Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week’s theme is:
May 12: The Last Ten Books I Abandoned
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I don’t actually DNF books. I know, I know, who even am I?
For some reason, I just can’t bring myself to do it. I think about it and then my brain is like ‘no, let’s just carry on a bit further’ and I end up pushing myself to get to the final page. But these are a few books that I actually came close to DNFing. Let me tell you why.
I can practically HEAR everyone’s sharp intake of breath at seeing King of Scars and The Poppy War on here, but for a while I put both of them on hold while I read other books.
And there was a moment when I didn’t think I was going to pick them back up. Thankfully I did with The Poppy War, and King of Scars, I’m intending to finish soon.
The Black Hawks is still on hold for me and I’m not sure if I’m going to pick it back up, but we’ll see.
I almost DNF’d all of these multiple times, but for various reasons. With The Gravity of Us and Call Down the Hawk, it was because I found them kind of boring (sorry!).
With Once & Future and We Are Blood and Thunder, it’s because both of them were poorly plotted and the lack of cohesion exasperated me (sorry again).
I’m still not sure how I managed to finish these three books. Virtuoso was strange, uncomfortable, and toxic, The Smoke Thieves had this awful scene where an 18 year old sexualises a 13 year old, and Zenith was just plain bad (only my opinion). Yet somehow, I persevered and made it to the end.
Do I regret not DNFing some of these? Maybe. Could I bring myself to DNF them if I read them again? Probably not. 😂
Which books have you DNF’d or almost DNF’d recently? Have you read any of these?
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I was currently reading poppy war but i just dnfd it at 219 pages. I just couldn’t get into it. I hope you like it more when you get back to reading it ❤
I actually finished The Poppy War and the end of 2019! I ended up enjoying it, but I can’t help but wonder if the big gap I took changed my rating!
Great list! I’m just about to start The Poppy War so I’m looking forward to seeing whether I love it or DNF it – I know some of the subjects it tackles I’m going to find hard to read.
I felt the same way about The Gravity of Us and We Are Blood and Thunder, particularly the latter. For me the romance came out of nowhere and the plot was just all over the place but ive got an arc of the sequel so I’m hoping that it’s a lot better!
Great post – I rarely DNF books as well, I think I only ever have a couple of times in my life!
Was thinking of reading The Smoke Thieves but will reconsider now!
I feel like that when I eventually finish The Poppy War I’ll understand the hype, but in the reading itself, I’ll have to push on. Was surprised to see King of Scars on this list and I was not expecting Call Down the Hawk to veer into boring territory.
OMG Zenith! Ughhhh!!!! I DNF’d that one too!
I’ve had King of Scars on my TBR ever since it was announced and it’s sat on my bedside since the day it came out. I don’t know why I’ve been putting it off, but I’m hoping to get to it very soon!
I could not get into Zenith no matter how hard I tried. I felt so bad, as I always do when I DNF books, but I just couldn’t