Top Nine Reasons I DNF Books (Or Lower Their Rating)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week's topic is Top Ten Petty Reasons You DNF Books Or Lower Their Ratings

1. Content is beyond my threshold. I have a fairly mild content threshold.
2. Author has an agenda or is preaching at the reader instead of letting the events of the story and the characters shape the content.
3. LGBTQAI push. I'm so over how books can't be published without at least a side character being LGBT. Sometimes I'm just in a mood, and if I feel like the author is pushing this for no reason I'll DNF. I don't DNF every book with an LGBT character though. Mood, context, character personality and many other factors play into my decision.
4. Characters that let their emotions rule at the expense of their brains. We all feel emotions, but when a character does something they know is wrong just because it "feels good" or "feels right"...I bounce.
5. When the writing just isn't good. It's often hard to describe bad writing, but if I don't like the prose I'll drop the book quickly.
6. Similar to above. Too much telling and not enough showing can get me to DNF.
7. Characters with mental health issues if I didn't know from the description. I read for fun. I like lighthearted books for the most part. And I don't want heavy books sneaking up on me. Mental health issues usually feel like heavy books.
8. A heavy focus on bullying. Usually you'll know by the book description, and I won't even pick these up. But I got so tired of reading bullying books that I just DNF these.
9. Too much feminism. I'm all for strong female characters, but I hate female characters taking over at the expense of male characters. We don't have to put men down in order to raise women up.

Let's be honest, I really don't DNF very often. I've only DNF'd 53 books in about 12 years. That averages to a little over 4 books a year. And I'm not sure that's an accurate count because some of the books on my Goodreads DNF shelf I never actually started. But these seem to be the general reasons that I'll put a book down and not pick it back up again. Why do you DNF? Let me know!