Couldn't finish a book

I received the book Snape by Lorrie Kim for review in June, I read the first few pages but I couldn't finish it because it didn't reach out to me and put me in a reading slump. Should I write a review or not?

I would suggest trying again so that you have read more than 'the first few pages'. Then, even if you can't finish, you should try to write explaining why you couldn't finish it.

This has happened to me a couple of times. I try to read at least 50 pages. If it's still not grabbing me, I try in my review to specify exactly why and whom I think the book will work better for.

Yeah, I'd give it more time even if it's bad. A person who "reviews" a book that's basically unread has no credibility for me. Try hate reading it for a while. That sometimes works for me.

Write a review and say why you couldn't finish it. Honestly, that's far more helpful to me that another "best book I've read this year!" review.

This happened to me once ... I basically wrote a review about why I couldn't finish it ... see https://www.librarything.com/review/70396567 ... although some "mahogany asterisk"* flagged it as not being a review ...

I'd try to give it more than a few pages, and then review with the reason you couldn't finish it (hopefully in a bit more detail than "It didn't reach out to me", if you can.)

I guess I'm an outlier here, but I think if you accept the assignment as an Early Reviewer of a book you really have the obligation to read the entire thing and then provide as professional a review of the experience as possible.

I know a lot of people use the "50-page rule" for deciding whether to abandon a book and that seems quite reasonable for a book one selects of their own volition. However, if you commit to providing a review in exchange for receiving a free copy of the book, I think that you owe the author, the publisher, and other members of LT community (including those who requested the book and didn't win it) more of a good faith effort.

Of course, you certainly don't have to like the book at all and I agree with other comments that it is extremely helpful to include in your review exactly why that was the case. All I'm suggesting is that it is hard to say you've fulfilled your Early Reviewer responsibility unless you've read everything the author intended to say.

Sorry for the rant (diatribe?), but that's my $0.02.

If the book does not match the hype, and the process is too painful, there is a limit to the amount of time you should have to invest in it. Let's face it, a fair number of the books in both ER and MG are not worth reading. In fact, it is often impossible to read anything of 'what the author intended to say' because s/he is incapable of expressing it. (I have also refused to finish ER e-books because they were so badly formatted that I couldn't deal with it.)

A free book is a free book, not an agreement to accept hours and hours of torture. If after a second attempt in good faith to try to read the book, a review stating the fact, with the reasons for it, is sufficiant. It is good feedback to the author and publisher and may save others the hassles.

I've finished some books I've agreed to review only because I'd agreed to review them. Some books, though, I've just had to abandon because they were unreadable to me and I think my resentment at forcing myself to finish would further color my opinion. I've stated in the review if I was unable to finish and why.

If it is too painful to read thoughtfully and thoroughly, one can at least skim to decide for certain whether or not it improves. When I skim, I usually start after 50 pages, then skim a bit in each chapter and the whole of the last chapter. There have been books I did this with then went back and finished reading, and there have been books I was glad to have saved myself the torture on.

>10 tottman: I forced myself to finish one Early Reviewers book that I was really not enjoying--actually I think I read everything but the epilogue--and I think my review was a lot more scathing and critical than the reviews I've written of the few ER books I've abandoned.

>11 MrsLee: I like your approach.

After first learning about the Early Reviewers program and enthusiastically requesting any book that sounded interesting--then getting burned a few times--I have become a lot more selective about what I request. My policy now is to only request books that I had previously heard of and noted for my TBR or if I already knew of the author. I still occasionally get a clunker despite this, but my selections have definitely improved over time.

I approach an Early Reviewers book like I would any other book that I pick up to read, whether it's one I bought or borrowed from the library or was given as a gift. I don't give it special treatment just because the publisher provided it to me for free. If I couldn't finish the book, I'm honest about why; a lot of times it's because the style is a particularly annoying one to me or the subject matter wasn't what I was expecting and doesn't appeal, which doesn't mean the book won't be perfectly suited for someone else, and I try to note that in my review. But I'm definitely not going to read every word of a book I'm not enjoying; reading is too much of a commitment for that.

I agree. I've received 50 ARC books and some of them were badly written and/or just not interesting (I'm looking at you Gold Coast Madam). However, I know that I "signed the dotted line" and I have agreed to provide a review in return for getting the book, whether I liked it or not. It's part and parcel of the Early Reviewer program. I'm sure you've noticed that not every review of every book is laudatory. Read it and write the best review you can, even if it pains you to do so.

