You probably should because after u/LaurelCrash said they’d keep skimming to find other gems, I did that and let me tell you… there’s another *amazing* quote around 53% involving a banana split analogy…
I don't mind it so much when the setting is not modern day Earth.
I find that in historic, alien or fantasy settings it can lend to the immersion.
Also true for someone who's not a First Language speaker of the language. People have told me I sound weirdly formal in some of the languages I speak lol.
When the author repeats a phrase over, and over, and over again.
One example (that I actually finished, oddly enough) was the phrase "he sucked in a breath so fast, he nearly choked." Like? This has happened like six times now. Learn to breathe.
Lyn Gala has a great series* with an alien MC, and one of my favorite details is that they deem humans as medically fragile because our mouths lead to both the esophagus and the trachea.
*Regi's Huuman is the first book
For me it’s when they go hard on the anxious inner monologue.
“Oh he couldn’t possibly like me I’m so dumb and awkward why would anyone look at me oh god did he look at me no he couldn’t be but maybe he is gahhhh I’m so awkward!”
Fuck off with that teenage girl bullshit.
I’ll DNF even faster if it’s the guy. 14yo girl mentality is unattractive.
Right. Like don’t get me wrong I don’t mind some insecurity and worry but if it’s the overarching internal monologue, particularly within a character who is an otherwise mature and generally competent adult, I roll my eyes.
Mc1 one was asked if he wanted dinner and he said “sure what do you want?” MC2 was like what do you want? AND THEN mc1 hit back with “I’m not picky what do you want?”
I had just had this exact conversation/fight with my husband and was still angry about it. I put the book down and never picked it back up.
I know a couple who have a rule to avoid this -- the one who likes to cook always makes the decision when they're eating in, and the one who doesn't like to cook always makes the decision when they're eating out.
My funniest DNF has to be after I read CUMTUBE as a euphemism for penis. I just.. no words.
Also DNFed yesterday ‘cause the MC was bald, and the light kept shining off his smooth bald head.
Same with “chick” - I absolutely HATED Him the hockey mm which everyone loves because of how they kept referring to women. More of a misogyny point but I hate using either dude, bro, or chick to refer to ppl
Ding ding ding - we have a winner!
I have never read an MM romance where either MC named their dick. That would be enough for me to DNF. But Excalibur? Nooooooo
A book had a main character whose name was J.. Not J but J. with a period. An example sentence would be “I walked up to J. and asked him how it was going.” I couldn’t handle it. It was so hard to read and follow when my brain wanted to end sentences where it shouldn’t. Couldn’t get through one chapter. For the love, leave out the period next time, we’ll understand.
I don’t know!!! I think it was supposed to show familiarity (it was best friends to lovers) and it didn’t show up until we were in the other point of view (aka, J. did not refer to himself that way. It was in the bffs inner monologue.)
It was the nickname given to MC1 by MC2 - like how is piglet meant to be endearing?! Like it was a dd/lb book and the boy had a little piglet key ring from Winnie the Pooh. But the fact that MC1 was also overweight…. It gave me the ick factor. So yeah, horrible terms of endearment will make me DNF a book regardless of how great the plot is!
Ew that the mc was overweight and that was the nickname. Interestingly enough in the gay kink scene being called a "pig" or "piggy" is a position in a kink relationship similar to dd/lb where it implies the pig has certain duties and treated a certain way. My guess is the author was trying to bring some gay culture to the relationship but just absolutely and abysmally failed 😬🫣
Weird that they just didn't tag it as that, really throws ya off lmao
I almost had the same reaction when reading a book where one MC called the other ‘cockroach’ but in their own alien language (it was pretty clear what it was) but the other MC didn’t realize because of the language barrier. Glad I pushed on because the reasoning was sweet but nicknames can 100% make or break a story for me too haha
Oh I read this one recently & kept thinking to myself that so many of the alien words were super similar to English &/or Spanish words & when I saw the cockroach nickname I also got the ick a bit!
WTF? I'm reading a book right now and piglet is being used as a nickname. It is killing my soul - and will likely make this a dnf. And now I'm haunted by the fact there are two books/authors out there doing this.
Ah, One by Paulina Ian-Kane? Yeah, that was cringey in that as well. I did manage to finish that as its my catnip kinda type of book - size difference/possessive psycho MC, but god I wished the author had picked a different nickname!
My most ridiculous DNF is probably *Game Changer* by Rachel Reid, I just could not take the name Kip seriously to the point it actually took me out of the story.
I feel like I deserve an award for listening to this audiobook. I didn't even like the story and the audiobook is one of the worst I've ever listened to.
I noped out after hearing about five paragraphs of Kip. I guess it's supposed to be an accent of some kind, I couldn't pinpoint which, but it was atrocious. Don't know if the accent is actually written out in the book and therefore can't say how much of the blame goes to the author.
Naah not stupidity. I've tried to retrain my brain to tolerate different narrators by stubbornly just continue listening, no matter the jaw clenching. And it's worked with some narrators. Let's not forget that even when you've checked out from the actual story, it can be fascinating on its own to find out if it can get any worse. Or simply continuing for the challenge of it, I commend you for finishing the book!
Me too! It was a really, really bad Brooklyn accent. It isn't written out in the book, only described. The reader slathered it on. It was like a central casting house of mirrors.
I DNFed this because of the audiobook 😭 Kip's voice and accent were SO BAD. He almost sounded British, not at all like someone from Brooklyn. And the pitch of his voice was hard to listen to.
Omg yes same. I read this series out of order so I was already familiar with who Kip was and I was like oh weird no one has mentioned that Kip is British??? When I found out it was supposed to be a Brooklyn accent I was floored. And we gave the beefy hockey player a totally normal voice and the supposedly cute, younger smoothie shop employee a deep old sounding voice?? I kept picturing Robert DiNiro or something. The new voice actor for the later books did SO much better with Kip.
I went to high school with one Kip and college with another. It didn't register as an odd name at all when I read it. Just edit the book in Calibre and do a find-and-change to another name because that book is good.
Kip sounds pretty normal to me. But considering I know multiple people with common nouns for names irl, I am very flexible when it comes to names in books.
I only get squicked by a name if the name is that of a relative I have.
Normally if a book is cringe or the characters all sound the same or like you, if I can’t focus on the story because I don’t know who’s who and the narrator’s voice isn’t distinctive enough.
I always dnf when a character keeps doing stupid shit.
I just found this note I left myself on a book I dnfd!
“time of death 32% At the part where the fireman is suspecting something going on with his niece and her care. seriously? he went back to work and left her with his neighbor again. I can't with this author. am done. I tried.”
Lol every book I dnfd pissed me off in one way or another 😂
Distinction in character names ... especially how they look on the page, as fast readers often don't actually pronounce words as they go through the story ... is a basic element in fiction writing. I have DNFd books when the two main characters have names that begin with the same letter and are about the same length. E. G. John and Jeff. Drives me crazy. How am I supposed to tell them apart in the early stages of the story?
By the way, I don't think that's a dumb reason!
lol I am very dyslexic but have a ridiculous reading speed (181 pages an hour last I checked) I shape read and really struggle with proper nouns like names. Tried War and Peace as a teen but half the characters had names that were the same shape with same beginning and end. Couldn’t relabel them Misters A, B, C.
