Sometimes Giving an Author a Second Try Pays Off

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on September 7, 2016 | 3 Comments


This post is inspired directly from Paper Fury’s post Do You Give Authors’ Works Second Chances?

Cait’s post posed a fabulous question, and when I went to comment on it I realized – there’s a lot of authors that have written books I love as well as books I hate. And coincidentally enough, when I stumbled on her post I was in the middle of Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson; which is significant because I love that series and I kind of hated Girl of Fire and Thorns. So, I wanted to make my own post about the authors that I personally have given second chances, and why I don’t think you should ever dismiss an author’s work just because of one book.

Let’s take a look!

Authors to whom I gave second chances

tahereh mafi2

I enjoyed Shatter Me for the most part, but the more time that went by since I’d read it, the more meh I felt about it. Unravel Me, however, is one of my all time favorite books! In fact, it earned my rare Hail to the King Award. Ignite Me was the same way!rae carson

Like I said, I kind of hated Girl of Fire and Thorns. But the Gold Seer trilogy has been awesome thus far!

maggie stiefvater

I liked the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, for the most part. But I was HIGHLY disappointed in the ending. I feel meh about them overall, looking back. The Raven Boys however, I loooooved! I loved it SO much. It’s one of my faves!amy plum

despised Die for Me. With the fire of a thousand suns. My review is pretty ranty. But I quite enjoyed After the End!

aimee carter

Kind of hated Goddess Test. Enjoyed Pawn a lot! (Yet continue to procrastinate on reading the sequel…)

To further prove that it’s not always the author…

Here’s authors where it happened the other way around. In these cases, I read the book I enjoyed first, rather than having to give a second chance because I hated the first book I read by the author.

amy tintera

I really enjoyed Reboot, but I hated Ruined. It was such a generic High Fantasy, and was like Red Queen and Snow Like Ashes all over again.becca fitzpatrick

I was one of the few who actually enjoyed Hush, Hush (although the series went downhill after the first book), but Black Ice was rage inducing!cj redwine

Looooved the Defiance trilogy. Great world, great characters! But the Shadow Queen was sadly just meh.erin bowman

I enjoyed Taken, but didn’t care for Vengeance Road at all. I honestly think the issue here was that I had just read Walk on Earth a Stranger, and Vengeance Road felt like a cheap knockoff of that book. I’m also not usually a fan of Historical.gena showalter2

Intertwined is one of my all time favorite books EVER. I love that trilogy so hardcore! I read them back before I started blogging, and they hold a special place in my heart. I also really loved her White Rabbit Chronicles. Imagine my disappointment when I picked up Firstlife =/jennifer bosworth

Struck was a great book! The Killing Jar, on the other hand…lauren oliver2

Here is a VERY drastic one. Before I Fall is literally my favorite contemporary ever and one of my favorites in general. It even earned my rare Hail to the King Award. Panic was AWFUL. It’s amazing how different those two books were!michelle rowen

Bloodlust was another that I read in my pre-blogging days, but I loved the hell out of it. Dark Kiss was pretty bad :(mira grant

Parasite was such a cool book! I loved the concept and all of the science. Feed, however – despite being a super popular book – pissed me off so badly that I’m pretty sure I actually threw the book.sarah j maas

Okay, what the hell happened to my relationship with SJM books?! I loved ToG, LOVED CoM, but I barely finished HoF and QoS (Manon is literally the only thing keeping me going anymore. WHAT. HAPPENED.), and despised ACOTAR with the fire of a thousand suns. I hate that book so damn much it’s not even funny. (2 stars is quite generous considering my animosity toward it) The more time that goes by since I finished it, the more I hate it. Every time I see someone raving about it I hate it even more. And no, it’s not because they liked it…it’s because I didn’t. I just felt so robbed by this book…it’s SO popular and everyone loves it so much, it breaks my heart that I have such strong negative feelings toward it. Plus the cover is SO PRETTY. (Red is my favorite color, THAT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE.)

Authors to whom I want to give a second chance

brenna yovanoff

Fiendish was pretty painful to finish. But Paper Valentine looks and sounds super interesting!

colleen houck

Ahh, Colleen Houck covers. SO BEAUTIFUL. Tiger’s Curse was seriously AWFUL, though, which makes me super duper sad because it’s probably my favorite cover that ever existed (maybe second to Stormdancer, actually). Reawakened isn’t quite as pretty, but it’s still a lovely cover! Hopefully her writing has improved a LOT since Tiger’s Curse.elizabeth fama

Plus One is SO pretty!! I kinda get the feeling that I won’t like it, but I want to try it anyway because what can I say? I’m a sucker for a pretty cover ;)

richelle mead

I flipping despised Rose and just this book in general. I know Bloodlines is a spin-off of the original series, but I’ve heard it’s much better. Hopefully it actually is…wendy higgins

Sweet Evil is probably the worst book I’ve ever read. I hate it so much, I would buy an entire truck full of copies just to burn them. Yep, that’s how much I hate it. While I refuse to ever touch the second book with a ten-foot pole, I would like to try The Great Hunt. It sounds intriguing! Perhaps her writing style has improved, too.

Then there’s those times a second chance didn’t pay off…

claudia gray

Seriously. I’m a sucker for a pretty cover. Evernight is on my TBR list, but I don’t know if I’ll actually every get to it!
gretchen mcneil

Such bland, mediocre writing in both of these books (3 stars is quite generous for Ten)…not sure I’ll ever bother to pick anything up by her in the future. Who knows!

susan dennard

Again, sucker for pretty covers. Not to mention Truthwitch was SO hyped…and for what? It was a serious struggle for me to make it through the book at all. I may still try the second book, though, since the concept was kinda interesting.holly black

Man, oh man. Holly Black books and I are NOT friends. I actually have the Tithe series (which came highly recommended by my IRL best friend), but I honestly don’t think I’ll ever bother to pick it up. I doubt it would go well…

In conclusion

As you can see, there’s PLENTY of times where I’ve felt very differently about two separate books by the same author. Because of this, I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Just because I hate a book doesn’t mean the author is horrible! It just means the book didn’t work for me.

Do you give second chances to the authors of books you’ve read and hated?

Jessi (Geo)

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3 responses to “Sometimes Giving an Author a Second Try Pays Off

  1. I love this post so much! I’m sad to see you didn’t like ACOTAR (honestly, after ACOMAF I prefer that series over ToG), Truthwitch, and Vampire Academy. But we can still be friends :D

    I definitely try to give author’s second chances! I think more people should!

    Anyways, this is a great post idea and I may do a post like it!
    xo
    Stephanie

  2. THIS POST IS THE BEST AND I’M SO GLAD YOU DID YOUR VERSION OF IT!! *flings confetti* I love looking at comparisons like this omg, it’s just so interesting right?! I have tons of authors I’ve also fallen out of love with. (And the hype for Truthwitch was actually ridiculous. That was one of the worst books this year omg.) And I’m with you on ACTOAR. Basically I’m with you on a lot of these (except Holly Black and Vengeance Road which I love hahah). But ahem. Anyway, I think it’s very important not to dismiss an author based on one book…or I suppose, alternately, put them on a massive pedestal and say they can do no wrong? Because every book is different!!

  3. I hate to admit it, but I almost dismissed Neil Gaiman’s books. Stardust was 50/50 for me and I had started and stopped reading American Gods so many times. But then I picked up the audio version of The Graveyard Book (which Neil narrates) and I WAS HOOKED. I’ve listened to the books he reads and performs himself because he’s so incredibly passionate about his own stories. I plan to go back and give his books another look from this new perspective.

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