Earl Grey Books

Today is all about giving my soft DNFs another shot.

For me, a ‘soft DNF’ is a book I’ve read a bit of and then put down because I’m not in the mood for it or because it’s not grabbing me as much as I’d hoped. It’s going back onto my shelves in a weirdo limbo state where I might either read it in a few months or unhaul it. I do this a lot—I probably have ten others on my shelves right now just waiting to be finished.

But over the last month, I’ve been working on taking a few off my shelves that I started a long time ago and giving them another go. Here’s how that went…

Shielded (Shielded #1) by KayLynn Flanders

I tried this one last year, read the first 20 pages or so and then put it down. This time around I made it two chapters in before giving up. I really don’t enjoy the way this book starts—the first chapter feels like we’ve been dropped a few chapters in. There’s no introduction to the world or characters so when things happen in that first chapter, I didn’t care about it at all. There wasn’t anything that made me want to learn more about the world or characters either. Usually, I try and give a book a few chapters, but this one just felt like it would be a painful slog and since I’ve already tried it before, I figured it was time for it to go. I don’t count this as a DNF since I barely even started it, but I will be unhauling it.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

I wasn’t anticipating this, but here are with another DNF. I’ve tried reading this three times—the first two times I only made it to page 100 or so, but this time I made it 330 pages in. The start of this book is really interesting—I loved how it was set up and the alternating stories between Marian and Hadley. This time I even picked it up as an audiobook so I could push through and I really enjoyed that experience. Up until I didn’t. This is an almost 600-page book, a 25-hour audiobook and by the halfway point I just didn’t care anymore. Both Marian and Hadley’s stories had lost the excitement for me instead it just felt like a slog to get through. I understand why this is this huge, sweeping narrative but it just didn’t hold my attention and I’m sad that it didn’t because the whole premise was really interesting to me. After three tries I just have to admit I’ll never finish this. As per usual, I don’t give my DNFs a star rating.

Hunger by Roxane Gay

It felt really good to actually finish one of the ones on the list, though I was highly considering DNFing this at one point too. I’ve really liked Roxane Gay in the past, but I think I’m more interested in her work as an editor for essay collections and things like that. This was interesting and she’s undeniably a talented writer, but this is very much a hodgepodge of things. The ‘chapters’ are all really short—maybe five pages at most and there’s no real rhyme or reason as to why. I guess it does make for a quick read. While in theory everything is connected because she’s writing about her own life and experiences, it jumps around a lot and Gay is usually kind of vague but also simultaneously repeats herself often. I found this vagueness especially confusing around timelines and people and so there were quite a few moments where I was just lost. I think as a whole I would’ve enjoyed this more if it was just a little more organised because my brain just cannot keep up with this chaos.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Phew. Where do you even start with a book like this?

I guess by saying that this is immediately going on my favourites for the year. I’m writing this review maybe twenty minutes after finishing and I am literally shaking. I read a good 100 or so pages of this in 2021 or 2022 but put it down because I wasn’t in the right mental space. It’s definitely an intense and triggering read so I’m glad I didn’t push through it that first time but it was absolutely worth coming back to. I switched between listening to this on audio and reading my physical copy—the first 50% took me four or so days, and then the second half I read in a single sitting because I couldn’t bear to put it down. There are so many twists and turns in this book that are just perfectly executed. I think I picked maybe one thing from the mystery but everything else knocked me off my feet. I can’t think of the last book that shocked me as much as this one has. I loved Daunis and Jamie, the leading characters, but the supporting characters were just as fantastic. Daunis started to feel like a real person and with every awful thing that would happen, I would just feel for her more and more. She goes through so much and I just wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and keep her safe. As I said, the plot is intense but there’s also just a lot of complicated emotions in this book—there is so much grief and it is so raw. That was the most triggering element for me, but it was really well done. I cried probably about ten times at different points in the story, either out of feeling for Daunis or because the way Angeline Boulley writes complex emotions is so beautiful and honest that it hit me hard. I’m so glad I read this and I’m happy to give it my only 5-star rating for the year so far.

I’d originally planned to do a few more of these but after finishing Firekeeper’s Daughter, I just wanted to end this post on a high. Even though I only really enjoyed FD, I’m glad I got these all off my shelves so that I can dedicate my time to other things now!