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This week the topic about books we abandoned so here are ten I DNFed this year.
1) Ken Jones-Darkness Descending
True story of a man surviving and dragging himself to safety after a mountain climbing accident. The MC had one of those superior I'm so skilled and brilliant attitudes that left me not caring what happened to him.
2) Rick Yancey-The Monstrumologist
The plot was interesting but the repetitive nature of the way the doctor talked to the boy was annoying as was the doctor himself. I couldn't read 200 more pages of that.
3) Ray Garton-Trailer Park Noir
The plot was about sexual abuse of a mentally challenged teenager by various men in a trailer park. All the male characters were monsters and the women were pathetic sex objects.
4) Jeff Strand-Benjamin's Parasite
It started well and was funny in places as a man is infected by a parasite-but halfway through came conspiracies, hot daring women and dumb criminals and it all went downhill fast.
5) Jeff Strand-Graverobbers Wanted
The MC was one of the dumbest MCs ever and even his breathing annoyed me. I had lost interest by the end of chapter one.
And five that I nearly DNFed
6) Jonathan Waterman-In the Shadow of Denali
Boring self indulgent waffle written by an author with an obsession with Denali and Alaska. It was just really dull.
7) Matt Wallace-Small Wars
The plot was paper thin, the characters spent their whole time bickering and swearing, and the vague flashbacks added nothing to the plot. It put me off the rest of the series.
8) Nick Williams-Our Survival
I'd have DNFed this if it hadn't been such a short apocalypse story. The daughter was a spoiled brat and the woman a weak and pathetic whiny cow with no survival instincts.
9) John Crace-I Maybot
Dreadful parody of the reign of Theresa May as PM, having her as an actual rebooted robot. There was little to laugh about and the left wing bias was annoying.
10) Quentin Letts-Patronising Bastards
This was more of a personal rant against everyone the author disliked rather than amusing political satire which I hoped it would be.
I have not read any of these books, but I read another one by Strand, and it was middle of the road for me. Therefore, I never tried any of his other books.
ReplyDeleteI've only really liked a couple of his books and both were co-written with others, so maybe that says more about the talents of the other writers! I won't be trying any more of his stuff though.
DeleteDumb MCs make it hard for me to finish a book, too. :)
ReplyDeleteI've never understood why authors choose a horrible or dumb MC...you'd think they'd want to write an MC that readers root for!
DeleteIt's hard for me to DNF. I'll at the very least, skim read quickly (like 15 minutes) to the end.
ReplyDeleteI like your new header pic :-)
Karen @ For What It's Worth
For me as soon as I lose interest in the book, I can just switch off from it and move on to smething else. It's rare that I care about how it ends! It certainly helps me move through books quickly!
DeleteThe header pic reminds me of those calm wet winter days with a hot drink and a good book! Perfect for summer!
it's hard for me to dnf too. there are very few books i quit on and very few that i don't like. am i good at choosing books? or lucky? who knows. these are all new to me, though i recognize an author or two
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
I think I'm lucky to be able to switch off and DNF a book without a second thought. I know other readers find it really tough to do that! I think you must be good at choosing books and can maybe interpret the blurbs well. Horror can be tricky as it covers so many sub sections and a lot of plots sound similar. Maybe the fun of the genre is finding the gems amongst the guff!
DeleteI knew you'd have no trouble with this week's topic. I also read the first Monstrumologist book and although I finished, I had no desire to continue. Which was sad because it did have such a great premise.
ReplyDeleteI very much liked the idea and would have liked to see where they went with it but I couldn't stomach the mannerisms of that doctor and the way he spoke!
DeleteAll of these would be DNFs for me too I think - especially #3! And I'd probably be kicking myself for not DNFing your last 5. I let myself DNF a book this week and it was such a huge relief. Normally I don't DNF unless I really really hate the book or it's really upsetting me but this was one I just didn't care about and I figure that's almost as bad.
ReplyDeleteReading sexual violence and exploitation doesn't bother me in fiction-but only if the book is well written and sadly, I never much liked this! I struggled with the topic as I've read so little this year that I've only DNFed a handful. I think I kept on with a few I'd normally DNF just to get my read total a bit higher for my Goodreads Challenge! Normally I'm pretty good at DNFing!
DeleteI gave up on The Monstrumologist for the same reasons. I do plan to try it again though.
ReplyDeleteIt's very rare for me to go back and give a book a second chance. I tend to do that only if I think I was maybe not in the right mood for the book or something! I hope you have better luck with it second time round!
DeleteI haven't really encountered any books that I needed to dnf so far this year. I don't know if I would have made it through any of these.
ReplyDeleteI've read so little this year that my DNF count is way down! Ugh I just want to get back on track and start reducing the TBR again.
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