It's not you, it's me.

Don't you hate it when you REALLY want to love a book, but you just can't?  Especially when you have been waiting and waiting for this title to come out, finally get it, and just can't force yourself into a relationship with the characters (or the plot, or whatever).  This doesn't happen to me often, but when it does, it ruins the book for me just about forever (I've been known to go back and try things when I am in a different mood). 

Most recently it happened with Dave Zeltserman's Caretaker of Lorne Field.  It got GLOWING reviews and has a fantastically interesting premise, but I wanted to kill each and every one of the characters, except for one.  How bad is that?  When this happens, I start to not care about the story and become only marginally invested in it, thus not really paying attention.  It's almost like going to see a bad movie and forcing yourself to finish it since you paid $35 to see it.  But in this case, since I got it from the library (where I had it on hold forever and just got it), I didn't feel too bad when I put it down for good. But I so wanted to like it on merit alone. 

I had this same problem with Arsonist's Guide to Writers Homes in New England.  Everyone loved it, but me: booksellers, critics, and publishers.  And I usually LOVE quirky, off beat stuff like that, but once again, the main character ruined it for me.  He was so annoying and didn't have a redeeming quality about him, not even some half-baked morality humor that I could find. I know that is part of the beauty of the novel and the appeal of the story, that the main character is really unlikable, but I didn't even find that aspect enough to continue.  It's really a fine line to walk between unlikable/awful and unlikable/funny because most of the characters of Chuck Palahniuk's novels are awful, awful people while still being amazingly funny and snarky, and I love his work.  AGtWHiNE just failed for me and I so wanted it to work!  Hopefully his next title, Exley, will work for me.  It's another great premise with lots of promise, and a great cover.  We'll see.

Another shocking dislike from me is the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay.  I love the marketing (I sleep in a Dexter publisher tshirt promoting the first season on DVD that says "Have a Knife Day" with a bloody knife on the front) and the concept, but I just can't get past the complete disconnect of the character.  I KNOW that is the entire point, but it just doesn't work for me.  I like the idea of it and I think that it is extremely clever to write about serial murder and vigilante justice from that point of view, but I just can't bring myself to care about him.  Once again, if I am not personally invested in the character, I just can't see spending my scant free time with them. 

What books have you wanted to love but had to ditch like a bad date?