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.
A Clockwork Orange.
I got about 5 pages in and realized I didn’t care enough to try and decipher all the slang, even with the key in the back.
You had a key in the back?
Mine did too but I didn’t realize it until I finished the book. However, I liked just figuring out the slang through context clues so I’m glad I didn’t find the key in the beginning and get lazy.
The first time I read it, I’d gotten nearly to the end before I realized there was a glossary in the back. Oops. (That being said, it’s totally fair to DNF, that book is for sure not everyone’s cup of tea.)
The movie is much better. They also talk in the slang but it makes much more sense hearing the inflections and with visual context.
A long time ago I was about to stop reading ACO lent to me by a friend. I told him I was having a hard time with the made-up words. He told me to stick with it and you’ll absorb the meanings of the words. Glad I did. Way better than the movie.
When I read it, I told my mom it was like “learning a whole new language”. I was so happy when I was able to read words like “tolchock” and “slooshy” and automatically translate them into standard English 😭