The Frustration of Finding Out To Late That I Was Reading a Series

Spring Break 2019 hasn't officially started yet, but one challenge I posed to the students was to read a book over Spring Break.  At the time I was about halfway through a book - a book I really was pessimistic about but gave a try because it was a Lincoln Award winner.  I ended up really enjoying the book, though.

This book was a bit of a cross between Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, so it was much different from anything I had read for quite awhile.  The writing style of the author, though, was very good at allowing me to visualize the story, so I seemed to reach back into my childhood days watching my very own Disney movie.

The plot was exciting and suspenseful, and because I can't just enjoy a book, of course I was attempting to forecast and analyze how the author was going to bring it all together in the end.  Was it going to end happily?  Was there going to be a plot twist?  How were all the elements in the book going to come together?  Most importantly, would the evil main character who really was a misunderstood "good guy" win over his inner battle of demons or receive the justice everyone in the story felt he deserved.

And...the ending is....wait for the next book to come out...WHAT?  This book is a series!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  I was duped!  Well, to be honest I wasn't duped.  I just assumed incorrectly.  I think because this was the first book by this new author that I didn't anticipate this story turning into a series.  My bad.

I really "don't do series."  I prefer to see an author tell a story...not drag the story out in order to sell more books.  I do confess that I did read the Harry Potter series, but even those books disappointed me more and more with each additional book in the series.  In the Harry Potter example, the darkness just reached too dark of a level for me compared to the first book.

So I went downstairs to finish this book yesterday - sitting in my recliner in my exercise/tanning bed (which I don't use ever) man cave to be able to quietly finish this story.  I literally screamed out loud (the previously mentioned NOOOOOOOOO!), and it was so loud I startled my wife into thinking something really was wrong in the basement.

And here's the thing...I won't read the next book in the series.  And when if I have to report what I thought of the book, I will make sure that's one of the things I shared.  Perhaps I should admit at this point that I don't really mind a Harry Potter type series that has a beginning and an ending with each book in the series.  I really get frustrated, though, with an intentional open ending that requires an additional book.  In fact, this particular book was even more of an example, because the author added a little "trailer" to the next book at the end of this book. 

I repeat.  I won't read the next book.  In fact, I may not read this author again.  You know, now that I think about it, perhaps the Lincoln Award winner also helped assist my ignorance that this might be the beginning of the series.  Okay...I will put partial blame on the Lincoln Award folk.