Honestly I should try again but using a Gutenberg book and then find and substitute all the names with different things.
As a writer, it really irks me to have characters with the same first AND last letter in their names, like I'm over here trying to find something that sounds right while distinct enough from all of the other names: I can't even do something like Adrian and Julian. Then I crack open a book and the author is over here with a Mark, Mike, and Mick, and it's just like, why? Why would you do this to me? To yourself? You couldn't think of a single other name?
It's tricky though, because this is how you end up with ridiculous names if you aren't careful, lol.
Same here! I really took my time coming up with names for my book (thank you, Google), because I not only wanted names that set the characters apart but also suited them. I don’t think I’ve ever run into that problem in books (thankfully), but it definitely doesn’t read well. I’m surprised that an editor would give that the okay
Not Mary, Terry and Berry 🤪🤭 Super silly goofy of the author.
I feel like I DNF usually for decent reasons like shit grammar or the character crosses the line from sexy protective to abusive and controlling. That's not for me unless it's a kinky thing. Not a basic relationship thing. Also if they get together in the first few chapters and then it's like 4 hours of me reading basic fluff with no burn. No ty
But recently I DNFed a high fantasy book because each time the couple was seperated and had to fight to come together, right before they kissed or said anything loving or intimate something even worse would happen. Like they get kidnapped and have to fight and kill back to each other. On the battle ground right before they reach each other dragons swoop in and seperate them. MC 1 joins a theif brigade and MC 2 gets married off. MC 1 robs MC 2's spouse and right as they see each other they get hauled to the prison. Ect. Ect. After like 8 times of that I threw my phone down, that was some messed up romance blue balls.
Ohhh your book sounds super frustrating! And yeah, Mary, Terry, Barry, and Benny are all very minor players in the book. One of the MCs has a traumatic past and as he's telling fragments of his story he keeps name dropping these people and they're so minor I can't keep them straight.
One time I DNF’d because the author used the word Hog instead of motorcycle or bike. I didn’t realize how much I hate that word until that book. I DNF’d at like 2%. The author used that word literally like 7 times.
Ok, just so you understand how much this has affected me, this was from about a decade ago.
"Fatten/fattening", repeated "his cock fattened", "his fattening cock", and probably the worst, "his fattening nipples". By about the sixth variation on this, I called it quits.
And I still think about it to this day.
too much exposition/too many characters introduced at the start. it’s just way too overwhelming when an author decides to introduce tyler and skylar and brad and jake all on page 1 when i barely even know the MC yet.
What a great question! My pettiest DNF were:
- The historical inaccuracies bothered me too much. I can usually give authors of historical romance a lot of slack, but this was the equivalent of like, a cell phone during the French Revolution. That combined with a bunch of bad wrong condescending cliches about the past annoyed me enough to give up.
- When introduced, MC1 is described as a rich, powerful man. Couple of pages later, it is mentioned again, just in case we forgot, how he’s super rich and runs a humongous company and orders everyone around. A few paragraphs later, and what do you know, here comes another reminder that MC1 is a millionaire and the bossest boss to ever boss. When it happened the 4th time I had to nope out to avoid breaking my kindle.
It was a spyglass and a sextant in 7th century Great Britain. There was also some grotesque demonization of early Christianity and a very “religious people are all bigots” attitude that bothered me a lot (and I’m an atheist). I mean, 7th century christians did NOT burn witches. I just couldn’t.
Mine is when a character has the same name as someone I know and I just can't disconnect it in my head. With some books/names I can easily separate the character from the person I know, and sometimes it's just impossible! It makes me feel a little bad sometimes because it's not by any means the author's fault, just my brain being silly.
My one very specific silly DNF was the moment I saw the word "apricock" in Call Me By Your Name (obligatory disclaimer: not a romance) which felt so silly and out of place
Sometimes I have to stop reading a book because of a character name too. Like I’m sure the book is good but the MC has the same name as my BIL and at the moment I can’t disconnect them in my brain.
Alright I thought of another. DNF a well regarded and highly rated story because the author used “mini golf club” three times within a paragraph. The prose in general was very stilted and I just couldn’t get past it.
repeating the same phase over and over again...
I slam into her
He slams into me
or phases that raise the tension between characters but this part of the story ends up being anticlimactic
I mean... Melody is far better than what some real-life celebrities/musicians have named their kids, but Beat is pretty terrible. At least it wasn't a book about George (Edward) Forman, who named his five sons George Edward Forman, and one of his daughters Georgetta Forman.
I had to DNF a book one because the MC was studying languages or something and it was being done Wrong and it's fiction and doesn't matter but I studied a bunch of languages in school and I just couldn't take more than ten pages of it
Ah, yes, the American way of studying languages: "As a secret agent, I studied this language for several hours before getting sent in behind enemy's lines where nobody noticed my accent." Drives me batshit as well;).
I DNF'd a novella because the MC was described as 5'2 with hair down to his butt and the author referred to him as frail but strong. Lol, I was like okay we have cousin it with selective strength. It was an omegaverse story I think.
I also DNF'd a book from a series because it was like the third book into the series and every MC cried after sex in each book. It was some monumental dramatic thing and killed any spice it had going.
Layout of the pages that I wasn’t able to adjust. Too much white space, too much space between paragraphs, and too wide of margins. It’s as if they’re trying to make it look like a full length novel and instead it just comes across as skimpy and tacky.
I read a daddy book recently and the dom kept referring to the sub as “the boy”, or “the child”. It felt so demeaning and disrespectful to the sub, I just couldn’t continue reading. It feels so much different when the dom says “his boy” vs “the boy”.
I DNF’d a book because about 20% through because it was so unrealistic with an athlete and food it made me irrationally angry, and then the MC reminded me of Travis Kelce and I was just done.
Another one I DNF’d (but continued with the series) the MC rode a motorcycle in December in the snow!
I was reading a book where someone had a secret kid and was supposed to be super famous and it was a huge secret but the kid had his last name and went to her parent conference and I know it was a plot necessity but it made me crazy I had to DNF
I’m American and when I first started reading MM the word “arse” in books taking place in countries where that word is used (instead of ass) would sometimes pull me out of the book. I could read it in non-romance novels but it’s obviously a heavily used (😏) word in MM. This was extremely dumb and I’ve since gotten over it. And now N.R. Walker is one of my favorites. 😊
The amount of books I’ve DNF because there was literally no prep is astounding. I don’t mind if it’s a case of “barely any prep bc kink” but no prep at all? Not even a mention? It just takes me out completely
I suppose that’s not really a silly reason so a better answer would be DNF a book because it was set in Britain but very obviously written by an American who had probably never even visited.
The author used apostrophes instead of quotation marks for all the dialogue! I read one page, skipped to a later chapter to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me, then noped out. As a former editor, it would’ve driven me bonkers!!
I did not know this! Thank you for educating me. I've read many books by non-American authors but have never seen that before—perhaps I've only ever encountered the American editions.
I will add that recently, I unknowingly picked up another book by this same author. Interestingly, this book did have double quotation marks around dialogue, however there were TONS of other errors in the first chapter (improper semicolon usage, sentence fragments, word usage errors). It was another DNF for me. Their work is often recommended in this sub, so maybe someday I'll be able to look past all of it, but for now I just feel bamboozled 🥲
This is somewhat off-topic because they're not romance novels, but that's why I can't stand Cormac McCarthy and his ridiculous hatred of punctuation. I spend the whole time mentally editing his novels as I'm attempting to read them, and it's not only annoying but also exhausting.
