Book Talk | Why I DNF Books

DNF’ing is something that can divide book lovers – after all, can you really say you didn’t like a book if you didn’t finish it?

Personally, I DNF books a lot.

I didn’t when I was younger but recently, I just don’t have time to dedicate to books that I’m just not enjoying reading, whatever the reason. In this post, I’m just going to outline some of the reasons – and some of the books – I’ve DNF’ed.

 

Far Too Slow To Start

There’s a difference between a slow start and a snail’s pace. This usually happens with worlds and societies that aren’t like our own. They start with too much worldbuilding that doesn’t make sense at first glance, they don’t attach you to the main character, they don’t really describe anything making it hard to get a sense of space.

The Evaporation of Sofi Snow is one of those books – I was interested in the premise, this dystopian world with aliens and bloody games and the search to find a brother that may or may not be alive – but the opening d r a g g e d. There was action but nothing happened. I still had no idea why anything was happening and ultimately wasn’t entertained enough to keep reading.

 

Uncomfortable Subjects

In this, I’m not talking about important uncomfortable subjects. Conversations on abuse and homophobia and mental illness are all things that I think should be covered and discussed in literature. I’m talking about things like bestiality, which honestly wasn’t something I thought I would ever put on a list until I read How To Be Human.

It was sold me to as a story about mental health and obsession and the claustrophobia of suburban life. Instead what I got was a woman growing strangely attached to a fox in her garden and a would be case of child kidnapping. I got half way through this book before I decided that I wasn’t imagining things, this was really going where I thought it was and stopped reading.

 

Gross Treatment of Women

This also applies to other minority groups but for Superpowerless, it’s women. This book had such a good premise and the opening was really promising – it reminded me of A World Without You, where it’s hard to tell whether these superpowers are real or imagined. There was a glimpse into the fraught relationship between a teenage boy and their mother – and then suddenly said teenage boy was watching his female next door neighbour sunbathing through a telescope in his bedroom. It was just …. gross and unnecessary and I found it really hard to keep reading after that and eventually, just stopped entirely.

 

Just Stopped Caring

Or did I ever care? That’s the question. I read books to be entertained and to immerse myself in other worlds and if I literally don’t care what’s happening, there’s no point in reading. That’s what happened to me in Rose Petal Graves. It had such a promising blurb about fae and family feuds and spirits coming back from the dead but as I was reading, I realised I was just doing it to get to the end. I didn’t care about the characters, I kept checking the percentage on my kindle to see how much more I had to read. I reasoned with those around me whether it was okay to just stop. So I did.

 

But these are just my reasons.

What are your reasons for DNF’ing a book? Have you ever? Leave a comment below!