On The Extra Stories In A Series

I read my fair share of Young Adult Fantasy and Science-Fiction series. They're fun, entertaining and some full of interesting ideas. I ready Adult Science-Fiction and Fantasy too, but I'm going to stick to YA right now. I'm thinking about all these series that have companion short stories. Some are prequels, some are re-tellings of scenes from another character's point of view, some are about what has happened in between novels. Not all series have them, The Hunger Games, for example. It's three novels, that's it, the end. Then there is a series like Delirium with so many extra tales, that though originally published as ebooks (as all these extra tales first are), they published a paperback edition too, though most leave their companion tales as ebooks, like the Grisha trilogy.

Though there are other series that leave out the extra bits (like Uglies from Scott Westerfeld), I feel like there are more who have at least one ebook tale (like Legend, by Marie Lu) and an increasing amount of others who are publishing their multiple ebook shorts in paperback form (Shatter Me, by Taherah Mafi). Why am I thinking about this?  Recently I read Red Queen. It was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm itching to read Glass Sword. I own both novels. I picked them up recently (at a very good price). However, Cruel Crown was not available to purchase. If it was there, would I have purchased it? Probably, yes. While I have skipped companion ebook short stories in the past, when there is more than one, I feel more of a pull to get them. What might they reveal about the characters I love, the ones I hate, the history of the world? With Red Queen a recent read, I'm left wondering if I should buy the paperback, the two ebooks separately (a cheaper deal) or just skip the stories.

As I type this, read what I've written, I think I might be feeling companion story burn-out. Why do the majority of series (at least the ones I've read lately) have these extra bits floating around? Some of the short stories I've read have been brilliant, like Leigh Bardugo's The Witch of Duva and Little Knife. Others I've been less fond of, like alternate perspectives, where I know what's going to happen (I like a little tension or mystery in my stories), especially if they don't tell me anything I didn't already know. I have a similar problem with prequels, a story is nice, but I want to learn something. The Assassin's Blade was a collection of prequel stories done right. They had their own plots and we learned a lot about the main character and even had hints about what could happen in future novels. I guess I am just wondering, why can't their be more series like The Hunger Games? A bunch of novels I loved. I'm not saying just trilogies either. Uglies is a series of 4 books. I just... I don't know... There are just so many... I want to be able to pick up the books and read them, without having to search online to see if any other stories exist. (I have to say, I do appreciate the ones that are free.) But why can't it be bam, bam, bam, done? If I hadn't joined Goodreads, I probably would have missed most of these stories (Thanks, Goodreads, for links on where to read them too.) It's just burn-out, that's all it is. Right? Bah! Whatever.

Top Ten Characters I'd Like To Check In With

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a really, really, long time. But I saw this week's topic and it really connected with me.  How many times have you read a book and imagined what life was like for the character after the story's end? I know I have. Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever find out.I certainly didn't know there would be a sequel (or two) to Oryx and Crake when I first read it. Margaret Atwood isn't known for writing trilogies, but I'm so glad she created MaddAddam. I didn't think there would be books after Wicked either (and I still have to read them). Sometimes that hope to know what happens to the lives of our favourite characters is fulfilled, but most of the time, nope, we don't get to know.

Here are my top ten characters I'd like to check in with - in no particular order:

1. Offred from The Handmaid's Tale - Never going to happen, because the ending is perfect, but I still wish I knew what happened to her.

2. Roland from The Dark Tower series - I will try not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the whole series, but I want to know if Roland breaks the cycle.

3. Harry Potter - Harry Potter!

4. Laila from A Thousand Splendid Suns - Did her life turn out okay?  It seemed like it would, but after such a difficult beginning, I'd like to make sure.

5. Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird - ... Oh wait....

6. Del from Lives of Girls and Women - I just want to know.

7. Lena from the Delirium series - That ending! Come on!

8. David & Tell Ullman from The Demonologist - That ending! Come on!

9. The Baudelaires from A Series of Unfortunate Events - Who do they become when they grow up?  (Do they grow up?)

10. The Time Traveler from The Time Machine - Where does he end up?

I refrained from including any series that I know has another book out or coming out that I haven't read yet.  As much as I wanted to include Blue Sargent (from The Raven Cycle) or Betsy Taylor (from Undead), I didn't, because there are books to read and maybe once I reach the conclusions of these series I won't be wondering (I know what happens to MaddAddam's Toby and Katniss from The Hunger Games). These are all characters that still capture my imagination. Who do you wonder about you close the book?

Requiem

I was not ready for the story to be over.  I thought there were more pages until I checked how many I had left.  I discovered I had 10 instead of 50.  The edition of Requiem I purchased apparently includes an Alex story.  I knew it was there, but in the midst of the novel, running through the Wilds with Lena and trying to survive Fred with Hana, I forgot about it.  I only remembered it as I approached the end.  I knew it was coming too late though.  I thought there would be more. 