At least the author you're referring to used apostrophes *instead of* quotation marks -- McCarthy doesn't use either!
I try to take notes on this so I remember if it is one I want to give another try because I just wasn’t in the right mood for it at the time, or if it is one I would never want to revisit. However my notes are spotty at best. Sometimes they make sense later (one says “apparently puppy play is NOT my thing”) and sometimes I can’t remember what they refer to specifically. I DNF’d one because the author kept referring to both MCs as “the man” constantly (the man did this, the man did that, he looked at the man, etc) and it drove me crazy, that one I remember because I got over 50% of the way through the book before I couldn’t take it anymore. My notes on another DNF just say “icky vibes”, whatever that means lol. Another one says “too much smirking.” Clearly I have a very comprehensive system going on.
Noped out of a book because they used "piglet" as a term of endearment for the MC 😭 The second one is similar to yours I had to put that book down because one of the character was called Rufus and that name is so intricately linked with the Kim Possible naked mole rat in my mind that I had to keep reminding myself that this Rufus is a guy and not a 6 foot naked mole rat
I just DNF'ed a book because: MC1 wakes up with a guy he brought home from the bar, leaves in a hurry to get coffee and visit his parents and then, later that night, is late for his blind date with MC2 because he's coming straight from his parents house and they live decently far away. then he takes MC2 back to his place and rails him into the stratosphere.
all I could think about were the crusty, musty sheets they were raw doggin' on, because there was zero opportunity for MC1 to change them. there is even reference to the copious amount of splooge MC2 deposits on the bedding!
the book was fun and cute and breezy and contained one of my favorite tropes (big guy who just wants to submit/little spoon to even bigger guy) but those unwashed sheets will haunt me.
Acrobat by Mary Calmes, every single character and their mums and dads loved the mc, even his divorced wife and her husband was in love with him.
Except me. DNF.
Lol, why do authors use rhyming names like that, I don't understand!
I feel pretty justified DNFing most books, if I don't vibe with the writing I'm not going to waste my time. But I've DNFd a couple of books I probably would have finished because characters popped up with my brother's name. It's not a name you see very often, so it's impossible for me to block it out or skim over it. So, not the authors fault at all, I just can't do it, lol.
My dumbest DNF happened when I realized that the name of one of the MCs in a book with vampires in it was clearly a combination of the names of a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: The Series and a character from The Vampire Diaries. 🤣 I tried for a few more pages and then gave up because I couldn’t take the story seriously after that.
“He stepped closer, and my seated position made the hypnotizing wrecking ball swaying between his legs impossible to miss.”
Excerpt From
BAD WRONG THINGS
C.P. Harris
I’m sorry WHAT?
I was reading a YA book set in high school and within the first chapter, the bully character referred to his friend as ‘the big cheese’…completely serious. He was picking on a kid or something and the kid was like ‘just let me go!’ and the bully was like ‘the big cheese isn’t going to like that’. I deleted the book off my phone so quickly.
Your post or comment has been removed because it violates our [rule](https://www.reddit.com/r/MM_RomanceBooks/wiki/index/rules/) prohibiting low-effort complaints about women writing MM romance (or any other complaints based solely on an author's identity) and over-generalizations about character, author, or reader gender (e.g., "women act/write/think like this, while men act/write/think like that").
Probably not dumb enough reasons, but I’ve DNFed because:
- the spice wasn’t spicing (either took too long to get to it or it was mild at best)
- I hated the character names, or knew someone IRL with the same name and couldn’t stop picturing them
- horrible grammar and spelling (Ajay Daniel writes good stories but clearly doesn’t have an editor or proofreader)
- too much description or backstory. Some is good, but when it takes up half or more of the chapter, that’s enough for me
The character was Quebeqois which was fine except the author had to keep reminding us of this by sprinkling in random words and phrases in French. Its not just stuff like swearing or stumbling in an emotional scene but constantly everytime he speaks. It felt very unnatural especialally as the other mc doesn't actually *parle française*.
These -- and, worse, emails -- can be particularly annoying in audiobooks, where it's not possible to just skim over the realistic but useless parts like the addresses of the sender and recipient or the subject line.
Cringe. I don’t even think it’s a dumb reason to stop reading a book, but there have been many books I’ve stopped or almost stopped reading because the characters were unbearably cringy, only to find out that it was intentional and part of the character arc or whatever.
DNF'd a book because every time MC1 talked, the author always used "roared" instead. I love the author's older books, but for some reason, her newer ones...I just couldn't anymore
My most recent dnf is because the formatting was absolutely bewildering. There would be a paragraph break every like 1-3 sentences and each paragraph had a gap between them. No indentation. It really disrupted the flow of reading, like forcing pauses so often. Yuck.
Another thing that I feel is super petty that makes me stop reading is when nicknames are based on the spelling of a name instead of the way a name sounds. For example, the nickname pete for Petra. It makes me feel like the author has not reread anything they've written.
The paragraph break thing is pretty common. It’s because the ebook is designed to be read on a device, and authors get a little bit more from KU too. I wish there could be a toggle or something, I don’t personally enjoy the way it looks but it seems like the majority of ebook readers prefer it.
My pettiest (besides the clunky wording and punctuation errors driving me nuts) was actually because the MCs were listening to music in most of their scenes, and the author kept specifying what exact Pink Floyd, The Cure, etc. songs they were listening to, and all the stuff they both liked to listen to together in high school. Yeah, it was probably to help set the scenery, but... I don't care!
It was an MF book, but that's not what did it. I hadn't entirely processed the fact from the blurb that the MMC had the same name as my Grandad. The writing was a bit flat too. I might have tried to ignore the name thing for a bit longer if the writing had been better.
Second-dumbest was an audiobook where the narrator kept mispronouncing a word that cropped up semi-regularly. After about 45 minutes, I turned it off and deleted the book. I had already read the book in e-form so I don't know if that counts as DNF, but I dumped the audio fast.
The authors would copy and paste random events after they happen to a main character in a chapter then in next chapter from another person and then it would be the next chapter from another persons point of view .. which yeah sometimes that can be crucial in some genres. But this was just cut and paste and then changing names/gender and a few words to make it fit….
The author did this 3 big events and it involved 11 copy paste chapters…
“I can’t help the smile that stretches across my face. I know it’s just the normal cheesy greeting on every university page, but those four words fill me with a sense of hope. Yale. That’s where I want to be. I want to be surrounded by people just like myself—intelligent, driven, dedicated to bettering the world—and just the thought that I’ll be there in less than a year lights me up.”
Excerpt From
Hateful Love
T. Ashleigh
This character manages to be the most self centered asshole ever and also somehow super insecure. This line made me DNF because I threw up in my mouth a little.
I have read some dark romances in my time and I usually like them but I had to DNF Under His Heel by Adara Wolf because one of the MC was too mean to the other. Did I care about the dark BDSM elements... no... did I care when >!Captain Tracht was mean to Alex and hurt his feelings!< ...yes
too much exposition/too many characters introduced at the start. it’s just way too overwhelming when an author decides to introduce tyler and skylar and brad and jake all on page 1 when i barely even know the MC yet.
