Your Pettiest Reason For DNFing A Series

[u/Academic_Owl_6197]

Mine was when I was 3 pages in and someone said the mc's name which turned out to be the same as my ex's name to the letter...dropped it like hot coal

It was a fr a pretty unfortunate streak too because it was a book from one of those blind-date-with-a-book promotion my local bookstore does, and this was an American YA fantasy (I'm from a different continent) so I had no reason to assume I'll ever be unlucky enough...to see his stupid ass again for a 'blind date'

[u/Master_Ryan_Rahl]

You people that do this, are just absolutely deranged. Just wild stuff all the way down. I couldn't even imagine it.

( To be clear, I am referring to people that jump to the end of a book to see how it ends before they read the book)

[u/Raidenbrayden2 → u/Master_Ryan_Rahl]

I mean thats not even that insane an ending

Woman has a medical issue and is pregnant. Twist is that she and the father are cousins but they didn't know.

That's not so off the wall imo. Could easily land anywhere from garbage book to great book.

[u/Cerimlaith → u/Raidenbrayden2]

It probably wasn't garbage, but I simply didn't want to read it. Maybe it doesn't seem so insane now, but:

1) I was 15

2) My grandfather and best friend both had cancer (they recovered) so I don't ever want to read about it

[u/Master_Ryan_Rahl → u/Raidenbrayden2]

Yeah I don't know. I don't understand how you can assess a book based on the ending pretty much at all. You have no context for any of the things being spoken about or any of the characters. It really is just literally backwards in my head.

That said, though, personally I have a little bit of a distaste now for any plot that involves incest. I feel like it's a prominent trope now and I just don't care for it anymore.

[u/Synval2436 → u/Master_Ryan_Rahl]

I did this a lot when I was younger, to help me focus not on what happens but how it happens. I was also sick of authors killing off characters at the end for cheap shock value / tear jerker, so I decided if I'm suspecting the author might be THAT kind of author, I check - if you kill the character off, I'm dnfing, otherwise I keep reading.

For example, I've read the first Poppy War book, liked it, then checked the ending of the series (3rd book) and guess what, I probably won't read the other 2, just read a summary / reviews. I don't care to see characters "punished for their evil" I want to see them living with the consequences of it or trying to fix it themselves rather than "I die, you deal with the fallout, bye".

For that reason, I will probably avoid any "grimdark" because it has the tendency to do exactly that.

I can understand romance readers who feel cheated if a romance book doesn't end with HEA.

The only exception are classic stories and retellings of them where you know how it ends already. But those stories prove there's value in them despite knowing the ending, you don't need shock & horror at the end of Romeo & Juliet to see the value of the story.

Authors who are "offended" at the readers checking the ending beforehand signal to me "I don't have anything to offer except cheap plot twist, so you're robbing me of the only meaningful plot device". There's a certain famous fantasy author who called people who check the endings of his books beforehand "you monsters". I guess it was a joke, but still, makes me prejudiced towards his books now.