The ending was unexpected.  I appreciated that Lauren Oliver didn't make it neat and tidy.  I expected something like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games and so many Young Adult novels I've read recently, with an epilogue or something at the end that tells us how it all worked out.  That's why I thought there was more to the story. With so few pages left, Lauren Oliver couldn't end the story and give us an epilogue. I like the unexpected, I like that Oliver did something different. There's a certain artistry about her choice of ending. I am intrigued by the uncertainty, the lack of resolutions.  I think I like the possiblity that characters could easily live or die in the next few moments past the end of the story.

I really enjoyed the alternating passages between Lena and Hana. Pandemonium was different than Delirium and Requiem was different again. I felt sorry for Hana through most of the story. Then I felt less sorry for her. I think she did the best she could. Without adults to guide them through confusing emotional times, is it any wonder that the adolescent characters act out? I think it's good to have an adult to help talk through things, parent or not, but the cure takes that away. All these young people hear is that the cure will eventually make it all better and they just have to behave. Like that's so easy when you're seventeen, especially with no guidance. It still breaks my heart to think that parents aren't caring, aren't loving their children. That's really what starts Lena on this path, that they wanted to take her mother's love away. I like that love is explored in more than just the romantic sense. 

Requiem was an thrilling ride to the end. I enjoyed this conclusion to the Delirium series. 

I just kind of wish it was the conclusion...

Since this edition includes the story, Alex, I thought I would write my thoughts on the short story/novella here as well.  Sometimes I am unmotivated to read the short stories and novellas of "trilogies" if I've already finished the main books.  I know what happens already in the plot and, in general, it doesn't add anything to the story for me or my enjoyment of the series. 

Alex was a good story and a great character.  Alex, the story, kind of changed how I view the character. I was thinking he had gotten harder, and he did, maybe just not as hard as Lena saw him. Alex gives the reader insight into what his time was like in the Crypts, Portland's prison, and how he escaped. What I was hoping for was maybe how he got to be where Lena was in New York and how he felt when he saw her with Julian. I was hoping maybe since the story is listed as #3.5 on Goodreads, it would give us some information as to what happened after the end of Requiem. It doesn't. Alex is a good story, but I wish I read it before Requiem. It didn't really do anything for me. It was well-written and enjoyable on its own, but I wouldn't suggest reading it as a concluding story to the Delirium series. Skip to the end, read it first, then read Requiem.  If there is anyone out there who feels different, I would like to hear their opinion.

Delirium Stories

Delirium Stories is a collection of three novellas/short stories written by Lauren Oliver as companions to the novels of the Delirium series.  I read the stories as I read the novels.  Hana and Annabel were read after Delirium and Raven after Pandemonium.  After I read each story, I wrote down a few thoughts, as I often do with short story collections.

Hana

I enjoyed Hana as a character in Delirium, but I think I like her more now. From Lena's perspective, it seems like Hana is a willing participant of everything. Hana is willing, but she also sees how Lena is growing and changing. Hana sees Lena moving away from her. 

Hana has her own experience with a boy, one many of us can relate to, but is put into a different perspective in the context of Delirium. She never tells Lena. If she did, maybe Lena would understand Hana's decision.

Annabel

Though I thoroughly enjoyed Hana and learning about all the things Lena didn't know happened, Annabel was exciting.  It was sad, but also full of hope.  Annabel is Lena's mother.  This is her story, told beautifully.  From Annabel and her own mother's perspective, we can maybe see why some people wanted the cure so desperately.

I loved everything about Annabel.  I loved her determination, her emotion, and her honesty. I love the story of how she met her husband of how they never spoke of it.  I also loved Thomas and getting to know him better.  He was just a name in  Delirium, in Annabel, he was a person, who had suffered loss and wanted to help the world.  Reading Annabel is a highlight in the whole series.

Raven

Raven. Oh my. There is so much. So much you don't know while reading Pandemonium. Raven is a mother/big sister to Lena, but she's so much more than that. There is so much information in this story. If you didn't read it and just read the novels, would there be surprise? I guess I'll find out soon since I'll be starting Requiem shortly. Raven is such a wonderful, complex character. She's so compelling. Even though Lena is looking for her mother, I want her to stay with Raven. Raven has dreams and hopes and fantasies. She has new complications. I don't know if it's because I've read Pandemonium, but Raven is my favourite story of the three. Raven went back for Lena. Annabel didn't.

I really enjoyed the Delirium Stories. I'm glad I read them interspersed with the novels. It added to the overall feel of the series. If you decide to read the Delirium series, pick up Delirium Stories too.

Pandemonium

The ending changed everything for me. I could have said that Pandemonium can be read on its own, as a complete novel, without the "second novel" feeling middle trilogy books often have. I could have said that. I almost still want to say it. It's just those last few lines, a handful of sentences changes the entire novel for me. Part of me wishes Lauren Oliver could have saved it, left it for Requiem instead. Maybe I'm too critical of endings. 

