Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
I don’t often DNF books, and there’s a few reasons why I might DNF something. Occasionally, I do find myself wishing I had DNFed a book, either feeling like I should have put it down sooner or annoyed if I’ve struggled through it with little payoff. Anyway, here’s the books I’ve DNFed!
Books I Did Not Finish
Pennyblade
J.L. Worrad
Genre: Fantasy
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: March 29th, 2022
DNF At 18%
This was a pretty fast DNF for me. I instantly didn’t like the world the author created here, and it felt very much like the type of world was a) trying a bit too hard to fit into ‘grimdark’ and b) felt like the worldbuilding was simply an excuse to indulge in some tropes and ideas I am not a fan of in the slightest.
Poppy’s Christmas Wishes
Annette Hannah
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: December 2nd, 2021
DNF At 15%
There was a lot I didn’t like about this book right from the start – Poppy is a strangely naïve character, the way her boyfriend breaks up with her feels very convoluted, and the writing was overall messy with poor dialogue and difficult to read formatting.
Arabian Nights: Volume 1
Marty Ross
Genre: Fantasy
Age: Adult
Format: Audiobook
Published: May 15th, 2018
DNF At 30 mins
I remember the sound mixing on this being really strange – the volume difference between characters was huge. In just 30 mins I felt like the women were really, really badly written, and the only thing just felt off.
An Illustrated History of Ghosts
Adam Allsuch Boardman
Genre: Nonfiction – History
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: September 13th, 2022
DNF At 57%
Formatting already made this a really difficult read, but the book itself was very basic. In my review, I commented this could have done with being an ‘Introduction to the History of Ghosts’, and the book would have been better served by including actual photos alongside the illustrations. It was lacking in information, and another comment direct from my review – I like a dose of healthy scepticism with my paranormal reading, but certain parts of this felt full of disdain at the very idea of ghosts. It felt like someone had read the Wikipedia page for ‘History of Ghosts’ and added illustrations.
The Rake
Gillian Hawser
Genre: Historical Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: July 28th, 2021
DNF At 5%
This is where I realise I didn’t actually make any notes on this one and why I DNF’d. But it was so early on I can only imagine the first 5% was pretty bad, added to the fact this is over 400 pages!
Always You
Caroline Khoury
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: April 20th, 2023
DNF At 20%
I wrote a pretty long review on Goodreads for this, so it must have really annoyed me. Characters were frustrating and annoying, the holding back of information felt very forced, and things started getting really bleak, but in a way where I struggled to feel much sympathy for the MC.
The Matzah Ball
Jean Meltzer
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: September 28th, 2021
DNF At 37%
MCs were immature, FMC felt manipulative and there was too much exposition and repetition. I got bored and found I didn’t care for the characters, and I think characters are so incredibly important in romance (all books, really, but romance especially), that when I don’t click with them, it hugely impacts the reading experience.
Den of Spies
RR Jones
Genre: Fantasy
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: November 24th, 2023
DNF At 21%
Intriguing premise, but this book needed a lot more editing – confusing POVs and a lot of repetition, and as I noted in my review, interesting potential here that is, ultimately, let down by the execution.
Gwen & Art Are Not In Love
Lex Croucher
Genre: Fantasy
Age: Young Adult
Format: Audiobook
Published: May 11th, 2023
DNF At Unknown
Usually I do try and keep some sort of note of why I DNF’d books, and at what point I put them down, but for this one I just…didn’t. I do remember feeling very frustrated very quickly with the writing, dialogue and characters, and it was almost a bit painful trying to listen to this! But I put it down to just not being the audience for it, no matter how excited I was about a queer Arthurian tale.
Now or Never
Stacy-Deanne
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: September 10th, 2015
DNF At 23%
I’m sure I was intending to leave a short review for this one at some point, but it must have slipped my mind. Still, it’s a relatively recent read so I do remember being really frustrated almost instantly with the MC here. She’s meant to be a police officer, but between threatening ‘suspects’ and the way she keeps repeating the same thing when questioning them, I’m stunned how she still has her job. Things unfortunately got very boring, very fast with this.
Do you tend to DNF books? Is there a common reason you DNF, or is it usually just a case of not ‘vibing’ with them?
Unwrapping Words 