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Books I Didn’t Finish: 2022 Roundup

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on January 21, 2023 | 0 Comments

Typically I would include all the book info in these posts, but there were too many last year!

The Paths Between Stars

DNF @ 43%

I just can’t do it anymore. I didn’t like the main character, I found her to be pretentious and exhausting. Didn’t care at ALL about the story or the side characters. The lengthy passages at the beginning of each chapter (flipping between bible verses and science textbook, ugh) were pointless and I skimmed over them. There were parts of this that read like a textbook and I was just plain bored. It took FOREVER for it to pick up – a whopping 25% of slow, boring, NOTHING; and when it finally did I felt so apathetic toward the story that it outweighed my intrigue. Shame, really…the concept is quite awesome and unique. But, it’s just not doing it for me and I find myself making excuses to not pick it up again. Time to move on.

Beasts of Prey

DNF @ page 242

Did I pick up a different book than everyone else did?! I swear to god I can never just enjoy the books that everyone else does. *long suffering sigh*

I’m sorry but this book was dull, bland, and absolutely generic to me. It felt like many other high fantasy books I’ve already read and brought nothing new to the table. Actually, it felt exactly like Children of Blood and Bone (which I also didn’t like). The characters were bland, the story was bland, and I was just straight up bored. The only thing even remotely interesting to me was the Night Zoo.

I lasted a long time, really. I kept waiting for something to happen to grab my attention, for the book to get better….it did not.

Empire of Silence

DNF @ page 50

After listening to 2 hours of this, I am 100% certain that I will NOT make it through another 24 hours of the same. No one is sadder than I am, as I had such high hopes for this book. I love space operas, or anything to do with space, really. I was expecting (okay, more like hoping for) something similar to Red Rising – what I got was a mix of Name of the Wind and Dune. Both of which I absolutely despised. I actually saw this compared to both of those books (sadly, only after I had already wasted 2 hours) and that comparison is absolutely spot on because it is exactly as boring as both of those books and just as tedious, if not more so. I’m out.

Leviathan Wakes

DNF @ 36%

Letting this one go because I’m just not into it. I thought I was, at first, but then I put it down for a while and my library loan expired, and now I have ZERO desire to pick it back up again. I was getting kind of bored with it and didn’t really care about any of the characters. There was one POV that I outright hated (not Holden, whoever the other guy was…don’t care to remember, sorry). I may just watch the show instead *shrugs*

Shards of Earth

DNF @ 26%

I wanted to love this one, but I just couldn’t get into it. The Architects were cool, but that’s about it. Which makes me sad because I LOVE space books. I didn’t care about any of the characters or what was happening to them – a couple of side characters died and I really could not have cared less – and I was just plain bored. The narrator wasn’t great, either, which probably didn’t help. Meh.

Only a Monster

DNF @ 40 pages

The writing style straight up didn’t vibe with me, and I doubt I’d be able to ever enjoy this book even if I did push through. It felt juvenile almost to the point of being MG and is just a solid ‘not for me.’ I don’t like the characters so far and have absolutely zero interest in continuing because there’s literally nothing about it that makes me want to continue. I’m not enjoying it at all, and even though I’m only 40 pages in, I need something to intrigue me enough to keep going and there’s just nothing there for me. I doubt I’ll ever pick this one back up to try again.

Black Sun

DNF @ 50%

Did I read a different book than everyone else?! I wanted to like this one – I’ve only seen good things and the overall rating is quite high (it’s literally a sea of 4 and 5 star reviews and difficult to even find lower ratings) – but I was not feeling it at ALL. It reminded me a lot of Fifth Season (it has the same feel), which I also did not like. It was unique, and the world was interesting, but it had trouble keeping my attention. The narration was decent but I found my attention drifting frequently, which is never a problem for me when I’m actually into a book. Overall I felt very apathetic about the story and characters. I just don’t care to continue when I’m not enjoying it at all.

