Yeah, I think the books and the tv series have diverged and probably are now regarded as two different things... I've read the books up to 4, but haven't really gotten very far after, myself.
And yep, the author has a bit of a penchant for shocking his audience... It gets a bit silly, at times, to be sure XD
Wouldn't be surprising as I'm pretty sure the v series is now well ahead of the books XD Were there four or five books do you remember off the top of your head? I could get off my arse and check our bookshelf but that would require getting up XD
i thought there were 5, but i haven’t gotten farther than 4th one myself haha