I haven’t done this in a while, but I have had quite a few recent DNF books. (Did Not Finish.)
No, I will not reveal titles or authors even if you ask me. Yes, I am attempting to avoid mentioning any details which would aid in identifying these works of fiction.
1. My, this writing is…serviceable. I keep mentally editing as I read. Still, the characters ought to be interesting, from the blurb…. No. They aren’t. In fact, if the protagonist namedrops one more fashionable object in place of actually telling me about her likes and dislikes, or better yet showing me what she likes…. Nope, more namedropping. So…bland…brain…hurts.
2. Okay, chit at society ball, there’s the degenerate rake, oh wait, she’s not going for him, hooray! She’s in love with this other guy. Who is Mysterious. She can’t look at him or speak to him. She feels a Mysterious Attraction to him. She’s going to tell us all about how Mysterious it is…no. Never mind. I do not need to suffer through this because it has not a scrap of a hint that this might be a new take on this well-trodden idea.
3. Post-apocalyptic, yes. Post-apocalyptic teenage emo whining, no. And I’ve seen this plot before, done better. Several times.
4. The blurb sounds interesting. The opening page is intriguing and funny. However, the narrator grows more and more patronizing and the tropes of her sub-genre pile up and up and up until, within three pages, it sounds like every other book I have ever read that is in this sub-genre. Also I hate the character whose voice is supposed to entertain me. Pretty impressive, my hate, in such a short span of pages.
5. Bo-ring. Too much backstory in the first scene, and also, the supposed protagonist has no personality whatsoever. Pity the book is about him instead of that other guy, who has some hints of an intriguing past. Are they going to have an adventure? Oh, probably just the protagonist? Well, he’d best get on with it, then, while I straighten my sock drawer.
