ALL THE BOOKS I DID NOT FINISH [latter half of 2024]

[@ReadingAdrift]

Jess, audiobooks and I are also struggling right now, like 2-3 chapters later I'm like "wait wtf is going on? This part sounds interesting but idk how we got here or why this is happening. Ok let me go back (For the 3rd time)🤦‍♀🤦‍♀🤦‍♀". It amazes me how often we are so simpatico

[@N_Garamond]

I DNF or soft-DNF lots of things because I'm not in the right mindset for it. Sometimes I only return years later, which I'm okay with!

[@CluelessWonder]

133 books dnf’d and counting. I don’t count books I’m not in the mood for, I just throw it back into my tbr. I only have 2 one star and 12 two star books this year since I dnf often. Life is short and there are tons of books. Embrace dnfing!

[@cj1986x]

Jesmyn Ward is brilliant but her prose does require you to be attentive and engaged. If you can't find that headspace for it, it'll just be frustrating. The Reformatory made me cry. That said, it does reward the reader emotionally at the end.

[@thejenmath]

You aren't messing anything by DNFing the Pumpkin Spice Cafe. It's so bad. It's insta-love and literally nothing happens.

[@Staz_Pizzazz]

I work at a bookstore and the amount of people getting it for there families for Christmas 😭😭😭 like yall it’s TRASH

[@adda3327]

@@thejenmath I pulled through and I was so dissappointed like... what are people praising about this book, as you said, literally NOTHING happens :D Waste of time

[@readingwithcec5092]

i DNFd 35 so far this year. i love myself too much to suffer through bad books lol

[@Marie45610]

I like the concept of Stormlight.

[@aluralorrell3297]

I love Stormlight in part because it was soo long and I love big long epic stories. But even I struggled with Oathbringer but finished. Then I DNFd Rythym of War because we stepped into a trope. I DESPISE in all media books and TV. I want to continue with the series but idk if I can finish Rythm of War.

[@cj1986x]

Just here to tell you there are many, many, so many other books you can read. Don't feel you are bound to read an author simply because they are popular.

[@aluralorrell3297]

@cj1986x fuck it let's overshare with a well meaning person on yt today. And Spoiler and Content Warning. I found The Way Of Kings on a blind date with a book in early 2019 and sat it on a shelf and forgot about it. Working mom, I'd buy a book sometimes but didn't really read anymore. I didn't feel like I had time. I had never heard of Sanderson or read the Wheel of Time and didn't really watch booktube until then. Lockdown happened (UK for me) and I went through alot and was in a super dark place that year mentally (child loss, husband's affair, divorce, medical stuff, had to leave pretty much my entire life behind so 2020 for me like so many people absolutely sucked) Anyway I was loosing my shit, met a therapist went on a grippy sock vacation and then part of my homework was taking the time to do something I loved before I got married. For me, that was reading, so I picked up Stormlight with zero context and absolutely fell for it. Sanderson gets a lot of well-deserved flack, but reading about Kalidin and his mental struggles during a time when I was there on the edge myself was... important for me. Maybe if I had picked up The Way of Kings at a different time, it wouldn't have meant soo much to me, but I remember spending months in therapy talking both this book and Worsds of Radiance. I don't just read popular books and wasn't even aware of its popularity when I read it. That whole period of my life is how I found Jess actually cause I was trying to find more book recommendations online . So, with Oathbringer, I still love the world building, etc. I just don't like Dalinar, and there was so much Dalinar, and it wouldn't freaking end. In Rythm of War, I don't like the Shadesmar arch. I don't like the dreamscape, journeys to an alternate reality, or timeline trope in books it's not Sandersons fault lol I just don't enjoy that specific thing but the series is special to me and I'd like to get through the arch so I can continue. I also think part of my Sanderson love finding him online was just how much that man loves and is super respectful of his wife, and in my headspace at the time, that was a huge deal for me for all the obvious reasons. I feel like there are certain books that I have just read at the right time for me, and they've been an anchor, and The Way of Kings was one of those books for me. I just don't agree with some of the narrative choices he's made. I read other things eventually that year The Bear and The Nightingale, City of Brass, The Last Unicorn, The Spellmomger series, Get a Life Chole Brown, The Lies of Locke Lamora, Strange The Dreamer, His Majestys Dragon, Ryeria Revlations were all books I definitely remember picking up after The Way of Kings. I definitely read beyond popularity, but I do appreciate the sentiment, and I get it. For me there are a select few autors I will push through tougher parts for bc of my emotional attachment to their stories, and he happens to be one of them.

