DNF Books
Coranne's DNF Books:
I am not sure if I am getting pickier, or if I seem to be on a bad run with books, but I seem to be having more and more DNF (Did Not Finish) books. I have never been the kind of person to force myself to read a book the whole way through if I am not loving it. (Unless it is from an author I usually love.) So here are a collection of DNF books that I have had since January 2013 with a short explanation about why I didn't finish them. I don't entirely call them reviews, and I don't typically rate or review books on Goodreads unless I have read 75% of the book, but here you go:
Splintered was supposed to be the best book of 2013 for me. It was supposed to be an awesome book. I LOVE Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland with romance? YES PLEASE! I would watch the Tim Burton Alice movie on loop in hopes that the romance between the Hatter and Alice would be realized. (On a side note, there is an EXCELLENT BBC movie named Alice where they DO get together!)
Anyway, I am rambling. My problem wasn't Wonderland or the premise behind the book.... my issue was solely with the characters. I didn't like them. I couldn't connect with them at all. I was very put off by Morpheus. He wasn't a hunky "bad boy" to me... he was more like a creepy stalker serial killer. I didn't get it. (And I will admit, I am INCREDIBLY tired of the whole bad boy thing- seriously...)
Plenty of people liked Splintered:
The Broke and The Bookish
The Starry-Eyed Revue
Books With Bite
I won The Different Girl from Library Thing. I was so excited- number one, it was an elusive PENGUIN ARC. Those things seriously are like gold. The blurb on the back sounded so interesting- I was excited to read what seemed like a sci-fi dystopian. Yeah.... The Different Girl is one of those books that is written in a way that you have absolutely no idea what is going on the entire time. Descriptions, background, world building- all of it is left to the reader to figure out why on earth these people are where they are why they are doing what they are doing. I dislike books like that. To me, the book felt unfinished and I had no reason to care for any of the characters.
Here are some positive reviews for The Different Girl:
Miss Literati
Alexia's Books and Such
This literally hurts me to write. Catherine by April Lindner is a beautiful book. A beautiful book that I can't finish. If you don't know about this author and her books, she wrote a lovely book named Jane a few years ago. Jane was a modern take on the story of Jane Eyre.... It is so SO good. Catherine is based on Wuthering Heights. Admittedly Wuthering Heights is not my favorite story (I kinda think they are all wacko) but I loved Jane so much I had to give it a try. I made it 40% of the way through the book.... and then the creepy ghost came. Admittedly I am the biggest pansy to walk the earth. Reading about a ghost or zombie will immediately make a book DNF. I still stand by, if anyone can tell me there are no more ghosts, I WILL finish this book! But I can't do it without knowing....
Positive Reviews for Catherine:
The Bookish Babe
Schylock Books
I love fantasy, I love HIGH fantasy. Maria V Snyder, Shadow and Bone, and so many more. What I don't like- weird fantasy. Like I said before, I don't like books that make me feel like I have absolutely no idea what is going on. I think I am getting less and less willing to read books that make the entire first 1/3 of a book secretive, like the reader needs to figure out what is going on without the author telling us. I may come back to this one- I mean it has FAE in it! I am not making it a priority though.
Positive Reviews for Starflower:
Open the Page
Mortality Bites Reviews
Sarah's DNF Books:
Unlike Coranne, I still seem to have the somewhat masochistic need to finish reading just about everything that I start. Even if it's a book I don't like, I either hold out hope for it to get better, or I desperately cling to the fact that "oh, it got GREAT reviews on Goodreads, maybe it got better". Or, what's more often the case, sometimes I just love me some good train wrecks in progress. I can deal with bad characters or plot holes or things which aren't to my liking; what I can't deal with is being bored, and that's the #1 thing that leads me to DNF a book. Here are a few which I recently put down and haven't picked back up.
I am not sure if I am getting pickier, or if I seem to be on a bad run with books, but I seem to be having more and more DNF (Did Not Finish) books. I have never been the kind of person to force myself to read a book the whole way through if I am not loving it. (Unless it is from an author I usually love.) So here are a collection of DNF books that I have had since January 2013 with a short explanation about why I didn't finish them. I don't entirely call them reviews, and I don't typically rate or review books on Goodreads unless I have read 75% of the book, but here you go:
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| Received from the publisher through Net Galley |
Splintered was supposed to be the best book of 2013 for me. It was supposed to be an awesome book. I LOVE Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland with romance? YES PLEASE! I would watch the Tim Burton Alice movie on loop in hopes that the romance between the Hatter and Alice would be realized. (On a side note, there is an EXCELLENT BBC movie named Alice where they DO get together!)
