Books are memorable for a number of reasons – mostly in a good way – but then, there are those books that are a bit weird or just leave you wondering, what the heck did everyone see in it?! Here’s a few such books from our reads this year.

The Did Not Finish (DNF) List

Dorothy Must Die, Danielle Paige. A fairytale retelling gone very, VERY, wrong.

Blood on Snow, Jo Nesbo. I have not read a book by Nesbo that I didn’t love. And I’m not about to start now … so I just did not finish this sucker. This was a freaking snooze fest, and I refuse to have to give one of my favorite authors a bad rating (I don’t rate books when I don’t finish them – my version of “no stars”).


This Is Some Crazy Shit

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. The 1st expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the 2nd expedition committed suicide; the 3rd expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the 11th expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

  • The Cipher, Kathe Koja – This book is dark, horrific, weird and filled with unlikable characters. I didn’t like it – but I so want to read more from this author.

Nicholas is a would-be poet and video-store clerk with a weeping hole in his hand – weeping not blood, but a plasma of tears…


Book Award Winner That Made Me Wonder Why

The Vegetarian, Han King – She stopped eating meat; her husband wanted her to; then left her; she starved; had some epiphanies that were probably hunger induced delusions; and then … nothing happened. Why does everyone seem to love this book? It has made like all the “Best Books of 2016” lists, and won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. I just don’t get it I suppose.


I Just Don’t Know About This One

The Devourers, Indra Daas – You smoking outside a bar, and a stranger walks up to you and says, “Hi, I’m half-werewolf” … do you keep listening? This book just weirder from there. I didn’t like it at first, but then … I just wasn’t sure – and the book has stayed with me since I read it a few months ago. Have you read this one? What did you think?


What books made you scratch your head this year?

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