You wanted to read the book, you were excited to crack it open, you came into it with good faith and anticipation… but you ended up dnf-ing it. Which book and why?

Mine was The Maid by Nita Prose. It was for my book club and looked like a fun murder mystery. Instead I got instant manic-pixie-dream-neurodivergent-girl vibes, and I noped out before the crime scene was even found.

  • fusionsofwonder@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I picked up a sci-fi book and the first scene was oral sex and it was such a bad start I put the book down before even finishing the chapter.

    • alcaste19@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand? If so, exactly where I put it back on the library shelf.

          • nikoberg@alien.topB
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            1 year ago

            “That Time I Was Reborn in Another World as the Strongest Space Traveler With Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand.”

          • Vurrunna@alien.topB
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            1 year ago

            Say what you will, Light Novel/Manga titles at least have the benefit of being descriptive. Sure, titles like “The Cute Girl Sitting Next to Me Is Trying to Make Me Fall in Love With Her as a Way to Ridicule Me but the Tables Were Turned on Her Before She Knew It” are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, but you can’t say you don’t know what you’re getting into with it.

        • alcaste19@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          The author does some really weird stuff with words to seem verbose, but really it just gave me a headache.

    • Fictitious1267@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Was it Iris by William Barton and Michael Capobianco? That’s what I was going to post here anyway.

      The concept seemed so cool where a crew of settlers stumble on an ancient alien ship, but then started off with a BDSM/assault scene. Quit that book on page 1. Read a few reviews to see if I could just skip that part, but apparently the whole book is derailed by more like it.

    • friedpickle_engineer@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Had the exact same issue with the Witcher. First page of the first book is a cheesy “horny male nerds pls buy this book” sex scene. Made me laugh from how blatantly pandering to its intended audience it was and I never picked it back up. I swear, either some authors have no concept of delayed gratification or it’s some kind of marketing ploy…probably both.

      • vicariously_eye@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Which Witcher book was this? Because I recall the first story being a little different, though it’s been awhile

    • InigoMontoya757@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Reminds me of a Canadian sci-fi TV series I never watched. The main characters were astronauts, going to make first contact with something from space. There was an alien hidden on the spaceship (so part of this trip was a sham), and that seemed like a developing mystery.

      The scene in the first episode everyone talked about? Zero-g sex. It’s technically connected to “exploration” but it had nothing to do with the plot.