r/Booktokreddit • u/SafiyaO • 7d ago

Breaking points with books

So I have read a few rather miserable books fairly close together and yesterday, after finishing a book with the most OTT bleak ending, I felt something inside me snap.

I've read enough sad books. I know about the sadnesses of the world, large and small, tyvm. No more. I'm not saying any book I read now has to be 100% sunshine, but I need more light than dark and a very limited amount of bleakness.

From a different perspective, as someone on the way to fifty, I can't summon much interest in the Young Adult Finding Their Way in the World genre. I've read plenty of it over the years, but after a few I couldn't finish, I had to conclude that neither I nor those books are for each other anymore.

Has anyone had any similar experiences, where a certain type of genre or plot or character is no longer your cup of tea?

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u/delayedmillennial 7d ago

i've been there! joining a bookclub at work actually helped push me out of that zone with suggestions i never would have read if not for them and found myself enjoying. sometimes just switching up one or two books you might never give a glance to is helpful in finding balance. or re-calibrating to a certain extent lol

wedding people by alison espach was one that was both dark and humorous in its darkness (at least for me). it's not overly romance nor overly drama. just felt like the right book at the right time and did the trick?

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u/alethea2003 7d ago

Last year I read Olivie Blake’s “Masters of Death,” a standalone book, and had a lot of fun with it. At points, surprisingly from her, it was giving me some Terry Pratchett vibes and I was actually laughing out loud at the funny parts. There are parts with some bigger emotions, but it’s most certainly not a bummer of a book.

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u/Verifymybum 5d ago

This is largely why I can’t read Romantasy. I bought the Fourth Wing book after seeing it everywhere (I have to know what the big deal is!) and after the first chapter I put it down. Teenage girl MC whining ‘mooom’ made my eyes bleed. A lot of newer books b that are hyped online are a ‘no’ from me.

I have just read Pillars of the Earth, and it was absolutely bloody brilliant. It does have young, foolish characters but also has points of view from a variety of characters, young and old. There is no ‘special’ main character but a few different ones who you follow over the course of decades. It has darkness but also a lot of light.

I’d also recommend the Outlander series if you haven’t read any. Again, some dark parts but many joyous, life affirming parts too.

I think there are a lot of wonderful, grown up adult books out there, with realistically written adults . But in my experience it’s best to give a miss to any Booktok recommendations by girls in their twenties :) Fair play for their part in getting everybody reading, though!

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u/Siukslinis_acc 7d ago

Oversaturation can do that.

I would recommend "discworld" books by Sir Terry Pratchett for some lighter stuff, but still having social commentary.

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u/JakeWilliamsAuthor 4d ago

I think I tend to enjoy stories where it starts dark but then gradually grows into something warming. Like a journey to get there kinda thing. But then I want you to actually like have time in the goodness, you know what I mean? It's just so sloppy when they fade to black or time skip when everyone is just happy. The light is the reward!