The Continuation of the Great Book Cull

At the end of 2016, I embarked on a serious journey. A journey so frightening and perilous that some shirk away from the horror of what this mission entails... I have decided to cull my physical and ebooks. This is a continuation on this ongoing process.

Check out Part 1 of The Great Book Cull

The Books I Have No Interest In Anymore:
    
Insight by Jamie Magee WHY: I'm not interested in soul mates or book series that are way too long. I'll be taking this one off my Kindle. Plus the prologue is weird and I'm just not interested in the first chapter.

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare WHY: When I read The Mortal Instruments it was originally a trilogy (I know surprising since Clare has been milking out Shadowhunter stories for decades) and I have had this book on my shelf for SEVEN years. I'm not going to read this book and I have no intention of reading. I was happy with where the trilogy left off and I'm going to keep that way. Sorry, Clare fans, I won't be missing out on anything. I do plan to read The Infernal Devices and hopefully, I enjoy it!

Significance by Shelly Crane WHY: This book has been on my Kindle for a very long time and I originally wanted to read it because it has "the couple" on the cover. You know, the Lux couple that is plastered on all the YA books. I was obsessed with Pepe Toth for a while (that's the guy lol) and I wanted to read everything with his face on it. But y'all this book is about soulmates and imprinting. I read reviews that said it's a "suffocating relationship" it also has no plot. I'm not interested. This one went off my Kindle without even me attempting to read the first chapter. 

Torment by Lauren Kate WHY:Because I like not having headaches. This has been on my shelf for seven years and I don't have any inclination to torture my brain cells. 

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick WHY: I brought this book places with me several times seven years ago with the intention of reading it, but synopsis totally turned me off. It sounded childish and full of drama with Marcie being thrown into the Patch and Nora dynamic and I was interested. I read reviews for this book and I was right nothing happened and it was all drama.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green WHY: I so desperately want to love John Green's books. The only book I've loved is TFiOS and I think it's because I read it at a time when I lost a loved one and it was a beautiful reading experience and it'll be one of my favorite novels in the contemporary genre. After the great success with TFiOS, I bought three more Green novels: Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and An Abundance of Katherines. Looking for Alaska was a decent novel. I didn't love it or hate it. It was middle of the road, straight down the lane into Mehville. Still I held out hope. I was excited for the prospect of a new Green film and I owned Paper Towns already. It was finally the time to dive in again. Sadly, I LOATHE Paper Towns. I can't stand the road trip, the humor, the characters, the manic pixie dream girl obsession, and there aren't any quotes that I genuinely LOVE like I did with the previous two Green novels. An Abundance of Katherines remains unread and will forever remain unread. I have a beautiful edition, but I'm not going to read this novel. After seeing and hearing how many people are disappointed by this novel, I don't think I'll be missing out.
Farewell, Green. I don't know if this is us breaking up, but it's definitely me calling an infinite hiatus. I'm sure you understand because as you said, "Some infinities are greater than others", and this hiatus may last my whole infinity. Or I may change my mind because I'm a sucker when it comes to books.

The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney WHY: I won a copy of this book and it was signed. It's sat on my shelf since it's release date way-back -when. Sadly the amount of negative reviews and the overall content of this novel has made me uninterested. I'll be giving this one away to someone who may enjoy it.

 Updraft by Fran Wilde WHY: To be honest, the cover is ugly as hell and it makes me not want to read it. The newer cover is beautiful, but I'm still not feeling it.

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink WHY: I read the first chapter when I first found a copy of this book and I was so excited to read it, but I found it easy to put it down and not carry on. I never found the motivation to pick it back up.

My Boyfriend Merlin by Priya Ardis WHY: When I first downloaded this I was intrigued, but the reviews and the concept just seem really silly to me now. Off the kindle it goes. 

Ethereal by Addison Moore WHY: I read 56 out of 278 pages (10%) and I'm not going to say that those pages weren't addictive. They were addictive because it was so outlandishly bad that I wanted to find out if it could get worst. It did. The writing is silly, over-dramatic, and randomly this girl hears peoples' thoughts and it's randomly thrown in randomly. We aren't given explanations to this special power and where it comes from. Once she meets these two uber hot brothers, she obsesses over one of them. Bye the end of page 55, our Casanova is has commanded her with his mind to kiss him and he almost commands her to have sex with him. EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE JUST MET AND HAVE HAD NO INTERACTIONS. I can't. I'm morbidly interested in continuing, but I won't because I have other books on my Kindle that are better.

 

I Tried and I Raged:
  
Seduce by Missy Johnson WHY:  I can't believe this exists. Actually, I can, because for some reason women love romance novels that feature a sexy rich man who has a hardened heart falling in love. FUCK THAT! It is not okay to degrade women to the extent that this "playboy" billionaire does. I have never raged so hard upon reading one chapter and flicking through the next three.