I loved Pandemonium. It is a wildly different story than the first book in the trilogy. In Delirium, Lena learns about love and how to love. In Pandemonium Lena learns how to fight and how to survive. In Pandemonium, she is the one to teach about love. We see two sides to Lena. We see what happened to her right after the end of Delirium, who she met, how she survived. In alternating chapters, we see Lena now, undercover in a different city, pretending to be cured, infiltrating a pro-cure group. 

Lena, thinking that Alex is dead, meets a new boy. Apparently, when the description/ synopsis of Pandemonium was first released, there was an uproar from fans, upset, distraught, over the fact that Lena could possibly move on and find someone else. For me, this is a realistic part of the novel. I know it's more "romantic" to think Lena will love Alex and only Alex forever until her death, but in real life we wouldn't expect that, so we can't be surprised when an author makes that decision. I'm glad that I'm reading the story now and was spared all the complaining when the Delirium sequel was released. 

The edition I read of Pandemonium was an enhanced eBook on my Kindle app. I was interested to know what "enhanced" meant. When I saw the Pandemonium eBook on sale, I knew that this was my chance. I wonder if other enhanced eBooks are different.  This edition included videos of Lauren Oliver describing certain important scenes and what inspired them.  I found the videos interesting, but I was not always happy with their placement.  Several times the videos came before the scene she was discussing, thus spoiling the scene right before it happened.  The most often broke the flow of the story.  I liked the videos themselves, I liked hearing Oliver speak about her inspiration.  If they came after the scene, it would have been much better. 

 

Pandemonium was fantastic.  It had me on the edge, eager to know what happened next.  It's a good thing I have Requiem.  I'm also interested in reading more by Oliver.  I  know she has more books, I'd like to see what other worlds her imagination has created.

Delirium

I seem to be reading books because I "have to" this month. Alias Grace, The Strain and now Delirium. I'm happy to say none of these books have disappointed me.  I heard that the Delirium pilot was going to be made available online for all the fans to watch. I have watched tweet after tweet, comment after comment, loving this pilot that wasn't picked up.  Well, I better read this book and watch this pilot, because for whatever reason* I have to know what's going on.

Delirium was fantastic.  Lauren Oliver creates a world where love is a disease.  Romantic love is the focus of the disease, but by taking that love away, they also take the love a parent feels for a child.  Reading the descriptions of parents ignoring the pained screams of their children when they hurt themselves (even just minor booboos) really resonated with me.  What disturbed me more were the cases of parents who couldn't bond with their child at all.  I know that Delirium has the teen-romance-dystopian thing going on, and it was great, well-written and believable, but that people could choose not to love their children bothered me.

I thought Delirium had a fascinating premise, which is what drew me to it.  The characters, Lena, Alex, Hana, Carol, Grace, they kept me reading.  What I want to know more of is, how did this happen?  How did Romeo and Juliet become a cautionary tale of the love disease?  I'm hoping to find out more in the second book, Pandemonium.  I've noticed this with some YA dystopian series.  The first book hooks you with a crazy story, the second and/or third books gives you the why, the explanation.  I wouldn't have minded a little hint in the first book though.  I would have also liked for Delirium to be a little more enclosed.  It doesn't exist on it's own as a novel as much as other first books have.  The ending was exciting, but there was too much left unwritten.  I'm still prepared to soak up every bit of the series.  

*Honestly, I don't usually read because of hype, but something about Delirium's buzz (and The Strain's), I couldn't resist.

More Sunny Days! Top Ten Books On My Summer To Read List

This week the topic from The Broke and The Bookish should be very easy.  I'm really looking forward to all the books on my Summer To Read List.  Some of these books relate to my Beach Reads, but they're not all "beachy", but they are definitely books I've had on hold too long and this summer seems like a great time to read them.  I've sorted them by author because I think I feel like binge reading....

By Cassandra Clare:

1. Clockwork Angel

2. Clockwork Prince 

3. Clockwork Princess

4. City of Fallen Angels

5. City of Lost Souls

By Sophie Kinsella

6. Twenties Girl 

7. Can You Keep A Secret?

By Margaret Atwood

8. Oryx and Crake (re-read in preparation for Maddaddam)

9. Maddaddam

By H.G. Wells

10. The Time Machine

Maybes:  H.G. Wells - Under The Knife

Lauren Oliver, Delerium, Pandemonium, Requiem

I may also start reading the Anne [of Green Gables] books.

So, what I've come to learn by making this list is that there are a lot of books I want to read this summer and I'm not 100% sure which ones to prioritize.  Maybe I'll just catch up on the Undead Series. 

Well, I think I might have failed this week's list...

What's on your summer to-read list?