Series Smackdown: Down to the Final Four!

A Look Back at the Competition

You Choose the Winner!

There are lots of things to be excited about during March: rising temperatures, the first of the spring flowers, and of course, ThriftBooks Novel Knockout™. It's like March Madness, only with books! This year's theme is Series Smackdown featuring 32 spectacular series (all nominated by book lovers from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!).

In previous years, we've started the voting with 64 individual novels, rather than the series. In last year's Generation Domination, Books were divided into four generational divides: Baby Boomers (born 1946–64, Gen X (1965–79), Millennials (1980–94), and Gen Z (1995–2012), with the Millennial favorite, Harry Potter, beating out the three other finalists, listed below.

• The Gen Z representative was The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins's dystopian fantasy about an annual death match between 24 teens selected from the districts of Panem, a futuristic North America.
• Gen X's contestant, Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton's beloved thriller about a futuristic theme park where people can go to visit cloned dinosaurs. It's perfectly safe! Until it isn't.
• Baby Boomers were represented by The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien's epic adventure centering on Frodo, the young hobbit tasked with traveling to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring.

This year, the Harry Potter Series did not end up being nominated, which means the current champion will have to give up the crown. Interestingly, all three of the runner ups were nominated, giving them another chance to come out on top. We can't wait to see what happens!

The Closest Battles So Far this Year

Voters on either side of these battles offer passionate support for their contender as they watch the numbers climb. As always, we love seeing how much you love your books! If one of your favorites has been cut, don't fret. We're giving extra points on each week's eliminated series, because all of these great books deserve to be celebrated. Here are some of the most contentious battles (so far) from this year's bouts.

• Lois Lowry's classic YA dystopian series The Giver beat out the similarly categorized Divergent by Veronica Roth with a slim margin of 58% to 42%.
• With 48%, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer about a human-vampire romance was vanquished by Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series in which a woman travels back in time for love.
• Louise Penny's principled Québécois detective Armand Gamache scored 51% of the vote against the engaging Inspector Montalbano from Italian author Andrea Camilleri.
• And in one of the tightest races to date, The high fantasy adventure Mistborn Saga by Brandon Sanderson edged out Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle by just a half a percent.

The Final Four Series

It's up to you, our dear readers, to decide the ultimate winner. Here are the results of the most recent battles where our voters narrowed it down. Only four series left!

Voting on the final rounds will take place next week on Twitter, Instagram Stories, and in our Facebook Group (or on the comments of the Novel Knockout™ page on our website).

Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon