DNF’s of 2022 – Most Disappointing Reads of 2022

In 2021, I made a “Most Disappointing Reads of 2021” list – this year, I decided to start keeping serious track of books I’m DNF-ing (did not finish) – on Goodreads, to add to my DNF shelf, I remove the “date read” so I’ve started writing it into my Goodreads reviews so I’ll know when I DNF.

I started this post back in January 2022 and now that it’s December 29th, 2022, I feel like it’s time to share! I don’t know if this will be of interest to anyone but me, but I’m listing books I DNF by month and at what percentage I stopped reading them.

Life is too short to keep reading books you aren’t enjoying and don’t care how it ends. One of my 2022 goals was to DNF books I know I’ll rate 1 or 2 stars and so far I’ve been happy with the books I’ve DNF-ed!

I DNF-ed a book at 79% and a book at 30%. It’s never too late or too early to DNF!

January

Cold The Night, Fast The Wolves – Audiobook – DNF @ 63%
The beginning of this book is incredibly slow and nothing feels like it really happens. If nothing happens in the first 50% of your book, I’m sorry but thats too long for me to care anymore.

The Reckless Kind – Audiobook – DNF @ 72%
I came here for the disabled and queer rep and left sorely disappointed. The rep? Fantastic! The story? Has zero plot. I’m 72% into this story and there is basically no plot. WHAT EVEN IS THE POINT?! If you’re here for characters going from point A to point B and doing daily life things, then sure, this story is great! But I’m here for a STORY. A PLOT. SOMETHING. ANYTHING!

Hot British Boyfriend – Audiobook – DNF @ 54%
This was a 2021 release I didn’t quite get to last year and I was eager to read, but once I started this I found the MC Ellie veryyyy annoying. This reads as a lower YA book. Sometimes I think YA romance might not be for me anymore, but I have read some recently that I enjoyed, so I do still enjoy the genre, this one was just not it.

February

The Monarchs – Audiobook – DNF @ 60%
I had a lot of fun reading The Ravens and was looking forward to more from these characters. However, its best to think of The Ravens as a standalone.

The characters feel like completely different people in this book. It’s like everything we learned about them in The Ravens went out the window. While that book was also predictable, it was still a lot of fun. This one is even more predictable and not even fun.

Wow, No Thank You. – Audiobook – DNF @ 39%
Me @ this book: Wow, no thank you.
Was this supposed to be funny? I chuckled at a few things but I found nothing about this humorous. It felt like reading my Twitter feed, honestly. Was it relatable? Yes, very much so – but I don’t need to read about things I also feel and see on a daily basis. This added nothing to my life.

March

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections – Audiobook – DNF @ 35%
If I wanted to hear a bunch of men tell a woman what she should be doing and how to be doing her job, I’d just watch the news.
This is so incredibly boring, and after reading other Goodreads reviews, I decided I’m not even going to bother going any further. This book isn’t for me.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess – Audiobook – DNF @ 50%
I found this book to be too slow for my tastes. The writing is beautiful. The atmosphere is beautiful. This isn’t a bad book by any means! I’m just not the right reader for it. I see so many 5 star reviews and I am genuinely happy this book has found its readers – as I always say, theres a book for every reader but not every book is for everyone.

April

A Magic Steeped in Poison – Audiobook – DNF @ 79%
The political aspect held no interest for me. It felt messy and unfinished. The romance in this is messy, if you can even call that romance (I really don’t).
I think the tea making magic aspect could’ve been focused on a lot more – its TALKED about a lot, but we don’t actually SEE it and when we do, its brief and such a letdown. I think the idea is super cool but was not executed well.

One For All – Audiobook – DNF @ 49%
I liked the idea of this one more than the actual execution of it.
I will say, I love the disability rep of POTS – that is not a chronic illness I knew much about before reading this and I think it was very well done and I’m glad that people with chronic illness can finally see themselves in an adventure story and that their illness does not define who they are.
That’s about where my praise for this book ends though. The writing bothered me so much – each sentence ended abruptly. The sentence then continued one. Even though it could have been on sentence. Describing the same thing. (Just like that. It pained me to even write like that!) It felt like it could have used a LOT more editing – it felt very early draft to me.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea – Audiobook – DNF @ 62%
This is another book where I think I’d love to watch a screen adaptation of it, but I have no desire to read about it. I see it compared to Spirited Away but while I loved that, I couldn’t picture any of this clearly and did not feel those Ghibli vibes.
I think my issue started with the beginning where Mina literally throws herself into the ocean on like, page 2, and there is no set up. Usually I’m ok with that but for this one it didn’t work for me. I listened to this via audiobook and maybe that impacted my feelings. Narrator was ok, but I wouldn’t recommend listening to this one.

May

Together We Burn – Audiobook – DNF @ 37%
This is my first time reading Isabel Ibañez and I had really hoped to enjoy this one but right from the beginning I felt this book wasn’t for me. I’m not a huge fan of books with dragons in them, so I was already off to a bad start.
Absolutely nothing about this book was holding my interest. I didn’t care about the plot, I didn’t care about the characters. I didn’t care that dragons were being forced to fight for money. Nothing about this interested me. There was also some aspect of politics, and thats usually not my jam.

June

Fool Me Once – Audiobook – DNF @ 62%
I remember I saw someone recommend this on Instagram and I wish I could remember who it was, because I will never be taking their recs again lol.
The 62% of this story I read made my skin crawl. I gave it a chance. I thought it might get better.
(Narrator: It did not get better.)
This story is wayyyy too political for me. I avoid political reads for a reason, and I certainly don’t want this much politics in my romance, no thank you. I mean hey, if thats your think, maybe you’ll like this! It’s about going green and renewable energy so its nothing bad but it was too intense for my liking, hence why I called it quits on this.

August

Lightlark – Audiobook – DNF @ 60%
I kept giving it a try but I’m 60% in and I could care less for all of these characters. Isla is ~not like other girls~ but that makes her feel exactly like other girls IDK. She is incredibly bland! There is nothing I could say that is good about her. I barely remember anyones names.
There was no world building. We were just supposed to go along with this magic system that made nooooo sense. Nothing was explained, even at 60% in.

November

The Shadows Between Us – Audiobook – DNF @ 30%
…did I read the same book as y’all? Because I could not STAND the main character, she was so infuriating and annoying.
This book felt like it was missing the first 3 chapters. It jumps right into the storyline and while I’m usually okay with that, I’m not sure why I should care about this girl or her bitchy attitude. She’s rude and intolerable right from the beginning. Do not compare her to my precious Jude Duarte, Jude has dimension to her and this girl does NOT.

And if I hear one more sentence about the clothing I’m going to rip the pages out. I do not care to know your outfit every single day down to the details and how everyone is going to copy you because you’re a special little snowflake. I’M OVER IT.

Do you DNF books? If not, why not?
If so, tell me your most recent DNF so I can know to avoid it too!



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