Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

The last two books I have just finished were so disappointing I can't shake the feeling and I am hoping other book addicts might understand a bit more as my other half just doesn't get it!

Firstly, I just finished the final book in the hunger games series. I am just soo disappointed I can't begin to shake it. I can't believe how poorly everything ended. There was NO ending whatsoever. The main summary of the entire story was squashed into the last 10% of the book, no expansion on details, no proper explanations. I am gutted Prim died, although if this had been a well built in dramatic point in the story I could have lived with it, but Katniss just seemed like an empty shell through the whole book, nothing was from her own actions. Peta being absent in either body/mind through the whole thing was also rubbish. We didn't even get an epic scene at the end where he finally showed that he remembered Katniss.

I am just so gutted with how badly it ended :(

Then, I read the new Cat and Bones book and I was really disappointed with that too. I could predict the story life the whole way through, it was if it wasn't thought through at all. Also Bones seemed really detached from his usual self, as if their relationship had turned to a simmer rather than the rapid boil it always had been. The resolution to the issue seemed to easy as well, I knew it was Denise before I had even got half way through.

Have you ever just been really upset by expecting a book to be amazing and it turning out to be a complete flop?

Help!!!

Kimberley--everyone has had that happen. You are right--sometimes it seems as if the author just phoned it in, with a final book (or two--or three) and the readers are the ones who bear the brunt of that waste. After all,WE are the ones who pay money for this "honour". The author gets paid anyway, and we are left with a bitter taste in our mouths.

And I don't think there is a group of readers anywhere where you don't get people complaining about this problem. All we can do is go to GR, Amazon, B&N, our blogs, twitters etc. and express our disappointment. Of course, we also need to say more than, "Hated this book." Especially if there are a lot of people who are raving "best book ever." (Yes, I've seen lots of that simple statement and all it does is make me want to slap the poster silly. WHY don't you like it--tell me already.)

But by all means--complain away, we'll all sympathize.

Ahhhh! Spoilers!! I haven't read Hunger Games yet :(

No spoilers, but I think I'm one of the few people in the world who actually liked Mockingjay best. I think I understand all your complaints, but I saw them as features, not bugs. I think Katniss is a very unreliable narrator (which I like), and we saw that the most in Mockingjay.

But have I "ever just been really upset by expecting a book to be amazing and it turning out to be a complete flop?" YES! That's pretty much how I felt about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I hate how in the last two books, she introduced these two concepts out of no where. Yes, I get that Harry was not raised in a wizarding family so there is a lot that he doesn't know about, but it just felt like it came out of no where. And the bit about snitches having memories so they know which seeker caught them in disputed matches makes me all ragey because in the movies (which she had some creative control over) her seekers wear gloves!!!!! (Yeah, Harry's gloves are fingerless, but that's not good enough for me.)

I feel no one else ever understands! Equally they don't understand the desperate 'I will stay up till 4am to finish this' kind of books that drive me insane too (but in a much better way!)

I totally agree with all your points on the last Cat and Bones book, I too felt very disappointed in it. I didn't really like the plot of the book and felt the ending didn't really suit the characters.

As for Mockingjay I really liked the ending. Even though it was very sad and I found it really heart-breaking, I feel that the ending suited what the whole Hunger Games world was about. Because of how dark and chilling the society and the Games in the books were I felt it was to be expected there would be deaths and sadness at the end. The ending stayed true to the tones of the previous books.

I have mixed feelings on the Mockingjay ending. I feel like in their world, there was no where left to go but to war, like they did. I felt like it ended as it needed to. The part I was upset about was the Epilogue! It was basically like Katniss was saying, "Well, I ended up with Peeta because there was no one else left, and even though I didn't want kids, he talked me into it." I would've rather had her just not tell us what happened to them years later!

I diet feel that way with the Hunger Games. I mean, I would have liked to see more of Peeta and Katniss' relationship post-hunger games, but I thought he ending was fitting. However, the final book to the Delirium trilogy made me so angry. That series had no ending, in my opinion. So messed up!
Read Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky trilogy. I think you'll love it.

It's not the war or deaths I didn't like, it was how Katniss suddenly didn't kniw anything and became so removed from her original self I couldn't even recognise her character at the end. There also seemed to be pages dedicated to useless details while important events were summed up in a few paragraphs!

See, I understood why she wasn't the Katniss we all grew to know throughout all the books. She went through trauma after trauma and did so because she knew that by volunteering as tribute, by participating in the games and then later with the uprising, she was keeping her sister safe. At the end, her sister is dead, Gale, her supposed best friend, hasn't come to see her, her mom isn't even there for her. I think Suzanne made Katniss more believable because she finally showed her breakdown and made her vulnerability more apparent. She lost everything she ever fought for, even if the games ended. I like when books are more believable opposed to authors making characters act in a way that a normal person would never. You can't go through two Hunger Games, watch the boy you love fight the urge to want to murder you, and lose your family without being severely damaged.

See in my world of books I would rather be lied to with false hopes than given a depressing reality. Books are escapism and that's no use if they are more depressing that real life!

I'm the same way for the most part Kimberly, that's why I choose to read books with an HEA. However, The Hunger Games is just different. Considering the circumstances, I felt there was an HEA, however depressing it was. Even years later there still was no more Hunger Games and Katniss and Peeta were together and had kids. I was able to escape reality completely with this series.

I completely agree with you, Jeanine. I too prefer HEA in all my books, and escapism, but I didn't mind the ending for Hunger Games too much since it was believable and I couldn't see it realistically ending any other way.

Exactly, Tai :)
It would have been unbelievable if all of the sudden Katniss was happy just because she was alive and eventually ended up with Peeta. Too much trauma. And anyways, escapism and realism aren't the opposite of each other where books are concerned. Books have their own reality and I like it when authors stay true to that reality.

I agree, but the whole ending could have been shifted to make it more appealing. E.g, Peeta remembering everything and saving Katniss or something. It seems in the end Katniss just went oh well I've no choice u will do Peeta and kids? Well if ur going to make me.

Not to mention a side character becoming president. Why couldn't it have been haymitch or Peeta?

That Paylor became president shows to me something central in the storytelling: that so much happened that Katniss wasn't aware of. She was a side character to Katniss's world, but the world was much bigger than her.

I truly never got that feeling that Katniss just settled for Peeta. You make me want to go and reread the epilogue. It's been awhile since I read the book, but the last words are branded in my head and I thought that it ended on a good note.

I loved the books up until the epilogue. I felt like there could've been a little bit more in between where she killed Coin and the epilogue. I felt like there was so much build up from the three books and then BAM, they have kids and its years into the future.

I felt that way too, Kayla. It was almost like Suzanne just wanted to get the series over with. For all the hopeless romantics out there, myself included, I craved more of Peeta and Katniss after everything was settled. They had been through so much and I wanted to see them healing together. That is my only complaint though.

You summed it up perfectly, that was exactly how I felt. There just wasn't enough at the end to leave me feeling like there was a conclusion to the story. The last few chapters are so rushed and lacking. I was gutted not to see at least some of the development between them.

Kimberly, do NOT ever read the Delirium trilogy. It's SO much worse at the end of the last book. I loved that series and the end had absolutely no closure at all.