TTT: DNF

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Ten Bookish Things I Want to Quit Or Have Quit (aka ten book series I think I’m going to abandon, ten bookish habits I want to quit, ten authors I quit reading, ten types of books I’m quitting, ten tropes I want to stop reading about, ten books I marked as DNF (did not finish) recently, etc. Get as creative as you want).

Books / Series I have DNF’d:

ONE. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

I liked this series well enough (it was a solid 3 star series for me) until we got to Scarlet. Here is a sampling of my status updates:

This is bugging me – Meyer keeps using words wrong. Imminent instead of important or imperative. Prerogative instead of duty. This is the worst so far: “Bloodshot eyes belied her exhaustion, no matter how her jaw was set.” That makes no sense. Bloodshot eyes show that she IS exhausted, they don’t contradict it! Grr.

Can we get back to Cinder now? I’m so over Scarlet.

Torin’s lips perched?!? What, they landed in a tree?

Ugh. I’m done – with the book AND the series. That was awful. The only things I liked about it were Thorne (a little bit) and Iko (she’s a great character).

TWO. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Jim Dale’s narration was lovely, but the story lacks J. M. Barrie’s spark and I was bored.

THREE. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Meh. This was entertaining enough, but I’m wasn’t invested in the characters or the world (halfway through the trilogy), and Go Set a Watchman was out, so I abandoned series.

FOUR. Death Wears a Beauty Mask and Other Stories by Mary Higgins Clark

Apparently, Clark began writing the title story in 1974 and set it aside to work on Where Are the Children. She should have left it, as this is one of the worst pieces of drivel I’ve ever read.

************SPOILER ALERT!************

This story was ridiculous – sure, I’ll pick your sister up from the airport! What, you don’t have a photo of your only living relative, who looks just like you, to show me so I’ll recognize her? No problem, I’ll dress up and pretend to be you – then she’ll recognize me! What?!?

************END SPOILERS************

FIVE. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

The relationship between the narrator and his mother made me unutterably sad. Also, the homeschooling references made me rage-y.

SIX. The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey

The first half was an awesome twisted, fractured fairytale. Then the “love interest” was introduced . . . ugh. So bad.

SEVEN. Uprooted by Naomi Novik

This one makes me sad. Several people whose opinions on books I trust really enjoyed this one. However, at 50% in I was bored. I didn’t really care about any of the characters, the plot was incredibly rambling, the “romance” was squicky, etc. Sigh.

EIGHT. The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton

I loved The Just City and I was super excited for the sequel, but about halfway through this book (and therefore halfway through the trilogy) the author took a strongly anti-Christian stand. I feel like that was her agenda for the series all along.

NINE. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I’ll probably get flack for this one. I tried this book in audiobook and print formats but I just was not feeling it. The writing style doesn’t appeal to me (so many metaphors! Zusak’s prose is self conscious. It makes for some excellent lines, but page after page of it detracts from the story) and the excessive (German) swearing is irritating.

TEN. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

I remember loving the first book, and I know I read several more, but I can’t remember how many. Obviously, I lost interest somewhere along the way.

I’m linking up: