Some times, for different reasons, as a reviewer, I’m unable to finish a review title. Thus, it gets added to the Did Not Finish (DNF) pile. I personally have a label on Goodreads for this, indicating that I tried but ultimately failed to finish.
There has been some debate as to the worthiness of the DNF review. Does it hurt the author or narrator when we label a work DNF? Some review sites only post positive reviews; I’ve heard reviewers talk about the criticism they receive because all their reviews are 4 and 5 stars. One claimed that was because she only read those books she knew she would like; she didn’t waste time on duds.
In the past, I’ve been apathetic to this issue. I discovered the answer to this the other day at the library where I work. I had a patron come in looking for something new to read and I recommended Patricia Cornwell. I had told her she would enjoy it because most people complained of the detailed and often graphic autopsy elements. This patron enjoyed that type of extraneous information and grisliness and immediately snapped it up.
It dawned on me then, that one person’s complaint could be another’s resolution. So between talking about DNF books for certain reasons or not talking about them at all, we could be missing out on making another type of recommendations to our readers.
I’m not saying I just randomly DNF a book. I attempt it for a bit then explain in great detail why a book did/did not work for me. In print, I give it the first few paragraphs. If the story or characters don’t capture my interest, I’ll set it down, either to come back to it when I’m in a different mood or because there’s no way I’ll be finishing it. (Although I’ve learned to never say never. It took me five years but I FINALLY managed to get through Fifty Shades of Grey. Coincidentally, my initial impression didn’t alter after finishing. I’m not sure whether I’m proud or ashamed that I made myself finish the series.)
In audiobooks, I usually give it an hour – time for the narrator to get into a rhythm and for me to judge the voices for the main characters. Secondary characters can sound bad; I’m not listening to the romance for them. If the hero and heroine voices don’t appeal to me, that’s a deal breaker. I’m a character-driven reader; if the couple sounds like something out of the Chipmunks or acts like a member of the cast of TSTL club, I’m going to pass. An hour isn’t much time, true, but in a bad production that is 45 minutes too long.
Take Sharon Hamilton’s Accidental SEAL in audio: I had watched a video interview where the author talked to the narrator and I was intrigued enough to request it for review. However, an hour into the book I had to stop, not because the narration was bad but because the writing was flowery and filled with descriptions that made my somewhat feminist heart cringe. That’s on me; it’s not a reflection of the author or the narrator but my preferences when it comes to romance. If you like your romance with an over the top, Alpha hero and writing that is very descriptive and purple, I would say try it out. Occasionally, I do (Stephanie Laurens, anyone?) but more out of a sense of nostalgia than enjoyment.
Anne Flosnik is a narrator who I listened to despite a bad review. Several readers in the Romance Audiobooks group on Goodreads dislike her performances, usually citing the way of speaking she uses for her characters. Personally, I have no problem with her speech and have come to add her to my preferred narrator list.
Stephen King wrote in his writing memoir On Writing: “Someone – I can’t remember who, for the life of me – once wrote that all novels are really letters aimed at one person. As it happens, I believe this.” (On Writing, p. 216) Not every book works for every person. Some books speak to others more than they do me. Same for narrators. Perhaps it’s not that you didn’t finish the book because you didn’t want to, it just wasn’t intended for you.
What about you? Do you think DNF hurts or helps? Do you ever not finish a book?
Diana
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Thanks for the new perspective. I often feel bad about those DNFs. The same can be applied for lower ratings too.
It’s true – some person has put themselves out there, sharing his or her work with the world, and we the public pass judgement, not always nicely. I try to remind myself that my judgement isn’t really FOR the author/narrator, but for other readers like myself. I’m not passing judgement on the author/narrator as a person, but the writing/performance.
When I read Amazon reviews, I try to read a few 5 star and a few 1 star reviews to see if I can determine whether there are elements that I might like or dislike in spite of the reviews.
I DNF quite rarely when I have a review copy of a book or audiobook because I think that anyone who is looking to spend money on a product and reads reviews in order to spend that money well deserves an honest opinion from people like us. That abominable audiobook of Happily Bedded Bliss I reviewed recently is a case in point; the narration was so awful that had it been a personal copy, I’d have returned it. But I persevered because anyone considering purchasing it deserved to know how awful it was. (The reviews at Audible are also negative about the narrator). It’s the same with books – and on the rare occasions I have DNFed a review copy, I am always careful to explain why, although I’ve usually given them a bit longer than the first few pages.
But it’s a tricky thing because there are always those who will whine “how can you make a judgement when you didn’t finish it?” The answer is, of course, as you’ve said, that you can normally tell quite quickly if something is working for you or not and explain why.
