Every Book I Did Not Finish (DNFd)
in 2024
This post is a bit different from my usual and I just wanted to be clear that the purpose of this is not to bash authors. It’s intended to be a laugh. Simply a reflection of which books really didn’t gel with me and some chitchat about why I didn’t end up finishing the books. I have the utmost respect for all published authors but I do also have likes and – in this case – dislikes.
Aaaand… I don’t know about you, but I love a little rant…
So without further ado, these are the books that I started in 2024 but could not bring myself to finish. Basically, the experience of the book itself was more painful than the loss of stopping a book halfway.
The Shadow Queen
by
Nicola Tyche
This is book two in the Crowns series and I distinctly remember loving book one (North Queen). So, if I loved the first book, then what was the issue with this one? Well…I honestly just got bored.
It’s pretty common that the first chunk in a fantasy book can be taken up by world-building and setting up the plot but this was just excessive. I got to the 60% mark and was still waiting for something worthwhile to happen.
Also, if this is book two, then most of the world-building would’ve been covered in book one. So, then why was it so stagnant?!
I don’t know, maybe I just gave up too soon and it’s actually brilliant, but personally, I need something captivating enough to justify my continuing. I will happily wade through the dregs of boring world-building for the first 20% of the book so that I can get the full payoff later on. But don’t ask me to be hanging in there for a build-up that hasn’t even started at the 60% mark.
Touch of Darkness
by
Scarlett St. Clair
This book was marketed as a saucy retelling of Hades and Persephone with some delicious forbidden romance, and I was so here for it! Alas, what I actually received was a billionaire romance with a very unconvincing fantasy overlay. Gag.
I have never had to endure such a stupid character in my life. This female lead was utterly insufferable. Every single decision she made had me screaming at the book because she was being so idiotic.
I get that some characters need to make some less-than-smart decisions every now and again; perfect characters are boring. But this was on another level. Everything she did lacked so much logic and reason that it actually made me mad.
It also made me mad to see a woman represented like this at all. Of course, there are plenty of stupid women and stupid men in the real world alike, but FFS, can we please stop diminishing only the women in literature? Diminish all genders! I joke, I joke…
And honestly, if both the male and female characters here were equally stupid, then fine, fair play, but they weren’t. Hard pass for me.
Phantasma
by
Kaylie Smith
This was supposed to make all of my childhood Danny Phantom fantasies come true. But I want a refund because wtf was that?
For some reason, I found it very difficult to follow the writing and picture anything that was happening. Even the setting was just a dark blob in my brain.
If I can’t picture the setting, characters and the action then it’s literally just words on a page. I only made it to the 25% mark before giving up because I just did not care about anything that was happening. The main character could’ve died and I wouldn’t have blinked.
Also, apparently, this is very instalove heavy. Ew. I will happily be proven wrong but I don’t think I’m missing anything.