1. The pacing is hideous. You know how some people's voices are really flat? They're just really low, and there's never any real change of pitch? The kind of voice you could easily fall asleep to? Well, it's just like that in these books. Nothing happens in the span of half a novel, and by the time it does you don't even care because of how detached and impatient you are with the story. Examples for me: Crossed, For Darkness Shows the Stars, Incarnate.
2. The characters have no personality. This is much worse than simply disliking a character for the choices they make, because you simply don't care one way or another what they do. Examples for me: Wicked Lovely, Starcrossed.
3. The characters are stupid/act unrealistically. Okay, so I don't stop reading something for this reason very often. I can stomach a whole lot of stupidity. But once in a while . . . Examples for me: Nightshade, Glow.
4. I can't stand the writing. Again, not something that happens too often, but when it does, I can't get over it. Examples for me: Significance, I Am Number Four, Beautiful Creatures
5. It's extremely predictable. There's almost nothing worse than getting through an entire novel and not being surprised once throughout. Part of the reason I read is because I want the book to get me excited. Examples for me: Extraordinary, Let The Sky Fall
6. The world-building stinks. If you're going to take the time to create your own world with your own set of rules, give the person reading about it a clear idea of what the heck is going on. Examples for me: Matched, Arclight
7. That rare there-is-no-reason case. Sometimes, I'm just not in the mood for that particular novel. It's not the book's fault, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, I just for some reason couldn't connect with the characters or get involved in the story-line. I hate it when this happens, don't you? Examples for me: Um, I don't want to feature books here because I feel like I'd be shedding a bad light on them when they don't deserve it.
8. The villains are cartoon-ish. How am I supposed to fear someone in a book if all they ever do is laugh manically (figuratively speaking) and make long speeches and give step-by-step explanations about everything they ever planned to do? Examples for me: Defiance, Let the Sky Fall
9. The love triangle ticks me off. Let's face it, there's a ton of those in YA. And some of them I actually enjoy, but others? Not so much. Examples for me: Firelight, Eyes Like Stars, Storm Glass
10. It offends me. Honestly I have only one book in mind with this particular topic. Props to you if you guess correctly which one it is. Link can be found HERE.
What causes you to not finish a book?
I'm still one of those people who choose to continue reading a book no matter how horrible - but I think these are all fairly good reasons to stop! Sometimes there's not enough time to suffer through them all, and really, if it's not working for you it's just not working. At least you're able to save yourself ;)
ReplyDeleteSometimes I try to get through it anyway because I've heard from other people that's it's great (Matched), but I never see it. You have more patience than I do! Thanks for your thoughts. :)
DeleteI agree with this post wholeheartedly. Will I follow it. I wish, but probably not. I have only read 2 bad books this year, but they were both really hard to get through. I forced myself to read them. The only book I have quite this year is Under the Never Sky because I was 100 pages in and had no idea what was going on.
ReplyDeleteI actually love that book, but I can definitely see where you're coming from - I also was clueless for maybe the first half. It does get better, I think. :D
DeleteThanks!
I love this post. I have so much trouble quantifying a DNF review. Sometimes it just doesn't work for me and then other times I can't stand one of the characters to the point of wanting to rage. I actually liked 50 Shades. It's not the best book ever but I enjoyed it. It's gotten a lot of mixed reviews so I get it.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I just had a really hard time with the relationship between Ana and Christian. For me, it bordered on abusive. Thanks for your thoughts!
DeleteI'm pretty dedicated to finishing books once I start them-trying to make sure I can write a full post on it. Still sometimes I'm just so bored that I have no other recourse but to DNF it.
ReplyDeleteBoredom will definitely do it. I look forward to that post! :)
DeleteAll these are reasons why I dislike books - but like others I try as hard as I can to continue to the end. I don't like having things left unfinished!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Creatures really annoyed me and it took me MONTHS to finish it and I think it's for a combination of the reasons you've got here (that and the ad for the movie revealed A MAJOR plot point and I sort of gave up the reason to keep reading for a while).
I think my number 1 reason is the characters lacking a personality. I read for characters first, plot second. If the characters suck then there's no way I want to continue.
Great post!
I also hate looking at a book and knowing I didn't finish it. It's like it's taunting me. -_-
DeleteHonestly, I didn't make it past the first three chapters of BC. I hated the writing, and the characters were not doing it for me, plus the movie trailer looked stupid. Props to you for finishing it! I might have stuck it out and read the whole thing had it not been very, very long.
I agree! Characters have always been my #1 thing in a book. I can get past shaky world-building and even weird writing if I love the people.
Thanks!
Great post, and I love that you included examples as well! The pacing of the story and the characters' behavior/personality are definitely big factors in a story for me!
ReplyDeleteThank you, I appreciate that! Characters make or break a book, definitely.
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