DNF Review: A Crown of Feathers

Title: Crown of Feathers
Author: Nicki Pau Preto
Series: Crown of Feathers
Volume: 1
Genre: fantasy
Release Date: February 12, 2019
Goodreads

Veronyka, orphaned animage, has been traveling with her controlling sister, searching for phoenix eggs and chasing the dream of becoming a Phoenix Rider. When her sister turns on her, she finds herself adrift, and resolves to search out what remains of the Riders and join them- even if it means disguising herself as a boy.

Review at a Glance: This one just wasn't for me! The characters and the world just didn't feel cohesive and it fell back on tropes that I didn't love, without breathing new life into them.

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.

September DNF

Not sure if it was my mood this month, but SO MANY DNFs. Anyway. The point of the DNF post is to give a little blurb of a review to be taken with a grain of salt, because these were books I couldn't finish. My criteria is that I have to be at least 50 pages in before I can really consider DNFing the book. If I've read less than that, I generally won't even mention it.

Title: The Cage

Author: Megan Shepherd

This was the second Megan Shepherd book I've attempted and failed to finish. I did know that I might not love this one going in- I dropped The Madman's Daughter when I was partway though as well. I found a disliked this one as well. The characters felt formulaic and I really didn't care for the narrator. There was a lot of telling and not a lot of showing in both the characters and the setting, which really only gave a shallow impression of these crucial aspects of the story. I didn't care about the plot. At all. Eventually I just found myself to bored to continue.

Title: The Creeping
Author: Alexandra Sirowy
This was mostly a case of the main character not working for me. I'm someone who has to, if not love the main character, then at least find some element of them that I understand. That just didn't happen here. The way Stella saw the world was so far from anything that I could understand. She seemed to hate her friends, though we're told she likes them. She's dating someone she doesn't seem to like. While I was interested in the thriller aspect of the story, the way it was told just didn't hold my interest, especially when the other aspects of the plot didn't seem all that cohesive with it.

Title: Falling Kingdoms
Author: Morgan Rhodes
I don't even know how to express what I thought of what little I managed to read of this book. I rarely find myself wondering what on Earth people saw in a book, but I did with this one. The characters fall flat, the writing doesn't paint a picture of the world- instead it bangs you over the head with descriptions that would be at home in a poorly written geography textbook. There is no subtly to the storytelling, and overall, this book really didn't capture my interest. I was less bored and more actively irritated when I tried to read it.

April and May DNF

Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
I started this during a read-a-thon, but that couldn't compel me to finish it. This one wasn't for me. It just felt like the same old story somehow. Mare was a character that I neither connected to nor had any interest in. The romantic subplot felt forced, and I wasn't a fan of the love... shape... of some sort that was developing. I didn't find that the plot flowed for me in a way that kept me engaged when combined with my lack of investment in Mare. Also, I kept waiting for her to get a paper cut and blow her cover.

Title: Shadow Society
Author: Marie Rutkoski
After how much I loved The Winner's Curse, I hoped I might like the rest of Marie Rutkoski's work just as much, but this one turned out to be a miss for me. This was just an all-round weaker feeling book, it leaned heavily on some story and character tropes that I've seen too often recently, and I ended up doing nothing so much as losing interest and wandering off. I think this was more a case of "right now its more of the same" than that this was a terrible book, and its possible that I went into it with my expectations too high. 

February DNF

Title: The Archived
Author: Victoria Schwab
Jan. 9- Feb. 24
108 pages
I've been trying to get through this for almost two months now. It just isn't for me, I don't think. One thing I have a dominant dislike of is when the main character keeps a secret that is clearly dangerous, and to me some of the secrets Mac keeps are just that. Nothing about Mac's character, or the other characters, really. I also just didn't buy the world. Maybe everything is explained later, but I got a good portion of the way though and still didn't find that the world was well formed. There just seemed to be so much that was undefined... it didn't feel complete, which isn't how I like my worlds.

January DNF

This is a strange little DNF pile for this month. They're both carry-overs from December (actually, I started them in November).

Haze by Paula Weston

November 28-January 28

200 pages (I think, I was pretty close)

I just kept trying to finish this. I have actually been trying to read this for two months. It just wasn't working for me. I wasn't completely crazy about the story, and I just kind of lost interest. I might give this another try once the next book (or possibly the rest of the quartet) are out. We shall see.

Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales
November 26- January 1
This collection started off really strong. I then hit a point where I had read three short stories that I really didn't care for, and couldn't stir up the enthusiasm to continue with the stories. I think I would like to pick this up again at some point, because there were some really strong series, and I hope that there will be a few more that I like. I feel like the short story format is better read separately, rather than back to back, so it might be better if I plan it more next time. I'm actually leaving it in my mental TBR pile, rather than DNF, because it feels weird to say I didn't finish each story, when I did finish and like a several of them.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
January 14-28
70 pages
I wanted to like this one. I really did. But I just can not get into this book. I tried to listen to the audiobook, I tried to read the novel, and I'm just not feeling it. Scott Westerfeld's writing is hit-and-miss for me- I really like the Leviathan trilogy, I really didn't like Uglies. His style has certain weaknesses, and I think there are certain stories that carry the writing and there are certain stories that don't, and this one didn't, for me. The characters just didn't really feel like they had any depth for me, and I wasn't invested in either of them. Part of it was the storytelling style, alternating between the contemporary of the writer, Darcy's, story and the other part is the character in the novel she's writing, Lizzie's story. The points of view didn't overlap well, taking away from each other rather than working together to form a cohesive book.

December DNF

Just one that fit my criteria for the month of December, I think.

Latitude Zero by Diana Renn
51 pages
I didn't get very far into this one. I read and reviewed Renn's debut, Tokyo Heist, last year. While I didn't love it, it was alright. This one, however, I just couldn't get into. I think it was mostly for personal reasons. The writing didn't really pull me in, but more than that it was that I disliked the main character from the start, because I really, really don't like people who don't stick to their guns. Tessa was just a pushover, and let herself be convinced to do things despite knowing they were not only wrong, but dangerous to herself and others. I assume that she grows throughout the novel, but no aspect of it pulled me in enough to stick around an see it.

November DNF

These review-y things are becoming noticeably longer. I don't write full reviews for books I haven't finished, simply because I don't have a full scope of the book. So these are my DNF reviews for the month.

The Jewel by Amy Ewing

204 pages

Yes, that right I actually got over halfway through. This does happen. Here's the thing: I was on the fence to begin with about it, but I saw it at the library and I tried reading it, and nope. It started off alright. Not perfect, by any means, but alright. And then it went downhill. Here are some thoughts:

1. This book is a stock YA post-apocalyptic novel. It was trope-y all get out. There was a scene that was incredibly similar to those in The Hunger Games. It has all the pitfalls that YA dysopia novels sometimes fall prey to. There's no realistic background for how the dystopia happened, not explanation as to how it functions (because it really shouldn't) and absoloutely no reason for the society to continue functioning as it was. I have a hard time with "it's sci-fi, anything goes"- I need background.
2. The character of Violet bothered me from the start, but I could push it aside, since I brushed them off as being mostly "me" problems. There was just nothing to attach me to her character.
3. I thought I would be able to finish it until we met the love interest... and I knew then that I wouldn't be able to to deal with how the story was going to play out. I, personally have a hard time with insta-love. I mean, I get that people can be attracted to someone the first time they see them, but there's a big difference between that and love.

So, what I'm saying is it didn't work for me. I think if you liked The Selection or Landry Park, this might be something for you to check out, they have a similar feel.

Trust Me, I'm Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer

65 pages

I haven't had very good luck with debuts recently. This was another one that just didn't work for me at all. My rule is that I give a book 50 pages... and I stopped right after that mark with this one. I just couldn't do it. I had hopes for this novel, especially because I really liked the title (I think I liked the old cover better, but that's neither here nor there). Thoughts:

1. Julep bothered me. Not in an "she was an unlikable character" respect, though I didn't find her particularly likable, but in an "you say you are intelligent and good at what you do, but I'm REALLY not seeing it" respect. Part of this was there was a lot of telling and not a lot of showing (at least as far as I got). From what I've gathered, manipulating people requires subtlety, and she's about as subtle as being bashed in the head with a hardcover. It's also necessary to observe the people you're manipulating (and be observant in general), and she just wasn't.
2. This might sound petty (probably), but Julep's so called "wit" bothered me. Being really witty generally requires some though behind it, and she didn't think. I know some very witty people, and the thing that lets you pull it off is that there's intelligence behind it.
3. There was a love triangle of sorts lurking on the horizon, about as subtle as a thunderhead. Or possibly a tornado. I have a hard time with love triangles, they are extremely difficult to get right. This was not getting it right, even in the early stages, and I just wasn't willing to drag myself through another if there was one to be had.
4. I started getting the sense that this was going to be one of those mystery stories where everything is incredibly convenient for the main character to solve. 

I think that this book mainly suffers from a lack of finesse. Everything is told to the reader, rather than shown to them. Much of it was likely a problem of personal preference. 

