in a good way). I am hopefully for the new book; because it is a prequel she won’t be as constrained by previous books and the plot will flow more naturally.
The sequels that stands out in my mind as the absolute worst, and I am still bitter about this, were book 5 and 6 of the Earth’s Children Series (or Clan of the Cave Bear series). I waited 12 years for book 5, and it was horribly pedantic. Very dry and repetitive. But book 6 was so bad I returned it to the store. Not only was it also dry and repetitive, but she ended it with a complete 180 character change. It was a horrible end to an innovative and exciting series.
I disliked Mockingly as well, but for different reasons. I had no problem with the pivotal death, but I was bothered by Katniss’ decision in the end when the remaining tributes get to decide if there will be another hunger games. That one decision, for me, undid the whole anti-war message of the series.
And the series isn’t anti-war because of the actions of the districts in rebelling. It is anti-war because of the actions of the Capitol, namely a ruling privileged few who make the decision to send other people’s children off to a wholly unnecessary war of their own creation (the hunger games).
I loved the Madness of Ian MacKenzie and the hints about his brothers, but when those books came they were major disappointments to me. Hart’s story in particular. I don’t know if Jennifer Ashley did not expect the first to be so successful and was caught out when more books were requested but they were so toothless, bland and ordinary.
My worst disappointment was Natasha Peters’ “”Savage Surrender.”” It was actually the first book, but I read the sequel, “”Dangerous Obsession”” first, loved it, loved the really unconventional heroine and the hero and supporting characters, and was so happy to find out there was a previous book about the hero’s parents. It turned out to be one of the more brutal bodice rippers where the heroine suffers terribly and the hero is a callous jerk who treats her like dirt thru most of the book. As was often the case with that genre, there actually was a bizarre chemistry between the two, but since they spent a lot of time apart, it was never really developed.
I’m with you, Maggie. I thought Mockingjay was terrible – bloated, overly ambitious, and a muddle. (Okay, maybe not “”terrible”” but a huge letdown after the first two books.) I didn’t catch the anti-war message either. I saw the books as being about class warfare and oppression. I’m probably in the minority once again. :D
I thought class warfare and oppression was a huge part of the books, which is way the anti-war message fizzled for me. Were the districts supposed to just keeping taking the abuse? Just keep sending their kids to die? I had the impression that if they tried to stage a quiet protest Snow would up the violence, not decrease it. Anyway, I thought that particular message didn’t work with the story she was telling.
I stopped reading the Outlander series because of A Fiery Cross (the gratuitous violence against a main character was the last straw for me!)
Susan Enoch wrote a historical series a while back that ended so badly! The Sins of a Duke is the last book in The Griffin Family series and what a stinker! I remember being mad for days after reading that sequel. Jo Goodman’s Compass Club final book It’s in His Kiss was also a stinker (I’m still mad about that too!).
I find I am often disappointed in the last book of historicals, especially when it’s a character who is the head of the family whom I have enjoyed for three or four books. Jo Beverley got it right with Rothgar and Mary Balogh got it right with Bewcastle , but it’s a rare occurrence. I am so nervous about Julie Anne Long’s last book in the Pennyroyal Green series that I might wait to see what everyone has to say about it before I decide whether to read it or not.
I think the sequel that bothered me the most was the last book in Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower series Scandal in Spring. The three books before were wonderful, but Daisy’s book was truly awful.
HUGE spoiler toward end of post.
I’ve avoided the Fifty Shades books because the descriptions I’ve read make them sound like a bad fit for my tastes.
A few years ago I happened to see an Amazon temporary freebie titled Fifty Shades of Alice in Wonderland. I tried it, and enjoyed it as both well-done erotica and a clever rewrite/parody of Alice in Wonderland. The sequel, Fifty Shades of Alice Through the Looking Glass, was also a well-done erotic rewrite/parody.
The author name, Melinda DuChamp, is a pseudonym, but I haven’t seen anything about a real name or names. Earlier this year, I noticed that there were several more titles under that byline, and I bought them.
Fifty Shades of Alice at the Hellfire Club is still fairly good, though there is no longer a Lewis Carroll original being parodied.
There was also another trilogy under that byline:
Fifty Shades of Jezebel and the Beanstalk
Fifty Shades of Puss in Boots
Fifty Shades of Goldilocks
None of these were as good as the Alice trilogy, but it was the last book that inspired me to post. The story turned really dark toward the end, with the sex changing to potentially deadly actions, then it ends with the heroine murdering the hero in the next to last line!
To some extent, this is an expectations problem, since I assumed these books would be erotic romance because of the Fifty Shades titles even though the author just labels them as erotica, but it really made me distrust the author.
I was so annoyed with Lisa Unger when she did her 180 in Sliver.
It was ridiculous. When your sequel requires you to rewrite the first book you shouldn’t do the sequel.
I like books in a series to be able to stand alone well. I don’t like a book that ends with a cliffhanger, especially if there is a long wait until the next one comes out. I like the HEA.
In the “”Outlander”” series, the first two sequels were as wonderful as the first book, and I remember eagerly awaiting the fourth book once I had finished the first three. While I enjoyed “”Drums of Autumn”” (book #4), with all the new characters that were introduced, it was a bit of a slog getting through it.
However, compared to “”The Fiery Cross”” (book #5), “”Drums”” was a really fast read! I’ve been told that the subsequent books are much more streamlined than “”TFC”” (i.e. they have an editor!), and now that we’re up to volume 8, as well as the Starz series, I will get back to the series–someday! :)
George RR Martin had that same problem with Song of Ice and Fire. Many fans have complained that the last two books just rambled way too much.
