I Just Couldn't Get Through It – July

When I was younger I used to think I had to read every book I picked up from beginning to end. Even now I have this urge to push through a novel, no matter how much I dislike it or not. But with a “to read list” that reaches into the hundreds, I had to admit, if I didn't like it I should just stop. However, since I don't review books that I don't finish, that left me with the conundrum. How could I let my readers know? This monthly post is going to be my answer to that question. I will list any books I Just Couldn't Finish and tell why this was. It isn't exactly a review, but it's better than giving a book a 0/5 when I didn't actually finish it.

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

I really had high hopes for this novel. I loved her Sookie Stackhouse series and I really wanted to find enjoyment in this series too. However, it was just not the same. The narration, third person omniscient, was hard to get into. The story line and plot start out slow...and stay slow. Nothing really happens. I was almost 60 pages into the book and still I felt like there was no plot. Okay, yes there was a little beginning of something beginning to creep into realization, but it was just kind of uninteresting, enough where I didn't mind not following it to fruition. I'm sure there will be fans who actually do like this book, but I won't be one of them.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

When I first started this series, I came into it with high expectations, which is always a bad move. I had heard a lot about it, from readers and authors I respected. However, it was overall a disappointment. I found that with Divergent I was taken initially with the world building, but not much else. My interest declined from there. The plot of the second felt sloppy and by the end I was annoyed with the built up tension of a plot reveal that really wasn't that interesting or groundbreaking. (Comments on the first two can be found here and here). When I started Alligeant the first thing I noticed was the plot didn't get any better and the main character was driving me nuts with deluge of negative thoughts about killing her best friend (a misguided plot point if I ever saw one. I mean she made a clear conscious choice to not shoot her enemies to death but then she just shoots her friend in the head? What?) That would have been enough to turn me off of the story, but I began to hear about a general consensus of disappointment for this third installment, and that decided me. I didn't find it worth my time to try and slog through it anymore.

In the After by Demitria Lunetta

Initially I was interested in this story from reading the inside cover: cool post-apocalyptic type story with a government conspiracy type tinge, what's not to love? A lot as it so happens. I got about 40 pages into this book and I was still stuck in exaggerated exposition and flash back. It wasn't even very good exposition either. Rule of thumb, flash backs are bad. Figure out where you want to start the story and then start it there, none of this 'I'm gonna be in the middle of something and then think about something in excruciating detail from start to finish'. The other major problem I had with this story was that it had major plot holes already. Specifically, the creatures that attack the world are described as mindless zombie like things that eat people savagely, but are expected to be smart enough to man a ship that comes to earth? It all felt a little farfetched. If this wasn't enough, it seemed like the author was trying a little too hard to sound YA. In other words, the character sounded young and dumb, and not in a good way. It all added up to me realizing really quickly that this wasn't a book I wanted to read.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Tris and Tobias stopped the simulation. But in the aftermath of it's destruction it becomes very clear that it was only the tip of the iceberg. Dauntless is split down the middle, Abnegation is almost gone, the Euridite are far from finished with their experiments, and it's only getting worse. In a society tearing at the seams Tris struggles to find the truth when she can hardly face the facts herself. She doesn't know who to trust, and now Tobias isn't trusting her instincts either. Will they be able to save themselves before it's too late, or will the truth behind everything destroy them all?

Insurgent is book two in the Divergent trilogy by Roth that revolves around a futuristic society set in Chicago. 

I'm just going to jump right in today and say that there was a lot I didn't like about this book. I can say I got a better grasp of the characters in this one than the previous book (I almost had a semi emotional moment at one point, almost). However I still never quite understood what it was that kept Tris and Tobias together. The love they talk about having between them in the first book doesn't seem strong enough to fit the descriptions in this novel, and to make matters worse both of them travel through the story in a permanent state of non-communication. There is a lot of emphasis on Tris and Tobias not really knowing each other. To which I'm thinking, 'No you don't! There was no real mental development in your relationship to begin with!". I'm not going to say that having flawed characters is bad. Quite the contrary, it's good for the characters to be many faceted and realistic. Though I'm not going to say that it is a horrible flaw to have two of the main characters be annoying as heck, I wouldn't say it is the greatest asset either. I had a hard time getting into the book and getting through it because of this.

I would say the same thing I said about the first one. I really liked the setting, the tone, the world that was created. That was all done very well. Plot was interesting and kept me pulled in once it got going, however I feel like the big reveal at the end was puffed up more than was actually warranted. From a storytelling point of view, it might have been wiser to spend less time building it up and rather just take us by surprise at the end. Leaving clues is good. It's never wise to trick a reader. But it isn't good to get expectations high only to disappoint. 

Perhaps I'm being too harsh on it because there has been so much hype about the stories that I just expected more from it. I do intend to finish the series, but I feel I will remain one of the few with the unpopular opinion that the series wasn't the most amazing thing I've ever read, though neither was it the worst.