Here we go! Another wrap-up post, these are my favourite to write. I love reflecting back on the year I had and seeing what books I loved and what books I didn’t like. Last week, we started positive, I talked about some of my favourite murder mysteries that I read that year but this week it gets slightly negative. This week we are talking about the books and series I DNFed this year.

I have spoken openly about DNFing books. You can actually read my thoughts on DNFs here >>> I am a big fan of DNFing. I don’t see the reason in forcing your way through a book you don’t like so I tend to DNF quite a bit. Last year I DNFed 7 books and this year I DNFed 7. I tend to count all the books I read whether all the way through or not onto my yearly round up as I gave my time to those books. But I do say how many of the number were actually DNFS, just to be transparent.

But enough about that. Let’s jump into this years collection of DNFs!

The Complete First Edition – The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brother Grimm
Reasons Why I DNF’d: So, my original plan was to try and read 3 short stories a day over the first 3 months of the year. It started off really well I was getting through them quite quickly but then suddenly about a month in I hit a wall and I just didn’t want to pick up the book. It became a chore trying to read a set number and having a deadline looming. Since I had read it before I decided to just DNF it again and pick it up whenever it suits me. This was originally part of my Second Chance Challenge; a challenge that focused on re-reading previously DNFed books so I found it quite ironic that I DNFed it again.

In the Crypt with a Candlestick by Daisy Waugh
Reasons Why I DNF’d: I personally didn’t enjoy the writing style of this book. I felt that the book gave to much a way to quickly and included just a lot of info dumping. I also found that some of the characters were really hard to differentiate from due to the author giving them similar names, it just became a struggle to figure out who was who every time the characters got together.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Reasons Why I DNF’d: I have mentioned once or twice that this movie is one of my all time favoruites. I went into it expecting it to be a fun and crazy movie set in the 1920’s. What I didn’t expect was a movie about romance and longing. Since it was my favourite movie I wanted to give the book a go, I tried reading it when I was a lot younger but the writing style didn’t work with me as I found it hard to follow. I then picked it up for my Second Chance challenge but found that despite being a lot older than when I last read it, that writing style still didn’t work for me! I got bored very quickly and decided to DNF.

The Paris Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe
Reasons Why I DNF’d: This is another case where the writing just didn’t work for me. I found it too flowery and hard to follow. I found the pacing to be all over the place, sometimes incredibly slow, sometimes really fast. I just couldn’t get into it.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Reasons Why I DNF’d: This was another Second Chance Challenge. I had previously DNFed the book becuase I kept on reading other books and just never got round to finishing it so I was super excited to pick it back up this year… Only to read it and just not feel connected to the story at all. Such a shame!

Crowning Soul by Sahira Javaid
Reasons Why I DNF’d: Again, it was the writing style and pacing. The writing style didn’t work for me, despite moving through scenes quite quickly it actually felt slow to read and I found the dialogue to be more on the cringey side and pretty unrealistic.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Reasons Why I DNF’d: Personally, I found some of the scenes in this book to be too graphic from violence to sexual assault and after reading some reviews from other people it looked like it was only going to get worse from there. I personally found it to be too much for me and I didn’t want to continue reading it.

I also DNFed some series as well! Over this year I decided that some of the series I had been reading just didn’t interest me any more and I decided not to continue with them.

Miss Dimont Mystery Series
Reasons Why I DNF’d: There was no real reason for this DNF. It was more just down to the desire to keep reading series became minimal. Maybe in the future once a couple more books are out I may pick the series back up but for now I’m going to put it down.

Mortal Engines Quartet by Phillip Reeve
Reasons Why I DNF’d: I really enjoyed the first book but was disappointed by the second. I found the female characters weren’t written well enough and the main male character to be quite bland. After being as disappointed as I was with the second book I didn’t want to continue with the series.

The Phryne Fisher Series by Kerry Greenwood
Reasons Why I DNF’d: I read the first 3 novels one after the other are being given a small omnibus copy and sadly I think I should have spaced it out as it was sort of like over-exposure. I didn’t want to read more. Also I had seen the TV show and I loved that and reading the books wasn’t the same.