There’s lots of serious discussion going around lately about how readers and reviewers are supposed to act and feel when a highly anticipated sequel to a book is … how do you say it … not what they were expecting? Should readers even HAVE expectations for a book sequel? Maybe desires is the better word. If a book disappoints us are we allowed to talk about it? Surely – SURELY – readers are never entitled to threaten or harass an author. Are we entitled to our bafflement? Can we own our WTFs? Eh, I don’t know the answers to these questions. What I do know is that gifs help me express my feelings.

When I finish the penultimate book in the series

When the title/cover/release date for the sequel is announced

 

 

 

Subsequent tweets to the author and the expected response

 

 

 

When the first summary blurb about the book comes out

 

 

 

When you realize you could have gestated an entire human being in the time it’s taken to get the damn book

 

 

 

 

When it’s finally book release day

 

 

 

When the author introduces an alternate point of view or a totally new setting

 

 

 

Two-thirds of the way through the book

 

 

 

When it becomes obvious your ship is NOT going to get it on

 

 

 

When that girl on tumblr who read it in like 2 hours spoils the whole she-bang

 

 

 

 

When you get to the last page

 

 

 

 

The author’s first tweet after the book release

 

 

 

My first tweet after that

 

 

 

 

When crazies on the internet start hurling death threats at the author

 

 

 

 

When sycophant fangirls declare it the BEST BOOK EVER!!!!1!!

 

 

 

 

When you find out that all your reader friends felt the same way you did

 

 

 

 

When book bloggers with SRS BZNS opinions start analyzing

 

 

 

My last word to authors

 

 

 

 

And the last word to readers

Seriously. Let it go.

 

No matter how disappointing the end of a series may be, I’ll always be grateful to authors who create characters and craft stories that mean something to me. And I will still WTF the whole thing if need be. You?