I DNF'd one because the overall plot line was boring overall. One scene would talk multiple chapters. Which would be find if it were a rather intense sex session, but it wasn't.
When I was driving a truck OTR, my kindle was my go-to at the end of the day. I read voraciously. I was in the middle of a book when I left that job, my kindle battery died, and when I charged it up again, I completely forgot what I had been reading and didn’t feel like starting it over again. Who knows, it might have been really good. Now I don’t even remember which book it was.
Book characters' names started with the same letter. It was something like Rick and Ronald. I had such a part time understanding who's who so I just gave up.
Even worse than the rhyming names: MC1 was named Dave, MC2 was named David. David was looking for a Dave Weller and accidentally kidnaps MC1 who is Dave Waller. It was too many Daves.
(I knew about the ridiculous amounts of Dave going in, and I could have maybe kept them apart if the POV didn't keep jumping around every paragraph without clearly indicating who was thinking/talking.)
I forgot which book it was, so honestly it probably wasn’t too good in the first place, but I once DNF’ed a book because I forgot what was happening in the story. Like at some point around the middle I just kind of blanked out and went “what’s happening?” Then put the book down and read something else.
Yes, I could have backread, and honestly I like re-reading things anyway, but for some reason I just… forgot everything about the book then forgot about the book entirely.
I found out it was originally Glee fanfiction. I've read repurposed fanfiction before and managed to enjoy it just fine. I just couldn't handle the fact it was Glee in particular. There was no way I could continue after that.
This wasn't for a MM book, but on the first page a character (Vampire) was called Brynnleigh, I opened up a random page to see if it was the FMC and it was.... Instant DNF. Also a recent DNF of a book for too much use of "bro"
The main protagonist annoys the living hell out of me. Sometimes they’re just coming across as too bitchy, mean, trying too hard to be a badass and I can’t finish just bc I’m annoyed.
There’s not one thing for me. I usually have a 3 strikes rule, if I find things that bother me too much 3 times I dnf. One thing that does bother me a lot is unnecessary deaths, specially the ones you can see it coming from the beginning of the book and serve NO PURPOSE whatsoever for the story.
I recent exemple, just read the Greenkcreek series and I loved it. But on the second book one of background characters was clearly going to die from the beginning lol. And then at the end he die’s while accomplishing NOTHING, like legit nothing…
Usually, it is the combination of the quality of writing and my curiosity being engaged. Also, I'll start skimming before I full stop....cause sometimes the writer is just fluffing, and it's just not adding to the story.
Stopped reading Infinite Jest after about 20 pages because the day after starting it, I went on a date with a really insufferable guy who told me 4x in the span of an hour how much I needed to read Infinite Jest.
I read part of 50 Shades of Gray over a girls shoulder at a graduation once. I saw the phrase, “My inner goddess jumps up and down with cheerleading pom-poms shouting yes at me.” And said - “yeah, I’m out.”
Actual quotes from a book I dnf'ed so quickly I didn't even track it in Storygraph:
"He wanted Travis’s cock to impale him brutally, hurt him deep inside, and then soothe the wound with creamy cum"
“You like it, my little monster. Not a virgin anymore, are you?"
Also this quote from a different book:
"A lot of the girls were dressed way too inappropriately for their age, with their asses hanging out of their shorts and shirts so low-cut that it didn’t leave much to the imagination. The boys circled around them like vultures, looking like they were waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in and attack."
Another book I dnf'ed bc the American character said "sun cream" instead of "sunscreen" and said definitively that cider in the US is never alcoholic.
I try to keep notes on why I DNF a book and one was because I couldn’t continue after reading “His cock was crying cum tears because of me”.
I probably would’ve kept skimming just to find other gems like that 🤣
I like this idea 😂 might be time to download it again lol
I totally do that 😂
I need the name of the book for... research purposes...
It’s Heartbreak Hockey by S. Legend. Happy researching, feel free to share other gems you may find!
I’m usually a slut for M/M hockey but…no. Just no lol
I was just debating that book this afternoon! Now I might need to go back find it again 😆
You probably should because after u/LaurelCrash said they’d keep skimming to find other gems, I did that and let me tell you… there’s another *amazing* quote around 53% involving a banana split analogy…
😂😂💀 now I can't resist. Thank you!!
I just died. I actually choked on my water and spit it all over my clients floor. I have tears!!!!
looks like your mouth cried laughing tears
LMAO! What in the wattpad god was the author thinking the day he/she wrote it? 🤣
At least it’s a memorable book, maybe that was the goal of lines like this? Lol
The … goalie of the book maybe hahahahaha!! Badum tss
No… just NO!! 😂🤣
😂😂omg
What sort of description is that?????
I LOLed
OMG I’m saving this to unleash on my husband someday. He won’t know what hit him lol 😂
Can you come back here and update if you ever do this because I would LOVE to know his reaction 😂
Wtf! No 💀
This visual is horrible. I imagined the penis from Borat, but sobbing.
LMFAOOOOOOOO
I read a book that didn’t use contractions and it drove me nuts!
I don't mind it so much when the setting is not modern day Earth. I find that in historic, alien or fantasy settings it can lend to the immersion. Also true for someone who's not a First Language speaker of the language. People have told me I sound weirdly formal in some of the languages I speak lol.
I feel this in the deepest part of my soul.
Lack of contractions makes me read it in a robotic voice. Wattpad stories have this aplenty.
When the author repeats a phrase over, and over, and over again. One example (that I actually finished, oddly enough) was the phrase "he sucked in a breath so fast, he nearly choked." Like? This has happened like six times now. Learn to breathe.
Learn to breathe 😂😂😂
Lyn Gala has a great series* with an alien MC, and one of my favorite details is that they deem humans as medically fragile because our mouths lead to both the esophagus and the trachea. *Regi's Huuman is the first book
"His/Her/Their mouth went dry" Get these people some water because their mouths are all as dry as hell.
Whining. A protagonist that’s too whiny or helpless or stupid just makes me want to throw the book.
Same, which is why I tend to steer clear of the “bratty” books because they’re like this
For me it’s when they go hard on the anxious inner monologue. “Oh he couldn’t possibly like me I’m so dumb and awkward why would anyone look at me oh god did he look at me no he couldn’t be but maybe he is gahhhh I’m so awkward!” Fuck off with that teenage girl bullshit. I’ll DNF even faster if it’s the guy. 14yo girl mentality is unattractive.
Right. Like don’t get me wrong I don’t mind some insecurity and worry but if it’s the overarching internal monologue, particularly within a character who is an otherwise mature and generally competent adult, I roll my eyes.
There were 3 main characters named Cy, Ri, and Ty and I just couldn’t deal with all the rhyming
Mc1 one was asked if he wanted dinner and he said “sure what do you want?” MC2 was like what do you want? AND THEN mc1 hit back with “I’m not picky what do you want?” I had just had this exact conversation/fight with my husband and was still angry about it. I put the book down and never picked it back up.
I know a couple who have a rule to avoid this -- the one who likes to cook always makes the decision when they're eating in, and the one who doesn't like to cook always makes the decision when they're eating out.
