Top 10 Tuesday April 30

Hello and welcome back everyone to another edition of Top 10 Tuesday! Hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl, it features a different bookish related theme each week. This week is a fun one! Not sure I’ve ever done a topic like this before.

Petty Reasons I’ve DNF’d A Book

I don’t DNF a lot. But sometimes, for your own sanity, you just have to. These are some of the reasons I’ve DNF’d a book in the past few years.

1. Because I Realised I Hoped The Main Character Would Be Murdered. Okay so a while ago, I read this mafia “romance” where the main female character was kidnapped by some leader of the Irish mafia. She was so obnoxious and so annoying that I started to actually fantasise about what might happen if someone actually behaved like this in real life, with the boss of a criminal conglomerate. They’d probably end up executed and dumped somewhere and when I realised that I actually wanted this to be her fate, I was like okay, time to exit this book now.
2. Because I Was Rooting Against Them. Recently I DNF’d a book where both main characters are serial killers (but it’s okay, they only kill bad people. Both of them). The banter made me cringe inside so much and both of them sounded like how teens think adults talk in their interactions and I was like okay, this is a sad indictment on law enforcement (FBI, especially) that neither of these idiots have been caught yet. I wish they’d get caught. And so I set that one aside.
3. Because It Gave Me A Literal Headache. There was one book I tried to read last year I think, and every time I tried, I got a violent headache. I’m not sure if it was coincidence (I do get a lot of headaches) or if it was something with the print size or the type or whatever? Either way I didn’t get more than 50p into it and I had to just return it to my library.
4. Because It Gave Me A Figurative Headache. Stream of consciousness, no speech marks, etc. I lasted 30 pages before throwing in the towel. And it was a Man Booker Prize winner.
5. Because The Love Interest Feels Abusive. There have been books I’ve read where the male love interest is such a douche early on in the book that it really feels like it crosses the line for me into behaviour that is actually abusive and no amount of grovelling could ever excuse. This is more common in historical romance but I’ve come across it in contemporary as well. There’s a fine line between being a redeemable asshole and someone who feels like they are beyond that.
6. Shaming Of Other Female Characters. This was really popular back in the day in romance/women’s fiction. Other women were always sluts or liked to wear too much make up or tight clothing and just lived to steal the main character’s man etc. I don’t bother with anything like that today.
7. Cheating. Is this petty? I’m not sure. Sometimes people like to read about the nuances of real life relationships but I can’t with cheating. If I don’t realise a book has cheating then it hits me, I’ll often just set it aside immediately. This also included a book where the MC’s best friend tried to bully her into cheating on her (admittedly awful) fiancé. Just break up with him you coward.
8. Surprise Cancer. This isn’t petty as such but it’s very much a knee-jerk reaction thing. There was a time when if a book hit me with surprise cancer plot, I’d have to DNF it immediately. It was deeply triggering. If I knew it was going to have cancer, I could make a decision either way on how I felt about reading it but hitting me with it unexpectedly gave me a lot of problems. I had a friend that actually took to warning me about books that we both had, if this happened and she read it before I did.
9. Female Main Characters Who Are ‘Quirky’. Nope. Cannot. If any MC self-describes as quirky, I’m out.
10. Because I Preferred The Male MC As A Cat. This was a book where the male love interest was a demon or something? And was cursed to be a cat. I honestly preferred when he was a cat. As soon as they broke the spell and he became a man again, I found him incredibly tedious. DNF’d not long after.
11. ‘Good Girl’ + Love Interests Who Need To Be ‘In Control’. There’s a trend at the moment, for men calling women ‘good girl’ in love scenes and it makes my skin crawl. I also really hate it when I’m reading a book and we get to those scenes and the man is like “I need to be in control, I need you to do what I say, I need you to not move, not do this or that”. Dude just get a blow up doll. I know people love this (books with this are very popular on a certain social media app) but I will DNF that immediately now. (this one is a bonus after I was writing my monthly wrap up and it came to me). If you love this stuff, that’s awesome, I’m glad you’re able to find that sort of thing. But for me it’s a big no thank you. Also a Venn diagram of books with these two things is practically a circle.

And there you go. 10 reasons of varying pettiness of why I’ve DNF’d books in the past. Would you DNF a book for any of these reasons? Do you DNF books? Or do you push through. Let me know!

---

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.