Four Series’ I started in Middle School and Didn’t Finish

By Jay Flood

I have a habit of starting things and never finishing them. I can’t even begin to tell you how many crochet projects I started that now sit unfinished in my closet. There are countless of movies and tv shows I’ve started, yet never finished. I currently have a puzzle unfinished from last summer, and I love doing puzzles. In middle school, I started so many book series’ that everyone was obsessed with and every time, without fail, I would repeat the same pattern: read the first book and absolutely love it, make my mom buy me the rest of the series, read half of the second book, never pick it up again. I want to be clear: crocheting, puzzles, the movies and tv shows, and the book series’ are not boring. None of them were boring. However, I got bored. 

I constantly fall into the cycle of becoming obsessed with something, spending weeks researching about that thing, spend a lot of money on materials needed for that thing, finally start the thing, and then get bored and never finish it. Again, it’s not that the thing itself is boring, but I get bored. As an adult, I have read and finished every series on this list. But every series listed remained unfinished from middle school until now, in college. Here are four series’ I started and didn’t finish in middle school.

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

This series is one of my favorites now. But when I was in middle school, I stopped reading halfway through the second book. I remember reading the first book that I borrowed from a friend, starting the second and not even making it through the first chapter. Then I remember listening to the audiobook of the first book again and making it halfway through the second audiobook, but for some reason I just stopped reading. I don’t even think I had any reason for not finishing it. I remember being annoyed by the narrator because every time he read a certain person’s dialogue, he made his voice really weird and I hated it. But I don’t even think that’s why I didn’t finish it. I might have just forgotten I was reading it, to be honest. I love this series now, I have actually reread it multiple times since 2020. But in middle school, I couldn’t get past the second book.

2. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

This is also one of my favorite trilogies of all time, a close second to The Selection Series by Kiera Cass. I finally finished the series in 2022 and bought the physical books to reread after I read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the prequel. When the first movie came out, I remember it taking me multiple attempts to finish the movie. I had such intense anxiety when the games actually began because I didn’t know what was going to happen and was so anxious for Katniss. Someone gave my mom a copy of the book, and I asked her if I could read it. I thought it wouldn’t be as intense if I was reading what happened instead of watching what happened with the suspensful film score playing in the background making it even more intense. I was right. On a snowday, I brought all of my pillows and blankets down to the landing at the bottom of the stairs and spent the entire day reading. I finished the first book in one day and couldn’t stop telling my mom about it. I watched and finished the first movie since I knew what was going to happen and wasn’t anxious. 

Then, I borrowed the second book either from a friend or the library, and got anxious again. I remember feeling sick to my stomach when Gale was being whipped in the square, and I had to stop reading. I then tried to watch the movie, thinking if I could just force myself to get through it then I could read the book. However, when Cinna was murdered and Katniss rose into the arena surrounded by water, I had to stop. Not knowing what is going to happen is the main reason I don’t finish a lot of tv shows. I don’t like not knowing what is going to happen. In middle school, the same was true for books. I couldn’t handle not knowing what was going to happen to Katniss and Peeta, so I just gave up. 

I don’t think I actually finished the second movie until March or April of 2020 and I watched and finished Mockingjay parts one and two immediately after. I did have to look up what was going to happen, though. Then in 2022, I decided to try reading the series again and I absolutely loved it. Being able to understand the political themes in the books made the series so much better for me. The Hunger Games trilogy is arguably the best trilogy, I don’t think anyone could ever top it. Even though The Selection Series is my favorite trilogy, it’s because of nostalgia. The Hunger Games is the best trilogy and I honestly am happy I didn’t finish it until I was old enough to understand the political themes and critiques of our society.

3. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I finished this series at the end of 2022 and I honestly did not like it. The first book is so good, I loved it in middle school and I loved it last year. However, in middle school I read almost 200 pages of the second book and could not force myself to finish it. I hated how he kept talking about Theresa and how he loved her. I also felt like the world-building was sloppy and vague, which made me confused and annoyed. I felt like it focused on his love for Theresa more than it focused on the actual conflict and world-building. When I finally read it last year I felt the same way but worse. The first book and first movie are incredible. However, the second and third books are bad and the second and third movies aren’t the same as the books at all, they change a lot of what happens. I think the rest of the series could have been written so much better, and I understand why I couldn’t finish it in middle school.

4. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I borrowed the first book from one of the moms from my brother’s baseball team and read it in less than a week, which was fast for me then. I absolutely loved the book and thought it was so clever and interesting. I loved how interesting the world was, their powers and the time loop was so brilliant. I remember thinking it was weird that the main character was in love with the same girl his grandfather had been in love with, but I thought, and hoped, that maybe it wouldn’t go anywhere. However, when I started the second book, I don’t think I got past three chapters. I remember being bored and not caring to know what happened next. I couldn’t see the direction it was going and felt like everything was filler. So, I stopped. 

Last year I reread the first book and finished the second and third. I actually hated the second and third books. I would never recommend this series to anyone. The world-building, when focused on, was good. However, it was an afterthought to the constant back-and-forth, cringey, forced romance happening between the two main characters. I couldn’t go a single chapter without rolling my eyes or groaning out loud. There’s one specific line I remember yelling “shut up!” after reading. I truly hate this series. The first book was so good, but the last two books were completely ruined. Anytime the book actually focused on the conflict and world-building, I found myself thinking “oh! this is actually interesting!” and then he’d think about the girl for the next four pages and I’d clench my jaw and roll my eyes again.

In middle school I stopped reading because I was bored and couldn’t see where the book was going. Last year, I almost stopped reading so many times because of how awful it was. I am not normally someone to say a book is bad, I will say I didn’t like it. But I truly think the second and third books in this series were bad. The concept was so cool, but it was completely ruined by a cringey, forced romance that I can’t imagine anyone actually rooting for. 

Two of the series’ on this list ended up becoming my favorites after finally finishing them as an adult and the other two series’ on this list ended up becoming books I didn’t like after finishing them in adulthood. I can see why people like The Maze Runner, but it wasn’t for me and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. However, I cannot understand why anyone likes the second and third books in the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series and not only would I not recommend it to anyone, but I would tell people not to read it. Regardless, I’m happy I finished these series’ as an adult, even if I don’t like two of them. I think it’s funny that I stopped reading almost every series I began in middle school in the middle of the second book, especially because I loved, and still love, all of the first books.