Why I Didn't Finish 3 Series

I didn't finish three series that I began recently. Each had unique reasons why I won't be reading beyond book 1, and I thought it could be interesting to lay out the reasons and analyze them so any writers (and I) don't make the same mistakes.
As always with DNF (did not finish) posts, I won't be sharing the exact books. I'd rather learn from the experience than shame an author or argue with fans.

Series 1
This series is critically acclaimed and award winning. I've enjoyed other books by the same author. In fact, this book was well written overall, and I totally understood the hype. The problem is that it was so grim dark, I'm talking war crimes on the page, that I couldn't handle any more of it. I'm currently reading to escape the horrors of reality, and this was simply too heavy for me to enjoy the escape. In the author's defense, this series came out over a decade ago, and if I'd read it then I might have had a very different experience. This author couldn't have predicted this problem, so the main reason I DNFed can't be avoided.

However, there's a second, more minor problem to highlight. The book opened with a very familiar situation: a teen girl who has some sort of disadvantage (financial, physical) gets into a war college where students sometimes kill each other for an edge. Sound familiar? I can name a lot of books with that opening right now. This author wrote it before the current best sellers existed, so it might have been a more unique opening at the time.

One lesson I can take away as a writer is if you're going to do a common trope or pattern, then do something very unique and unexpected with it. And also sometimes the world isn't in the right moment for your book, and that's not a reflection of your book's quality.


Series 2
This series is popular online, which is why I picked up the first book. Within a few chapters, I flipped to the acknowledgements section to see if it was professionally edited or not. This book was messy on the inside, grammatically speaking. There were entire sections where I couldn't follow who owned the dialog because of the lack of proper paragraph breaks. On top of that, the book had my least favorite trope of all time: a POV character knew something key to the mystery all along and just never thought about it. The ending was predictable, the main structural gimmick that moves the story forward is overdone, and the romance felt forced. I couldn't think of a single reason to continue reading the series.

Lessons I can take away as a writer include: find a good editor, dig deeper for more creative choices than what comes to you first, put twists on popular gimmicks or find a new way to move your story forward, and give your characters a reason to fall in love that goes beyond how hot they are.


Series 3
This series is also popular online, and one of my friends recommended it so I feel really bad not finishing. In fact, I didn't finish the first book. When I avoid a book and instead opt to do work for my job after hours instead, you know it's not the right book or series for me. The first problem was that the main character was in a psychologically abusive relationship upfront, which tends to be a no-go for me. I felt a trickle of a her desire for revenge though, so I stayed with it. Then near the end of Act 1, a new POV was introduced which had about a thirty page info dump. At one point, the info dump flashback had a flashback within it. At the start of Act 2, the two main characters meet and the personality of the female character was so wildly different in the man's POV that I wasn't convinced she was the same person. I know this book was meant to be enemies to lovers, but the main guy wasn't redeemable at all to me, and even though the main woman found him hot (a little too thirsty in her POV, to be honest) I just didn't get the chemistry.

Lessons I can take away as a writer include: don't do info dumps, especially don't do info dumps within info dumps, and keep characters' external personalities consistent. If she banters when she fights in her POV, then she should banter when she fights in his POV too. And finally, if you're writing a romance of any kind, there has to be chemistry, just a little hope, even if it's enemies to lovers. But, there are also elements some readers will never like, and that can't be helped. So as a writer just remember that not every book is for every reader, just like not every flavor of ice cream is for every person. And that's okay!


That's my DNF journey recently. I think I'll be switching genres for a palate cleanser to make sure I'm not just sick of enemies to lovers in dark fantasy settings. Have you DNFed a series after book one? What lessons were you able to take away as a writer? Let's discuss in the comments!