Just taking a pause

I’m enjoying making my way through these books, but because I’ve watched the movies a couple of times very recently and because of the slow pace of the book at times I think I need to take a pause on these and read something else because it’s putting me in a slump😭 I will be returning though when I really want to sink into a fantasy book and don’t have so much going on in my life.

I was planning to push through and give this book a full chance, but I got distracted from reading by school for a month and now all my motivation to finish it is gone😭

I appreciate what this book was trying to do in giving voice to the female characters of a classic like Arabian Nights, but the style just wasn’t for me. It felt like one of those books that is mostly focused on having flowery, beautiful writing but feels like nothing is really happening in terms of plot which I don’t tend to like. I also didn’t like how many things were unexplained (at least not up to the part where I stopped) in terms of how the magic worked which I also don’t like in books. I like to know exactly how the magic works and it’s limitations.

In terms of Arabian Nights retellings, I liked The Wrath and The Dawn much better! 

After attempting to read this one both audibly and physically I’ve decided to dnf. I’ve enjoyed other books in transcript format but in the case of this one I was bored and found it monotonous to get through considering the transcripts weren’t broken up by the author’s own thoughts or reflections very often. 

I think the author was very brave to share these conversations with the world and I’m glad that other people were able to gain something from it. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

this was a very unexpected outcome but I picked this up for the literally dead book club and I was liking it alright but I wasn’t really pulled to it so I’m putting it down for now. I’m willing to possibly give it another chance down the line though.

Update I watched the literally dead book club live show for this book and it doesn’t sound like the book got much better for the most part so I’m feeling a lot more solid in my decision to dnf.

I wanted to try to finish this because of how quickly it reads but ultimately decided to dnf because I have no motivation to pick it up. The themes it discusses are important but I think the writing is too ambiguous and confusing for me personally. I tend to like writing that is more concrete and less abstract so ultimately this just wasn’t my cup of tea. 

dnf @ page 169

Considering the fact that this book has been on my tbr for 6+ years, I’m very disappointed that I didn’t want to finish this one. The first 40-50% was really doing it for me. I loved the descriptions of the bookstore, I thought the main character was likable, there was an interesting mystery, and the writing made me laugh. 

It was the perfect recipe for a new favorite book. 

However, the more the book started talking about coding, technology, and Google the more I lost interest. Even those elements I was getting used to, but as soon as the twist/reveal happened my interest dropped off pretty quickly. It just wasn’t what I expected or wanted and I unfortunately lost my motivation to finish the book. 

It probably would have been a 3 star at most if I finished it so I didn’t really feel like there was a point. I’m definitely disappointed but at least I can finally get it off of my tbr!

I just didn't feel compelled to keep reading this one and since demons/supernatural creatures are not usually my cup of tea I'm not sure if I will ever come back to it.

This book is way too long in my opinion, the story is super slow, I can’t tell you one significant thing that happened in 200 pages, some of the writing is pretty cringy, and the fact that Garrett has like 2 dozen brothers is really confusing. It’s too many characters to develop properly so there’ll basically just names with no discernible personalities.

had to read this for a class but didn’t have the motivation to actually read the whole thing 

I love The Bell Jar and Sylvia Plath but I’m sorry I’m just not intellectual enough for this one😩