Every Sunday I find a new bookish topic to write about. Have an idea for a discussion post? Just leave a comment or email me at christinathebookreader@gmail.com
Today I want to talk about DNF reviews. What do you think about them? Do you hate it when people review a book after DNFing? Or do you like to know more?
I'm on the fence about DNFing. It very rarely happens that I DNF a book. It's stupid, I know. But here's what I'm like while reading a book I don't want to finish:
Oh, but what if it gets really good, and I'm going to miss the good part by stopping? And I'm just stopping in the middle of the book and now I have a stomach ache I HAVE to finish this book otherwise I think I might cry.
Yea, really. What's wrong with me? I get this nasty feeling when I consider DNFing that I just feel sick. Which is why I tend to completely avoid books that I'm not enthralled about. You can see why haha. I generally don't read many reviews before I read a book. I want to go in with an unbiased opinion, even if the book is surrounded by a lot of hype. But reviews that I tend to read are five starred and DNF reviews. I want to see why someone loved a book. And I want to know what made the stop reading. Is there almost no plot? Is it super slow? Does the main character annoy people? These are things I like to know before going in. A kind of "Should I actually read this book" as it were.
If I see a large number of DNFs, I'm not likely to read it myself. Simply negative reviews, I feel that I can make the judgement myself. But when 50% of the readers couldn't even finish the book, we have a problem.
I don't like writing DNF reviews. I feel bad writing them. The author worked hard to publish this book. But obviously something wasn't working for the target audience.
I could talk for a very long time about more thoughts on this. But I don't want to bore you. What are your thoughts on DNFing and DNF reviews?
