the kevin's Extreme Disappointment Reads aka DNFs for August 2022

 !what is life without pain, horrible books that are horrible....ugh.

Here you can find all my suffering for July. Links here take you to my Goodreads reviews/highlights. 

Among the Living (Psycop #1) by Jordan Castillo Price

DNF at 33%

I have seen this series recommended a lot, and since it went on KU this month, I figured it was time to give it a shot. The premise sounded neat, and a good urban fantasy (with romance subplot) is a fun read.

Unfortunately, this ended up very much not working for me, for several reasons.

The writing

This book being from 2006, I was prepared to give it some leeway on old timey attitudes and such, but it ended up being too much for me to want to deal with. Slurs, misogyny, all around weird attitudes…it built up to an untenable level. I guess I’d have hoped, since the author is still continuing this series(!), they could have doubled back to remove some of the obvious slurs? Maybe?

In addition to that weirdness, the two victims that Bayne visited were promptly declared queer for the most bizarre reasons. Check these quotes:

I then noticed that Blakewood had a little collection of miniature furniture with Scotty dogs painted on it, arranged on a semicircular shelf in the corner. Yeah. He was queer.

Having miniature dog figurines is gay. ???

when it occurred to me that a dead queer might very well be hanging out near the fridge.

Why do queer dudes hang out by fridges

Ryan Carson was a junior architect at a high-priced firm that dealt with gigantic corporate clients. His duplex was probably worth a cool half-mil, and the interior looked like a great big Ikea display. Queer.

IKEA is queer. ??????????????

These ones I cannot chalk up to old 2006 attitudes, because they do not make sense at all. What is this even trying to say?!

There’s other nonsensical statements peppered in, I just could not follow them or figure out what they were trying to say. (see my highlights)

Characters

I found the characters to be very flat. I know it’s early in the book, but I expect something, at least for the POV character. Bayne just sort of floats through life declaring furniture gay, and judging women’s suits. Marks has no personality yet, but he hasn’t been on page much except to pill search Baynes mouth with his tongue. Their connection is non existent to me, even during their oddly timed bathroom hookup.

Communication??

I was frequently lost on logical connections during conversations. Did I miss a step? The characters react in ways that don’t make sense to me, like in this snippet, where Marks just asked Bayne if he needed any particular type of support at the crime scene:

“General backup is fine,” I said. Marks gave me a withering look. I wasn’t trying to be cagey. It just came out that way.

…what? That’s not cagey at all. Why is he mad?

Overall, while this book is a favorite of many, it very much did not work for me. The premise sounded neat, but I am not willing to ford through the weirdness to find out if it gets better. There’s better urban fantasy out there I will enjoy.

The Memory of Dying by AJ Williams

DNF at 11%

There were some real choices made in this book

• pages upon pages of weird descriptions in the beginning, like this creepy gym-brothel thing. I do not care please move on

• I do not need pages of discussing manflesh, are they orcs

• the way characters, especially Ryan, talk about and treat Daniel (even before they've met him!) is revolting, so many slurs, so much disdain and hatred and assumption about why he is the way he is

• everyone was also super gross about his accommodations - why do you think someone would demand a ground floor room and not want to fly? Aren't you supposed to be profiler intelligent people? Or, failing that, WHY DOES IT MATTER just get the dude his super basic shit oh my god it isn't difficult to have empathy but everyone is trash

• the FBI is embarrassingly incompetent, Daniel solves this first case in about 5 seconds. not even kidding, it's solved by 10%

• please stop abusing quotation marks

Overall, I had stronger feelings than I expected. They were negative bad feelings. I would also point you to this review for more detail to encompass the whole book and its myriad failures.

Let It Snow by Beth Moran 

I read until 36%, and then the absolutely bonkers job interview was stressing me out so I skipped ahead and read the last 15%, and….uhhhh. This does not have the happy Christmas romance vibes I was expecting. It feels mildly grinchy to DNF, but it was not at all working for me on several levels.

Things:

• There is so much going on with this plot. Plots. There’s like 7 major plot lines. It is way too much for any book. Please, just pick one or two! I don’t need a romance, a job drama, an Evil Woman, Family Drama, ??? things, romance, an ex, etc. It’s just so much.

• Everything was described. I don’t need to know the details about everything.

• This relied heavily on flashbacks for building the romance and story, which didn’t quite work for me. It still never built a connection between Henry and Bea. Obviously, there’s probably more in that middle part I skipped, but the love declaration coming at the very end (and how it was done) makes it clear there wasn’t much of a build anyway.

• The job plot line…the way it resolved. I don’t…see that as being super happy, given certain elements. She’s got the Hallmark “realize the small town job is the best!” thing, except her job still has a rude, horrible, sexual harassment boss. I expect more dramatic happy cheesy resolutions in Christmas books, maybe that’s on me. 

Characters:

• At first I really disliked Bea. Why is she so mean and dismissive? What this immediate defensiveness? And then I met her family. Damn girl, with family like that, who needs enemies? She’s doing great despite them. And should honestly tell them to get bent. (I hate families who are excused from being shit because they “mean well” - take your intentions and gtfo, also how can there be any good intentions in saying something like “your piddly little job is meaningless to me”) I mean, look at this quote!

‘Henry is an astrophysicist, Mum,’ I snapped. ‘I’m a professional meteorologist!’

‘I think I’ll count the opinion of someone who’s actually been outside above that of a local weathergirl, given the BBC’s usual level of accuracy, if you don’t mind.’

I mean, Bea’s still kind of a jerk sometimes, but wow I get it now.

• Henry is just sort of a person. I don’t know. He’s fine? Pining? Whatever. Bea calls him a robot all the time, but he seems normal and quiet and that just makes her look rude.

• I hate everyone else, and boy are there a lot of them.

Overall, this did not work for me. Is it me? I don’t think so. Maybe my expectations on the level of Christmas-Hallmark vibes were off. I skipped the middle, but the elements were not shaping up into anything at all, just introducing more and more plot lines, and reading the last 15% did not instill confidence I’d enjoy reading that middle half.

I do hope this works for other people at least!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All the opinions are my own.