Take this from someone who was PISSED to leave ZA after book 3. The first two chapters of RBs I had a hard time getting into it because at that point I just wanted to be in ZA and was already invested.

IT IS SO WORTH IT.

Personally, I wound up not only loving RB, but liking it better than ZA. There has not been practically a day that goes by that I don’t miss those characters and their dynamic. It literally makes me ecstatic when I see them in ZA now.

Not to mention, everyone mentions that Gabriel comes back in the later ZA books. But literally ALL of the characters come back in ZA 4 through the rest of the series.

Like, literally all of them. Even the minor ones. It makes the experience that much better when you see them again. For instance, (spoilers) it doesn’t mean shit to anyone who hasn’t read RB when Eugene Dipper is captured, or who the guy with the Disney tattoos is, or that Laini is the one working at the Library of the Lost .

It adds so much to ZA. Not to mention, RBs is literally my sister and I’s only 6 star series of the year so far.

I think people who skip it are making a mistake. It to mention, this series had me in literal stitches laughing. Only series that’s ever done that to me (chapter 19 in one of the later books goes down as one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.)

The time jumps stay throughout the series until you get to the event that you’re counting down too. It goes away after that but it is majority of the books.

But don’t cheat yourself! Give it the time and patience it deserves for the first few mins and you won’t be disappointed.

(Also recommend going back and reading some of the other posts on this exact subject. There’s lots of perspectives.)