These are the books that I decided not to finish this past month. I really like keeping track of them this way so I can also share why I didn’t finish them, and that way others can see what issues I had and make their own decisions!
Payback Girls by Alex Travis
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Payback Girls by Alex Travis Published by Sourcebooks Fire on April 1, 2025
Genres: YA LGBTQ, YA Mystery
Pages: 352
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
Goodreads
My Rating:
Why get over your cheating ex when you can get even? John Tucker Must Die meets One of Us Is Lying in a gripping, page-turning debut thriller.
His first mistake was underestimating them.
Senior year is going to be perfect. Meghan won't settle for anything less. She's already crushing her classes and dating the star of the basketball team. Nate's friends have been less than welcoming, but it's never easy being one of the only Black kids at a mostly white prep school. Still, Meghan did not expect the scene at pep rally.
Robin and Bria dated Nate too. Correction: Are dating him. He never broke up with them, and Meghan is furious.
When Nate is found bloodied and unconscious in the locker room after the big game, suddenly the three teens are prime suspects―and a tenuous alliance may be the only way to clear their names. Except Meghan doesn't remember everything that happened that night, and the more clues they uncover, the more Meghan, Bria, and Robin each look responsible…
My thoughts:
So, this one just wasn’t for me. I don’t know how I feel about these girls fighting over a guy, but then also two of them being interested in each other as they fight the blame getting put on them for his attack. I got to p. 65 before I quit.
Messy Perfect by Tanya Boteju
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Messy Perfect by Tanya Boteju Published by Quill Tree Books on April 1, 2025
Genres: YA Contemporary, YA LGBTQ
Pages: 400
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
Goodreads
My Rating:
Perfect for fans of Mason Deaver and Becky Albertalli, this tender, raucous novel follows a rule-following, perfectionist teen who starts an underground GSA club at her conservative Catholic high school, from the acclaimed author of Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens.
Cassie Perera is a star student in St. Luke's junior class. But the new school year brings an unwelcome surprise—the return to St. Luke's of Cassie's former friend, Ben, who left a few years ago after a homophobic bullying incident Cassie knows she didn't do enough to prevent.
Still harboring guilt from her inaction, Cassie decides, in her usual, overzealous way, to team up with the neighboring public school to found an underground Gender and Sexuality Alliance—as a complicated strategy for making things up to Ben. Secretly, Cassie is also tempted by the possibility of opening up about her own sexuality for the first time.
As Cassie’s new friends urge her out of her comfort zone, she unlocks a kind of joy and freedom she’s never felt before—even as she struggles to balance these experiences with her typical tightrope of being the perfect daughter, student, and Catholic.
Cassie’s perfectly curated life unravels into turmoil, but can she embrace the mess enough to piece together something new?
My thoughts:
I am DNFing this, but not because it isn’t good. I will definitely be purchasing it for my school library for my students. However I’m just kind of bored, and I pretty much feel like I know what is going to happen. Every time I think it might be something unexpected, I kind of just get what I expected. But not in a bad way, again, just not in a way that I need to keep reading it. I quit about halfway.
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I think it’s really interesting how a book you might DNF might still be one you would recommend/include in the library for your students. I guess it depends on age range and interests too!
Yeah, I just know I don’t have time to read it, but since it is YA, I can still tell if it is one I would have students who would enjoy.
I see where you’re coming from with a YA book, good for the library, but not necessarily for you.
Yeah, I am doing more DNFs that way.
I don’t think The Payback Girls would be for me either. They’re fighting over a guy and then suddenly become interested in each other? Kind of nuts.
Yeah, while I kind of get where it was going, I just was not up for it.
Sometimes predictable books give you a needed break but if you’re not in the mood it seems like a chore to read. At least you found something for your school library.
Exactly!
I appreciate that you can DNF a book and still understand that others might enjoy it, I feel like people too often forget that. 🙂
I always feel like just because I don’t like a book doesn’t make it not a good book, it’s just not for me!
I have to say you go to a lot of trouble with this report and seeing the value it might have for someone else. I just close the book and try to forget it.
I decided it was nice even just for myself to have a record of why I didn’t enjoy something. Plus sometimes they are review books and I feel bad just closing the book and not doing anything else with it. But that’s me! lol
That first one is just a wee too dramatic for me, too. And, the second one could be good for others. We can’t love every book.
Exactly. That’s why I don’t give them a low rating if I DNF almost ever. Once in a while a book is horrible, and I mean once in a long long while!!!