This might be somewhat of a rant but it’ll help me further explain what I mean.
A whole lot of stories today are sad and depressing. I don’t just mean that there might be a sad character death or a sad backstory, I mean that the story starts and ends in despair.
And even on this amazing sub I see a lot of posts asking for “emotionally draining” or “incredibly sad” books. Now do not get me wrong, I absolutely love books that’ll make you cry and have depressing moments in them. However, what gets me to cry most is not when a book ends on such a downer, but when books end incredibly hopeful. I want books to give some sort of reassurance that in life there is sadness, but there is also incredible joy and beauty within.
It’s tough to fully elaborate on what I mean so I just want to give a few examples. I do dabble in Japanese media and some of my favorite anime/manga are Horimiya, Attack on Titan and Clannad. Clannad in particular I want to briefly explain as it is a great example of what I really want in a book.
It is about high school delinquent who has no care for school, his classmates, his future and his life. That all changes when he meets a girl on the way to school and what begins as a conversation continues into a friendship, and later a romantic relationship and then marriage and then a kid (over many episodes of course). Tragedy befalls this family and it causes the former delinquent to ask whether the path he chose upon meeting the girl was ever worth it, given the tragedy. With little hesitation he says that of course it was worth it, as his life improved drastically and he met so many new people and gained so many memories since the day he met the girl.
Life is still worth cherishing, even when the hardest moments strike you. You are still here, and you have friends and family here as well.
Its that type of story that makes me cry. Not just of sadness, but of the sheer inspiration it gives.
Has a book ever made you cry of happiness? What type of book captures this incredible emotional hope?
by themightytouch
4 Comments
Woah OP, that’s not why we read. /s
House in the Cerulean Sea
Guncle
Nothing to See Here
We Ride Upon Sticks
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe
The Little Prince might be up your alley. Not sure if Id consider AoT the most hopeful series out there lol
John Kenney’s *Truth In Advertising* is laden with a nice mix of humanity, all coming from a guy who knows what it is to write as an easy conversationalist in his real life.
Have read it cover-to-cover no fewer than five times. Warmly rewarding.