Yes, sometimes books are so awful that I do not finish them. I used to refuse to leave a book unfinished, but then I realized how crazy I was to keep reading something I hated. However, as I usually read at least 50-70%, I still gather more than enough to have an opinion on it. This DNF madness event–which I gather will be at least 2 or 3 parts long, will showcase books that, unfortunately, took hours of my life that I will never get back. As these are simply reasons, or ramblings, on why I did not finish the book, they will not be up to par–in length and quality (hours of my life!!)–with my usual full length reviews. You might consider them… fleeting warnings.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publication date: January 22nd 2013
by EgmontUSA
There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away.
That’s why they make the perfect assassins.
The Institute finds these people when they’re young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.
Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute’s monitoring. But now they’ve ID’ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can’t make the hit. It’s as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are—because no one else ever notices them.
*A copy was provided by Egmont USA for review purposes*
This is my most recent DNFed book–just before the end of the world. Honestly I would have hated for this to be my last read ever, ditching it at around 40% figuring if I survived the apocalypse I would continue. And then the apocalypse never happened, saving me from my rash commitment.
Basically, I did not care for the writing nor the characters in this novel. It’s written in spazzy, fragmented sentences that might be meant to show us the strange disconnection the characters are feeling, but only amounted to leaving me especially annoyed. I disliked both main characters very early on in the novel because of this, which is never a good sign. Futhermore, the concept may be kind of neat, but it was overly weird. In an uncomfortable/annoying sort of way, not as in “Oh this is very different and kind of cool”. Finally, when I took a break to check the reviews on it, they convinced me that it’s very unlikely I would grow to like this book if I continued. Thank you, failed apocalypse!
Leah Bobet
Publication date: April 1st 2012
by Arthur A. Levine Books
Matthew has loved Ariel from the moment he found her in the tunnels, her bee’s wings falling away. They live in Safe, an underground refuge for those fleeing the city Above—like Whisper, who speaks to ghosts, and Jack Flash, who can shoot lightning from his fingers.
But one terrifying night, an old enemy invades Safe with an army of shadows, and only Matthew, Ariel, and a few friends escape Above. As Matthew unravels the mystery of Safe’s history and the shadows’ attack, he realizes he must find a way to remake his home—not just for himself, but for Ariel, who needs him more than ever before.
My actual mini review right after I DNFed it:
That’s it I give up. Page 204 and I still don’t know what’s happening. Someone played Mad Lib with my copy and I’m not impressed!
above is written as if the protagonist never learned to speak properly, and although such a dialect worked great for me in Blood Red Road, it’s really confusing in this case. For instance, random words are capitalized and sometimes he means a person, other times a thing, and I could never keep it all straight. To be honest, I only realized over 100 pages in that one of the characters was a girl–I thinking she was a he the whole time… It’s a very true form of speculative fiction; there are a lot of fascinating fantasy/sci-fi elements which I usually highly enjoy, but the all showing, not telling writing style in Above makes it a very awkward read due to the character voices which really kept me from connecting to this book, or understanding it, in any way. I also felt as if it was aimed at a younger audience at times, not only because of the simplistic and choppy sentences, but for the fantastical oddness factor as well. This is a book that is looking for a very specific type of reader. It’s even likely to garner a cult following. I am not one of them.
Corrine Jackson
Publication date: November 27th 2012
by Kensington Teen
Remy O’Malley heals people with touch—but every injury she cures becomes her own. Living in a household with an abusive stepfather, she has healed untold numbers of broken bones, burns,and bruises. And then one night her stepfather goes too far.
Being sent to live with her estranged father offers a clean start and she is eager to take it. Enter Asher Blackwell. Once a Protector of Healers, Asher sacrificed his senses to become immortal. Only by killing a Healer can a Protector recover their human senses. Falling in love is against the rules between these two enemies. Because Remy has the power to make Protectors human again, and when they find out, they’ll becoming for her—if Asher doesn’t kill her first.
Let’s see: This girl–Remy–moves with her dad to this tiny town. She meets a boy who seems to be intrigued by her immediately. He lives with his siblings, is insanely rich, and is a little mysterious with a reputation to never stick with one girl.
Then when we learn more about him and his powers, we learn that Remy lets him feel again, which is something that he craves–dangerously so–and that him and his family have to control themselves to not kill her for this “craving”. Not to mention how faster, stronger, and all around better than he is than a human–and immortal!
Sound familiar?
Also…
*glares*
This concludes part 1 of my DNF pile. I’m not saying you shouldn’t read these necessarily, a lot of the times it’s more of an “it’s not you, it’s me” misfired connection with a book, but you know what they say: To educate is to emancipate! >.<
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