I've realized something lately.
The last few books I haven't finished haven't been because I didn't like the characters. Actually, in the case of Glow's Waverly and Fracture's Delaney, I actually really liked the characters.
And yes, yes, yes, before all you Fracture lovers start jumping on me that it's NOT A LOVE TRIANGLE!!1!!111!!eleven!!!, I understand that it doesn't end up being a love triangle, that Delaney understands she has a weird connection based on whatever happened to her brain, and ends up with Decker. That doesn't stop the first 157 pages (a good half of the book) of it being a love triangle.
With Glow, I don't even know if it ends up being a love triangle; I only got 48 pages into it before I gave up. But given that the summary is about "two young lovers on a ship bound for New Earth" and the first 48 pages gives us Waverly contemplating her love of Kiernan and thinking about what a potential relationship with Seth would have been like, I can only presume that's where it's heading.
I don't like love triangles. I've been over this before; I devoted an entire thoughts on post to that alone. It's not because I don't think they can work - I love me some Iron Fey, and give me Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur any day.
But often times, they're there for unnecessary reasons.
And I realized that's what making me put this book down.
Why can't Kiernan and Waverly just be in love? Why can't Seth just be an old friend of Waverly's who was pulled away by his father, and that's why their relationship is weird?
Why can't Delaney fight the feelings she has for creepy-new-guy-with-the-same-powers-who-is-following-her-around (Troy) and focus on her semi-relationship with Decker? Why can't Troy feel a connection to her because of their abilities and use it to teach her rather than try to stick his tongue down her throat?
Why am I being given this silly love triangle that doesn't make sense in terms of the larger plot and the character development instead of focusing on what's actually important to the story?!
And that's why I keep putting these books down. Because the love triangles make the story bad - not because love triangles themselves are badly written, but because they're so unnecessary to the plot of some of these stories that it takes away from what could be an interesting story.
What makes you stop reading a book?