[@tammietriestoread]

hahah i feel like my experience with chlorine and natural beauty is the opposite of yours - i read chlorine first and loved it and then was super disappointed by natural beauty. i DO think the natural beauty/chlorine/the eyes are the best part comp is pretty accurate tho, they all have similar elements, just executed very differently. pumpkin spice cafe was ass though so you absolutely made the right choice in DNFing

[@impsanity]

It makes total sense to want either great or terrible books! Either one can be a huge energy boost to help you get through it faster. The only thing possibly more motivating than the excitement of a an amazing book is maybe the sheer rage of a spite read! 😂Hope your holidays are comfy and relaxing. 🎄❤

[@mplbooks]

I've had "Jesus and John Wayne" on my TBR for ages and haven't yet built up the whatever-I-need to tackle it...

[@Alewo2735]

I think I DNF'D almost 50 books this year and finished 60. I love to DNF, I get more mad when a book tricks me into finishing it and is a 1 star! My most "popular" DNFs were The Last Tale of the Flower Bride and None of This is True.

[@Ries41794]

Glad I’m not the only one who DNF’d The god of the woods. Lol I really did not enjoy that book

[@JulieTheReader]

I need to be more diligent about recording my DNFs. The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian. Holiday romance between two chaotic bisexuals doing crime in Regency (?) England sounded great, but something wasn’t clicking on audio. The City in Glass by Nghi Vo. This was my DNF influenced by the election. I was not in the mood for the slow story of a demon reconciling/falling in love with the angel who destroyed her city. Finally, Shoestring Theory. This was pitched as a queer time travel friends-to-lovers romance. It opens with a guy alone with his cat in some post apocalyptic setting who ends the first chapter by slowly taking his own life in some sort of blood sacrifice to presumably power a time travel spell. I don’t care for blood magic at the best of times in my fantasy and there was nothing else established to interest me.

[@moniccgeller]

no but i get the feeling of wanting to finish book you hate because you know at least it's causing some emotion in me other than boredom

[@Yosoybean]

It’s funny you expressed your audiobook issue on a book I had the same issue with. It’s probably not the audio but who knows? I’m trying to get better at DNFing even books I think I might enjoy if I’m just not in the right place for it. I should’ve DNFed Priory of the Orange Tree but Ms. Shannon had me interested just enough to see it through. I think she is a Sanderson author for me. Love the concepts but the storytelling really doesn’t speak to me.

[@amyelevens]

the way I love three of these books: salvage the bones, god of the woods, and the reformatory 🧍🏾‍♀️

[@ayushamahajan8375]

I did not like Oathbringer and it completely turned me off the rest of Stormlight. I stopped reading Sanderson after that. He needs better editors and better writing 🤷‍♀️

[@BarryBoggs-qp5lj]

I dnf’d ACOTAR but counted it for my books read this year because I spent so much time trying to be to get into it I just couldn’t lmao

[@ktxx22]

Chlorine’s ending answers the question on the mermaid front and since that book is horror. All I’ll say is Big Body Horror trigger 👀

[@jaimee-kate]

Girl the being a mermaid in Chlorine is a metaphor 😭😅 I just really love that book so I want everyone to read it!

