Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly book discussion with a new topic every Tuesday hosted by Shanah of Bionic Book Worm. It’s each blogger’s job to pick five book-related things (though you’re welcome to pick things from other media, if necessary) that fit the topic.

This week’s topic is books we didn’t get to in 2019. Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I’m going to tweak the topic a little bit and expose the books I started but didn’t finish this year. These aren’t DNFs— I fully intend on finishing all of these books. I just… haven’t yet. Because reasons. And here those reasons are.

1. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

I had this book on my Currently Reading shelf on Goodreads for 2-3 months before I removed it to come back to later. I’m fairly far into it and think it’s well-written, I just kept having trouble staying engaged. To be fair, I suspect the issue is with me and not the book. Although the writing is good, I find the story and characters to be very run-of-the-mill YA. I expect younger readers will find this story a lot more refreshing and engaging than I do. Even so, I will be finishing this Own Voices debut.

2. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

Back in the spring, this was one of the books I was most excited to read. Now it’s December and I still haven’t finished it. Whoops. It’s an interesting book so far, just a bit dense. As such, it was a bit too easy to get distracted by other books. I still plan on finishing this book, especially since I suspect it’ll be a five-star read.

3. The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

Speaking of dense books, I also haven’t finished this book. But the most embarrassing part? I started this book in December 2018. That’s right, it’s been an entire year and I still haven’t finished this book. It’s a retelling of King Lear, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, so it’s still on my TBR. And I won’t take it off until I’ve finished it.

4. Kingsbane by Claire Legrand

I started this book last month when Legrand announced the title for the third book and hype for this series picked back up. I put it down because I was putting every book down at that point. I started and paused so many books in November. Part of it is because I was having trouble caring about anything besides what Rielle was doing. The other part is I was in a good, old-fashioned reading slump. That said, I will be continuing this book and series. It’s one of the most mature YA is offering these days.

5. The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I love this series, but found myself having trouble getting into this book. For now, I’m blaming a reading slump. I want to try and finish this book before the year ends, but something in me says I won’t.

What books were you unable to get to in 2019? Do you have any unfinished books you need to pick back up? Tell me about them in the comments!