Posted on by bookreviews628

Let’s DNF together! It’s okay to stop reading!

Hi all! I’m coming at you with a completely different post than my normal reviews. I’m sure most of you on this side of the internet are familiar with the term DNF but, if you need a refresher, it stands for Did Not Finish. You don’t necessarily have to apply it to books but it is mostly regarding books. I have some free time at this moment so I have been watching different “Book Tubers” talk about their worst or DNFs of 2023. I felt inspired. I am a bit of a completionist when it comes to books. I like to see things through to the end because a book could surprise me or it could justify any negative feelings I have while reading. I might have said this before but I go into every book I read hoping it will be my next favorite. Not everything pans out, though, and I certainly wish I had stopped reading certain books. I am making it a point now to be okay with DNF-ing a book for whatever reason. Now, I will present my most recent DNFs. If you have different thoughts or you agree, feel free to leave me a comment either way.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – You might have heard the hype surrounding this book and its daunting size. The book is about 1,000 pages. I was fully prepared to tackle this book and read about 25% of the book before giving up. It was so bloated and I didn’t care about the court politics of the book. I wanted dragons and was barely getting dragons. I don’t know if I will ever tackle this book again but I’m going to hold on to it, just in case. If a book is over 1,000 pages, it really needs to work double overtime to justify why it is 1,000 pages.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth – This is another case of a book just being too long and not losing my interest. I also didn’t care for the fourth wall-breaking narrator who kept being cheeky and omnipotent. The book goes back and forth between two groups of characters (one set in the past and one set in the present) and I was only interested in the characters from the past. I do really want to give the book another shot because I like the overall premise but the narrative voice annoyed me so much.

Rhapsodic by Lauren Thalassa – Everyone and their mother currently loves dark “romantasy” with fairies who are just hot people with wings. I thought I might give the genre a shot and I am learning that dark romance is not exactly for me. This book was a slog to get through and I was annoyed at how slow the burn was. I flipped ahead and the two main characters didn’t get together until about chapter twelve of a book that was just shy of thirty chapters. Also, the main character’s best friend was a stereotype and that bothered me throughout. I’m not bothering with Laura Thalassa again.

Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert – This book had two things that I should have loved: vampires and Katee Robert. I still stand by my reviews of her other books as “guilty pleasure” books. I thought that this book would be a no-brainer, instant love for me. Let me explain what I like about the Dark Olympus series: in every book, regardless of the circumstances, the couples always have a discussion about consent and boundaries. I truly appreciate all of those conversations and how Katee Robert works those in. In Court of the Vampire Queen (spoiler/content warning) the main character literally walks into the main vampire love interest’s house and he jumps on her, then they just have sex right there. There was no “hi, how are you” nor did he even introduce himself. They get nasty right there and she brushes the whole thing off?!?! It was so icky and I gave that book away as soon as I could.

Phantom by Greer Rivers – Does all dark romance suck? This one was on me for falling for a premise. This book was advertised by the author herself as a re-telling of The Phantom of the Opera that is set in modern-day New Orleans and it had some mafia elements. I put this book down after the first sentence of the first chapter. Now, I fully understand that dark romance is meant to be a little unhinged but I don’t appreciate the male main character fantasizing about assaulting the female main character. It was a major ick and I’m mad at myself for falling for this book.

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – This one is simply a case of “not feeling it.” I’ve been trying for months to read this book and I’m just not super interested. I do really like the premise so I might just save this one for a different time. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s books so if I don’t finish this one then I might try I different book by him. The book gives me major Stephen King vibes, for better or worse. I really wanted to read it for October but I found other books that I just liked better.

Well, that is my current DNF list. If you have any suggestions for other books I might like instead then feel free to leave those in the comments. I wish you all the best!

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My (Honest) DNF List

Hi everyone! While I still wait on a new book to magically appear in front of me, I decided I’ll tell you all about the books I DNF’d or Did Not Finished, in case you didn’t know what DNF stood for. Some of you may be shocked while others may not be surprised by this. I will do my best to explain my reasons for not finishing any of these novels and whether or not I will try to finish them.

IT by Stephen King: Everyone knows that Stephen King writes some super long books and It is one of the longer ones. Who knew a novel about a killer clown could be so complex? I did enjoy that complexity, though. I really want to finish It one day but not any time soon.

Origin by Dan Brown: I did a review/rant on this one a little while back. I got pretty far into the novel before I realized that 98% of was going to be build up to something that isn’t even substantial. Literally, the book was building up to a question. In other Dan Brown novels, you get some satisfactory answers or tangible victories before the big reveal, even if it is convoluted. The entire book felt like a mash up of Brown’s other cliches with no interesting history to back it up. Can someone prove religion wrong with one simple question? Well, Dan Brown can’t answer that.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: I’m a huge Donna Tartt fan and I did do a review on this novel as well but I didn’t exactly finish it. The style of this novel is “bildungsroman,” which is a novel that follows one character’s most formative years. Essentially, it is a coming-of-age novel. I liked the characters and the overall plot but it was just so damn long. My attention span can only take so much but I may have to try to thoroughly read it. I still recommend Tartt’s novels.

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman: Pullman’s novels are particularly popular and I tried to read this book once or twice now. The first time I tried to read it I was in grade school and the movie was coming out around that time. I know that the movie isn’t good, by the way. I remember being confused by all of the terms in the novel the first time I read it. I also was a little baffled by the whole “daemon” concept. Now that I’m an adult, I will definitely have to give this another opportunity as I will probably be able to appreciate this more.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth: I shouldn’t need to explain again why I hate this book but I do. The final novel in the Divergent series still makes my blood boil. I skipped to the stupid ending just so I could be pissed at the stupidity of it all. If you’ve read the novel, then you know what I mean.

Crossed by Ally Condie: This one was the second book in the Matched trilogy. I really enjoyed Matched when I first read it because I enjoyed the world and the characters. The problem with the second novel was that it was completely removed from the world that we had come know. It was mostly just the two main characters wandering through a desert. My mom and I actually both ended up not finishing this book. It also had two unnecessary POVs happening, much like Allegiant. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson: This is another really popular book series that I was just unable to get into. I thought that this one would be right up my alley with it being a mystery/thriller/suspense novel. I barely got to chapter five before I got very bored. Not only do I not know Swedish or really anything about Sweden, but the build up was just so boring. I wanted to know more about Lisabeth Salander but I felt like I wasn’t going to get to know her.

Requiem by Lauren Oliver: Lauren Oliver has written some of my favorite novels, including Rooms. Requiem is the third book in the Delirium trilogy and I really enjoyed the first novel. I did like the second book as well but not as much. Unfortunately, I simply wasn’t able to finish the third novel but I would like to re-read the entire series. The world of the novel was incredibly interesting and I liked the two main characters. I also felt it was a great twist on forbidden romance. I recommend this if you like YA dystopian novels.

These are at least some of the books I have DNF’d. Let me know if any of these are worth finishing or if I should just give up. Also, let me know what books you gave up on.