(sorry for the delay in reply!)

I’m pretty flexible with canon. A fanfic might choose to disregard everything after QOTD, and I can accept that when I’m reading that fic, or there could be fanart of stuff from PLROA and I can accept that at that time.

I think a fan should at least give every book in the series a chance, you don’t have to force yourself to finish every book, but to crack them open, just give them a chance. Bc I think there’s something of value in every single one of them!

I’ve read them all and I gotta say that if you don’t take them too seriously, it’s worth the effort. But then, I am pretty forgiving and I can do headcanon gymnastics for fun to explain stuff I don’t like, or treat it as AU.

Originally, I was cutting canon off at TVA, but then, a fanfic came along that required Merrick to be canon, and I was pretty floored by the fic. Among other things, it opened up options for L/L that weren’t possible before. 

The tricky thing, too, is that AR herself has said that she herself doesn’t think the hybrid Mayfair/VC novels “wore well over time,” so she disregards them and asks us to do so, as well. I know there are ppl who loved BF and BC, so hey, more power to them, but those events aren’t mentioned in PL/ROA so, you can disregard those books if you choose to do so. 

In the most general way tho, just in my own headcanon, I accept everything except BF, BC, PL/ROA. Those 4 are AU fanfic to me, except for select elements. 

So basically I look at all of canon as a buffet, and I pick and choose what I want to accept, bc even in the most weird/problematic/(or, what we used to call “cracky”) of the books, there are some good moments/lines that I enjoyed!