My general feeling is that in signing up one agrees to read and review thoroughly and thoughtfully, even if the task is made disagreeable by boring subjects, poor writing, or a simple lack of connection with the book. That said, I did once receive a book that I could not finish. The writing was excellent, but the subject matter - which I knew from the description would probably be upsetting - was discussed with a level of graphic detail that, while probably necessary to the story, I wasn't prepared for and couldn't stomach. I indicated this in my review under the theory that it would be useful information to someone considering the book, and I feel guilty that I did not complete the task in the way that I would normally, but not guilty enough to give myself nightmares. But I'd never not finish a book just because it wasn't good or interesting.

It might be worth reviewing the actual ER terms:

A book will be considered "reviewed" if a review is posted to LibraryThing and is comprised of at least 25 words and not obviously nonsense.

That quoted sentence is 25 words. That's the length of review that they're requesting. Of course it's better to go above and beyond, but it's easy to be far more thoughtful and thorough than the minimum without subjecting ourselves to hours of unpleasant reading after we've determined that we would prefer not to finish a book.

>8 browner56: >14 upstairsgirl: I respectfully disagree. If a book sucks, and because it's that bad I can only make it through 50-60 pages (what I grit through personally) then I'm not going to read the whole thing just because it's an ER book, or an ARC. As someone who wants to be published myself someday I do get what you guys are saying. But, on the other hand, why should I reward sloppiness and a bad concept of the craft with my time when I could read one of hundreds of other books whose authors worked just as hard if not harder to make a book that I wind up loving?

A review is a review, my unbiased, freely given opinion, and that is all that is required of me whenever I get an ARC, whether that be from the publisher directly, from ER, from First Reads, from Netgalley. A review that says, 'I didn't finish the book because this book sucked, and here are the reasons why' is just as good if not a better review in my mind than one that gushes over the same things that have been gushed over a hundred times before.

>16 DanieXJ: I agree that the entire thing doesn't necessarily need to be read, if it's that difficult to get through, but "the first few pages" is not remotely enough. If I were a publisher giving away a book to someone and a "few pages" in they decided it was junk and they reviewed based on that, I would be pissed, and would certainly not want that person getting any more of my books. With that little, one could not even explain what problems they had with it! The only thing they could legitimately write would be "Put down after the first few pages."

Sometimes the only thing that kept me going was collecting more reasons to cite for why the book should be avoided.

>18 Taphophile13: Been there! Fortunately quite rarely. Lol.

Once or twice even 'This can't get any worse, can it?' It could, and it did.

I find it a little strange that member CissaOwl has no books listed, even the Early Reviewer book she's asking about.

>21 TheFlamingoReads:

Empty libraries can get ER books. The official word is that this is only possible when there are literally no other eligible requesters. I'm not sure I believe it, but it's the claim.

It took me a long time to finish my review copy of The Wizard of Oz as American Myth because the book was riddled with mistakes in its comments about and descriptions of those versions of the story that I was able to compare to the originals/a detailed plot summary. I was also infuriated by some conclusions and declarations because not only am I almost 62, I was brought up on old books and movies. I understood the social/cultural context of the earliest versions far more than the author did. I wasn't kidding when I wrote there were times when I wanted to hurl the book at a wall.

Just read a few pages a day. Eventually you'll get through. You may always rant to your heart's content in a separate document while you're suffering and then edit it for your review.

>23 JalenV: "You may always rant to your heart's content in a separate document while you're suffering "

Sometimes that makes it worth the read in itself. :)

I believe that if you receive a book from ER that you should finish and review it BUT I have not finished 2 of the 50+ books because I just couldn't do that to myself. I based my review on why I didn't like the book and why I felt that I couldn't finish it. I try to be respectful and leave out phrases like 'sucking my life away' and 'how can anyone read this #$@%'. Lol

>25 cal8769: So you believe it for others?

If a book can't be finished, that is a result just as laughing with joy at a paragraph or chapter is result. We put in the reviews when we love a book or a passage or whatever. So why is it different to put in the result that for these reasons "(Enter Reasons here)" we couldn't finish the book. They're both results, just on different ends of the spectrum.

But, I always put my reasons. 'Did not finish' in my opinion definitely NOT a valid response when you've gotten through Netgalley, been gifted or won a book. You have to give those who took their time to get you the book a constructive something in return.

There are things that I will suffer for in life, reading a crap pile of a book is not even close to one of them.

>26 DanieXJ: No, I believe it for myself too. Just because I believe something doesn't mean that I always do it. I believe that laws should be obeyed but I have broken the speed limit. I believe that you shouldn't steal from your employer but I have brought home a pen or two.

I have read some crappy ER books in my time here because I believe that it is a contract of sorts. They give me a book and I will review it. I reviewed the books that I didn't finish. I explained why I didn't finish them . When a book endangers my reading enjoyment to the point where I would rather not read than finish it that is a different story.