It’s the fore last day of the year and the past days I’ve been busy recapping the year. I’ll go out with a bang tomorrow with a Top Ten Tuesday post of my favourite books of 2024. Unfortunately, there also have been books that weren’t working for me for multiple different reasons. A recap of the year is incomplete without mentioning these, because what didn’t work for me might work for you. In 2024, I DNF’ed fewer books than I actually should have, but I’m a stubborn one and refuse to give up. On the following books however, I simply had no choice because I’ve had enough.

Some facts according to The Storygraph: It takes me an average of 27% read in a book before I decided to call it the quits. This process of decision making took me an average of 9 days.

1. Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings – The quickest DNF ever, I just couldn’t stand Magnolia and the entire society in this book. DNF @ 11%
2. The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna – I hated to have to put this book aside, because the previous book in this series got a 5-star rating from me. However, that was in 2021, this has proven to be too long ago. I just couldn’t get into the story and didn’t remember a single thing. I didn’t feel the urge to reread the first book, and the reviews for this second book weren’t very positive either. So, I gave up. DNF @ ?%, I even didn’t track it
3. Glow by Raven Kennedy – I have one big issue with the entire “The Plated Prisoner” series and that’s the pacing. All books only pick up at the final quarter or so and I just had enough of it here. I wanted to continue because the cliffhangers know no mercy, but I was bored and couldn’t be bothered by this cycle of unbalanced pacing repeating itself for the 4th time. DNF @ 42%
4. A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen – This book got only positive reviews on book blogs as far as I’m concerned, so naturally I had to dive in. I understand why people love it, but I’m not one of them unfortunately. I have no knowledge of Norse mythology at all, and I believe this is needed to be able to fully understand and enjoy this novel. I’ve listened to the audiobook, but I was confused and therefore bored. DNF @ 37%
5. The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi – This book sounded right up my alley and since the author was attending an event here in April, I wanted to read at least something. I had high hopes, but the execution of this book was poor. The audiobook narration didn’t help, but switching to the ebook didn’t improve my reading experience. This book was just not for me in the end, something I didn’t expect this to happen. I wrote in my explanation on The Storygraph that this would probably be a soft DNF, but I have no interest in picking it back up anymore. DNF @ 29%
6. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo – I have a love-hate relationship with books by this author. I loved the original Grisha series but got disappointed over and over again by her next books. I was hoping to break this cycle, because this particular book is historical fiction, a genre I usually enjoy. Furthermore, there were so many positive reviews and that looked promising to me. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, because ouch. This book was so boring. I have contemplated to DNF this numerous times, but at one point I snapped and just couldn’t listen to the audiobook any longer. DNF @ 49%
7. Weyward by Emilia Hart – The final DNF of the year and this is just because I couldn’t get into the book. I was so bored… I didn’t track it, but it was a quick one. DNF @ ?%

Did you DNF any books in 2024?