[@teganj9512]

I am SO DONE with stormlight archive

[@Hobeedaze]

Lol yes, oathbringer was soooo long!!!. if you're going to spend time to try and "read" this series and its tooo long for you, just read the last 20% of each book. Lol 10% if you're extra impatient

[@Maeve_Ever_Books]

I love hearing other peoples reasons for DNFing. I DNF a ton!!

[@chellyfishing]

Maeve Fly is pretty good, but I’m from Anaheim so part of the appeal was the inside baseball about Disneyland. My biggest problem with it is that the pacing is all over the place. Personally I rarely hard DNF books, I constantly pick stuff up and put it down with intent to finish it at another time but that’s a me thing and not because of the book. However this year I had to DNF Bunny by Mona Awad because early on there was a paragraph that was so damn offensive and when I skimmed critical reviews it sounded like not only does this go unexamined, it would get worse later. Huge bummer because I was really looking forward to that one.

[@Chalant_VeryChalant]

Are you on BlueSky yet? We need your book commentary!

[@alannapenner37]

I DNF'd 6 books this year. I think the most disappointing one was Howl's Moving Castle 🙁 Just cemented for me that anything labeled as "cozy" is not going to be my jam. I love the movie though.

[@plan4sweet_t]

I dnf’d books quick. I started year recording them but list now would be very long. I have no time for a book I’m not following.

[@kayri687]

nonfic about friendship rec: "How We Show Up" by Mia Birdsong!!! love it

[@DoubleA-ou7pj]

I think your views on pumpkin spice cafe would be the same if you read it with your eyeballs. It was very overhyped. I gave it 3 stars. God of the woods was a lot. Sooo long and so confusing. It was okay at the end but I didn’t get the hype. It only got more confusing the more you read. It had like 15 different characters and it went back and forth between two different time periods that were both historical. 😵‍💫

[@Choux317]

I just read Brom's Krampus book(read his peter pan retelling years ago and didn't like it). I had a feeling i wasn't gonna like Krampus and yeah i hated it. I would've dnf'd if i hadn't bought the book. He's a great artist but his writing is terrible. I also tried reading an echo of things to come by james islington and DNF'd around the halfway mark and never been happier about dnf-ing a book.

[@christak18]

Potential spoiler for American Rapture in comment below: Proceed with caution. I had to DNF American Rapture. I’m surprised you liked it so much. I was already having a bad time with it, and once I found out about the scene with the dog I was out! I can’t do animal cruelty in any form of media.

[@sagemustburn]

the only book i DNF'd (don't worry, i only read 7 books lmao) was Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam... i got 100 pages into it and it was still just beating me over the head about how one or two white characters are racist. like, bro, i fucking get it, can we get on with the story?? 💀 i get it's literary fiction but damn i was so bored even listening at 2.5x speed.... i might come back to it because i'm trying to get my physical TBR done before i leave the US but that's the only reason xD

[@syds8752]

Not us both DNFing Salvage the Bones this year. It was SO boring.

[@ayushamahajan8375]

I did not like Oathbringer and it turned me off the rest of Stormlight. I stopped reading Sanderson after that. He needs better editors and better writing 🤷‍♀️

[@autumn9353]

I dnfed late bloomer bc it was so boring and sterile... I hate when a sapphic romance is disappointing

[@BookmarkChronicles]

The cover for Maeve Fly is so disturbing

[@Shaamiix]

Listen.. I finished tje pumpkin spice Cafe like a month ago and I cannot tell you for the life of me what it wass about. Def NOT worth the hype

[@mudlizardz]

I only finished Maeve Fly out of spite... the kinda feminist commentary was so shallow and I hated the way Maeve compared her and her grandma to lone wolves. The plot is stale and the characters aren't very interesting (and what potential there is for engaging character stuff is squandered). The gore was meh. Any enjoyment I had came from hating on it. Its why, despite interest in the premise, I didn't plan on reading American Rapture.

[@kathryncalderon]

Chlorine sucked