All that Glows by Ryan Graudin
100+ pages

I actually got fairly far into this one. I thought I wasn't going to finish it, then I thought that I was, and in the end I didn't finish it. I sort of put it on hold again and again until I had to return it to the library.

1. The romance in this book really, really came out of nowhere in this one. I was expecting insta-love, but it was really fast, even by the usual standards.
2. I found that didn't connect to the characters. I think an element of that actually came from the sudden relationship- I found it really difficult to understand Emrys's thought processes or choices.
3. The world in this one just didn't win me over. The world building didn't make if feel particularly vivid and I didn't really understand how the magic system worked. 

In the end, this just didn't interest me. I'm very hit-and-miss with fae books, and this just ended up being a miss for me. I'm not entirely sure exactly why... I didn't have a strong dislike for it or anything, it just didn't grab me. I might try it again at some point... we'll see. 

October DNF

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Barnes
This one just didn't do it for me. I started off interested, and the point of view of the ghost was interesting, the plot didn't really progress toward... anything... for me. I think this was a mostly an "It's not you it's me" sort of situation here, I just wasn't in the proper mood for it, or I was just kind of lukewarm toward it. This is one that I may give another go at some other time. Maybe.

Buzz Kill by Beth Fantaskey
Oct 3, 2014-Oct 7, 2014
Well, I knew this one would be a long shot, but I still grabbed it when I saw it on the shelf at the library. I got about 100 pages in before I threw in the towel. I just couldn't stand the main character, and I'm beginning to see that I'm someone who needs to at very least not hate the narrator. But Millie was pretty awful, and, honestly, not at all cut out for detective work or anything else requiring an sort of intellect. The plot... was there a plot? Maybe I didn't get that far? Essentially, I didn't like any of the characters, got a general not great feeling from the book and didn't find myself enjoying the plot. I remember Nancy Drew very differently from who it's described in this book (though far from perfect, those books were at very least interesting). Everything felt sort of flat.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Sept. 26- Oct. 7
I hereby dub this "Infodumping, an novel". That was the main flaw with  The Bone Season. The world itself is incredibly complex- unnecessarily so- and the writing style does not carry it. I think I am more toward the "Show don't tell" end of the scale as fantasy writing philosophies go, and this book just doesn't deliver. 

Feel free to tell me what you thought of these. Are they worth me giving them another try?

July DNF

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

July 20- July 30

I tried. I really did. I got to page 243, and I just couldn't do it anymore. I've had this book for two years now, and I figured I should give it another try. I found the characters to be very flat, and there really wasn't much plot to speak of. I kept pushing through, but I ended up not finding any reason to continue with this one. The photograph tie-in just didn't work for me; rather than contributing to the novel, they interrupted what flow there was, and weren't incorporated well into the story.

January DNF

These are the books that hit my DNF pile in the month of January. My rules are that I (generally) must have given the book at least 50 pages to win me over, and I must have a reason for putting it down, in order for them to qualify here. Sometimes a book comes due back at the library, or education strikes, and I don't finish it due to other circumstances. This is specifically for books I put down because of them, not because of anything else.

January was a bad one for me- I think I DNFed more books than I finished. This may be in part because I've been kind of busy with school and such. It may also be because, recently, I've had a hard time pushing through books that don't thrill me. Once again, these are highly subjective, seeing as preference is unique to each individual.

Jan.4- Jan. 5
I read Something Strange and Deadly last year, and wasn't thrilled with it, but I thought I would give book two a go none the less. I couldn't get into it, and I think it was mostly because the world and story didn't interest me. Nor, honestly did the characters. They just didn't really thrill me, and I wasn't engaged by the storytelling. It just wasn't the book for me.

Early January.
This really wasn't the book for me. I really didn't like Tessa, the main character and narrator. She seemed incredibly self-centered, and honestly not very smart, and just over all annoyed me as a character. I also didn't care for the supporting characters or the love interest (ugh, he was annoying). The story, which was only somewhat interesting to me, could not be carried by the overall weak characters.

Jan. 26-Jan. 30
I actually was kind of looking forward to this one, but it unfortunately didn't pan out for me. It started off alright, and I think that the "Wonderland" component of the story was fine. There were just some other parts that I couldn't read at this point. I think it may have mostly been the romance, to be honest. I didn't like either of the love interests. I disliked them a lot, both as characters, and as participants in a romance. I didn't like the possessiveness (I'm no expert, but that seriously doesn't seem attractive- people are not things to be possessed). I don't like love triangles as a rule (there will be a rant, it is coming...), they're rarely done well, or even passably. I also wasn't a huge fan of Alyssa, the main character. Which is sort of unfortunate, because I think that I might have really enjoyed this one if not for my dislike of the characters.

