Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish, through which we share our top ten list on the weekly topic.
This week, the original topic was the ten bookish things I want to quit, or have quit. I decided to adapt this topic into something that would make a bit more sense to me, and thus, I'll be listing the books and series I did not (and most likely will not) finish.
Top Ten Books and Series I did not (and most likely will not) finish
So there are a lot of books I read and don't necessarily love, or even like at all. But I do always tend to finish the book anyways. Which is probably why in this list of 10, only 2 are books I marked as DNF and the other 8 are just series which I don't intend to continue on with.
1. Hush, hush, Becca Fitzpatrick
I only read the first book, and it seriously pissed me off. I couldn't believe some people counted this book amongst their favourites. It was badly written and transmitted all the wrong values. If you wish to read my in depth review, click here.
2. The house of night series, P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast
I read the first volume of this series a while ago. In short, I do not recommend. At all. When I finished, I remember thinking very clearly that it was the worst thing I'd ever read. It probably isn't as bad as I remember it, but I thought it was so ghastly that I wrote a very very descriptive and in depth review on GoodReads (you can read here my very long rant about it in Portuguese) and it sort of became a joke between me and my sister how bad it was. Nowadays, whenever I say I've read an awful book, my sister asks me how bad from one to Marked. I guess it withstood the test of time. Just not in a good way.
3. Tangled, Emma Chase
It wasn't until I started writing this and actually went looking for this book on my shelf that I noticed it is not only a book, but a series?! And a very loved one. I don't get this, sorry guys. This was one of only three books this year I did not finish. And trust me, it takes a lot for me not to finish a book. I read tons of awful books, and I almost always finish them, usually so I can avoid the "but it gets so much better in the end!" comments. This time I just couldn't do it. In this case, the protagonist pissed me of. He was a sexist brute pig of a man, and I did not care for his view on the world (or women) at all. I stopped after about 50 pages. I have no objection to reading erotica at all, my not liking this book had nothing to do with the genre - I stopped before anything had even happened between the main characters. Don't worry, I have a full rant of a review coming up explaining why I didn't like it in detail.
4. The wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater
This is the example of a beautiful writer and a terrible plot. I did not like this book because the story felt forced (and to be honest similar to Twilight) to me. The characters were not intriguing, I wasn't emotionally invested in the plot at all. This was a stereotypical YA paranormal romance, full of insta-love and protagonists with no self-respect. But God, the writing. The writing was phenomenal. It was lyrical and poetic and it made me read the boring story about the plain people, because I was under its spell. I definitely won't read the rest of this trilogy, but I already have The Raven Boys on my TBR waiting for me. You can also read my opinion on this book here.
5. Fifty shades of grey, E. L. James
Here's the thing - I don't really count this as read or DNF. I'm not interested in reading it. I tried reading it and it was terrible. I only read about 20 pages, and I was already bored to tears and very unimpressed with the writing. So I skimmed it. I did not like what I read. And so I put it to rest, never to be seen again in my shelves. Again, I have nothing against the genre, but this was no good.
6. Septimus Heap series, Angie Sage
I have no idea why I didn't like the one book of this series I read, Magyk. It was the first in a Middle Grade/YA (I believe) fantasy series, and it was promising. Why didn't I like it? I have no idea. I can't remember anything about it. All I know is that whenever I think of it I get really uneasy and uncomfortable and I have no intentions of picking it up to find out why. I do a great job blocking out unpleasant memories. That might be why. I honestly couldn't tell you.
7. The coldest girl in Coldtown, Holly Black
Holly Black was one of those authors that had been on my TBR for a long time. Like Cassandra Clare, she seems to be one of those YA authors everyone says wonders about. I tried reading this last month. It started out okay, but got weird very quickly. And that's okay, I'm not opposed to weird. Weird is good. I got to about 25%. By then, I just gave up. I didn't really like the lore, I didn't like or connect to any of the characters, especially not the main character, and I didn't see it progressing. I can't even explain how bored I felt while trying to read it, honestly.
8. Too far series, Abbi Glines
This is not bad exactly. It's just not very good either. I only read the first two volumes, and I don't intend on carrying on. If you're looking for easy to read romance that is not actually too badly written and that can check all the clichés at once, this is your series! Go for it!
I don't exactly like to read a book where I can tell from the start how everything will end (even though there was a plot twist I didn't see coming), and I especially hate it when things are thrown in the plot just to create drama between the characters. Those situations that would never happen in real life, because in real life people just talk to each other instead of assuming everything? Yep. Not a fan of those.
9. The vampire diaries, L. J. Smith
I tried. I read the first four volumes, I believe. But I also watched the TV series, and that honestly ruined the book series for me. I don't watch TVD anymore, because it just got ridiculous after a while. And Joseph Morgan left, so I had no more motivation to watch it (I did watch 5x11, though, because honestly, how could I not?!). The thing is, the TV series was well explored in the first few seasons, and it changed the original so much I just have no inclination to read it and become permanently confused. Besides, look at that cover.
10. Gossip Girl, Cecily Von Ziegsar
The same applies here. I did follow the first few seasons of Gossip Girl, and I didn't try reading the novels until I was already watching the show. This show didn't change as much as TVD did in terms of plot and characters, but it still felt like a waste of time to read them. Plus, it was way more entertaining to watch the TV series, I'm not going to lie.
All images were obtained through GoodReads.
What are the books and series you didn't finish? Have you also had any problems with any of these books? Let me know! :)
