Hi, everyone. I need help. I need a book about a protagonist, preferably an adult or on the significantly older end of Young Adult, who has some sort of major life transition and has to leave her familiar environment and all the people she’s chosen to surround herself with. I’d like for the book to be focused on this transition and how she mourns her old life and adjusts to her new.
The only other way I can describe the kind of emotion I’m looking for is a rather poor example- the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy 3. At the end of that movie, all of the protagonists who had previously been a sort of “found family” split apart and go their own separate ways. They aren’t dead to each other, far from it- but they are *apart,* after existing together for so long. It’s different now. Am I making any sense?
I’ve always looked to fiction to help me understand and manage life’s big emotions. Next year I’ll be graduating from college and moving to a big city away from all the friends I’ve ever known. I can’t stay- I don’t want to stay, or I’ll stagnate, but the big change is scaring me and I don’t know how to deal with those emotions. I’m hoping a book might help.
My “usual genre” has always been science fiction, but I want (and perhaps need) suggestions from all genres. I also understand that the book I’m looking for might not exist with that full theme- even if a book only has subthemes or subplots of the subject, please do suggest it.
by MeaslyFurball
2 Comments
this is not a fantasy novel (that seems to be the preferred format here), but it has a lot of meditation on found family and breaking free: duplicate keys by jane smiley.
>!protagonist is probably late 20’s or early 30’s. she has lived for years in New York city, with a close-knit group of friends almost all from the same small town. originally I think most of them were in a band together. one day, while her closest friend is away on her annual solo holiday, she goes over to the friend’s place to water the plants, and finds the bodies of the friend’s husband and another group member. both have been shot to death in their own living room.!<
>!most of the book is about friendship, and about the MC’s attachment to her own “homebody” group. it has a lot to say, in a low-key kind of way, about attachment and the challenge of regulating it.!<
Mick Harte Was Here