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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

When you want to put a book down but can't...


And I'm not talking about the enviable situation of being in the middle of an engrossing book but have to think about the other humans (or animals) in the house or even have to consider basic hygiene. There are books that do that and then there are those that you can't wait to toss.

Right now, I'm reading a book for a blog tour that is on the verge of throwing me into a rut. The book is about gaming, something I enjoy reading about, and it has some themes that make excellent topics to read about - prison, mental institutions, growing up in foster homes, plus the locale is a university setting - one of the few universities I actually have been to.

But it's filled with elements that irritate me - long trivial conversations, characters who are described one way and then act differently, characters whose primary worry of the day is a missing lipstick, a plot in which so many minor things happen that I don't know which of them will become significant later and which are just gap-fillers.


I'm purposely not mentioning the name of the book here because I don't want to give it bad publicity until I'm done reading it. Maybe it will even turn out to be fascinating from my current bookmarked point and all my complaining would be for naught. But it bugs me that I can't put this one down. I have given up on review books before but I really would love not to make a habit out of it. My page limit before I give up on a book is way across the board - sometimes, it's a just one page, sometimes it's about 100. Occasionally, it has also been fifty pages from the end - though those aren't planned, more like I always meant to get back to them but that never happened.

I'm pretty sure that if I put down this book, I wouldn't come back to it. It isn't too terrible that I cannot stomach another page and luckily, it's looking like there's finally something happening - something better than a missing lipstick. Hopefully, the rest two-thirds of this book will turn out to be worth it.

On other thoughts, it shocked me to realize that it's April already today. Where's the year hurrying off to?

Comments

rhapsodyinbooks said…
Personally, I feel that giving up on a book IS a review. And I often wish I DID give up on a review book I hated rather than feeling forced to give it an awful review at the end!
Helen Murdoch said…
Total bummer. And it's for a blog tour so you can't really give up on it. I hope it has some redeeming qualities to help you keep going
bermudaonion(Kathy) said…
I wish I were better at giving up on books but for some reason I have a lot of trouble abandoning them. I hope this book picks up for you.
I would ditch it. Life's too short for books that don't float your boat I say. Good luck doll!
Vasilly said…
I agree with JuJu and Jill. Ditch the book. You can always write a DNF post about the book for the blog tour. A bad book is a bad book.
zibilee said…
I have had this problem more times than I can count. And rarely do the books ever redeem themselves and turn out to be fantastic reads. But I know where you are coming from. I hate giving up on tour books. It seems wrong somehow, because it's a promise made. I hope it gets better, or better yet, is over soon.
Athira / Aths said…
You are right! Giving up on a book and talking about it is a review. I think I will probably give this book one more try and see where it leads.
Athira / Aths said…
I once gave up on a blog tour book and felt really bad about it. I am usually very careful about the books I chose for a blog tour so it is upsetting that I picked a real dud.
Athira / Aths said…
At one point, I used to have a lot of trouble abandoning books. I'm not sure when that changed but I'm glad it did. I don't feel great pressuring myself into reading something I don't want to read.
Athira / Aths said…
Thanks! :) I plan to give this book one more try and if that doesn't work, it's out.
Athira / Aths said…
Yeah, I agree. I am thinking of giving it one more try - see if it picks up. If I read more about silly lipsticks, it's going to the bin.
Athira / Aths said…
That's what's biting me. I may not have worried too much if it was just a review book but I hate giving up on tour books. I did it once and it made me feel awful. But I agree with what Jill said too - a DNF is also a review. I am planning to give this book one more try and then we'll see if it works.
Athira / Aths said…
True. I gave this book my best and I'm at a situation where I don't feel like reading anything because this book is terrible. I think a DNF review is the best i can do now.
Marie said…
I hope it picks up for you. I've had books like that on blog tours and it's one reason I stopped doing them. If it's not working for you, move on!
Athira / Aths said…
I did abandon the book but I also did put a review about why I couldn't read it. I think that worked well for me. I do hope though that I don't get into this kind of situation much.