Tormented by Sequels

One of the things I have learned from this blogging experience: it is almost ridiculously difficult to blog about sequels.

The other day, I finished Torment, the sequel to Lauren Kate's Fallen. I am not even sure which characters I should mention, because I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not yet finished (or even started) Fallen! So, a generic reaction: I liked Torment better than Fallen, but it dragged at the end. As with so many YA series, this probably could have been condensed to half the length and still been just as good. I find this very frustrating! But my students' love it, so maybe that's just my life experience coming into play. Who knows?

I'm now reading Need by Carrie Jones. Weird, creepy, and good--so far!

Just for kicks, here are my 2010 reads-to-date:

1. Notes from the Midnight Driver
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
3. Beautiful Creatures
4. Ballad
5. Her Fearful Symmetry
6. Going Bovine
7. The Lightning Theif
8. The Girl Who Played with Fire
9. Nurtureshock
10. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
11. Marcelo in the Real World
12. The Lost Symbol
13. Murder Takes the Cake
14. Cador
15. The Hollow
16. The Adoration of JEnna Fox
17. Whose Body
18. The Great Gatsby
19. Unwind
20. An Expert in Murder
21. Wondrous Strange
22. Darklight
23. The Chosen One
24. Food Rules
25. Little Brother
26. Stopping Time
27. The Hole We're In
28. Garden Spells
29. Henry's Sisters
30. Tales from Outer Suburbia
31. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
32. Rubber Houses
33. Angelology
34. If I Stay
35. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
36. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
37. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
38. Three Witches
39. The Solitude of Prime Numbers
40. Fallen
41. Dead in the Family
42. Night
43. Tinkers
44. The Lace Reader
45. Spooky Little Girl
46. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
47. What Was Lost
48. Little Bee
49. Hush, Hush
50. Teach Like a Champion
51. Heroes
52. The Map of True Places
53. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
54. The Sugar Queen
55. Mockingjay
56. Holding onto Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones
57. Liar
58. The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Tenth Grade
59. The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eleventh Grade
60. Beautiful Lies
61. Later, at the Bar...
62. Sharp Teeth
63. The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Twelfth Grade
64. The GRITS Guide to Life
65. The World's Shortest Stories
66. The Haunted
67. The Penelopeiad
68. Torment

My goal is to hit 100 books by the end of the year. I'd better get reading!