4 Books I Couldn’t Bring Myself to Finish (including Six of Crows… I know, I know)

I’ve been putting books down left and right these days. It seems to be very hard for a book to wow me any more.

But these days I’m very quick to put down a book if it’s not grabbing me or if I’m not totally hooked. Life is too short to read books you don’t love, especially when there are so many others out there that might totally grab you in (like Outlander—that’s currently rocking my world!!).

Here are four books that I had to stop reading because they didn’t hold my interest for one reason or another:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Goodreads

Stopped reading at 30%

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

I know a few other people who didn’t finish Six of Crows or at least weren’t crazy about it, so hopefully I won’t get murdered here by die hard fans!

As I was reading the book, I felt like objectively it was good and interesting, but it just didn’t click with me AT ALL. I was bored to tears. I was forcing myself to get through every single paragraph.

I had no emotional connection to any of the characters or events. It’s like I was just reading words on a page and I HATE that feeling.

I’ve seen other bloggers say that it picked up at the end, but if I’m being honest then I had zero desire to even get to that point. I just couldn’t do it!

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Goodreads

Stopped reading after like 10 pages *cough*

Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn’t expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during high school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one’s peers and families.

But now they’re both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who’s working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention into the changing global climate. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world’s magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s every-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together–to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.

A deeply magical, darkly funny examination of life, love, and the apocalypse.

All the Birds in the Sky was just purely a case of not for me. I only got through like 10 pages (if that) before realizing that this book and I were not a match. The writing style immediately turned me off. It was very… artsy, I guess? I mean, I thought it was just plain weird, but I think that’s because it wasn’t a style that I personally can appreciate.

But if you like books that are written in a strange, artsy, non-standard way, then by all means give it a shot.

The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

Goodreads

Stopped reading after like 10 pages *cough*

Wilhelmina has a hundred identities

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others

Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world.

The Orphan Queen is actually one that I’m considering picking up again at a later time. I think maybe I wasn’t in the right mood for it or something.

I started reading and nothing gripped me. I like to be pulled in IMMEDIATELY and that wasn’t the case here. I think I just got impatient and that’s why I put the book down.

If you’ve read The Orphan Queen, let me know how you liked it!

The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Goodreads

Stopped reading at 19%

Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To:
– find the liquor cabinet blindfolded
– need a liver transplant
– drive his car into a house

Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To:
– well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.

For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.

Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.

And Alice is caught in the middle.

Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this return to the world of My Life Next Door is a story about failing first, trying again, and having to decide whether to risk it all once more.

The Boy Most Likely To is actually a book that I was hoping would pull me out of a reading slump… so much for that. 🙁

I think after a while I realized I was trying to force myself to like the book. But in reality, I wasn’t hooked. I wasn’t invested. I wasn’t attached to the characters. And I just flat out got bored.

I think I made the right decision (for me!) in putting this book down. Afterwards I read through a few other bloggers’ reviews and they all confirmed that the romance is VERY slow. The main reason I picked this book up was because I wanted a juicy romance, but apparently that’s not really what the book is about.

Wrong book at the wrong time.

Have you read any of these books?

Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of them!