Series-ous.  

So much of what we read here at TheBookWranglers is written in series format.  We all hold our breath as we wait for the next installment of our favorite series.  That torturous wait is part of the enjoyment, to be sure.  But is there anything to be said for a book that is just a book?​ 



I think the Young Adult (YA) genre is one that lends itself most easily to a series writing format.  But is it okay for the genre to be ruled by that?  I am an avid reader of YA books, especially YA Fantasy, and I can admit that I get caught up in a number of series on a regular basis.  it's so easy to get sucked into the world, the fantastical events, the mythical plots, and, most importantly, the characters that drive everything else.  But I will readily concede that there is a formula.  A very basic formula that I've seen little variation on over the past few years.  



Dystopian fiction is just one example.  The genre always leads with a post-apocalyptic society.  Generally a person, most often a teenage girl, serves as a catalyst for some big change.  Somehow she becomes the leader of a movement to remake the world again, necessitating the destruction of society-as-we-know-it all over again.  Oh yeah, and there's a boy, of course, too.



Though it's a formula that works and that I am often happy to root for, I have to say that there are books I prefer as one-off novels, as opposed to the series they became.  One example is the book Delirium.  It was beautifully written, realistic for a future timeline, and the ending was tragic.  But I like this.  Sometimes it's okay to have a less-than-happy ending.  Because most books are realistic until the end.  Everything doesn't work out alright in real life.  A lot of things do, but never do all of our ducks line up perfectly in a row.  The ending of Delirium was a great example of what would actually happen if this were real life.  Something bad happens.  Someone sacrifices something so that someone else can thrive.  



Now, Delirium went on to be a longer series, but I refused to read past the first book.  And it's not because I didn't like it...it's because I wanted book one to be the entire story.  



2012 brought the end to a couple of series that I truly loved.  But I'm looking to 2013 being a year of more diversity.  I hope the genre has more stand-alone books that deliver and that can truly be a presence; a worthy adversary for some of these longer series.  I believe it can be done...but what do you think?

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Do you prefer a stand-alone or a series?  Do you think the plethora of series in the YA genre is telling?  What good one-off books have you read in the genre?​