Jan. 31
After deliberation, I decided that I probably won't be continuing this one. I got about fifty pages in, and I just found that I didn't really enjoy the writing style of the book. Once again, I wasn't mad about the love interest. It was one of those relationships that I didn't really understand why it existed- as in "Why do you like each other? I don't like either of you." The characters just felt kind of two dimensional to me. This one might improve further on, but unless someone tells me otherwise, this is where it will stay.

And I believe that is it. Happy Year of the Horse everyone! (Chinese new year).

Kelly

November DNF

I had really high hopes for this one. I really did, and they managed to carry me 250 pages into the book before I finally gave up. I couldn't stand the characters, which is too bad because there were aspects of the story that I found quite intriguing. There are disturbing aspects to this one, but the characters damaged the effect for me. I feel like this is one of those books that would benefit from a complete lack of romantic plotline- at least the way the author has written it. I might pick it up again, if I think I can push through, because I am curious to see what happens.
Nov. 9-11

I was skeptical about this one to begin with, to be honest. By the time I got 40 pages in, I basically decided that I would read another few pages, so that I could officially call this a "DNF" (my rule is I don't get to call it that until I am a minimum of 50 pages in).  The characters were just so annoying. The narrator, Vanessa, is a dancer, and she's attending an elite academy for ballet, where her sister had disappeared three years earlier. She is a perfect dancer, and people immediately like her, or they single her out, and she just seemed to be another cliched heroine of the "only one who doesn't realise how special she is" variety. Maybe the term would be that her modesty felt forced, if not completely false. I didn't really get much further than that, just barely to the introduction of the love interest.  On whom the main character seems to develop an instant stalker-crush (do teenage girls really do that? Nobody I knew did, as far as I'm aware.) Yeegh. I'm sorry but he just struck me as so idealized/ stereotypical it was almost cliche. And Zeppelin? Really? All I can think it German war blimp whenever I read the name. There wasn't enough of an engaging story line to distract me from thoughts of the Hindenburg, so I truly believe this one wasn't for me.
November 23-24

And that concludes books that I did not finish this November. Let me know what you thought of them. Were there any books that you just couldn't finish this month? Why?

October DNF

Just two this month... I haven't gotten much reading done. Midterms season and all.

 I didn't really get into this one. I suppose the world wasn't really something that pulled me in- I think in part because of the way that parts of the world were mentioned and then described didn't really show me the world. It was as though the world was being invented only if an aspect was completely necessary. I think a map would also have been nice. The world didn't really interest me, and I wasn't really very attached to the characters. With midterms on the horizon, just didn't have the inclination to finish this before I had to return the book to the library. 

This was one that I picked up more because I wasn't sure what I was going to read next, and I was hoping that I would enjoy it. However, I ended up not being very interested in the plot line of the story, and didn't really have any desire to continue reading. I just didn't really care to know how the story ended.

July DNF

I got about sixty pages in and was basically completely bored. I really disliked the narrator, in that she really wasn't a very interesting character. I really wonder why I keep trying anything labeled paranormal. If it is labeled "paranormal" not fantasy or supernatural or anything else along with the paranormal, it seems doomed to bore me.

This is another one where the characters didn't snag me. In the case of this book, I wonder if I just didn't get to the plot. I barely finished the introductions to all of the characters, few of whom had any draw for me, before I put it down. In this case I think it was more that this wasn't a book for me than that there was anything particularly wrong with the book.

The writing style didn't carry the concept, and the plot turned out to be pretty formulaic so far as I could tell. The heroine didn't really intrigue me and the love interest was kind of dull (I only managed to meet the first one, I quit before the second showed his probably devastatingly-handsome face (see rant here)). 

Don't hate me. I really wanted to like this one. I may actually try this one again at some point. What bothered me was how naive the heroine was. I know she had every right to be, but it really got under my skin. If someone can tell me she opens her eyes and comes into herself a little more, I'll probably give this one another go.

And to conclude, it anyone passionately feels that I should give one of these books another try, let me know why and I might consider it (I can be a little pig-headed). 

May and June DNF

I'm combining May and June because May was the month of The Great Under-Motivation for All Things. I only review books I've actually finished because I don't feel like it is fair to the book to write a review if I only got thirty pages in- who knows, maybe things really pick up at page sixty-five or some such. And, most of the time, I think that it is more a problem with me. Feel free to yell at me that I simply must give any of these books another go, if you think I've judged it really unfairly.

