Thursday Thirteen is a weekly meme with a simple theme: each Thursday you blog a list of 13 things. What kind of things? Any kind! Just come up with a list theme and run with it.
Brianna’s List:
- No chemistry between hero and heroine.
- I don't connect with the characters or the story. (My main reason for DNFing a book.)
- Immature lead characters.
- The pacing is snail slow and it’s taking too damn long for something to happen.
- I lose interest to the point I don’t care how the story ends.
- When something silly pulls me away from the story, like character names.
- Reads like a bow-chick-a-bow-wow porno.
- I find out an author I dislike is hiding behind the pseudonym of the book I'm reading.
- Child plot moppet takes over the book.
- The author didn't explain why something important to the story happened.
- If I have a hard time with the dialogue, like with cowboy romances.
- I don't like the lead characters.
- Incest and/or child abuse.
J9’s List:
- Leads have too much of an age or maturity gap.
- Information dumps in place of world building.
- Gratuitous violence.
- If every female character is an evil wench (usually only found in MM books).
- If the hero is verbally or physically threatening toward heroine (trust me, I've run across it!).
- If there is forced seduction, aka, rape.
- If the hero ever makes a negative remark about feminism (do NOT get me started on a ménage book I started a few years ago where one of the men was worried the heroine may be a pushy femi-nazi--in an erotic ménage written by a woman!, Err...*I* got me started!).
- If the leads are petty and immature.
- When I don't like either lead.
- Unexpected BDSM pops up.
- If the book is just erotica when I want emotions and romance.
- In MM romance when I can't tell who the "he" is.
- If there are too many secondary characters that I can't keep straight.
What are some reasons you might DNF a book?
Yes to all the above :) Those are some of my reasons too.
ReplyDeleteGreat lists. I hate when I lose interest so I don't care what happens. If I don't want to pick up the story all the time, I likely will just stop picking it up at all.
ReplyDeleteChild plot moppet? It takes a lot to keep me interested because there are so many other things to do.
ReplyDeleteWhen a child (or children) steal the spotlight from the hero and heroine and is (are) used to drive the plot forward.
DeleteI like that phrase, very clever. :)
DeleteMy biggest reason is just moving so slow that I actually dread the thought of picking the book back up. If I am thinking of all these other things that I need to do besides read, then the book gets tossed aside.
ReplyDeleteI just ran across the first 4 in Brianna's list in Darkest Craving, but I still finished it *pats myself on the back* but never again that was pure agony!
ReplyDeleteIs this Kane's story by Showalter? I've heard it's not a great read...if you read this LMK what you thought of book!
DeleteI need to be better about DNF, I've persevered through some boring books lately. Instead of DNF I finish the book then go to Goodreads and put lots of reminders to myself in the Private Notes section to never buy that author again!
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about the ones I have abandoned on my Kindle it tends to be because
1)Oh my word, please let something happen, nothing is happening, these people are just talking and talking and talking and the author won't stop describing the scenery.
2)In BDSM books when the author is going on using boring dialogue to make sure they get all the cautions and warnings in. Stilted dialogue in general really puts me off.
3)Repeats of scenes within the story. I felt like every time I started a new chapter in the Jaci Burton book Thrown By A Curve, I was reading the same scene over and over. So much damn physical therapy.
To be honest, most of the stuff on the lists in the post won't stop me from reading a book. Sheer boredom is the most often reason I DNF.
OMG yes on #1! Non-stop scenery descriptions!
DeleteMy #1 reason is a combo between Brianna's #4 & # 5. I'm getting better about DNF books. I use to feel like I HAD to finish a book if I started it. No anymore. Too many other books to read if I'm not loving it.
ReplyDeleteMy TBR pile is too big for me to read through a book I am not enjoying. I used to not like DNFing a book but now I'm okay with it.
DeleteHate when a book is boring-that's my big DNF reason!
ReplyDeleteAll of these are reasons why I stop reading. I've been getting some duds lately and find myself DNF'ing a lot---and that's ok with me!!
ReplyDelete