Books I Couldn't Finish (6)

I used to finish ever book I started, whether I was enjoying it or not. But life is short. I’ve realised that I don’t have time for books I’m not full involved in any longer so if I don’t like something or don’t connect with it as much as I want to, I’ll put it aside. It still makes me feel guilty though, especially if I received them for review so I still want to talk about them, explain why I didn’t like them. Here are the most recent books I DNF-ed.

Armada, Ernest Cline

After hearing millions of brilliant things about Ready Player One, I requested this as soon as I saw it on NetGalley. I was so disappointed. I got 19% into the novel and nothing had really happened. Zack spotted a space ship out of his classroom window at the very beginning and then spent the next 17% talking about his dad and gaming. I was bored. I didn’t care about anything Zack had to say. I knew there would be gaming and geekery, but I expected some plot too. Not for me, but I will still give Ready Player One a go.

The Bone Season, Samantha Shannon

I chose to give The Bone Season a go via audiobook as I knew it would be unlikely that I’d get around to reading it physically on my Kindle. I really loved the narrator. Alana Kerr has a soft Irish lilt and she tells the story beautifully, but it wasn’t enough for me. This series clearly has an incredibly complex and intricate world that I know needs explaining, but I felt like it was a complete info-dump. I got 10% into the narration and I didn’t really know anything about the main character – I can’t even remember her name – and so much was thrown at me about the world that I don’t remember anything about that either. I think it’s all just a bit too much. It’s a shame as this story sounds like it could have been awesome.

A History of Glitter and Blood, Hannah Moscowitz

The premise of this novel is crazy, even for fantasy: a war between the glittery fairies who live above ground and the fairy-eating gnomes that live below them. It had the potential to be amazing, but it just didn’t do it for me. I lasted all of 5%. The narration style was strange and messy and it felt like a whole load of info-dump – I didn’t care about anything I’d been told so far and didn’t connect with Beckan. To be honest, the sheer volume of DNF and ‘it gets good at 60%’ reviews on Goodreads should have clued me in…

Sophie