The Dreaded DNF Pile: 10 Books I Dropped

Not finishing a book is probably the worst guilt trip a reader will ever take. An unfinished book is a sad reminder that you, as the reader, did not fulfill your end of the bargain. The book was ready to tell its story and all you had to do was sit down and read it. Perhaps you did not have enough time, or you started a new book and forgot about the one you were in the middle of reading. Or maybe it was just not for you.

It’s okay to drop a book every once in a while. Reading should be fun, and there’s a reason that dozens of different genres exist in the literature. Everyone has their own taste and expectations for a story. What’s one man’s trash is another man’s treasure—that sort of thing. And, like anyone else, I have my own reasons for putting a book down.

Why I’ll stop reading:

1. The pacing is slow (in general, this is not a turn-off for me unless there are too many of the other factors).
2. The protagonist has no clear goal.
3. There are tons of tropes and clichés that add nothing to the story.
4. Shallow, underdeveloped characters.
5. Unconvincing antagonist/villain (The villain is usually my favorite part of the book, so for me, a story is lacking if its villain is lacking).
6. I’m not learning anything from it (even if it’s not overly entertaining, I want to have something to take away from the book I’m investing my time in).

To be fair, someday I would like to return to some of the books I listed. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being no chance of a reread to 10 being a high chance), I will rate the likelihood of my revisiting each one because I do believe there are some good ones here that I was not up for at the time.

Please note that these are my opinions and I am not shaming anyone if they happen to like the books on this list. Just because someone DNF’s a book does not mean it is a terrible book. I have seen some truly wonderful books go unfinished by readers simply because those books were not for them. I would be absolutely ecstatic if some of these spark your interest.

Okay, here we go.

1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Don’t jump on me! Let me explain myself first. This book was on the list of summer reading books my senior year of high school. As per usual, I procrastinated the whole summer, reading everything but the titles on the list. With two weeks left, I started reading A Tale of Two Cities—since it was on my to-read list anyway and I figured I could get through it.

I had to stop two chapters in because it was just word upon word upon word and I knew I could not read this and write a decent essay on it. I pushed it aside and picked another book on the list. Not one of my prouder moments, but when grades are involved sometimes you have to compromise.

The only other book by Dickens I’ve read is A Christmas Carol, and I was not a fan of it at all. I get it, though—the man was paid by the word, I don’t blame him for going to town with his writing. I still plan on coming back to this one, probably in the far future.

Likelihood of a reread: 9

2. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I absolutely loved Clare’s prequel series, The Infernal Devices, so I expected to adore The Mortal Instruments as well. Maybe it was the new characters, the contemporary setting, or something else, but I could not get into this series no matter how hard I tried. As someone who is not as interested in contemporary fiction as I am in historical or fantasy, that’s probably why I stopped reading. For whatever reason, the flare TID had was gone in this series.

Likelihood of a reread: 3

3. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

I picked this one up back in 2016 when Beauty and the Beast retellings were all the rage. While I have never read a B&B-inspired tale that I loved, I heard good things about this one so I decided to give it a try.

Ugh!

I had no interest in the protagonist, the plot, or even the villain. The whole “forced marriage” trope is one I find particularly annoying and repetitive in these types of retellings. What frustrates me more, however, is that the story felt pretty original despite how slow it was. The author blended classical mythology with fantasy elements, the type of story I ought to love. The writing was lovely as well, but I suffered from a complete lack of interest in the indecisive heroine and one of the most bizarre love triangles I’ve ever seen.

Likelihood of a reread: 1

4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I always considered myself a Mark Twain fan—before I actually read his work. There was nothing I enjoyed about this book, and the fact that it was required reading for my AP American Literature course did not help. Twain’s writing style, the over-dramatic situations, and underdeveloped characters were not at all appealing to me. I know he meant it as a satire, but this was a no from me.

Likelihood of a reread: 2

5. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Loved the premise of this story. Characters stepping off the pages into our world? Count me in! My problem with this one was that it took WAY too long to get to the good stuff, and I felt very little connection with the characters. For me, it’s a sad example of an incredible concept with poor execution.

Likelihood of a reread: 3

6. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Divergent was far from quality dystopian fiction, but it was compelling enough for me to pick up the sequel. Insurgent was severely lacking in the action and drama of its predecessor. I was hoping the plot would make up for the bland characters, and when it disappointed me I dropped it.

Likelihood of a reread: 1

7. Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis is one of my top five favorite writers of all time. Granted, his writing is an acquired taste, but I loved The Chronicles of Narnia and his other works. My reason for not finishing this one is that it was just plain boring. I made it to the end of the last chapter and called it quits.

Likelihood of a reread: 1

8. The Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was one of my favorite YA books of all time. Original plot, unique characters, and compelling writing. I dropped The Hollow City within the first few chapters. In fact, I really have a hard time remembering those chapters at all because I had no grasp of the plot. There seemed to be no clear direction in this story, and the characters appeared even shallower than they had in the first book.

Likelihood of a reread: 8

9. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

I’ve read Les Misérables in its entirety, so I decided I could manage the inspiration behind one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. I tried to push past Hugo’s elaborate descriptions of Gothic architecture, but I couldn’t. While Hugo’s primary goal in this novel was to emphasize the value of Gothic architecture at the time, rather than tell a story, he was clearly writing for a different time period than the one we’re living in.

Likelihood of a reread: 7

10. The Circle by Dave Eggers

As a personal rule, if I want to see a movie adaptation I read the book first. I loved the concept of The Circle when I saw the movie trailer earlier this year, and I immediately checked the book out from my local library. The plot was okay—slow, but intriguing—and I carried on with the hope that it would start to pick up speed.

But…it didn’t.

I got halfway through and lost interest. From what I heard, the movie was mediocre, so I decided I didn’t really miss out.

Likelihood of a reread: 2

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What books are in your DNF pile and why? Are there any books in this list that deserve a second chance?