Infinity Files

DNF @ 104 pages

I wanted to love this one, but I just couldn’t get into it. It’s not that it was bad…it just wasn’t good. The writing is extremely bland to the point of being sophomoric, and I was bored and didn’t care about anything that was happening. I also felt like the world building was shoddy at best and to be taken at face value because if you thought too hard it didn’t make sense. Some things were pretty farfetched and pushed believability a little too far for me. I usually love space books, so color me disappointed.

Emperor’s Blades

DNF @ 12%

After hearing the curse “kent-kissing” about 238o3472 times in the span of an hour, I was pushed to the point of rage quitting this book. I may have been able to overlook the overuse of the phrase if I wasn’t already bored with the dry prose and dull characters. There was no feeling whatsoever in this book for me. Oh, and the narrator was awful too, which didn’t help at all. Byeeeee.

Stealing Infinity

DNF @ 36%

I was intrigued by the time travel aspect of this book, but sadly not much else. It is EXTREMELY generic in every other aspect but the core of time travel, and at more than 1/3 of the way through barely anything had happened (and no time travel). The characters are all flat and bland, and almost everything about it just felt like a story I’ve read before. It’s also a little too far on the juvenile side of YA for me. Everything happening was very shallow and high school-esque. Who cares what color your sweatshirt is?! The constant harping over the fact that she had to wear green and was the ONLY one wearing green because she was new drove me bonkers. It’s a sweatshirt, for crying out loud. I also despised the start of the romance. They barely knew each other so it was too instalovey and cheesy for me, and not in a good way. They had no chemistry and the love interest has the personality of a wet rag?? How am I supposed to be interested in that? Every time Nat would think about the dude in a romantic way I rolled my eyes.

The pacing was awful too. There was a lot that could have been omitted in the beginning – I’m cool with slower pace if the character development and writing are phenomenal, but they were not in this book. At 36% time travel had JUST been introduced, with zero action, and we had yet to actually SEE said time travel. The time travel aspect was just not enough to keep me pushing through when I couldn’t stand anything else about the book.

Fable

DNF @ 45%

I’m super sad that I’m not loving this. I adored Sky in the Deep and had hoped I would feel the same about this one. Sadly, I did not. I was bored to tears because everything about this book is so dry and dull I felt like I was going to fall asleep listening. I didn’t care about the characters, or anything that was happening. There wasn’t anything exciting about any of it, least of all the bland writing. Moving on.

Casquette Girls

DNF @ 112 pages

I couldn’t get into this at all. I should absolutely have been intrigued by the things that were happening and I just wasn’t. The writing style was kind of sophomoric and bland, too. I don’t think I’ll ever pick this one up again.

Hatch

DNF @ 15%

This feels juvenile to the point that it should be labeled Middle Grade instead of YA. The MC is bland and has no personality to speak of, and the whole thing just feels like one big Eragon ripoff. The writing is bland, too. I was bored (which is a crying shame because DRAGONS) and have no desire to continue.

Jade City

DNF @ 26%

As much as it pains me to do so, it’s time to let this one go. I wasn’t enjoying it at all, so I stepped away for a week, and I can honestly say I have zero desire to pick it back up. I think mafia type books are just not for me.

Lost Dreamer

DNF @ 14%

I felt like I was on drugs listening to this audiobook. I honestly had NO idea wtf was happening at any given moment. It reminded me of magical realism, but it wasn’t whimsical. It was straight up confusing, and odd, and maybe the magic system and world makes sense eventually; but being basically thrown into the lake of a literary world, and expected to swim without so much as a life raft snippet of info to help me understand, is just not my cuppa. Sorry. Instead of being intrigued, I just felt overwhelmed.

Rise of the Vicious Princess

DNF @ 25%

Okay so, I realize that this says “political intrigue” RIGHT in the synopsis, so maybe this one’s on me. Buuut, I loved the other Redwine books I’ve read so her named tricked me, alright? DON’T JUDGE ME.

The politics are HEAVY. Like, there’s absolutely nothing else happening. No characterization or world building whatsoever. Just immediately dumped into politics. Which is soooo not my jam. Not only was I bored to tears with all of the politics, but everything about this book felt extremely generic. Same world, characters, and politics that I’ve read in a million other fantasy books.

