I cull a lot of books, and I don’t feel any need to include those anywhere in my reading counts/reviews. When it comes to abandoned books, however, I’ve read a good chunk – over 50% – and I feel the books deserve screen time even if they don’t work for me. So here is what I abandoned in 2025. Note that I am not including abandoned fanfics in this list – it doesn’t feel fair to critique unpaid labors of love in a review format.

Castle in the Air – Kelley Armstrong: I loved this time-traveling series when I first started it, but it’s been a few years and I found myself absolutely unable to care about the storyline. Each book reads independently, and this one in particular involved time-traveling even further back in time, rather than any modern-day story, and it played a bit too straight-romance-tropes for me.

You Had Me at Happy Hour – Timothy Janovsky: Gay romance, so this should have been right up my street, but sadly, I just didn’t like the characters. Part of it was the audio narrator, who grated on my nerves, but also I just didn’t feel the characterization was realistic. Julien in particular was very off-putting. I might not have minded had I not literally just finished a really great gay romance novel (I’ll Have What He’s Having), but as it was, I couldn’t continue.

One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston: I’d heard mixed reviews about this one and decided to try it out on audio. For quite some time, I enjoyed it: the intrigue of the not-ghost-girl on the subway, the way the main character August starts to build a home when she’s never felt rooted, the portrait of NYC. The sapphic romance was a slow build and lovely…until it basically stagnated and I found myself listening without really paying attention because I was just bored. And once I’d been bored long enough, I realized I no longer cared what happened in the story. I found a blog that gave me all the spoilers, and that felt like enough. This felt like the sort of book that could have been heavily edited to avoid repetition and stagnation.

Come Together – Emily Nagoski: I loved the first book I read by Nagoski, and I got a lot out of the book she wrote with her sister even though I had issues with it, but this one had even more issues (especially with the audio version) and by the midway point, I just couldn’t listen any further. There was too much focus on the heteronormative, and too much of an attempt for joking language, talking down to the readers, and prescriptive metaphors. Oh well.

Isles of the Emberdark – Brandon Sanderson: I’m ashamed to admit it, but yes, I abandoned a Cosmere novel. One that had a fairly decent duo of audio narrators, and for which I had a beautiful special edition copy. I was around the halfway point of this novel when I realized that I just didn’t care about either storyline. Years ago, I read the short story where this novel began, and I didn’t particularly care about it, either. Didn’t remember anything about it except the title. I think these particular worlds and characters just don’t interest me. Maybe I’ll revisit someday, but for now, if I need Cosmere info about it, I’ll just dive into the coppermind.