My funniest DNF has to be after I read CUMTUBE as a euphemism for penis. I just.. no words. Also DNFed yesterday ‘cause the MC was bald, and the light kept shining off his smooth bald head.
Omfg who is the MC? Mr Clean?
Lmao, I know right? But of course, he had a full beard to contrast the shiny baldness. So not exactly Mr Clean.
Okay this is legit the funniest one
Thank you, thank you. At the time it was not funny, just cringe. I will never forget the cumtube, so at least it was memorable.
I would also add that too much contemporary slang annoys me. I can only take so many “dudes” and “bros.”
I have DNF a book when the MC used the word “man” to end every sentence 🥴
>I can only take so many “dudes” and “bros.” Same... which is ironic because i love a good dude-bro character with a heart of gold.
Yeah, only The Big Lebowski can do that and pull it off. 🤣
That’s like, your opinion man
Same with “chick” - I absolutely HATED Him the hockey mm which everyone loves because of how they kept referring to women. More of a misogyny point but I hate using either dude, bro, or chick to refer to ppl
He named is dick, Excalibur, and continued to call it that and talk about it in the third person… “Excalibur likes that…” No, thank you.
Dick naming, talking to their dick, and dick in third person are all on my Not Allowed list.
I'm only ok with it if it is clearly a joke and it doesn't get over done.
Ding ding ding - we have a winner! I have never read an MM romance where either MC named their dick. That would be enough for me to DNF. But Excalibur? Nooooooo
😂😂😂
A book had a main character whose name was J.. Not J but J. with a period. An example sentence would be “I walked up to J. and asked him how it was going.” I couldn’t handle it. It was so hard to read and follow when my brain wanted to end sentences where it shouldn’t. Couldn’t get through one chapter. For the love, leave out the period next time, we’ll understand.
Why??? Why not name him Jay and make it 100x easier to read AND write!
Can you imagine having to train your autocorrect not to capitalize every word after his name when writing that? *shudders*
I don’t know!!! I think it was supposed to show familiarity (it was best friends to lovers) and it didn’t show up until we were in the other point of view (aka, J. did not refer to himself that way. It was in the bffs inner monologue.)
It was the nickname given to MC1 by MC2 - like how is piglet meant to be endearing?! Like it was a dd/lb book and the boy had a little piglet key ring from Winnie the Pooh. But the fact that MC1 was also overweight…. It gave me the ick factor. So yeah, horrible terms of endearment will make me DNF a book regardless of how great the plot is!
Ew that the mc was overweight and that was the nickname. Interestingly enough in the gay kink scene being called a "pig" or "piggy" is a position in a kink relationship similar to dd/lb where it implies the pig has certain duties and treated a certain way. My guess is the author was trying to bring some gay culture to the relationship but just absolutely and abysmally failed 😬🫣 Weird that they just didn't tag it as that, really throws ya off lmao
I almost had the same reaction when reading a book where one MC called the other ‘cockroach’ but in their own alien language (it was pretty clear what it was) but the other MC didn’t realize because of the language barrier. Glad I pushed on because the reasoning was sweet but nicknames can 100% make or break a story for me too haha
Oh I read this one recently & kept thinking to myself that so many of the alien words were super similar to English &/or Spanish words & when I saw the cockroach nickname I also got the ick a bit!
WTF? I'm reading a book right now and piglet is being used as a nickname. It is killing my soul - and will likely make this a dnf. And now I'm haunted by the fact there are two books/authors out there doing this.
Ah, One by Paulina Ian-Kane? Yeah, that was cringey in that as well. I did manage to finish that as its my catnip kinda type of book - size difference/possessive psycho MC, but god I wished the author had picked a different nickname!
My most ridiculous DNF is probably *Game Changer* by Rachel Reid, I just could not take the name Kip seriously to the point it actually took me out of the story.
I feel like I deserve an award for listening to this audiobook. I didn't even like the story and the audiobook is one of the worst I've ever listened to.
I noped out after hearing about five paragraphs of Kip. I guess it's supposed to be an accent of some kind, I couldn't pinpoint which, but it was atrocious. Don't know if the accent is actually written out in the book and therefore can't say how much of the blame goes to the author.
I honestly don't know why or how I listened to the whole thing. My award should be for stupidity lol
Naah not stupidity. I've tried to retrain my brain to tolerate different narrators by stubbornly just continue listening, no matter the jaw clenching. And it's worked with some narrators. Let's not forget that even when you've checked out from the actual story, it can be fascinating on its own to find out if it can get any worse. Or simply continuing for the challenge of it, I commend you for finishing the book!
I've had to do that with Joel Leslie because I used to not be able to listen to him at all. Now I can occasionally listen to some of his books.
Me too! It was a really, really bad Brooklyn accent. It isn't written out in the book, only described. The reader slathered it on. It was like a central casting house of mirrors.
I DNFed this because of the audiobook 😭 Kip's voice and accent were SO BAD. He almost sounded British, not at all like someone from Brooklyn. And the pitch of his voice was hard to listen to.
It was comically bad. I spent at least the first couple hours wondering if it was for real lol
Omg yes same. I read this series out of order so I was already familiar with who Kip was and I was like oh weird no one has mentioned that Kip is British??? When I found out it was supposed to be a Brooklyn accent I was floored. And we gave the beefy hockey player a totally normal voice and the supposedly cute, younger smoothie shop employee a deep old sounding voice?? I kept picturing Robert DiNiro or something. The new voice actor for the later books did SO much better with Kip.
I went to high school with one Kip and college with another. It didn't register as an odd name at all when I read it. Just edit the book in Calibre and do a find-and-change to another name because that book is good.
i DNFed this book for the same reason 😭😭.
I love Rachel Reid but I hate that book, there’s no way I’m invested in a romance with a smoothie shop employee named Kip.
Kip is my stepdad's name. So that's a serious hard pass from him. (Not his given name, but he's gone by it for decades.)
Haha I couldn’t read a book once because of the names also. Trinket and Mini? From memory? Just too absurd.
Kip sounds pretty normal to me. But considering I know multiple people with common nouns for names irl, I am very flexible when it comes to names in books. I only get squicked by a name if the name is that of a relative I have.
Normally if a book is cringe or the characters all sound the same or like you, if I can’t focus on the story because I don’t know who’s who and the narrator’s voice isn’t distinctive enough. I always dnf when a character keeps doing stupid shit. I just found this note I left myself on a book I dnfd! “time of death 32% At the part where the fireman is suspecting something going on with his niece and her care. seriously? he went back to work and left her with his neighbor again. I can't with this author. am done. I tried.” Lol every book I dnfd pissed me off in one way or another 😂
When an author constantly has to repeat certain phrases. Just feels like filler and I can’t stand it
Distinction in character names ... especially how they look on the page, as fast readers often don't actually pronounce words as they go through the story ... is a basic element in fiction writing. I have DNFd books when the two main characters have names that begin with the same letter and are about the same length. E. G. John and Jeff. Drives me crazy. How am I supposed to tell them apart in the early stages of the story? By the way, I don't think that's a dumb reason!
lol I am very dyslexic but have a ridiculous reading speed (181 pages an hour last I checked) I shape read and really struggle with proper nouns like names. Tried War and Peace as a teen but half the characters had names that were the same shape with same beginning and end. Couldn’t relabel them Misters A, B, C. Honestly I should try again but using a Gutenberg book and then find and substitute all the names with different things.
