I DNFd nine books in 2025, which is a rather high number for me! Here they are, in the order I DNFd them throughout the year (all covers are linked to Goodreads):
1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo
Genre: Classic
Release Year: 1831
Reason for DNF: Ran out of time on my library loan of the book, tried to listen to it on CD, discovered the CD was scratched, decided it just wasn't my time to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
2. The Highly Sensitive Person, by Elaine N. Aron
Genre: Nonfiction
Release Year: 1996
Reason for DNF: After reading Bad Therapy by Abigail Schrier, reading something to pin a label on myself seemed unhelpful and disingenuous. Plus it was boring.
3. Soulgazer, by Maggie Rapier
Genre: Romantasy
Release Year: 2025
Reason for DNF: Having to turn back to the pronunciation guide every page or two really took me out of the story. Plus I didn't care about the characters or the story, and Saiorse and Faolan's "romance" was just making me roll my eyes. It felt like the author was putting more effort into creating beautiful sentences than creating an understandable plot or complex characters.
4. Apples Never Fall, by Liane Moriarty
Genre: Mystery
Release Year: 2021
Reason for DNF: It was good, and I was enjoying the first disc (although the narrator's voice was grating on me a little bit and the CD was skipping here and there) until I realized that my library copy was missing disc 2. What good is an audiobook that's missing disc 2?! I didn't have time to fit the physical copy into my September reading lineup, so I DNFed this–for now. I'll definitely read the physical version at some point!
5. Dust, by Kara Swanson
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Year: 2020
Reason for DNF: If there’s that much backstory, the backstory should have been the first book. Two chapters in, I got sick of wading through the mysterious hints about whatever went wrong in Neverland. I just … didn’t care.
6. Warrior Princess Assassin, by Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: Romantasy
Release Year: 2025
Reason for DNF: I wasn't going to read this book. The title alone put me off. But then my husband took me to a local bookstore and I bought a signed copy. I mean, I've liked Brigid Kemmerer's YA fantasy, the book came out on my husband's and my anniversary, the cover was pretty, etc. But oh dear. There was not an original thought in the first chapter and a half. The entire first chapter was an info dump about the world interspersed with the main character alternately getting stuck by pins and looking out the window. None of the characters struck me as unique or worthy of spending an entire book with. Plus, the Goodreads blurb mentioned that the book was spicy and I don't like super spicy stuff.
7. Peter Darling, by Austin Chant
Genre: Fantasy
Release Year: 2017
Reason for DNF: I didn't realize until I got this out of the library and read the synopsis more thoroughly that it was not my cup of tea. I read the first chapter to confirm and then sent it back to the library.
8. Recovering Our Ancestors' Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness, by Devon A. Mihesuah
Genre: Nonfiction
Release Year: 2005
Reason for DNF: The subtitle really should have clued me in, but instead of being about, you know, indigenous gardens, this seemed to be more about diet and fitness. It read like my health coaching textbook. There were some recipes in the back, which I skimmed. I just felt like this book wasn't written for me.
9. A Harvest of Hearts, by Andrea Eames
Genre: Romantasy
Release Year: 2025
Reason for DNF: I was excited to read this because the blurb said it was "In the beloved tradition of Howl’s Moving Castle", which may just be my favorite book of all time. Imagine my disappointment, then, when it turned out to be extremely vulgar. Vulgarity, my friends, is not in the tradition of Howl's Moving Castle. (I mean, the ninth word in the book was "shite", which was repeated often after that. Really?!)
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