Recommendations for books that aren’t such downers
Looking for recommendations!! Just finished My Year of Rest and Relaxation and feeling beat up. I really enjoyed the bulk of the book but the themes of numbness and giving up wore on my psyche. I also recently finished Animal by Lisa Tasso recently had had a similar experience of largely liking a lot about the book but feeling pretty spent afterwards and in need of a hug
I was so excited to find weird girl lit as a category but finding a lot of it leans a little too sad or devastating for me
I loved A Good Person (more evil than sad). Also huge fan of bizarre infatuation which feel invigorating to me, like Sky Daddy, Big Swiss, All Fours. Huge fan of an evil or deranged bisexual MC.
I also loved Detransition Baby, which definitely leaned more cynical, but felt like the main character was striving for meaning in life despite doing it in a flawed way, and that made it less of a downer for me.
Other books I’ve loved: the Butterfly Lampshade (optimistic, cathartic), Yellowface (fun and evil), The Shards (deranged and evil - weird boy lit, but MC is an evil bisexual), Open Throat (beautiful joyful writing, weird queer lit)
Other books that were a little too sad or hard for me even though I liked a lot about them and they are in the right genre for me: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (a devastating tragedy?? I will never recover from this boook), I Who Have Never Known Men (also a tragedy? Beautiful social commentary), Bunny (evil but maybe too evil for me?? idk. I thought it was excellent but can’t read it again)
Thanks in advanced for any recommendations!! Extra points for queer/trans main characters. so happy to have found this genre even if it overwhelms me at times lol
ETA: Holy smokes such an amazing outpouring of recommendations!! Thank you all so much!