My problems:
This novel opens with my most hated trope. The "I-forgot-your-name-and-you're-mad-but-it's-okay-because-you-melt-under-my-touch trope". I get it, you sleep around and probably carry the clap.
"I'd made her feel like she as the only girl in the world for me, when really there were dozens just like her who were ready to jump in my bed."
I wish that this was another trope, but no. This is a real physical sentence from our "dashing" gentlemanly billionaire, Jack Falcon. It's okay that's he's an asshole with no decency towards females, because he loves his cat. Aw, how sweet! His kitty is the reason why he doesn't bring girls home.
Jack also assumes I want to get inside his head by addressing me with second person narrative. I like second person, but only if I'm gaining from it psychologically through storytelling. Not being force fed some narcissistic scene through the eyes of the world's largest dick as he goes around screwing, drinking, and bragging about how he helped raise the company of his father. WHO CARES? Not me. So, second person narrative is unnecessary.
"Dropping to your knees before you've even told me your name doesn't gain you my respect. All that does is make me want to treat you like the slut you obviously consider yourself to be."
What a wonderful, romantic lead? I wonder if he sends out thank you cards after his conquests. You know, it takes two to tango and I don't appreciate the female population being slut-shamed while you are deemed a god. I wouldn't touch you with a pole because you probably carry all the diseases available in Britain since you seem to have slept with every girl in the city.
He also degrades his secretaries after sleeping with them and them finally realizing they aren't going to be given the Fifty Shades of Grey lifestyle they file sexual harassment charges. I CAN'T.

GUESS WHAT? That all happens in the FIRST FIVE FUCKING PAGES. I'm getting rid of this garbage as soon as possible. 



Awakened by Brenda K. Davies WHY: 
 I read 43 out of 385 pages (11%).

This book is problematic. I thought this would be a Kindle freebie that I would finish, but the first three chapters made my head hurt from an array of different problems. I'll just list out some things that I highlighted from my notes and describe why I feel confident that this not novel is not for me (but you made love it, so don't let my opinions sway you!).

Problem #1:
"Not to mention there would be plenty of girls here tonight. Plenty of easy, drunken girls."

I get it, dude, you are a horny college male trying to live it up, but can you not think sleazy, degrading thoughts about women in your opening POV. I'm not rooting for you and I definitely don't think you are a gentleman upon reading this quote. Granted, he doesn't seem to be on the prowl to take advantage of these "easy, drunken girls", but I still don't like this douche.

Problem #2:
You know that really annoying popular trope where the main heroine is the most special snowflake in comparison to all the special snowflakes in paranormal literature. This is no different.
"I don't know; there's something about her, something that I can't put my finger on, or describe. Something different."
This is aforementioned douchebag's friend describing our heroine and why he hasn't attempted to have sex with her because she's different and gives a weird vibe.

I don't even care or feel the urge to know why she's so different because I just hate this trope so much.

Problem #3:
Special Snowflake Names. Some fantasy heroine's have weird names, but I believe that it adds elements to the world in showing the differentiating concepts of our world and another. Paranormal romance novels, whether they are YA or adult, usually either have a mundane human name or some over-the-top dictionary picked name. Another name can be added to the list of what-were-these-parents thinking? list is Serendipity. That's right, folks, our heroine is named Serendipity, but prefers to go by Sera. Sera not Sarah or Sara, but Sera. Please don't associate this absolutely ridiculous name with mine. The joke is made in a conversation when douchebag and Snowflake meet where the DB makes the comment of her name Sera being unusual and she has to prove to him how special she is by saying that's not my full name, here's my absolutely ridiculous name to prove how different I am from the rest of human society. I AM NOT LIKE OTHER FEMALES, but don't notice me because I'm not special.


Problem #4:
The basic concepts of grammar are thrown out the window. Here are some examples of why you should proofread before publishing, "To loud to talk" "You too Kathleen." I'm sure there are more, but these are so easy to fix and it's unacceptable that they weren't because as a writer you should know the difference between to and too as well as when it is necessary to use commas. Also, it's alright not all right! Seriously, it's not hard to distinguish the difference.

Problem #5:
The portrayal of jealous women is a problem. Our special snowflake has a bestie who is more outgoing and enjoys going to parties. She also has a friend who is the complete opposite and is portrayed as an ice queen. As the party progresses throughout the night, the ice queen friend does a complete 180 and decides to approach Snowflake as she's leaving with Douchebag,
"I've never known you to leave a party with someone, has Kathleen finally succeeded in making you a slut?"
I'm sorry, what?! This girl thinks it's okay to call her friend a slut because the guy she wanted to go home with preferred her friend. Not only that, but she goes to apologize and stupid drama ensues. I just don't get the point of having this "friend" be apart of the story if she's only there to be vilified and slut shame whoever she disagrees with. It does nothing for the story and I hate reading girl-on-girl hate that promotes slut shaming.

I'm parting ways with this novel. Hopefully someone else enjoys it a lot more than I did.


 
BONUS: Since posting my review of The Maze Runner by James Dashner, I have decided to part ways with my beautiful copy of Dylan O'Brien's face because the book is boring and taking up good shelf space.


Have you read any of these books? What did you think about them? Maybe I'll give them a shot again if you convince me it's worth it! What books on your shelf do you want to get rid of? Let me know down below in the comments!