I think if the grade is DNF, then your judgement is you couldn’t [stand to] finish it. If a review says DNF and why, then I feel like the reviewer has done her job. On the books I’ve DNFed, I’m pretty sure suffering to the end – as you did with Bliss – wouldn’t have changed my mind, and would have garnered not DNF but D or F. I have suffered to the end of a few books that stole precious hours from my life! To the point of only publishing A/B reviews, there were probably several books DNFed by that reviewer that just didn’t get a posted review. It’s not that much different from just not requesting certain authors/narrators – you won’t see a review of those either, and a silent judgement of worthiness has been made in the absence.
On review blogs, it’s possible to take the time to present the justification for DNF and not give a regular rating (A-F or 1-5 stars). I guess DNF reviews don’t work as well on retail sites like Amazon because you are required to give a star rating, and if you DNF, you would probably choose 1 or maybe 2 stars, which affects the overall site rating. Does Goodreads have a DNF category? This is where people can whine about fairness, I suppose. Maybe commercial sites should add a DNF rating that isn’t factored in to the overall star rating – actually, that has the potential to really give you a better idea of the popularity of the book!
There’s no question we try to avoid DNFs simply by making review choices we have some hope of being able to be positive about – ultimately none of us has time to waste on something terrible. Sometimes, though, something is SO awful that I slog through it – principally so I can tell others to steer clear without being told my opinion I invalid because I didn’t finish it! Writing the reviews that tell it like it is is my way of ‘rewarding myself’ for the slog. If I stuck with something so no-one else has to, I’m going to make damn sure all my hard work weren’t in vain fer nuthin’.
I do DNF books, but I usually push myself to try and finish, I always think it will get better. Quite frankly, I don’t trust those sites that give all 4 and 5’s. I also don’t believe the response that one reviewer only picks books she knows she’s going to like. I love certain authors like Charlaine Harris (I have read literally EVERYTHING she has ever had published), but I hated her stand alone novel about a psychic (that should have been a DNF) and really disliked her Harper Connelly series (why I read the second and third book I don’t know).
When I write a DNF review I try to explain why it didn’t work for me and indicate where I finally gave up.
That’s funny because, like you, I also hold out hope that it will get better when a book is annoying me! And I’ve gone on to read sequels and other works by some author, thinking the same thing. Surely, I think to myself, there must be something coming up that will change my mind! Alas, this is often not the case. I’m more likely to just not Go There (the Silent DNS – Did Not Start) on some plots – genres – authors – narrators. I would say our reviews here at AG tend to be at least C/Average and probably more A/B than is realistic or reflects all books, because we don’t review all books.
I have to say I feel sorry for reviewers who feel they must finish a real clunker, like the above mentioned Bliss. When it’s bad, it’s bad, and an explanation of why it doesn’t work after an honest effort is all that’s needed. I’d certainly rather have that opinion than have all comments withheld!
Personally, I have no problem DNFing a book. There’s too much to read and life is too short if I’m sure something is not going to work for me. However, I’ve recently added a new category to my Calibre tags and that is DNF Try Again. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood but I know it’s me, not the book, so I figure it’s worth a try later. Since I’m not a reviewer I have this luxury!
When I’m reviewing a book, I try hard to finish it. There have been a few times when it simply wasn’t possible though. Personally, I think we should be honest when reviewing. If something didn’t work for a reviewer, I’d rather them just say that and explain why it didn’t work. DNF reviews can be quite useful, I think.
So many on target comments here! Yes, we all have DNFs out there, and I appreciate info as to why they were were relegated to that category. Bad narration? Non-likable or ‘perfect’ hero and heroine? Ridiculous dialogue? Implausible storyline? Maybe it concentrates on a field (i.e. gardening) or location (Mars) that is not your cup of tea. The info on why you DNF’d provides clarification. Your DNF might be someone else’s cup of tea (someone who likes an implausible story about gardening on Mars with ridiculous dialogue, with a perfect hero and heroine). One man’s trash is another man’s treasure…
I DNF books occasionally. As to whether I review them, it depends how far into the book I’ve gotten. If I’ve only tried a chapter or less, I figure it’s my reading mood and consider going back to the book another time. (The fact that I mostly don’t is more to do with the size of my TBR of Doom and my attraction to the shiny than anything else.) But, if I’ve read more than 30% in and I am stopping because I actively dislike something, then I will review it. There’s a difference between “I’m not in the mood for an angsty read today” and “I cannot stand this hero and his behaviour is so terrible I don’t even care if he’s ever redeemed and I actively do not want him to have a happy ending.” (for example. – and yes, that was a real book. LOL)
Reviews are just one person’s opinion and what works for me may well not work for someone else and vice versa. What happens is that readers gravitate to reviewers with similar tastes (or completely opposite tastes) – so those readers get a feel for whether they might love or loathe a book as well. If a reader is kept away from a book that they will likely hate, I don’t see that as a disservice to an author. The reverse actually.
