Which stands for Did Not Finish. I used to have a rule to finish every single book I read because I didn’t feel right reviewing books without finishing them. I made one exception in a dozen years–The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, which I finished enough to review it and explain myself. But ya’ll, there are so many great books out there and so many that I want to get to (and so many books to review) that I am embracing DNFs starting now. Not to the extent of one of my co-workers–who picks up books and reads a few pages or a few chapters and then decides if they want to actually read them or not, which is a fascinating idea that I can get behind but not emulate. But in the past year I have DNFed four books and am about to DNF my fifth (I think. This is difficult for me).

This page is my compromise. If I invested even a little in the book, I want to be able to say, “Nah. Not for me.” Also, the point of this blog is partly to remember what I’ve read and what I felt and thought about it. So as I increase my DNFs, I am going to list them on this page with a one- or two-sentence explanation of why. As far as bad experiences with smaller publications (often indie- or self-published), I am going to pretend I never read it if it’s a DNF (so it won’t be listed here). It’s just what I have decided, since any reviews matter so much to those books. I’ll just be quiet. As for the bigger publications, this is my two cents.

You know lots of other people have finished them. And often loved them. And sometimes even gave them awards.

• The Cabinet, Un-Su Kim. I really thought I would finish this one, am DNF-ing it at p117 more than a year later. I didn’t finish it on time for book club, but set it on the shelf thinking I’d come back. The body horror was what kept me away, I think, but I also had notes such as, “low on plot,” “very split opinion,” and “kept feeling like I should like it.” It’s really mostly short stories and has a very Korean The Office meets Twilight Zone thing with plenty of disordered eating and alcoholism and a late-entry sprinkling of gruesome torture. Carnival sideshow-esque. One final comment from another book club member: “This book is closer to Forrest Gump than we are to this book.”
• The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt (I got far enough to review it. See link.)
• I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com, Kimberly Lemming. Made it 43 pages into a book that seemed like a gamble that could have ended in a rollicking time. I could not continue with the (lack of) writing style. While action never stopped, I was utterly bored and uninvested.
• Hot Desk, Laura Dickerman. Only made it a chapter, which makes me feel ungrateful since this was an ARC and I went to an event where I met the author. I haven’t decided that I will never try again, but the first chapter had me so annoyed I just couldn’t… not when there are so many other books to read. Couldn’t relate to the MC (who was coming across as sour rather than snarky) nor the set-up. (Why is a desk cactus such a big freakin’ deal?) Zero tension or saving of cats.
• The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende. I can’t even believe I’m DNFing Allende’s supposed magnum opus at more than 100 pages in, but I cannot with the violence, the sexy violence, the horrific and twisted violence, the masochistic and constant violence. And this coming from someone who read House of Fury earlier this year. When three truly disturbing and also peripheral things happen to dogs, children, and women in three pages, I asked my book club if it was worth it to go on. But this is early work for Allende, and it feels less mature and also highly derivative (Garcia Marquez), so at least for now I’ll be reading her other books instead. It’s possible I’ll come back but… probably not.
• Kairos, Jenny Erpenbeck. I can’t believe I was only to page 60 when I set this aside like a year ago. I went to book club because why not. I put it down because I was so over older-male, younger-female, dysthymic, European anti-romances. (I had just read Trespasses, among others.) Some of the club members said the ending was confusing, there was a Blair Witch moment where they wondered if they were having a stroke, and the book was “great but unpleasant, with horrible characters.” It is probably history metaphor, so if that appeals and you want to look some stuff up, fine, but grooming was definitely mentioned, so no thanks for me. Not right now.
• Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, Shea Earnshaw. 3.8 on Goodreads and I had heard good things. But maybe not so long lived. I am a huge Tim Burton and The Nightmare Before Christmas fan, but here’s the thing: I lost the book several chapters in and didn’t notice until two months later. Yikes. I was not enjoying this one. I plain didn’t care.
• A Magic Steeped in Poison (The Book of Poison #1), Judy I. Lin. 3.82 on Goodreads and a Goodreads Choice Award. The cover was only the beginning of what annoyed me. I made it maybe 1/4 of the way into this one that I really wanted to like and just was too annoyed by the poor writing.)
• Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe, Melissa de la Cruz. 2.63 on Goodreads (yikes). I was 20 pages in (which is like 1/10th of the book) and realized it was going to be difficult to like and had so many better books lined up to read. Then I tried the Hallmark movie and, well, that was worse. DNFed them both.
• The Rigor of Angels, William Egginton. This one might not be fair, but I was just not in the mood to tackle this. I read the introduction (which is not short, but still) and then went to book club completely out of steam. What I read of this nonfiction book was actually interesting and full of history and philosophy in an approachable style, but it was going to take like a year in small bits for me. I heard from the four people who finished it (!) that it was excessively wordy at parts and repetitive (great narration in others), but I would have been able to keep up. Like I said, just not in the mood. Made people want to read Borges.
• Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1), Kerri Maniscalco. DNFed at more than halfway. 3.93 on Goodreads. (I got far enough to review. See link.)
• The Sun and the Void (The Warring Gods #1), Gabriela Romero-Lacruz. I Made it only pages into this book that I wanted to love because of the Latin American fantasy thing, but the writing was laughably bad. So bad. My book club bestie finished it and still mentions it as the “worst book ever written” when bad books are being discussed. He envies me for calling it.
• We Deserve Monuments, Jas Hammonds. 4.28 on Goodreads and the Coretta Scott King Award. Made it to p86. Despite reviews, I can’t see any adult appreciating this over-busy, immaturely voiced, inconsistent, and grammatically-error-fraught book that covers important issues.