This is a solid case of not for me.

Four Found Dead

DNF @ 60 pages

This wasn’t what I was expecting at ALL. I thought it was going to be a mystery, and it wasn’t. It’s very clear who the murderer was from the beginning. I hoped I was wrong, and that it was just putting the blame on the wrong person, but I flipped to the end and nope. There were too many characters all introduced at once with little personality to offer, and I had trouble telling them apart. It also seemed very convoluted and lacked credibility – I felt like the “bad guy” was forced and that everything was over the top dramatic and kind of juvenile.

The Body Finder

DNF @ 30 pages

This has been on my TBR for AGES. I got it during an Audible sale and finally decided to give it a go.

As you can see, I didn’t make it very far. I think I’m just too old for it. The writing is horribly juvenile and everything felt shallow to me. The writing grated on my nerves and the narrator wasn’t great, either. Moving on.

Stardust Thief

DNF @ 42%

It’s not that this book was bad or anything, it was just entirely mediocre and I was bored. It’s labeled as an Adult fantasy, but it felt much younger. It feels like YA fantasy. Which would be fine, as I read YA frequently, but it was a very generic fantasy. Despite the amazing setting, everything else felt so…average. The writing was bland, the characters were bland – all except for Qadir, who would have been the sole reason for me continuing, if I hadn’t decided to DNF. I love that he turned into a lizard!

I couldn’t help but compare this to We Hunt the Flame, because it’s very similar, and this book fell way short of that expectation. It didn’t have the beautiful writing, amazing #squadgoals cast of characters, vivid setting, or steamy slow burn romance that WHtF did. (If you’re not enjoying this in the first couple chapters, just go read that instead.) The narration was okay, but I didn’t care for Mazen’s narrator or his point of view, and the dynamic between he and Loulie lacked the chemistry to make me cheer for the romance. “Okay” would be a fitting word to sum up what I read of this book, before I gave up out of sheer boredom. Meh.

The Wish Granter

DNF @ 62%

I tried. I really did. I requested this book from Edelweiss SIX years ago like a dummy and just never got around to reading it. Now I’m clearing out old review copies, so I got the audio from my library even though I lost all interest in reading it. I really have NO clue why TF I even requested it in the first place, because I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book. I guess because Redwine’s books had worked for me in the past and I was hoping that the first book was a fluke.

It was not. This book was SO. GENERIC. And entirely forgettable. I wasn’t enjoying it much, but I wanted to stick it through to the end. However, I went two days without listening to the audiobook (which was the only positive thing about this book because Khristine Hvam is the narrator and she’s awesome) and when I picked it back up I remembered NOTHING except the Wish Granter himself. I’m not even kidding. A male character came to talk to the MC (I remember exactly zero names) and I was like, wait…who is this guy again?? Is he the brother, or the love interest? And that was when I realized it was time to move on. I made a valiant effort.

Pretty Dead Queens

DNF @ 20%

Maybe I’m just getting too old for high school settings but this book felt SO juvenile and shallow to me.

Certain Dark Things

DNF @ 17%

I wanted so badly to love this one, but unfortunately I just didn’t. Which is a darn shame, because that cover is flippin’ GORGEOUS! The story fell really flat for me, the writing is quite dull, and nothing sparked my interest. And the premise absolutely should have been interesting to me. I also didn’t care about any of the characters, I found them to be very one dimensional. At least the Aztec culture was really cool.

The Thief

DNF @ 35%

This series is pretty popular, so I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it fell very short of my expectations. Which is sad, because it’s narrated by Steve West – one of my favorite male narrators. Even he couldn’t save it for me.

It’s boring. Like, painfully boring. The writing is dull, Gen is probably one of the whiniest, most annoying characters I’ve ever read; and the plot is just traveling and Gen whining for the 35% I read. Everyone says it gets better at the end, but I can’t bring myself to slog through another several hours of it to find out.