Another DNF Post

I doin’t often chat about quitting reads on here. I think I am more open about quitting reads or knowing when books aren’t for me, but there is a bit of a guilt and (dare I say it?) shame about quitting a book or an audiobook. I mean, before I started book blogging, I used to quit reads left, right and centre. I had no shame or guilt over it. It might be my mood at the time, the writing, the story, an element or plot twist that didn’t work. There are hundreds of reasons why we as readers quit books or audiobooks. And that’s ok. 

However, when I started book blogging, I felt this guilt over quitting reads and I spent many years reading every books I started and reviewing them. Even if I didn’t like them. 

Now, am more ok with quittting/DNFing. Same goes with writing up my thoughts on every book (I chat about them on social media) on here. But two books I have tried just didn’t work and I wanted to chat about them because these are big deal books. Books I should love but nope, they just didn’t work.

The books, I hear you ask? The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett and The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. 

I know. These two are very different reads. One is a young adult fantasy, the other a crime thriller. Everything about these two are opposite. And yet, I quit them for practically the same reasons. 

Ok, before I go further, let me explain what each of these are: Alperton Angels follows two journalists who are both writing a book about a cult known as the Alperton Angels. The cult believed that a new-born baby, whose teenager parents were members, is the anti-Christ. The journalist have an idea of trying to track down the baby, who will be 18 in the next few months. 

The Thief follows Gen, a thief in the King’s prison. The King’s scholar, the magus, believes he’s knows where an ancient lost treasure is and needs a skilled thief. As the pair travel to retrieve the treasures, things might not be as it seems…

I struggled with both, which is a little upsetting as all crime and fantasy readers I follow online love both these books and these authors. But I did struggle with both of these, and as I write this, the reasons are very similar. 

I found both a slog to read. The Thief felt very much like a first book in a series. Yes, I know it is, but it was a slog as there was a lot of world building and not much action. Not much happened in what I did read. I have heard the series gets better in book 2, but I don’t know if I want to finish this read in the hope it gets better. 

While Alperton Angels is a standalone, it felt the same. It was a slog as it was multimedia storytelling (something I would normally be all over) and the leads were awful. I didn’t warm nor like the case they were looking into (not the people, the case. That was something I did like - how this book tackled the public’s thirst for true crime without looking at how it affects those involved). It was world-building and the plot wasn’t moving forward. 

I didn’t warm to the main characters in The Thief either. It was just little things - not liking the plot, the characters, the writing. And sometimes, you need to walk away. Which is what I did. I might return to these, but it seems very unlikely. 

But quitting books or audiobooks that you artten’t liking is ok. Nothing wrong with that! Now, am off to find a book that I will be happy reading/audiobooking.