I liked the first book in the Insurgent-series, the 2nd was just okay, but the third one… Terrible ending. Terrible.
And I never got myself to reading the last installment in the Bridget Jones’-series. I prefer to live in a world with a living and breathing Mark Darcy.
And similar evilness with the sequel to Wiener’s Good in Bed.
Why do authors DO that? Do they just have to prove they’re not, God forbid, writing a romance?
I agree with pretty much all your points re the books I’ve read (although I hated the death in Mockinjay, which was so… offhand.)
My absolute least favorite is the fourth book in what should have been left the Flambards Trilogy. Talk about a romance killer. The original sweet beta hero becomes a useless drunk and the heroine ends up with the bad guy.
Also, the final sequel to The L-Shaped Room. Similar situation. Just can’t have a sweet beta hero, apparently — they always wind up weak and unmanly and replaced by some Alphole.
Willaful,
I felt the death in Mockingjay was the only good thing about it. Katniss went through everything she went through all to prevent that one event and in the end she couldn’t do it. It was a poignant reminder that burns was right when he wrote that famous line about best laid plans:
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
I mean, it’s just so apt – her perfect plans led to a war and left her pain rather than the planned joy.
My most frequent disappointment is the middle book of a trilogy – I often feel the author is trying to keep the flow going by writing a book that is not up to the standards of the first one, but when the third book comes out, it is usually better than the second book, even if it isn’t as good as the first. Recently, I read Miranda Neville’s Wild Quartet Series & The Ruin of a Rogue was not as good as either the first book, or the subsequent ones. Ditto for Loretta Chase’s Dressmakers Series – I almost didn’t buy the last book because I was so disappointed with the second one. I did, though, and enjoyed the last one!
I hear you about the sophomore slump. Many of my favorite trilogies suffer from it. It seems like everything has to be three or more books these days. I wish publishers would just let the author publish whatever number works for them – no reason for the books to continue into perpetuity.
I tend to avoid books with sequels so I can’t think of any right off the top of my head. You know what I hate. . . Is that Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird back in 1960 and she protected her reputation for 55 years. Now when she is 89 they get her to agree to publish Go Set a Watchman, something they didn’t think was worth publishing 55 years ago.
That bothers me too. I hadn’t thought of that one because I hadn’t read the book yet but yes, that’s pretty annoying.
So happy to hear that I was not the only one to dislike the sequel to Sunset Embrace. I absolutely loved that book and it was almost ruined for me. After reading Another Dawn, I had to immediately reread Sunset Embrace to undo for myself the damage.
I see the Hunger Games books as a necessary trio. Collins wrote the books to accomplish, among other things, sending readers a strong anti-war message.
I see those books as being different than, say, the Divergent books which I think never moved beyond the ideas in the first book. Each successive book is weaker–INMO–and does little to advance her world view.
I thought Hunger Games was brilliant and Catching Fire great but my problem with Mockingjay is that I never really got the anit-war message. Were the districts supposed to do some sort of peace strikes to get rid of the Capitol? The way Collin’s set up her world, that didn’t seem like a plan with a possibility of success. Just my opinion but I felt the first two books read like a sort of Lord of the Rings style narrative with clear villains and heroes and then the author tried to throw A Song of Ice and Fire at us with Mockingjay, with characters taking on more of a many shades of gray ambiance. I much preferred the original teen killing game books, Battle Royale. They began with the idea that morality comes in many, many shades.
Well…I can only think of one because I actually liked Mockingjay – but I think the reason that I liked it and maybe you didn’t is because I saw and recognized that she would not be the same again after what she had gone through and that three of the deaths that take place in Mockinjay are pivotal to the final relationships that Katniss would end up with. I haven’t read the other books you’ve mentioned but for me the book that really sent me over the edge with an author and where I felt the author betrayed readers was with Kim Harrison’s “”The Hollows”” series – when she kills off Kris…I stopped reading the books though I have many of the following books on my kindle (I bought them before I read the book where Kris is killed). I’m glad your kindle didn’t take a beating it didn’t deserve!
I’ve only read book one in this series but now if I read the others I will be forewarned :-)
Oh, don’t give up on The Hollows. While Kisten’s death was devastating for me too, Rachel does get a very satisfying HEA, that I was rooting for the whole way. She has to grow into herself before she gets her HEA, and she comes full circle. There are too many crazy adventures that you won’t want to miss.
In romance, for me, it would have to be Sandra Brown’s Sunset Embrace and the sequel about the daughter of the H/h of the first book. In the sequel…
SPOILER
The hero of the first book is killed. It took me years to read another Sandra Brown, and I never picked up another historical by her. I really want to envision the main characters of my books living an HEA well into old age, and I certainly don’t want to read about their death later!
Another Dawn, the sequel to Sunset Embrace, was a bitter disappointment to me. I loved Ross and Lydia and the secondary characters in Sunset Embrace and was so looking forward to the sequel and reading Jake’s story. I agree with you completely and have to add that I didn’t like the pairing of Banner and Jake. I think that Jake deserved someone more his equal and in my opinion, Banner wasn’t it. This book goes down as the worst sequel I have ever read.
Yes, I agree about the Jake/Banner pairing. That lackluster romance, along with the fate of Ross made it a terrible book, IMO.