All the books I DNF’d in 2022 

So many... :D

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I was laughing at how horrible it was, actually. I cannot believe she also wrote Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I absolutely loved. I think she's a one-off author for me as I DNF'd that awful Daisy Jones book too. lol.

The inheritance games, blindness, finale (last book in caraval series)

Wish I DNFed far more, but the most recent one was The Push. Just, no, absolutely not for me)

The devil house, and we need to talk about Kevin

I get some many people commenting that “it’s fiction” as if that doesn’t mean the author chose every word 🙄 They’re just not good enough to develop a dark world without every female character being SAed

@@BookswithEmilyFox Yeah, not to mention how many of them simply can't write a good female character at all. They exist to either be a sexy lamp that loves the male mc, or for something terrible to happen to her so the male mc can have motivation - sometimes both. People say "its fiction" as if its suddenly incapable of being criticised.

I think that's the most frustrating part. You can enjoy a book even if it has sexism/is sexist but arguing that it's not when it objectively is... euh.

Also a Pole here. I read the Witcher, though the last two books were a chore that I put off for two years, but to me the most annoying thing about the series is how dull it is. Not much happens, the characters aren't really great. The only two I found really interesting, Cahir and Emhyr, were underdeveloped. I get that Sapkowski wanted the big reveal for Emhyr at the end, but he still could've given us something. The way Emhyr just gave up when he got what he wanted felt bizzare, especially when almost everyone died just for Geralt to "win" because of Emhyr's boredom? conscience? temporary instanity? Also the random changes of narration style irritated me more than they should've. It's puzzling to me why Witcher's fans praise Sapkowski for his sex scenes, when they are barely there, especially in the novels. Mainly Yen whimpering for a bit. 80s halequins had better sex scenes. And don't get me started on Ciri falling in love with her rapist. But the defense of sexism is always that the sorceresses are the ones in power, ignoring the fact that they barely accomplish anything by themselves except for sending one of their own to be Geralt's stand in for Yennefer to try and manipulate him with sex. Or that sexism is pretty much going to be a thing in every real or made up world ever because. And why the hell does no one mention the very open ending? Grzędowicz is regularly criticised for how he wrote Pan Lodowego Ogrodu's ending but to me it's decently closed, especially compared to the Witcher. Also, that whole vampire "overindulgence" is just alcoholism with blood - how exactly is it genious writing? But try to say otherwise and you'll hear more often than not that you're just too young or dumb to understand what Sapkowski's writing about. Sorry for the rant, I just really hate the fact that I wasted time on 7 books that barely had any plot, where "good" guys "win" because the baddie has a change of heart.

Also, there are some very brutal scenes in 'The Shining'. It was disgusting to me.

Exactly! That's why I like to do these end of the year "DNFs" to show it's a good thing!

Yes exactly! I’ve really started to dnf books in the last 2 months due to this outlook. There has not been a single book that I was happy I finished when I got the urge to dnf it. I use to force myself to finish books. Now if I’m 50-60% and it’s still not peaking my interest, I stop reading and find another book.

Because the cost of books...... And living in Quebec, public libraries don't keep a lot of english books. So I have to buy them. When I DNF, I feel i've wasted my money. I didn't read anything in the last year because of that... So afraid of wasting my time and money.... especially my money.

You can use the BanQ. Plenty of english books from your phone with the app Libby!

I think I need to follow this advice next year! Books I want to DNF always put me into a reading slump but I always finish books anyway :(

What subgenre?

@@riankoch9126 The LitRPG subgenre. Basically I looked into it when I ran out of magical school books, and found out about this subgenre with game-like worlds and quantified progress. Since I had Kindle Unlimited at the time, I tried and dropped a lot of those books. The main issue was that most of them were very poorly written, using the base templates and story structures of the subgenre to cover for bad writing. I dropped 80% of those that I tried, and dropped the genre entirely after that year, so 2020 has a random spike of that subgenre in my read books that vanishes in 2021 and 2022.

I did do one about where to start with my fav authors: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zvyTb4yfPgg.html I actually mention how this isn't the one I'd recommend even if it's my favorite!