Anyway, I am rambling. My problem wasn't Wonderland or the premise behind the book.... my issue was solely with the characters. I didn't like them. I couldn't connect with them at all. I was very put off by Morpheus. He wasn't a hunky "bad boy" to me... he was more like a creepy stalker serial killer. I didn't get it. (And I will admit, I am INCREDIBLY tired of the whole bad boy thing- seriously...)
Plenty of people liked Splintered:
The Broke and The Bookish
The Starry-Eyed Revue
Books With Bite
 |
| Received from publisher through Library Thing |
I won The Different Girl from Library Thing. I was so excited- number one, it was an elusive PENGUIN ARC. Those things seriously are like gold. The blurb on the back sounded so interesting- I was excited to read what seemed like a sci-fi dystopian. Yeah.... The Different Girl is one of those books that is written in a way that you have absolutely no idea what is going on the entire time. Descriptions, background, world building- all of it is left to the reader to figure out why on earth these people are where they are why they are doing what they are doing. I dislike books like that. To me, the book felt unfinished and I had no reason to care for any of the characters.
Here are some positive reviews for The Different Girl:
Miss Literati
Alexia's Books and Such
 |
| Received through Publisher through NetGalley |
Positive Reviews for Catherine:
The Bookish Babe
Schylock Books
I love fantasy, I love HIGH fantasy. Maria V Snyder, Shadow and Bone, and so many more. What I don't like- weird fantasy. Like I said before, I don't like books that make me feel like I have absolutely no idea what is going on. I think I am getting less and less willing to read books that make the entire first 1/3 of a book secretive, like the reader needs to figure out what is going on without the author telling us. I may come back to this one- I mean it has FAE in it! I am not making it a priority though.
Positive Reviews for Starflower:
Open the Page
Mortality Bites Reviews
Sarah's DNF Books:
Unlike Coranne, I still seem to have the somewhat masochistic need to finish reading just about everything that I start. Even if it's a book I don't like, I either hold out hope for it to get better, or I desperately cling to the fact that "oh, it got GREAT reviews on Goodreads, maybe it got better". Or, what's more often the case, sometimes I just love me some good train wrecks in progress. I can deal with bad characters or plot holes or things which aren't to my liking; what I can't deal with is being bored, and that's the #1 thing that leads me to DNF a book. Here are a few which I recently put down and haven't picked back up.
Received through Publisher through NetGalley
I wanted to love this book. I'd heard a lot of good things about Rachel Neumeier's books, and the plot - one sister becomes what is this fantasy world's equivalent of a geisha, while the other apprentices with a mage - seemed like a great idea. It's a stand-alone book with no love triangle and very little romance. They're all things I should love! I think this was a case of the summary of the book not really representing the whole of the story, though, because the two sisters aren't the focus of the story at all. Other side characters are brought in for their own POV chapters and I just found myself getting bored. I'm willing to wade through boredom in cases where there are still characters/storylines I care about (George R.R. Martin, I'm looking at you) but in this case, I wasn't interested enough in any of them to keep going. Neumeier's a beautiful writer, and I'd be willing to try some of her other books. House of Shadows just wasn't for me.
Positive reviews for House of Shadows:
Into the Hall of Books
Into the Hall of Books
The Book Smugglers
Here's a fast paced book that's got aliens and boarding schools and teenagers with special powers. It's written by a guy who co-created Twin Peaks, so it should be great. But this was another book where I couldn't bring myself to care much over what happened to the characters. I found certain aspects of it to be confusing, characters talked in really un-natural, artificial ways, and really, it just seemed aimed at an audience that wasn't me. It was a page-turner, I'll give it that, but when I put the book down to start a few other things that I needed to finish on a schedule, I found that I wasn't interested in starting this one up again. I will say that if this were made into a movie, I'd probably go see it - because the movie would (hopefully) cut out most of the boring or extra-confusing parts, and what they didn't fix would at least look cool, with CGI and explosions and everything.
Received through Publisher through NetGalley
Here's a fast paced book that's got aliens and boarding schools and teenagers with special powers. It's written by a guy who co-created Twin Peaks, so it should be great. But this was another book where I couldn't bring myself to care much over what happened to the characters. I found certain aspects of it to be confusing, characters talked in really un-natural, artificial ways, and really, it just seemed aimed at an audience that wasn't me. It was a page-turner, I'll give it that, but when I put the book down to start a few other things that I needed to finish on a schedule, I found that I wasn't interested in starting this one up again. I will say that if this were made into a movie, I'd probably go see it - because the movie would (hopefully) cut out most of the boring or extra-confusing parts, and what they didn't fix would at least look cool, with CGI and explosions and everything.
