Abandonment Issues

Abandoned gas station/cafe in Tucumcari, NM on Route 66

This is a semi-regular feature on my blog where I confess to the books I abandoned.  I'm very very picky right now about what I read so I'm abandoning with - well - abandon!

Here are the latest (and why I hated them):

Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey.  I love Ms. Carey's first three books in this series, featuring Phedre no Delauney - highly entertaining fantasy with great world building and an interesting story at its center.  I didn't like the next three books as much, but they were still pretty good.  The first book in this series, Naamah's Kiss was pretty much right there at just okay (see my review here) - I liked it, but I remember wondering if Ms. Carey had jumped the shark with this series.  I truly hate to say it, but I think she has.  This book just has none of the power and imaginative spark of the first three books and the world building feels stale as she's moved out into other places that are like places here in the real world, but aren't (in this case China). Sigh.

The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge by Patricia Duncker (a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book).  I really wanted to like this, but did not.  It had a lot of potential - an ancient cult whose members suicide en masses semi-regularly, a French setting (Strasbourg), a female investigator renowned as a sect hunter.  What's not to like?  Sadly, the author is trying so hard to rise above genre into the realm of literary fiction that's it's painful to read.  In this case she throws all her pretensions against the wall, and they are many -  multiple languages for random reasons, random quotes that don't necessarily fit the characters quoting them, dashes of what appear to be vaguely understood Post-Modern philosophy.  Sadly everyone of them sort of hangs there on the wall like congealed oatmeal (and just as appealing).  It was so excruciating that I stopped reading it on BART about one-third of the way home and stared out the window so I wouldn't have to keep trying - this is an unusual event and speaks volumes about how much I just couldn't get through this one.

Dracula in Love by Karen Essex (from the publisher).  I don't have anything against re-imaginings of other stories when they are done well (Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin - re-telling of Jekyll and Hyde - comes to mind).  I'll admit being a bit wary of this one because I just don't want to continue to swim in the tepid sea of godawful vampire books, but I decided I'd give it a chance.  This might be really good, but I was so turned off the opening scene of near-rape that appeared to serve no purpose beyond its shock value that I found it hard to continue.  Add to this the stilted pseudo-Victorian writing style and I decided that I just didn't need this book in my life.

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick (from the publisher).  It's confession time.  I read the first book in this series, Hush Hush, and hated every second of it.  I didn't ask for a copy of the second book, but I guess the publisher sent me one since I'd gotten (and reviewed) the first one.  I let it sit on my shelf staring at me with its big puppy dog eyes, trying to guilt me into reading it and this past week I decided to stop pretending I ever would.  So I didn't.  I feel so much better now that I've gotten that off my chest.

So that's it - that's what I've given up on lately.  Remember, as with all opinions, your mileage may vary.