October DNF

It has been quite a while since I've actually had trouble with enough books to do a DNF!

The Graces

This one just didn't work for me. I really did want to like it, and the family of witches sounded so promising. But it just didn't deliver for me, and I just couldn't find a way to drag myself through it. The biggest issue was the main character, who was... just terrible. She spent endless amounts of time telling us how different she was from her classmates, without really seeming to have any defining personality traits otherwise. After getting almost a third of the way into the book without anything of substance happening, I ended up dropping it and just... not picking it up again.

The weak narrator, lack-luster character interactions and apparent absence of a plot were what kept this one from working for me.

Stalking Jack the Ripper

I knew this one was a long shot. I really had one simple, uncomplicated reason for picking this up- the fact that there was a lady forensic scientist. I feel like maybe me liking of the book hinged on that, and, when this book didn't deliver well on that or any other front, I lost interest. 

Side note: for a relatively un-prolific serial killer (most expert agree the true number of victims is most likely five, which, terrible as it was, is on the low end for a serial killer,) Jack the Ripper has managed to capture the imagination of so many in a really interesting way. Part of which was that the Ripper killings took place when society itself was reaching a turning point, in terms of science and it's application to forensics in England. Forensic science was in it's infancy, and psychology too was a growing field, especially where it applied to use in investigation of crimes. Widespread dispersal of information was improving, which meant news could spread. And, of course, the perpetrator of the Whitechapel Murders was never caught.