Top Ten Tuesday used to be a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” This is definitely something I can understand and want to participate in.
Today’s prompt idea was petty reasons I’ve DNF’d a book, but I typically don’t DNF books for petty reasons. I say typically because there was that one time …. FINE. I’ll tell you since you twisted my arm.
I’ve lived within a short drive of a town called Port Jefferson, NY for nearly my entire life. And everyone who lives in or near that town most often refers to it as Port Jeff, because we’re New Yorkers, and we don’t have time to waste on two extra syllables that aren’t even necessary. So, when I tried to read Tools of Engagement by Tessa Bailey, and realized that it was set in Port Jefferson, and that every single character referred to it as Port Jefferson, every single chance they got, I couldn’t make it more than two chapters into the book.
Instead, I decided to add my own little spin on this week’s prompt and turn it into the last ten books I DNFd and why. So here they are:
- The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes. I never found myself connecting to the story or the characters.
- Warrior of the Wind by Suyi Davies Okungbowa. The first book never fully sold me on the characters, and with none of them being likable, the character-driven story made it a hard sell for me in book two.
- The Clinic by Cate Quinn. The amount of ridiculous substance use and mental health clinical information that is wrong makes me wonder if the author even bothered to do a basic google search. It’s so bad I couldn’t even keep reading.
- A Box of Magick: A Guided Journey to Crafting a Magickal Life Through Witchcraft, Ritual Herbalism, and Spellcrafting by Jamie Della. The amount of ick that I got from this book came from more than just the author suggesting the use of bodily fluids as cleaning products (which is already pretty gross), but also from the blatant appropriation of Jewish practices and what was claimed to be Hebrew words, but were just Hebrew letters organized into gibberish and “translated” into an approximation of a Christian prayer.
- The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop. This was a case of mistaken identity. I honestly thought it was a mystery, but it wound up being a literary fiction novel that just wasn’t a great fit for me.
- Shadows of the Lost by Maxym M. Martineau. I had no idea this was a spin-off of another series, so when I started it and it was like having your first episode of Scandal (or any other involved television show) be smack in the middle of season 3 and having no clue what was going on, I couldn’t figure out which end was up and DNFd at 15%.
- A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality by Kate Khavari. This one didn’t have the same oomph as the first book, but it did have a whole lot of new characters. I had trouble staying focused and found myself drifting off more often than not.
- Social Engagement by Avery Carpenter Forrey. Frequent fat shaming is a valid reason to DNF, and this was one of those.
- Killingly by Katharine Beutner. This historical mystery sounded so good, but it started after the young woman went missing, so we didn’t even get to know anything about her at all, instead meeting what felt like an endless parade of flat, non-distinguishable characters. It was like reading true crime without getting to know anything about the missing person, the setting, the circumstances, or anything relevant, just endless random information about vague characters.
- The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller. The beautiful writing and relationship between two sisters wasn’t enough to keep me interested in a book where the story moved as slowly as this one.
Did you read any of the books above? What did you think?
Categories: Top Ten Tuesday
Leah's Books 
I hate it when I don’t connect to any of the characters. Why waste my time reading about characters I don’t care about.
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Right? And it doesn’t matter how good the book might be, I just can’t get into it if I can’t find a single character to connect with.
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I’ve seen Kat on a list and maybe a review, too. Prior to that though I hadn’t read about it, but the concept sounds interesting. May be one I need to learn more about, but I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. That’s always a bummer. 🙂
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Yeah, it’s always disappointing when I start a book expecting to enjoy it, and it’s not the right book for me. It did sound like a good concept though – maybe it’ll be a great read for you!
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I haven’t read these, but Social Engagement is one I would have considered. Fat shaming is a big no-no.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2024/04/top-ten-tuesdays-top-ten-darn-good.html
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It’s always so disappointing when I DNF a book for something like fat shaming, especially when the book itself sounds good.
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A reasonable list! I had to tweak mine a bit as I drew a blank. I’ve only DNF 1 book. I’m thinking maybe I’ve just been lucky in my choices 😂
Have a great week!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
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Whoa, how have you managed to only DNF a single book?! Your book choosing skills must be top notch! I’m so impressed. Have a great week, and thanks for being patient with my very late response as I recovered from shoulder surgery.
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I’m just either very lucky or I try too hard to make it to the end 😂
No need to apologise at all! I hope that you have a speedy recovery ❤️
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I think it’s probably a little of both? I had to really fight to be comfortable with DNFing books, but now I do it a lot more than I used to.
Recovery is going quite well! Got my stitches out yesterday and started physical therapy, and the pain is manageable. Overall I’m really happy with how it went, now I just have to do the work to regain mobility.
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I just can’t help thinking that it might suddenly get better and if I DNF then I will never know 😂 silly I know.
Excellent. I hope it doesn’t take too long!
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I struggle with that too, but every time I stick with it, the book never gets better.
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😂 a couple have got better, but some also haven’t 😂
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I love finding books set in areas I’m familiar with, BUT if the author doesn’t understand the area it shows. I understand your DNF that book!
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/reasons-why-ive-stopped-reading-a-book/
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Yes! That was probably my most petty reason to DNF, but it was just so grating to hear them constantly say the name of the town like an out of towner. It’s even worse knowing that she lives in the area!!
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That is a good story and very understandable.
Here is my <a href=”https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-petty-reasons-youve-dnfd-a-book-or-reduced-its-rating/“>Top Ten Tuesday.</a>
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Thank you! It was so frustrating, because she lives in the area and should totally know better.
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I like your twist! I struggled with this topic this week!
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It was such a tough topic! I’m glad you enjoyed the spin I put on the topic.
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Your Port Jefferson story made me remember DNFing a movie. I don’t remember what the movie was called, but it was supposed to be set in the Rocky Mountains. Nothing in the movie looked like the Rocky Mountains. It was clearly filmed in the Pacific Northwest. Most people probably can’t tell the difference, but it bothered me.
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Yes! That’s something that I would never have noticed, since I’ve never seen the Rocky Mountains or the Pacific Northwest. But that’s the same thing, basically.
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There are lots of perfectly valid and important reasons for DNFing here! The only one of these I’ve read is #1 and I actually loved it just because it was so fun. It made me laugh and I needed that 🙂 Not being able to connect with the characters in a book, though, is definitely a reason I DNF. Also, I totally get you on the Port Jefferson example. I cited an example in my list about an author getting it totally wrong when it came to driving the type of car I drive. When the author doesn’t take the time to research simple things, it’s incredibly annoying.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Yes! And it seems like so many people who are reading The Expectant Detectives really enjoyed it and said it was a fun read – it makes me sad that I couldn’t connect with anything in the book. There’s nothing worse than when an author doesn’t bother to look up easy stuff – I have a hard time reading fiction about therapists or substance use, because those are so often misrepresented, and those are fields that I worked in.
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