• Allende, Isable, The House of the Spirits. I can’t even believe I’m DNFing Allende’s supposed magnum opus at more than 100 pages in, but I cannot with the violence, the sexy violence, the horrific and twisted violence, the masochistic and constant violence. And this coming from someone who read House of Fury earlier this year. When three truly disturbing and also peripheral things happen to dogs, children, and women in three pages, I asked my book club if it was worth it to go on. But this is early work for Allende, and it feels less mature and also highly derivative (Garcia Marquez), so at least for now I’ll be reading her other books instead. It’s possible I’ll come back but… probably not.
• De la Cruz, Melissa, Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe. 2.63 on Goodreads (yikes). I was 20 pages in (which is like 1/10th of the book) and realized it was going to be difficult to like and had so many better books lined up to read. Then I tried the Hallmark movie and, well, that was worse. DNFed them both. In De la Cruz’s defense, this is by far her lowest rated book and one of her fans thinks that it was ghostwritten and unedited. Perhaps we should ignore it.
• Dickerman, Laura, Hot Desk. Only made it a chapter, which makes me feel ungrateful since this was an ARC and I went to an event where I met the author. I haven’t decided that I will never try again, but the first chapter had me so annoyed I just couldn’t… not when there are so many other books to read. Couldn’t relate to the MC (who was coming across as sour rather than snarky) nor the set-up. (Why is a desk cactus such a big freakin’ deal?) Zero tension or saving of cats.
• Earnshaw, Shea, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen. 3.8 on Goodreads and I had heard good things. But maybe not so long lived. I am a huge Tim Burton and The Nightmare Before Christmas fan, but here’s the thing: I lost the book several chapters in and didn’t notice until two months later. Yikes. I was not enjoying this one. I plain didn’t care.
• Egginton, William, The Rigor of Angels. This one might not be fair, but I was just not in the mood to tackle this. I read the introduction (which is not short, but still) and then went to book club completely out of steam. What I read of this nonfiction book was actually interesting and full of history and philosophy in an approachable style, but it was going to take like a year in small bits for me. I heard from the four people who finished it (!) that it was excessively wordy at parts and repetitive (great narration in others), but I would have been able to keep up. Like I said, just not in the mood. Made people want to read Borges.
• Erpenbeck, Jenny, Kairos. I can’t believe I was only to page 60 when I set this aside like a year ago. I went to book club because why not. I put it down because I was so over older-male, younger-female, dysthymic, European anti-romances. (I had just read Trespasses, among others.) Some of the club members said the ending was confusing, there was a Blair Witch moment where they wondered if they were having a stroke, and the book was “great but unpleasant, with horrible characters.” It is probably history metaphor, so if that appeals and you want to look some stuff up, fine, but grooming was definitely mentioned, so no thanks for me. Not right now.
• Hammonds, Jas, We Deserve Monuments. 4.28 on Goodreads and the Coretta Scott King Award. Made it to p86. Despite reviews, I can’t see any adult appreciating this over-busy, immaturely voiced, inconsistent, and grammatically-error-fraught book that covers important issues.
• Lemming, Kimberly, I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com. Made it 43 pages into a book that seemed like a gamble that could have ended in a rollicking time. I could not continue with the (lack of) writing style. While action never stopped, I was utterly bored and uninvested.
• Lin, Judy I., A Magic Steeped in Poison (The Book of Poison #1). 3.82 on Goodreads and a Goodreads Choice Award. The cover was only the beginning of what annoyed me. I made it maybe 1/4 of the way into this one that I really wanted to like and just was too annoyed by the poor writing.
• Maniscalco, Kerri, Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1). DNFed at more than halfway. 3.93 on Goodreads. (I got far enough to review. See link.)
• Romero-Lacruz, Gabriela, The Sun and the Void (The Warring Gods #1). 3.31 on Goodreads. Made it only pages into this book that I wanted to love because of the Latin American fantasy thing, but the writing was laughably bad. So bad. My book club bestie finished it and still mentions it as the “worst book ever written” when bad books are being discussed. He envies me for calling it.
• Tartt, Donna, The Goldfinch (I got far enough to review it. See link.)
• Kim, Un-Su, The Cabinet. I really thought I would finish this one, am DNF-ing it at p117 more than a year later. I didn’t finish it on time for book club, but set it on the shelf thinking I’d come back. The body horror was what kept me away, I think, but I also had notes such as, “low on plot,” “very split opinion,” and “kept feeling like I should like it.” It’s really mostly short stories and has a very Korean The Office meets Twilight Zone thing with plenty of disordered eating and alcoholism and a late-entry sprinkling of gruesome torture. Carnival sideshow-esque. One final comment from another book club member: “This book is closer to Forrest Gump than we are to this book.”

