Caving to the Pressure

Why do we let ourselves get sucked into stories we don't actually like very much? I don't get it. As I get older, I don't fall prey to this phenomenon very often anymore, but it just happened to me again and I'm annoyed.

See, generally speaking, I don't read YA. I find the teenage angst about dates and running hot/cold and the usual drama boring as hell. But I picked up the first book in a recent series because it got rave reviews and looked like it might break out of the norm.

It did, for the first half of the first book. Then completely devolved into the reasons I avoid most YA.

I could've stopped then. I should've stopped then. I didn't like the hero - he's inconsistently written and a douchebag most of the time - and I didn't like her heroine - she reeked of Mary Sue and I had no understanding of why she was supposed to be so special except the author told me she was - and the writing itself wasn't stellar. Lots of reasons to make it a DNF and put it aside, chalk it up to being not my thing and let it go.

I didn't. I finished the book. Then went out and bought the rest of the four-book series.

Because in spite of all the stuff I didn't like, I had to know how it all ended.

My daughter is insanely amused by this. "Just don't read them," she said when I bitched to her about them.

But what she doesn't get is, I can't. Frankly, I don't get why I can't either. I considered it. A lot. But when I would put the book aside, I found myself thinking of it until I had to put it back up again. Stupid thing was like a drug.

The only thing that makes any of this is better is the fact that the series reads fast. The time I spent on it isn't that much in the grand scheme of things. Still, I hate feeling out of control like this, especially by books I will never read again.

Does this happen to any of you? Or am I just crazy like my daughter claims?