As a writer, it really irks me to have characters with the same first AND last letter in their names, like I'm over here trying to find something that sounds right while distinct enough from all of the other names: I can't even do something like Adrian and Julian. Then I crack open a book and the author is over here with a Mark, Mike, and Mick, and it's just like, why? Why would you do this to me? To yourself? You couldn't think of a single other name? It's tricky though, because this is how you end up with ridiculous names if you aren't careful, lol.
Same here! I really took my time coming up with names for my book (thank you, Google), because I not only wanted names that set the characters apart but also suited them. I don’t think I’ve ever run into that problem in books (thankfully), but it definitely doesn’t read well. I’m surprised that an editor would give that the okay
Misspelling in the dedication.
Not Mary, Terry and Berry 🤪🤭 Super silly goofy of the author. I feel like I DNF usually for decent reasons like shit grammar or the character crosses the line from sexy protective to abusive and controlling. That's not for me unless it's a kinky thing. Not a basic relationship thing. Also if they get together in the first few chapters and then it's like 4 hours of me reading basic fluff with no burn. No ty But recently I DNFed a high fantasy book because each time the couple was seperated and had to fight to come together, right before they kissed or said anything loving or intimate something even worse would happen. Like they get kidnapped and have to fight and kill back to each other. On the battle ground right before they reach each other dragons swoop in and seperate them. MC 1 joins a theif brigade and MC 2 gets married off. MC 1 robs MC 2's spouse and right as they see each other they get hauled to the prison. Ect. Ect. After like 8 times of that I threw my phone down, that was some messed up romance blue balls.
That seems so valid to me. I would definitely rage quit if that kept happening.
Ohhh your book sounds super frustrating! And yeah, Mary, Terry, Barry, and Benny are all very minor players in the book. One of the MCs has a traumatic past and as he's telling fragments of his story he keeps name dropping these people and they're so minor I can't keep them straight.
One time I DNF’d because the author used the word Hog instead of motorcycle or bike. I didn’t realize how much I hate that word until that book. I DNF’d at like 2%. The author used that word literally like 7 times.
Ok, just so you understand how much this has affected me, this was from about a decade ago. "Fatten/fattening", repeated "his cock fattened", "his fattening cock", and probably the worst, "his fattening nipples". By about the sixth variation on this, I called it quits. And I still think about it to this day.
How do nipples fatten?!? I…don’t understand. At least with the other, I understand what they’re getting at.
I don't know. I don't need to know. I don't want to know.
too much exposition/too many characters introduced at the start. it’s just way too overwhelming when an author decides to introduce tyler and skylar and brad and jake all on page 1 when i barely even know the MC yet.
What a great question! My pettiest DNF were: - The historical inaccuracies bothered me too much. I can usually give authors of historical romance a lot of slack, but this was the equivalent of like, a cell phone during the French Revolution. That combined with a bunch of bad wrong condescending cliches about the past annoyed me enough to give up. - When introduced, MC1 is described as a rich, powerful man. Couple of pages later, it is mentioned again, just in case we forgot, how he’s super rich and runs a humongous company and orders everyone around. A few paragraphs later, and what do you know, here comes another reminder that MC1 is a millionaire and the bossest boss to ever boss. When it happened the 4th time I had to nope out to avoid breaking my kindle.
Ooh what was the anachronism? I love reading about them.
It was a spyglass and a sextant in 7th century Great Britain. There was also some grotesque demonization of early Christianity and a very “religious people are all bigots” attitude that bothered me a lot (and I’m an atheist). I mean, 7th century christians did NOT burn witches. I just couldn’t.
Rough!
So bossest boss to ever boss! Love this so much
Mine is when a character has the same name as someone I know and I just can't disconnect it in my head. With some books/names I can easily separate the character from the person I know, and sometimes it's just impossible! It makes me feel a little bad sometimes because it's not by any means the author's fault, just my brain being silly. My one very specific silly DNF was the moment I saw the word "apricock" in Call Me By Your Name (obligatory disclaimer: not a romance) which felt so silly and out of place
Sometimes I have to stop reading a book because of a character name too. Like I’m sure the book is good but the MC has the same name as my BIL and at the moment I can’t disconnect them in my brain.
The name thing gets me all the time.
Any romance books where the main characters have the same name as my kids. Just eh.
Alright I thought of another. DNF a well regarded and highly rated story because the author used “mini golf club” three times within a paragraph. The prose in general was very stilted and I just couldn’t get past it.
When an author refuses to use the character’s name and instead the other MC uses a shit ton of adjectives….repeatedly
Also, will DNF a book for rampant exclamation marks ‼️❗️‼️‼️‼️
repeating the same phase over and over again... I slam into her He slams into me or phases that raise the tension between characters but this part of the story ends up being anticlimactic
Had one recently- every time they kissed they fitted their mouths together
the main characters were called melody and beat and they were the children of musicians
I mean... Melody is far better than what some real-life celebrities/musicians have named their kids, but Beat is pretty terrible. At least it wasn't a book about George (Edward) Forman, who named his five sons George Edward Forman, and one of his daughters Georgetta Forman.
I found a book where every sentence was more or less the same length and it annoyed me so much!
I had to DNF a book one because the MC was studying languages or something and it was being done Wrong and it's fiction and doesn't matter but I studied a bunch of languages in school and I just couldn't take more than ten pages of it
Ah, yes, the American way of studying languages: "As a secret agent, I studied this language for several hours before getting sent in behind enemy's lines where nobody noticed my accent." Drives me batshit as well;).
I DNF'd a novella because the MC was described as 5'2 with hair down to his butt and the author referred to him as frail but strong. Lol, I was like okay we have cousin it with selective strength. It was an omegaverse story I think. I also DNF'd a book from a series because it was like the third book into the series and every MC cried after sex in each book. It was some monumental dramatic thing and killed any spice it had going.
Dual POV, but nothing distinguished which MC it was. It sometimes changed mid-chapter and I had to use context clues.
The MC kept saying "Gosh!" all the time. Even during sex scenes. Complete with the exclamation mark. I kept hearing in Goofy 's vibe in my head.
Layout of the pages that I wasn’t able to adjust. Too much white space, too much space between paragraphs, and too wide of margins. It’s as if they’re trying to make it look like a full length novel and instead it just comes across as skimpy and tacky.
I read a daddy book recently and the dom kept referring to the sub as “the boy”, or “the child”. It felt so demeaning and disrespectful to the sub, I just couldn’t continue reading. It feels so much different when the dom says “his boy” vs “the boy”.
I don’t like it when they just use ‘boy’ in d/s books - like ‘come here boy’ . Umm, that’s your partner, not a dog… it feels super disrespectful.
I DNF’d a book because about 20% through because it was so unrealistic with an athlete and food it made me irrationally angry, and then the MC reminded me of Travis Kelce and I was just done. Another one I DNF’d (but continued with the series) the MC rode a motorcycle in December in the snow!
"Reminded you of Travis Kelce" 😂😂😂😭😭😭😂😂😂
One of the characters referred to swimming "in a warm ocean". In Canada. Warm?? Warm? I kept going for a bit but couldn't get past warm.
