Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is Top Ten Petty Reasons I’ve DNF’d a Book or Lowered its Rating. This topic was submitted anonymously through the topics suggestion form, and sounded like a lot of fun. I had to put it on the calendar! We’re all at least a little nitpicky when it comes to our books, right? Any avid reader, who has read and loved (and hated) a lot of books develops some kind of dealbreakers list. Sometimes it’s the very little, insignificant gripes that bring down a book for us. Maybe it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, or maybe it’s something that seems insignificant to others but is HUGE and insurmountable for us! Whatever the case may be, this is where we can air those out. I’m not going to be sharing the books in question because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Plus, some of these individual reasons have made me unhappy with multiple books. So here we go! I’m super excited to see all your lists this week.
1. For being too quirky.
Like, maybe the character is so unrealistically quirky that I couldn’t believe they existed. Or maybe the writing, setting, concepts were just so wild.
2. For having too many unnecessary commas.
I cannot stand it when I’m reading a book and there are commas everywhere. I love a good comma, but sometimes there’s so many and a sentence runs on forever. Just end the sentence! Let me catch my breath!
3. For being too “slice of life”.
I need a plot. I need for things to happen. I don’t care to read about a character’s mindless musings and meanderings through life, with no point.
4. For being too many genres at once.
I recently read a book that was supposed to be a historical romance/historical fiction blend. Great. But the romance was so underdeveloped and the historical fiction was so basic that I was left unsatisfied with all of it. If you’re promising a romance, I want to be swept away and swoon and fall in love. If you’re promising historical fiction, I want to be immersed in history and learn something. If you smush them together and don’t give me either thing, I’m not going to think favorably of the book.
5. For not being Christmassy enough.
I’ve read so many books that had beautiful Christmas covers, festive titles, and a back cover synopsis that sounded like the story was going to be filled with cheer, only to get halfway through and forget that I was supposed to be reading a Christmas story. Don’t tell me it’s a Christmas book, but have no Christmas in it! A book set in October, ending with a scene or two around the tree in December is not a Christmas book!
6. For having an annoying narrator.
I’ve been known to abandon an audiobook 10 minutes in because I couldn’t stand the narrator’s voice, the voice acting, or the narrator’s inability to pronounce words correctly.
7. For being sad when it’s not supposed to be.
Sometimes I can expect that a book will be sad. If I’m reading WW2 fiction, it’s to be expected. But if I’m reading a rom-com and am hit with super sad subject matter, that’s a kind of whiplash I can’t recover from.
8. For having characters of scientifically impossible sizes.
I get so tired of reading about heroines who are OBSESSED with recounting how large their male love interests are. Or men talking about how tiny their female love interests are. Hands the size of her entire head, shoulders the size of a car, thighs the size of her waist, neck the size of her thigh, manhood the size of a log. And this is not an uncommon trend. lol. I see this more than I’d like. Are these men 8 feet tall and 500 pounds of muscle? Are these women Thumbelina?
9. For having too many easy-to-research inaccuracies.
It is not hard to research what it’s like to go on a cruise. I’ll leave it at that. lol.
10. For clearly ripping off another book.
I have a lot of favorite books, so I’m always looking for similar books that will give me the same adventure. I am not looking for an inferior rip-off of the story. Write something new! Not everything has to be ACOTAR to be romantasy!
What small things make you DNF a book or lower its rating?
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