Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme was books that we’ve abandoned or lost interest in. I actually did this theme a couple years ago but I thought it would be fun to do an updated version! When I’m not feeling a book, I always have an internal struggle whether I should DNF or just push through. Usually if I end up quitting it’s either because I was really, really bored or there was something I really, really hated. Here are the top ten books I marked as DNF (Did Not Finish)!
1. AGAIN, BUT BETTER
I had so many grievances with this book, which is a shame because as someone who studied abroad their senior year of college, I was really looking forward to this! In addition to the disjointed writing and super awkward semi-autobiographically feel to the story, this book literally centers around two horrible human beings: a girl with a crush on a boy with a girlfriend that doesn’t understand boundaries, and said boy engaging in light cheating with her throughout the story. And without spoiling too much of the huge twist, once I found out what the second half of the book was about I knew I had to dip. DNF @ 63% [review]
2. HUSBAND MATERIAL
The most ironic part of this book is the title because the “love interest” is most decidedly not husband material. I had to quit reading this for two reasons: the unnecessary and overly descriptive writing, and the character that is supposed to be the “love interest.” The man set up to be Charlotte’s next great love is a thief, a liar, and a terrible person!! I can not for the life of me figure out why in the world anyone would find that attractive let alone fall in love with them? I’d be putting suing his ass and sending his to jail. DNF @ 58% [review]
3. THE CROWN
This book is a mess. I enjoyed the other books in this series, including the predecessor to this one, but then this happened. Randomly in the middle of the book, I started to notice a weird shift in the plot/characters that seemed very out of place so I spoiled myself the ending. The romance takes a complete one-eighty and literally comes out of nowhere. I mean, these are two characters that have absolutely no chemistry, had no meaningful build-up through the course of the two books, and spoke less than a handful of times to each other. Overall, this book was a huge disappointment and a terrible waste of time. DNF @ 58% [review]
4. TIME OF OUR LIVES
My most recently DNF. Had I known going into this that the main character would already be in a committed relationship and remain so for literally half the book, I never would have picked it up. Not only does Juniper start the story with a boyfriend, but her chemistry with him completely outshines whatever “chemistry” she is supposed to be having with the love interest. Which brings me to my second point: Fitz. He completely annoyed me and honestly, I found his weird semi-stalkerish obsession with Juniper really creepy. Whatever “feelings” they had between for each other felt contrived and unconvincing. DNF @ 50% [review]
5. DAWN OF LEGENDS
It’s hard for me to explain exactly why I did not finish this book without giving away major spoilers, but most of my issues have to do in how the romances were handled and the character regressions. First of all, the love triangle that was resolved in the previous book comes back full swing and then makes a one-eighty in the other direction. Second, two platonic characters’ friendship turns romantic without a single hint in the three previous books leading up to this one. Lastly, my favorite character gets a shitty ending in which he’s unhappy and still pining for someone else years later. For the last book in the series, this is a huge clusterfuck and a giant disappointment. DNF @ 23% [review]
6. THE LOOSE ENDS LIST
I feel like everyone enjoyed this book except for me. The plot would have been interesting had I not been so bored while reading. And I probably would have finished the book if that was the only issued, but it wasn’t: the main character was. She was insufferable. She’s selfish, immature, judgemental and mean. She makes crude, tasteless remarks throughout the story. There’s really no other way to put it: she’s just a bitch. She was completely unpleasant to read about and I couldn’t bring myself to care one iota about her, her equally rude family, or her story. DNF @ 34%
7. FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS
I was really looking forward to reading this Chinese retelling of The Evil Queen told through the point of view of the eventual villain. Reading about morally gray characters and villain background stories are always so intriguing. However, this book absolutely dragged. I had to literally sit down and force myself to read another chapter. I really wanted to finish it and find out how it all ends, but I could not force myself to go on further. Life is too short to read books that bore you to tears. DNF @ 62%
8. ROAR
If you notice, I DNF’d this super early but that was all the time I needed. This book features the epitome of a badly written and unnecessary love triangle. Love Interest #1 is introduced almost immediately (within pages), and Love Interest #2 enters the story only a handful of chapters later. Although both the love interests were only briefly featured in the small amount I read, enough was revealed about their characters for me to determine I wouldn’t find much to like about either of them; they were both domineering, possessive, and controlling. Despite what many YA authors would have you believe, those are not cute or romantic qualities. DNF @ 15% [review]
9. SPINDLE FIRE
The concept and synopsis of this book was unique and interesting, but unfortunately the writing and execution was poorly done, and ultimately caused the story to fall flat. When I read fairytale retellings, I want to be mesmerized and enchanted by the story. The writing was choppy and it felt like someone was just explaining the events of the story to me, instead of being able to read about them happening. This book tried too hard to be like other Young Adult fantasies for it to be enjoyable: instalove, no world-building, info-dumps, and a plot that become a little too far-fetched and ridiculous. DNF @ 50% [review]
10. THE CROOKED KINGDOM
*dodges tomatoes* Listen, I loved Six of Crows, but this was so painful to get through. The plot was super slow-moving and I found it hard to get through. And then while I was struggling to get through this, I accidently say the spoiler of all spoilers regarding a certain character’s death at the end and that kill all motivation to finish. I was so upset about both the (unnecessary) death and being spoiled, that I couldn’t bring myself to continue reading it for a couple days. And those days got longer and longer until I finally became honest with myself and realized I didn’t want to finish it. I love Leigh Bardugo, but I don’t find this series the “be all and end all” that everyone else seems to think it is. DNF @ 65%
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Paws & Paperbacks 