I seem to have this awful habit of expecting too much of books. The premise of this book is pretty out there as it is- any self respecting high school chemist knows that one does not simply cram an extra, radioactive, element into the periodic table and call it done. But I can suspend disbelief on that- if the character seemed knowledgeable, which I found he really didn't. He is collecting every element of the periodic table. But he isn't doing it in order, and doesn't seem to know the risks associated with, say, bringing arsenic to school. I got about fifty pages in, and I must confess I didn't see any value in continuing. This book just wasn't one for me.

A lot of people love this one. Like, really, really loved it. the blurb sounds quite unique, sort of a fantasy-mystery sort of book. I couldn't get into it. Madeline (the heroine) really bothered me. I was actually actively annoyed by her, and most of the other characters in the story. I didn't much care for the world, and I wasn't pulled into the story enough to finish the book. The attacks of the colours were a little too surrealist (maybe not the right word) for me. Instead of seeming charmingly quirky, the odd characteristics of the world felt forced.

I just didn't really feel any motivation to finish this one. I got about fifty pages in, but I didn't feel particularly interested in the character, or invested in the story. I think that this was more of  personal thing. My interest wasn't piqued by the character in the beginning, and I didn't really have much in the
way motivation to continue on to see if there was any character development.

And yes this is a few days late. This was supposed to be up at the end of June, but I kind of forgot.

April DNF

Let's be honest- there is no way that any of us love every book we read, and sometimes we're not going to finish them. I give a lot of books a go, and sometimes I find ones that i can't even power through, which leads to a meter-high did not finish pile every month (it also means I flagrantly overuse the library because I'm afraid of buying a book that I won't finish). I tend to only comment on books that I have finished, for obvious reasons, but I figured I would give a sample of the (aforementioned meter-high) did not finish pile. These are the books that I honestly couldn't finish for more reason that "I didn't have time":

The Vindico: I typically love books about juvenile and teenage criminal masterminds. I loved H.I.V.E., which has a very similar premise, but I just couldn't get into this one. I got about halfway though before calling it quits. I didn't much care for the characters, and it lacked something that I require in young criminal masterminds: a sense of humour. It didn't have that element of dark humour that I love in young criminal mastermind genera. Like in H.I.V.E., teens were snatched by a criminal organisation to train the next generation of law breakers. However, I saw nothing interesting or brilliant about these characters, and I gave up pretty quickly.






The Suburban Strange: I didn't get anywhere close to finishing this one- I didn't even get to the main plot points. From the beginning, the character of Celia annoyed me a lot. I found her very difficult to connect to at all and it didn't matter to me in the slightest what happened to her. I gave up about 60 pages in after she thought that two injuries in four days happening to two different girls was strange, while the fact that she was joining some strange group of people who seemed to be trying to be edgy and mysterious, but failed completely  wasn't at all odd. She didn't ask questions. She wasn't curious. All in all, she wasn't my type of character, and I actively disliked most of the others.







Pulse: Again, I did't care for the characters, and I didn't feel for the world. I found the premise promising, but it didn't really pan out for me. I promptly forgot the names of a lot of characters while reading, and they seemed shallow to me- not what I go for in a sci-fi/ fantasy (is there a word for the combo thereof? sci-fantasy?- I'm going to use sci-fantasy from now on). If you're going to give me a computer dependent world, give me a computer dependent world, make the hacking a big deal, make it seem spectacular, like hacking is actually something interesting that takes talent, otherwise I won't root for anyone to take down your totalitarian regime- it will seem as though anyone could do it. If you're going to give me a people willing giving up their freedom for convenience  give me someone with a strong opinion otherwise, give me someone to root for, or give me the sense that they will develop an opinion that I can care about. I didn't get to the whole "Pulse" thing, I was done by the time the "mysterious new guy" entered the scene. The whole world felt sort of tedious.



Etiquette and Espionage: (note: I have not read the Parasol Protectorate books) This was too many things for me- steampunk and magic and assassins. I sort of went into it hoping that the steampunk aspect would be subtle, and it would have a focus on Victorian girls being trained as assassins. I wasn't expecting the magic bit at all, and that really put me off- along with the fact the steampunk was brutally in my face. I would have liked to see the Victorian assassin training- the Victorian view of women was little better than the Victorian view of furniture  so women would make ideal assassins, spies and detectives (if you like the sound of the last ones, try The Agency by Y.S. Lee), because they could fade into the background. I also wasn't all that fond of the characters- Sophronia was a little bit too much the cliched female lead. I got about 70 pages in before I gave this one up as not for me.












Now. I know people who read this are probably going to have some strong words for me. I would like to hear (well, read them) them, provided you attack the idea, not the person, and are respectful. Thanks.