Oh! Although I binged all of your videos, I think I missed that one 🙈

Same about "to be taught if fortunate".. it's the first book I read by her and I also read it because it's Emily's fave 😅 I almost dnf'd it but eventually finished.. all in all I think it's a good book but for some reason it was a struggle to finish.

I was shocked too! That's why I tried it twice but I couldn't do it :/

@@BookswithEmilyFox I’ve got a review coming up on my channel of the sequel “Bloody Rose” which I actually thought was better. I liked the character interaction more with the 2nd one. Always about characters with me.

I liked the Book of Ivy books too.

I read "convenient store woman" and I thought I was going to like the book based on the first half but hated the second half... giving her another chance

It should be up on the 20th ;)

It's so popular but I couldn't get into it :/

I only end up doing one vlog a year (2022: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-984tymVBuU0.html) so that summarizes it :)

@@BookswithEmilyFox LOL your reply had disappeared twice and i thought i was hallucinating 😂

I don't understand what's happening :/

Thank you! It's definitely not for everyone. I liked it but I wasn't in love with it as much as everyone who raves about it

Thanks I'll check it out!

I've been meaning to try more books by her and I have that on my shelf... need to get to it!

I haven't watched/read this one! I need to

I couldn't get into it at all. It might have been a timing thing :/

I listened to it as an audiobook and ended up buying the physical copy because it was so good. I was hoping the hulu tv show would be okay, but it's nothing compared to the book. The details of the story are bonkers!

The shadow of the god almost lost me mid point but the ending was good if it helps :)

@@BookswithEmilyFox I'll continue and we'll see, the part I am now is actually interesting.

I was going to suggest that as well. It is excellent! It gave me everything I'm always searching for in a book about modern witches. Plus the social commentary was excellent.

Funnily enough, I got this recommendation a few times so I have it in my cart at Indigo lol

Same! 😅 I think that’s the only book Emily and I have such opposite opinions on haha

I'll have to check it out!

I always try to get it from the library if I can! They mostly have recent books so I try to find other older ones at secondhand book stores. And buy some new from authors I already love when they come out and I don't want to wait!

It sounded so fun :(

@@BookswithEmilyFox it did! I’ve tried so many books this year that sounded fun and wound up being super problematic. You hate to see it :(

www.goodreads.com/review/show/4530425862?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Yes! Like everyone raves about the world building and the whole time I was like "what worldbuilding"??? I'm guessing it gets better for that during the series but I won't find out XD

Oh gosh that book is on my questionable book shelf

Rereading books you read as a kid can be shocking with the sexism! It wasn't "that bad' but it just goes to show how we absorb it as if it's normal. I'm hoping it will be impactful even for an adult when I give it a second chance!

Bunny was... weird. The premise had a lot of potential but it didn't really realize it

I soft dnfed that at 33% then went back to it and listened to the rest and flew through it

Oh wow, that's one of my next audiobook!

@@bewitchedbecs I should try the audiobook!

Sometimes the books are not good as audiobooks too but idk if I'll give it a second chance

I also DNF’d that book this year and I ALSO tried it on audio. 😂

Everyone in the comments is really good at letting me know and warning me! I'm mostly disappointed that I rarely hear other youtubers mention how sexist some of these popular fantasy books are :/ Edit: Also the tv show wasn't that bad so it was hard to see it coming lol

@@BookswithEmilyFox I read The Last Wish when the TV show was announced. I hated it enough that it took me two years to give it another chance. When I liked the show I tried again. The second book is just as bad. I would have encouraged you to start with the Blood of Elves, because there was a small chance you would have liked it. After the first two the misogyny and SA get toned waaaay down, it's still there and probably would have been too much but there was a chance. PS I'm told most people aren't fans because of the books, apparently the video games are 100 times better.

I'll definitely try that one since it's on my shelf!

Did you end up finishing it?

@@BookswithEmilyFox yeah, but it was so long ago I dont remember anything but "this was a bad book and not at all the vibe that I thought it was gonna have" lol

I'm clearly making a joke. Understanding someone's tone is important.

@@BookswithEmilyFox so sorry! I forgot to put laughter emoji in there so my mistake! Did not mean any harm and sorry!!!! Keep up the good work and I love your channel!

I’m helpfully explaining a term people might’ve heard and not understood. It’s not that deep.