The way I see it, the reviewer’s job is to explain what did and didn’t work for them and why sufficiently well that a reader of the review can decide whether those things are bugs or features. For instance: those 2 star reviews which say: “too much sex!” – One. Click.
TL;DR Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy!
I am happy to see books that reviewers can’t finish. I want to know why and then judge for my self whether I want to try the book. Like Diana I did not finish the 50 Shades trilogy I was bored and flat out didn’t care what happened to this couple so left them to it mid way through the third book. Please do post your DNF reviews I believe there’s real value them. Thanks for the great work all of you do!
I agree with Jane A – life’s too short to read bad books. I’m a little pickier than most — I won’t finish anything less than a four, and I’m mainly interested in suggestions of books I might like when I read reviews, not the ones to avoid. Though thank god there are the reviews that tell me to avoid something that might have caught my interest.
I just DNF a book by my favorite author from one of her many golden periods. It was one I never read because the reviews were so negative (asshat hero) but I usually like her alpha males. I got halfway through, the hero said one jerky thing too many and I turned it off. Can’t say I wasn’t warned.
I even DNF one of my own — and now I can’t remember the title! Something Lake. The book itself was okay, but not one of my favorites, but the reader was so awful I couldn’t get through it.
And one of my very favorites, BLACK ICE, is a DNF because of the reader. Such a drag.
Mostly my narrators are wonderful and they make even weaker books better. But I get very grumpy when I’m stuck reading a book that doesn’t work for me – I’m not sure why.
I get grumpy about books that don’t work for me, especially if I’m looking forward to it, because…I was looking forward to it! I also get very grumpy when a narrator does a bad job narrating a book I love. I can get pretty crabby about that. :)
It must be especially painful to have a bad narrator on one of your own books!
I really appreciate a good DNF review. The ones that say only DNF are as useless to me as the 5 star reviews that say only “buy this book, you’ll love it”, or some version of that. I would so much appreciate it if Audible would make it possible to easily access the one star reviews the way Amazon allows. I usually check out the one and two star reviews first to see what people hated about a book and why. Of course any review at whatever rating that does goes into detail about what the reader liked and didn’t like is so helpful.
I’m also not someone who dislikes ‘spoilers’. In a bookstore, I will often flip through a book and even look at the last chapter to make sure that I’m not going to end up with some stupid ending, or an author who kills off characters because they can’t figure out what else to do with their plot. So I read every spoiler I can get a hold of when I’m reading reviews. I don’t mind knowing bits of the story ahead of time; if it’s well written and well plotted, it is a pleasure to read anyway.
When I write reviews, I try to pay attention to my mood, as some other commenters have noted. Sometimes it’s just the wrong book at the wrong time. Sometimes it’s just not my style. If a book is well-written and I have read it (or mostly read it), I think it has to be valuable to others to be alerted to what the book is like. (As in the too flowery or too verbose or too raunchy, or…) As long as I don’t condemn a well-written book out of hand, I think the heads-up is useful and it will keep later readers from handing out low ratings to books that they shouldn’t have read in the first place. I don’t give out one and two stars reviews for books that are well done but just not what I’m wanting to be reading at the time. I am human, though, and I don’t give a 5 star review to even the best book if I hated it, no matter how well-written. I just try to be as honest as I can be about what didn’t work for me.
One of my pet peeves is how really bad quite a few narrators are. There are the readers who mispronounce words all of the time, or put the emphasis in the wrong place so you’re always trying to figure out what the sentence meant. But there are decent readers who decide to put on a really ‘sexy’ voice to read romances (I have one quite popular one in mind) who I cannot stand. I do think that a good book doesn’t need that much help. I love other readers/listeners who warn me off of books that would be an automatic buy except for being read so poorly. I have an unfortunate number of DNFs in my audio book collection.
So, I’m voting for honesty and fairness, including DNFs; let’s help each other to the books we really want to be reading/listening to.
Very interesting editorial and responses. I admit I have posted (on Audible) a few DNF reviews, and haven’t marked them as such. I’ll be more careful now. I always try to be explicit about what I liked or disliked in a book, and I would never post a DNF review of a book that I didn’t finish simply because it wasn’t my taste or I had some nebulous “I didn’t like it” response.
I agree about being more “vicious” about bad narration, particularly when it ruins a good book, and particularly when the same really poor narrator does multiple books. There are some people who simply should not be doing the job, and the people who hire them should have the information needed so they don’t hire them again. Again, I try to be explicit about WHY their work fails–I’m not talking about individual taste. There are several fine and accomplished narrators whose voices simply don’t resonate with me, and I would never give them a bad review based on such a personal reaction.
I think it’s great the internet allows “we the people” to express our opinions about books (but possibly not about politics or religion :-). I always read a spectrum of the reviews on Audible, Amazon, and Goodreads. I can weigh an informating negative review in with the informative good ones, and I appreciate sensible negativity.