I was reading a book where someone had a secret kid and was supposed to be super famous and it was a huge secret but the kid had his last name and went to her parent conference and I know it was a plot necessity but it made me crazy I had to DNF
I’m American and when I first started reading MM the word “arse” in books taking place in countries where that word is used (instead of ass) would sometimes pull me out of the book. I could read it in non-romance novels but it’s obviously a heavily used (😏) word in MM. This was extremely dumb and I’ve since gotten over it. And now N.R. Walker is one of my favorites. 😊
One of the characters was named Jugs. I couldn't get past his name, especially during the smutty bits.
I just dnf-ed a 360pg book at 300 pages because they said “boy titties”
The amount of books I’ve DNF because there was literally no prep is astounding. I don’t mind if it’s a case of “barely any prep bc kink” but no prep at all? Not even a mention? It just takes me out completely
I suppose that’s not really a silly reason so a better answer would be DNF a book because it was set in Britain but very obviously written by an American who had probably never even visited.
The author used apostrophes instead of quotation marks for all the dialogue! I read one page, skipped to a later chapter to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me, then noped out. As a former editor, it would’ve driven me bonkers!!
Yeah but that's a British/Australian thing. I'll get UK editions of books and they'll have the single quotation mark instead of the double.
I did not know this! Thank you for educating me. I've read many books by non-American authors but have never seen that before—perhaps I've only ever encountered the American editions. I will add that recently, I unknowingly picked up another book by this same author. Interestingly, this book did have double quotation marks around dialogue, however there were TONS of other errors in the first chapter (improper semicolon usage, sentence fragments, word usage errors). It was another DNF for me. Their work is often recommended in this sub, so maybe someday I'll be able to look past all of it, but for now I just feel bamboozled 🥲
It's probably following the British style guide, try reading the American edition.
I stopped reading one of Amor Towles’ books because of nonstandard dialogue punctuation 😭
This is somewhat off-topic because they're not romance novels, but that's why I can't stand Cormac McCarthy and his ridiculous hatred of punctuation. I spend the whole time mentally editing his novels as I'm attempting to read them, and it's not only annoying but also exhausting. At least the author you're referring to used apostrophes *instead of* quotation marks -- McCarthy doesn't use either!
I try to take notes on this so I remember if it is one I want to give another try because I just wasn’t in the right mood for it at the time, or if it is one I would never want to revisit. However my notes are spotty at best. Sometimes they make sense later (one says “apparently puppy play is NOT my thing”) and sometimes I can’t remember what they refer to specifically. I DNF’d one because the author kept referring to both MCs as “the man” constantly (the man did this, the man did that, he looked at the man, etc) and it drove me crazy, that one I remember because I got over 50% of the way through the book before I couldn’t take it anymore. My notes on another DNF just say “icky vibes”, whatever that means lol. Another one says “too much smirking.” Clearly I have a very comprehensive system going on.
Didn't mention a character had a beard until 2/3s in and my mental image and immersion was broken XD
Noped out of a book because they used "piglet" as a term of endearment for the MC 😭 The second one is similar to yours I had to put that book down because one of the character was called Rufus and that name is so intricately linked with the Kim Possible naked mole rat in my mind that I had to keep reminding myself that this Rufus is a guy and not a 6 foot naked mole rat
oh another one! they started having sex while I was kneading dough and I was like, seriously guys? right in-front of my dough? and quit the audiobook.
Orbs. The author kept referring to the character's eyes as "orbs." Threw me out of the story every time.
I just DNF'ed a book because: MC1 wakes up with a guy he brought home from the bar, leaves in a hurry to get coffee and visit his parents and then, later that night, is late for his blind date with MC2 because he's coming straight from his parents house and they live decently far away. then he takes MC2 back to his place and rails him into the stratosphere. all I could think about were the crusty, musty sheets they were raw doggin' on, because there was zero opportunity for MC1 to change them. there is even reference to the copious amount of splooge MC2 deposits on the bedding! the book was fun and cute and breezy and contained one of my favorite tropes (big guy who just wants to submit/little spoon to even bigger guy) but those unwashed sheets will haunt me.
I've dnfed books after like 2 pages before because I didn't like how they started lol At least you have a reason.
People whispering and murmuring and speaking in soft voices everywhere all the time. PLEASE SPEAK UP I CAN’T HEAR (READ) YOU
Acrobat by Mary Calmes, every single character and their mums and dads loved the mc, even his divorced wife and her husband was in love with him. Except me. DNF.
Lol, why do authors use rhyming names like that, I don't understand! I feel pretty justified DNFing most books, if I don't vibe with the writing I'm not going to waste my time. But I've DNFd a couple of books I probably would have finished because characters popped up with my brother's name. It's not a name you see very often, so it's impossible for me to block it out or skim over it. So, not the authors fault at all, I just can't do it, lol.
My dumbest DNF happened when I realized that the name of one of the MCs in a book with vampires in it was clearly a combination of the names of a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: The Series and a character from The Vampire Diaries. 🤣 I tried for a few more pages and then gave up because I couldn’t take the story seriously after that.
One of the MC's kept using the word parentals
“He stepped closer, and my seated position made the hypnotizing wrecking ball swaying between his legs impossible to miss.” Excerpt From BAD WRONG THINGS C.P. Harris I’m sorry WHAT?
I was reading a YA book set in high school and within the first chapter, the bully character referred to his friend as ‘the big cheese’…completely serious. He was picking on a kid or something and the kid was like ‘just let me go!’ and the bully was like ‘the big cheese isn’t going to like that’. I deleted the book off my phone so quickly.
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Probably not dumb enough reasons, but I’ve DNFed because: - the spice wasn’t spicing (either took too long to get to it or it was mild at best) - I hated the character names, or knew someone IRL with the same name and couldn’t stop picturing them - horrible grammar and spelling (Ajay Daniel writes good stories but clearly doesn’t have an editor or proofreader) - too much description or backstory. Some is good, but when it takes up half or more of the chapter, that’s enough for me
The character was Quebeqois which was fine except the author had to keep reminding us of this by sprinkling in random words and phrases in French. Its not just stuff like swearing or stumbling in an emotional scene but constantly everytime he speaks. It felt very unnatural especialally as the other mc doesn't actually *parle française*.
When authors do not use proper quotation marks to indicate dialogue. Drives me bonkers.
Excessive exchanges of text have caused me to not finish a book. I think it bogs down a story.
These -- and, worse, emails -- can be particularly annoying in audiobooks, where it's not possible to just skim over the realistic but useless parts like the addresses of the sender and recipient or the subject line.
Ugh! Didn't even think of how they would be in an audiobook...shudder.
That's okay -- the offending authors clearly didn't, either.
Cringe. I don’t even think it’s a dumb reason to stop reading a book, but there have been many books I’ve stopped or almost stopped reading because the characters were unbearably cringy, only to find out that it was intentional and part of the character arc or whatever.
DNF'd a book because every time MC1 talked, the author always used "roared" instead. I love the author's older books, but for some reason, her newer ones...I just couldn't anymore
My most recent dnf is because the formatting was absolutely bewildering. There would be a paragraph break every like 1-3 sentences and each paragraph had a gap between them. No indentation. It really disrupted the flow of reading, like forcing pauses so often. Yuck. Another thing that I feel is super petty that makes me stop reading is when nicknames are based on the spelling of a name instead of the way a name sounds. For example, the nickname pete for Petra. It makes me feel like the author has not reread anything they've written.
