This time, I decided I will share with you my two cents on DNF reviews. Some people and bloggers are against these type of reviews (or at the very least, they don't participate in them), because how can you review something you never reached the "point" of? I am not among those.
I write DNF reviews - and when I write them, I do not review the book. I review the reasons I could not finish it. And I write them for several reasons.
The first is, I believe that if a person couldn't finish a book, it is equally important to share the reasons why as it is to explain what you loved/hated about a book you did finish. After all, as readers, we aspire to finish every story we start - so what went wrong?
The second is, this blog is first and foremost my home on the internet. My place to be me and share my opinions and thoughts. Everything I write here is strictly subjective. And I am someone who loves having opinions. I am someone who spent all her teen years stifling her opinions and thoughts and fading into the background. Being afraid to speak or voice them in fear someone will get hurt or look down at me because of them.
As such, I have spent the years after that trying to regain my voice. Trying to be comfortable enough with speaking up, first by gaining a group of friends who would hit me if I ever hid my opinions from them and who respected them no matter if they differed than their own, and by opening my first blog (and, consequently, this one). In fact, being able to freely share this information with you guys is, to me, an indication of how much I've changed and opened up.
As a person, I am an individual that basks in talking. I love ranting. The only way I find I can relieve myself of anger and frustration is if I talk about it. I rant and complain and grumble until the wind has been let out of my sails and it doesn't matter anymore.
Same goes with books.
If I read a story that I was disappointed in. That infuriated me. That bored me to death. That made me unable to finish it - the only way I can shake the bad energy is by speaking of it.
But don't worry - I don't review every book I DNF (same as I don't review every book I read). If I have nothing in particular to say about the book, if I don't have clear reasons for not finishing it, if it's a book that's simply not for me but I understand the love towards it, then I won't review it. In those cases, I usually leave a couple of words on GR, but nothing more than that.
If you don't like DNF reviews, that's alright. I guarantee every such review will be clearly marked in the title, so you could avoid them completely. But if those are to your tastes, you can expect them, and you can expect them to be rants. And... you can expect gifs. Lots of them.
I'm so glad you found a place where you can voice your opinions! I don't DNF a book a lot but when I do I try to write a decent review for it but I don't rate it. I just write down what wasn't working for me. And a nice thing was, for this one book the author commented on it but she was totally nice about it, basically saying that if it doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work for you. It's just your opinion. Okay, feel like I've been ranting now. lol
ReplyDeleteGreat post! :)
I try not to DNF too often, but at the same time I am no longer afraid of DNFing because my time can be better spent on some other book that will be more to my tastes, you know?
DeleteSometimes - I do rate a DNF book. Not often, but books I didn't finish can get one star rating from me if the reasons I finished it are that it angered me beyond the point of being able to endure it.
This happened to me as well! The lovely author told me she even agrees with what I said (it was one of her earlier works) and told me she was working on editing that book again and some of the things I talked about were actually going to be changed :)
You're not ranting! And even if you were, always feel free too ;)
I usually try to finish books even though I really want to DNF them, so I barely have books on my DNF list. However, I do have one post about my most recent DNF book. I talked about why it just wasn't for me and why I couldn't get past Chapter 10 anymore.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's really bad to review DNF books. It might even help other people get to know why he or she could hate the book him/herself before reading it.
Great post! :)
I understand you - I used to be the same. There's actually a post coming next month about how I never DNFed until I found Goodreads and started being exposed to *so many new books* that it came to the point there was too much temptation to not leave some books that weren't clicking for me when I have so much other stuff to read.
DeleteI completely agree! I think DNF reviews are crucial for potential readers. If someone has the same triggers like me, they can be warned in advance.
Thank you <3
Haha, I completely understand sweetie! I don't like to do it, but sometimes there's just absolutely NO way that I could possibly finish the book that I've been reading and I'm just like "this is garbage" and I quit reading it for MYSELF. Not for anyone else, lol. What's the point in finishing something you don't like? And as a blogger, of course you're going to write a DNF review, because you don't want the experience to be a total loss! I'm all for DNF reviews too, girly! :)
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, it hasn't been that hard to DNF in the last year. It's just that book blogging and goodreads has opened me up to so many books I'd never have found otherwise, that for every miss there is a hit waiting just around the corner and it'd be a shame to delay that for something that's just not working.
Delete<3
So glad to hear you agree!
ReplyDeleteI think the same. I think it says so much about a book that a person couldn't finish it, and now I want to know if his/her reasons are things that might bother me as well!