For a girl who could count on one hand the number of books I had ever DNF’d, getting to the point of DNF’ing not just one but four books in the same month is a big deal.
Since I have way too many books that I want to read, I have no time to waste on books that, for a variety of reasons, do not work for me. I have not, at the time of writing DNF’d any books in February. I am willing to do so though should any of the below described reasons pop up in their own way in my remaining February reads.
I read the least number of pages of these DNFs in this book, my first DNF of the year. I received this book in one of my Caffeine and Legends boxes. Each November, they include a self-published or indie-published book, like this one. For that reason, I really wanted to enjoy the book. Unfortunately, I could get barely ten pages into it. The writing rubbed me the wrong way, reading highly simplistic and full of telling rather than showing. Once that hint of criticism enters my thoughts, I
become hyperaware of the flows which I may not have noticed or become as irritated by otherwise, thus I quickly stopped reading.
I picked this up immediately following the previous DNF and felt so hopeful. The contrast between the writing in the two books as well as the unusual setting, a sci-fantasy blend, hooked me right away. The shine wore off gradually but once it did, I started to see flaws and became incredibly confused. This plot confusion ultimately spelled the downfall for this book for me. This book has time travel and a wealth of
unique vocabulary to this world which came flooding into the narrative and eventually became way too confusing. I DNF’d this book reluctantly when I realized that I simply did not understand what was going on and had no desire to invest the brain power to try to figure it out which would have likely required rereading a considerable section.
The entire time that I tried to read this book, I thought I was reading The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier, the r/fantasy book that I actually put on my TBR for January. Unlike the previous two books in this post, I do not really remember anything from this book. I kept trying to penetrate this narrative in a way which would give me some investment in the story and it never worked. (Thankfully, the book that I planned to read worked brilliantly for me which was such a relief.)
Of the four books that I DNF’d this month, only this book will get a posted review since this is one of my NetGalley eARCs. This book is a biography of the mother of the author. The mother is a fascinating figure, a woman who grew up in the early decades of the USSR, married to escape her family and situation and then found herself a prisoner of war in a Nazi concentration camp. The readers know that she survives this since her
daughter writes this book. I really wanted to learn more about this woman’s story but, unfortunately, I found myself quite confused by the narrative due to how Spicer chose to tell the story. I do not have an issue with how Spicer opened the narrative with stories of her interactions as a young child with her mother. If this had been used as a framing device rather than woven through every few pages that I read, these stories would not have been as confusing. The lack of consistent chronology made understanding the life of this woman incredibly difficult and made for a disappointing read that lead to a DNF.