Booking Through Thursday: Jumping the Shark

If you read series, do you ever find a series “jumping the shark?” How do you feel about that?

And, do you keep reading anyway?

I have to say, I don’t encounter this particular phenomenon in books as much as I do in television (I stopped watching House and Heroes for this reason). Authors, especially authors sitting on a well-received book series, don’t have that same sort of desire to desperately grab an audience; their audience, they and their production teams reason, is loyal and built-in. I have to say, though, that I don’t often pursue the open-ended series that might be tempted to jump the shark; I prefer a series with an end in mind.

That being said, I think Breaking Dawn, the last installment in the much-reviled Twilight series, is the only piece of shark-jumping I’ve encountered so far. But it didn’t just jump the shark, it played jump rope with it, and I was delighted by how the series collapsed in on itself and revealed its true colors (complete wish fulfillment, with added werewolf pedophilia). I’m actually, when I can get some time, writing a paper on the series. Usually, however, if a book appears to have jumped the shark, I’ll finish that book and then drop the series.