Sometimes we get so used to tropes and hallmark characteristics of a genre that it can sometimes leave a person feeling jaded. “Comparison is the thief of joy” is so relevant when it’s so easy to say this book is like if Popular Title 1 and Popular Title 2 had a baby.
I remember reading Anne Frank for the first time and I was just blown away. THe fact that what she was experiencing actually happened was mindboggling to me. I had to sit down at some parts because I was so taken aback.
Another book that I had me emotional was Crank by Ellen Hopkins. It was my first exposure to that kind of writing and it just spoke to me in a way that few books did as a teen or young adult.
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Now into decade 3 of life and I don’t get the same visceral emotion from reads that I used to. As a teen, I looked to books for entertainment. Now as an adult, I look for reads that move me or cause me to think differently than I did before.
What’s that book for you? It doesn’t matter if the book is well known, topic based, or within a genre. I just want to know what books inspired you — no self help books please (unless you are wiling to give context).
by HoustonWeHveAPblm
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Several books hit hard for me this year. Lions of Al Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay is moving fantasy.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen is about an undercover agent of Vietnam, starting with the fall of Saigon.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne is the life story of a gay man starting in Ireland in the 1940s. It’s laugh out loud funny in parts but some of it is tragic.
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is about a man whose brother draws him into a life of crime
All of them are excellent books
It’s not necessarily that you’ve experienced all literary tropes and have grown jaded at the old age of 20. [We’re just more emotional as teenagers.](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuroscience-in-everyday-life/201810/why-are-teens-so-emotional) A lot of us aren’t going to have that kind of reaction to media anymore, regardless of whether it’s unique.
The Yearling.