Why I DNF Books



I was writing a set of DNF reviews and thought to myself: Why do I DNF books? DNFing a book is not something I take lightly, especially when I have to DNF an ARC. In a sense I promise a publisher that I will read their book and review it. Sometimes I'm not finishing those books because I simply didn't like them. 


5 Reasons why I DNF Books:


1. I can't connect with the Main Character (or Any character)  - I stress this a lot in my previous DNF reviews. If I cannot connect to the MC I am most likely not going to like the book. Characters are so important! 

2. Pacing/Slow Plots - If I am almost half way through a book and nothing *interesting* has happened, then I am more then likely going to put it down. I also tend to drag these books out more. The last book I DNFed for this reason it took me 7 days to read 60% of it. 

*Interesting: By this is mean, they are still world building and introducing characters. The main plot hasn't even been introduced yet. 


3. The Story is confusing/doesn't make sense - I don't have the best attention span and if something confuses me I am going to struggle to want to continue one. Typically if the story is still confusing more then 50% of the way through is when I put it down. 

4. Books that are unnecessarily long - I'm talking about books that are 400+ pages but barley anything happens at all. Its pretty rare that I DNF a book for this reason, but I have in times where I had deadlines for other books to meet. 

5. I'm rating it less then 2 Stars - Typically if I'm rating it that low there is almost nothing I liked about it. But if I'm nearly half way and I have no hope for the book (despite the fact I liked one aspect) then I just DNF it. 


DNFing an ARC


For ARCs if it is a print one that I requested I tend to push myself to finish it, but if I happen not to be able to I try my best to review it and explain my decision on why I didn't finish it. Most times if I DNF a print ARC I'll pass it on to Jessica to try and see if she has better luck. 
I asked on twitter (Widget above) and it seems that most bloggers do! 



Questions for you!:
  • 1. How far do you wait before you DNF a book?
  • 2. Do you DNF ARCs?
  • 3. What are some reasons you would DNF a book for?

2 comments

  1. I definitely believe in DNFing because reading should be fun, there's no point in reading something you're not enjoying at all. I just DNFed an ARC, which I didn't particularly want to do, just because it was so freaking slow and I was not getting anywhere :/ Great post, Amber!

    Zareena @ The Slanted Bookshelf

    ReplyDelete
  2. I DNF books because I have too many to read. I don't want to spend time on books that I won't enjoy. I don't usually DNF ARCs but I have before if I really can't get through it.

    ReplyDelete

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