I am not usually big on listening to audio books. I do it when I am struggling to finish something. And I do it when a migraine is dragging on and I pop on an audiobook I’ve already read ten or more times (so I don’t get stressed about not falling asleep if I need to). Add to that a new category: audio ARCs. At first, I didn’t know what I could possibly do with them, but then I realized that I could use them to decide which up and coming books (that I have audio ARCs for) that I want to read. Which means that this graveyard will grow faster as I pop on the free audio and decide within pages or chapters if it’s the book for me (to buy) or not.

In anticipation of the fast growth, these won’t even be getting headstones.

• Writing Mr. Wrong, Kelley Armstrong. A romance about a writer is probably always going to catch my eye. What will be more difficult is getting me to like it. I listened to only pages of this one, but it was clearly not going to be my thing–not the writing style I enjoy.
• Automatic Noodle, Annalee Newitz. I tried a little harder with this one. The paper copy had just come into the shop, and I was interested in buying it. But 37 minutes and a few chapters into this short read, I remained un-charmed. Abandoned robots running a noodle shop for humans? Great. The pacing and writing style? Not for me.
• The Day I Fell Down the Toilet, Stephen Mangan. I really thought this would do it, but it was slow and had way more showing than telling (is that really right?), sort of like a fairy tale but somehow lacking the charm (at least for me). I dunno. Something off with the tone.
• The Woman in Suite 11, Ruth Ware. I barely started this one when I decided it probably wasn’t my cup of tea and it definitely wasn’t my mood.
• Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar, Katie Yee. I gave this one some time, since it’s supposed to be one of the best books of the year. I’ve heard it called “voicey” and that’s not wrong–but the POV’s voice grated. I was both offended and irritated (maybe by the disjointedness), even though I really wanted to like it for its premise and some of its stronger-writing moments. Also, I don’t hate the title.