nut free nerd

Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Number of Pages: 274

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Release Date: April 30, 2006

“When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

Harsh words indeed, from Brian Nelson of all people. But, D. J. can’t help admitting, maybe he’s right.

When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

Stuff like why her best friend, Amber, isn’t so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens his mouth. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football-star brothers won’t even call home. Why her dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the high school football team herself. And why Brian is so, so out of her league.

When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

Welcome to the summer that fifteen-year-old D. J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say.”

– Goodreads.com

This is a DNF review, which stands for Did Not Finish. It’s not going to be particularly positive (as is the nature of this type of review), so if that bothers you in any way than I suggest maybe skipping this one. I know that some people don’t like to read negative reviews of books, and that’s completely okay!

I picked this book up off my TBR shelf because it had been sitting there for AGES and I thought it would be a fun, quick read. Unfortunately, it just didn’t click with me at all. Here’s why:

1. I found the voice of the narration to be quite annoying, personally. I don’t even know what it specifically was about it- just the way it was written was bothersome.
2. Had I known what this book was about before starting it, I probably would not have even tried. Farms and football are not really my thing. I thought that perhaps there would be more to this novel than those two things, but from what I read of it there really isn’t.
3. It was simply boring. Not much was happening, and there weren’t any characters that I really connected with and cared about.

Overall, this just wasn’t the book for me. I read about 100 pages of it and finally decided that it wasn’t worth forcing myself to read the entire thing. Maybe I’ll give it another go in the future, but the chances of that happening any time soon are slim to none. Putting down a book is a rare thing for me, and I’m not really sure how I feel about it. However, I believe that in this situation it was the right decision because since then I have been on a reading spree!

My Rating: 0 out of 5 smileys, as I did not finish it.

Would I recommend it to a friend?: From what I read, I would only recommend it to someone who enjoys farming or football. Otherwise, they probably won’t find much to relate to here.

Have you ever decided to not finish a book? Do you do it often, or is it rare for you? Let me know in the comments section below!

Yours,

HOLLY