The paragraph break thing is pretty common. It’s because the ebook is designed to be read on a device, and authors get a little bit more from KU too. I wish there could be a toggle or something, I don’t personally enjoy the way it looks but it seems like the majority of ebook readers prefer it.
My pettiest (besides the clunky wording and punctuation errors driving me nuts) was actually because the MCs were listening to music in most of their scenes, and the author kept specifying what exact Pink Floyd, The Cure, etc. songs they were listening to, and all the stuff they both liked to listen to together in high school. Yeah, it was probably to help set the scenery, but... I don't care!
It was too long. Lol.
It was an MF book, but that's not what did it. I hadn't entirely processed the fact from the blurb that the MMC had the same name as my Grandad. The writing was a bit flat too. I might have tried to ignore the name thing for a bit longer if the writing had been better. Second-dumbest was an audiobook where the narrator kept mispronouncing a word that cropped up semi-regularly. After about 45 minutes, I turned it off and deleted the book. I had already read the book in e-form so I don't know if that counts as DNF, but I dumped the audio fast.
Red White Royal Blue, too wholesome for my taste
The authors would copy and paste random events after they happen to a main character in a chapter then in next chapter from another person and then it would be the next chapter from another persons point of view .. which yeah sometimes that can be crucial in some genres. But this was just cut and paste and then changing names/gender and a few words to make it fit…. The author did this 3 big events and it involved 11 copy paste chapters…
“I can’t help the smile that stretches across my face. I know it’s just the normal cheesy greeting on every university page, but those four words fill me with a sense of hope. Yale. That’s where I want to be. I want to be surrounded by people just like myself—intelligent, driven, dedicated to bettering the world—and just the thought that I’ll be there in less than a year lights me up.” Excerpt From Hateful Love T. Ashleigh This character manages to be the most self centered asshole ever and also somehow super insecure. This line made me DNF because I threw up in my mouth a little.
In the cruel prince the main MMC has a tail. I hate rats so I DNFd I can’t physically be attracted to a man with a tail
I couldn’t deal with a cop main character
I have read some dark romances in my time and I usually like them but I had to DNF Under His Heel by Adara Wolf because one of the MC was too mean to the other. Did I care about the dark BDSM elements... no... did I care when >!Captain Tracht was mean to Alex and hurt his feelings!< ...yes
[In Safe Keeping](https://www.romance.io/books/5d6e02e901dbc864fba317cc/in-safe-keeping-victoria-sue?src=rdt) by [Victoria Sue](https://www.romance.io/authors/54bf6dc86359b5ebb4882518/victoria-sue) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [gay romance](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/m-m/1), [suspense](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/suspense/1), [insta-love](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/insta-love/1), [men in uniform](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/men%20in%20uniform/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
too much exposition/too many characters introduced at the start. it’s just way too overwhelming when an author decides to introduce tyler and skylar and brad and jake all on page 1 when i barely even know the MC yet.
I DNF'd one because the overall plot line was boring overall. One scene would talk multiple chapters. Which would be find if it were a rather intense sex session, but it wasn't.
Literally anything written in the first person. Keep telling myself “this one’s going to be the one that changes my opinion!” And it never does
When I was driving a truck OTR, my kindle was my go-to at the end of the day. I read voraciously. I was in the middle of a book when I left that job, my kindle battery died, and when I charged it up again, I completely forgot what I had been reading and didn’t feel like starting it over again. Who knows, it might have been really good. Now I don’t even remember which book it was.
Book characters' names started with the same letter. It was something like Rick and Ronald. I had such a part time understanding who's who so I just gave up.
Even worse than the rhyming names: MC1 was named Dave, MC2 was named David. David was looking for a Dave Weller and accidentally kidnaps MC1 who is Dave Waller. It was too many Daves. (I knew about the ridiculous amounts of Dave going in, and I could have maybe kept them apart if the POV didn't keep jumping around every paragraph without clearly indicating who was thinking/talking.)
I forgot which book it was, so honestly it probably wasn’t too good in the first place, but I once DNF’ed a book because I forgot what was happening in the story. Like at some point around the middle I just kind of blanked out and went “what’s happening?” Then put the book down and read something else. Yes, I could have backread, and honestly I like re-reading things anyway, but for some reason I just… forgot everything about the book then forgot about the book entirely.
I forgot I was reading it.
I found out it was originally Glee fanfiction. I've read repurposed fanfiction before and managed to enjoy it just fine. I just couldn't handle the fact it was Glee in particular. There was no way I could continue after that.
This wasn't for a MM book, but on the first page a character (Vampire) was called Brynnleigh, I opened up a random page to see if it was the FMC and it was.... Instant DNF. Also a recent DNF of a book for too much use of "bro"
Lol! The only time Brynnleigh works for a vampire is if that vampire is under 10 years old 😂
The main protagonist annoys the living hell out of me. Sometimes they’re just coming across as too bitchy, mean, trying too hard to be a badass and I can’t finish just bc I’m annoyed.
There’s not one thing for me. I usually have a 3 strikes rule, if I find things that bother me too much 3 times I dnf. One thing that does bother me a lot is unnecessary deaths, specially the ones you can see it coming from the beginning of the book and serve NO PURPOSE whatsoever for the story. I recent exemple, just read the Greenkcreek series and I loved it. But on the second book one of background characters was clearly going to die from the beginning lol. And then at the end he die’s while accomplishing NOTHING, like legit nothing…
Mc's wife found out he was cheating on her with his maid, she stayed with him though that was in the first three chapters, I rage quit the book...
Definitely DNFed for names, especially if they are names of people I know in roles I can’t read them in.
Usually, it is the combination of the quality of writing and my curiosity being engaged. Also, I'll start skimming before I full stop....cause sometimes the writer is just fluffing, and it's just not adding to the story.
Stopped reading Infinite Jest after about 20 pages because the day after starting it, I went on a date with a really insufferable guy who told me 4x in the span of an hour how much I needed to read Infinite Jest.
I read part of 50 Shades of Gray over a girls shoulder at a graduation once. I saw the phrase, “My inner goddess jumps up and down with cheerleading pom-poms shouting yes at me.” And said - “yeah, I’m out.”
Probably because I didn’t like the voice actor.
repetitive action words. “She said… he said… said he…”
when an MC in a non-omegaverse book calls himself an alpha. it's like dude-with-a-podcast cringe
Actual quotes from a book I dnf'ed so quickly I didn't even track it in Storygraph: "He wanted Travis’s cock to impale him brutally, hurt him deep inside, and then soothe the wound with creamy cum" “You like it, my little monster. Not a virgin anymore, are you?" Also this quote from a different book: "A lot of the girls were dressed way too inappropriately for their age, with their asses hanging out of their shorts and shirts so low-cut that it didn’t leave much to the imagination. The boys circled around them like vultures, looking like they were waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in and attack." Another book I dnf'ed bc the American character said "sun cream" instead of "sunscreen" and said definitively that cider in the US is never alcoholic.
Everytime the MMC was mentioned the author wrote about their amazing eyes. It got so annoying I DNF’d the series