BOOKS I DNF'D

I hate giving up on a book, but saying that I will quite happily throw a book as far away from me as possible if the thought of it fills me with dread towards reading. I want to love reading. It's a hobby, not a chore, so I will not force my way through a book I am not liking just incase it gets better, because from experience they rarely do. 

I'm also not ashamed to admit a lot of my DNFs are arcs. 
I suppose when it comes down to it, if you've paid for a book you want to get your money's worth whereas for an arc it's no skin off your nose if you don't finish it and the likelihood is the publisher would rather have no review than a negative one. 

But, we're not here to discuss the pros and cons of dnfing, we're here for the books I did not finish!

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There are certainly more books than what I have listed here but I decided to keep it somewhat short and stick to books that people might be interested to know I did not finish!

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Nevernight by Jay Kristoff seems to be universally adored in the book blogger community and EVERYONE is hunting down ARCs but I just couldn't get into it. To be fair, I didn't give it a very good chance so perhaps now that I've branched out from contemporary I will enjoy it.
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Recently, the majority of my DNF'd titles are Netgalley arcs. I think this is partly because my migraines have been playing up lately so eBook are not my friend and I'm more likely to put a book down if I'm not completely invested, but I also think I've just had some poor luck requesting books I thought I'd love but ended up not liking at all.

Ghost Stories by Whit Taylor I thought this graphic novel sounded interesting but it wasn't what I expected. I was anticipating some sort of ghost story or something due to the title and the fact it is described as 'haunting' on the blurb but this was actually a memoir and it was just confusing. It only gets 2.62 on goodreads so that should tell you more.

Ballad For A Mad Girl by Vikki Wakefield so I'm just trawling through Netgalley for the first time and then there appears this book I had heard EVERYONE raving about... on READ NOW. God was it a read now for a reason. This book was... I honestly don't know but it was absolutely not the book I'd heard everyone talking about. I was sold this as a great book dealing with mental health and uhhh no? It's a paranormal book. As I said in a goodreads update, I was lost, confused and it hurt my brain. 

The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart in fairness, this is another book I didn't give much chance to but I've come to realise that any 'historical' book that is set after WWII is not my thing. And then when I heard someone say it's like 'Stranger Things' I was done. Don't get me wrong, I watched the whole first season but it wasn't mind-blowing (Orphan Black is by far the best Netflix Original!) and I just didn't care for another story on the same lines.

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr this is one of the 'worst' DNF's I have ever committed. By that I mean I got pretty far into it. I was so excited for this but in reality it was boring af. The second Ella's parents get her in the car I knew what was going on and then later when Ella is remembering that part she conveniently doesn't recall the one thing that solves the mystery but then halfway through she does find out and I'm like ??? 
The whole thing is a mess because I'm pretty sure you don't have to run off to rio for that situation like it's something that can be handled by authorities and just??? ALSO!! can we talk about Bella??? This was a horrific portrayal of mental illness.. Well, it's not even a mental illness... OKAY SPOILER

[I'm pretty damn certain the whole 'Bella' thing was going to end up like 'MY PARENTS WERE MURDERERS SO THAT'S CAUSED ME TO GENETICALLY HAVE A VIOLENT MURDEROUS ALTERNATE PERSONALITY' and just no???? GOODBYE]

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And now we move on to books I picked up myself and, in most cases, wished I hadn't...

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han I read my way through the first two books somewhat easily. I liked the first one and the second one was alright - I was pretty infuriated by how long it took them to figure something out... but this third book??? Are you kidding? Get married?? WHAT. Yeah no. The whole love triangle was a mess and she finally decides which brother to get with (lol let's be real we know she'll change her mind 24601 times after) and is like 'MARRIAGE'. 

Conjuror by John and Carole Barrowman I wanted to love this but found it a tad confusing until someone explained that even though it's its own series, if you haven't read their middle grade series you won't understand some of this. Why claim it's on it's own if you need to read the other books?? It's not like The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices where you can read either of them first and understand but might get spoiled it's more like trying to read City of Heavenly Fire before any of them.

For Holly by Tanya Byrne I really don't remember much about this other than it's one of those sort of 'light' mysteries, probably intended for younger teens. I had my copy for ages and I decided to borrow it from the library to force me to read it as I obviously had a time frame but if I recall, I guessed what was going on and read a review to discover I was right so I exchanged my bought copy for something better.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
So many people seem to LOVE this book but I was utterly bored and frustrated and ughhhh noooo. I can't even remember what happened as it was so long ago I picked it up, but I do recall being frustrated with the main character - she essentially wrote a list of reasons why she and her boyfriend broke up but it was so petty. It was things like 'watching you practice football is boring'. NOBODY MAKES YOU GO!!! AGH

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
Julie Murphy and I have a bad relationship. I don't know what it is but I just seem to hate all her books even though I want to love them. I just really do not click with her main characters and find them disgustingly rude and nasty and no thank you.

Pax by Sara Pennypacker
A book about a fox. Of course Emma's going to buy it. Of course the hardback with the most beaut naked cover is going to live on my shelf. But I just couldn't bring myself to keep reading. My heart was broken when the fox got left behind and wanted his human back and I honestly can't. It's been well over a year and I still want to cry so I don't think I'm ever reading this.

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So, there we have it. A good chunk of the books I Did Not Finish! Have you DNF'd any of these or have I put down one of your favourites?