As an avid reader, I find myself getting very attached to the characters of books I have read. So when the journey ends, I feel bittersweet at the fact that I’ll never be with the characters again until of course, rereads.
However, some authors tend to over do it with how much they elongate and stretch out a simple premise. I get that when authors reach a successful story they’d want to keep it going for the fans and their revenue but then sometimes it tends to become very boring and repetitive.
For example, the series The Selection was 5 books long but the last 2 books were a spin off of the first 3 books. The plot of the books was essentially the bachelor but with royalty and a side plot of a rebellion. The rebellion plot was incredibly underdeveloped so it didn’t level out the annoyingly dragged out predictable plot of who the prince was going to choose. This was incredibly infuriating to read for 3 books because it was so obvious what was going to occur and felt unnecessary to be that long. It felt as though it could’ve been concluded in a single book.
A series that actually started and ended at the perfect time was the duology, Six of Crows. As I was reading the first book, I recall being reluctant at the fact that a sequel was going to follow it but the second book proved all too well how necessary it was. The lengths of the books were effectively used as the characters were properly developed and the story flowed consistently.
Typically the best amount of books in a series should be no more than four books. Three books is the perfect length and two books are sometimes done a bit wrong. Of course it varies based on the plot of the series but it should usually stick to 3-4 since the series tends to drag overtime. However, a lot of people disagree with this sentiment as a study conducted said that 12% decided that 5-10 books was just right.
At the end of the day, it’s up to everyone’s individual preference as to how much they’ll read about a certain premise but as for me I’ll continue to stay away from book series with more than four books because it almost never goes well.
