Books I Couldn't Finish (11): The Diabolic, Villette & Evelina

I used to finish every 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.

The Diabolic, SJ Kincaid

This has been everywhere for months with two beautiful covers, a boatload of pre-pub buzz and rave reviews from early reviewers so I had high expectations. I was seriously disappointed - i didn’t even last 50 pages. The idea behind the Diabolics and this sci-fi world is wonderful and I was expecting it to be completely on point, but it was dull. The ideas were there but the execution and writing was missing for me.

Villette, Charlotte Bronte

When I didn’t fully click with Jane Eyre I thought it was just me. Then I hated The Professor and figured it was a fluke. But now I’ve DNFed Villette I’ve realised that while I love her sisters (especially Anne), me and Charlotte just aren’t meant to be. This one started off okay. I was engaged and curious about the very enigmatic start, but it didn’t take long for me to get bored and start to wish for it to be done.

Evelina, Frances Burney

I was beyond excited to get stuck into this. I’d seen people say that it was light-hearted and funny, that it was a favourite of Jane Austen’s and an inspiration to her - it sounded perfect. I just found it incredibly annoying. Evelina is a bit of a wet blanket and the stupid situations she gets herself into and the horrible characters in her society made me cringe. I loved the idea of it all, I just hate anything that makes me cringe. This could definitely be one to go back to when I’m in a different frame of mind, however.

Sophie