I don’t normally talk about books I’ve DNF. I usually have the attitude of “This is my blog and I want you guys to discover books that make you happy, so I’m going to talk about books that I’ve read that make me happy.” and “Life is too short to read books that don’t work for you” (I shorten it in the past to “Life’s too short to read crap books” as a crap book for you could be a OMFG-I-Love-This-Book read).
But this book I want to talk to you about for several reasons. One: I was reading it for the Believathon readaton. Two: I know you guys love this books and this proves my point that you should read widely when it comes to book bloggers/booktube/etc opinions as EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT AND HAS DIFFERENT TASTES AND OPINIONS!!! And Three: this book is interesting and I can see why this book didn’t work for me but could work for you, dear reader.
So, North Child by Edith Pattou. Or East, if you live in the US.
Quick summary of the book before I sink my teeth into chatting about it.
Told from several points of view, we follow Rose, an unusual girl. She was born facing north and children born facing north travel far from home and will embark on a dangerous adventure. After she and her family make a pact with a enormous white bear, Rose finds herself travelling to a myserteous castle that holds a dark enchantment… and that’s not even half the story…
This is a weird book and proves that different countries have very different attutides. In the UK, this book is called North Child and can be found the children/middle grade section of libraries and bookshops. In the US, this is called East and can be found in the YA section. But reading what I have read, I understand why the book is placed in both sections.
Now, everyone I know in the book blogger/booktube world really likes this book and I completely get it. The writing is solid, the story is sweeping, everything about this is good.
And yet… here I am. DNFing it and talking about it. Why? Because everyone has a different opinion and, you know what, that’s okay. It’s fine. We can get along nicely and be friends, right?
Ok, stay with me here as I’m kinda upset that I got to this realisation of DNFing (why is it I say I will be more brutal on DNFing stuff and sometimes, I am ruthless, and other times, it breaks my heart?). Because for the first few pages, I was on board. I was there! I saw what you all saw.
But then, around the 250 page mark, something happened and I lost it. I got bored with it. The story dragged and I just couldn’t find the energy nor willpower to read it. I was shocked that a few days ago, I was invested with this story and these characters but now, now I just couldn’t bring myself to care. I was bored, oh so bored!
Maybe it’s my mood, I told myself. It has been stressful at work and I can’t settle to the audiobooks I requested from local library or I bought months ago. I just need time. And so, I kept reading, and that feeling was still there.
Then, the weekend just gone, I sat down to read it. I got three pages in, then picked up Twitter and, after having a chat with a fellow book blogger who was curious to read, I went “Have mine.” and I felt ok doing that. I was fine DNFing it because someone else was going to read this and love this book as it’s more up their street than mine.
And that’s ok. This didn’t work for me, but at least I tried to read it and at least I knew when to put the book down and get out.
Although, I got out a little late. The next book I was planning to read was linked to a book event I’m going to in the next few weeks and, because of this, I don’t feel ready now to read it so, gonna pick up something else instead.
This is why you have to do you when it comes to reading. Reading should be a pleasure, it should be fun and you have to do you. If you want to read books to the end, do that. You want to read this or that and DNF something that doesn’t work for you, do it! Reading should be fun and you should do you.
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