Hi everyone,
I'm currently going through what is undoubtedly the worst time of my life. I recently lost my partner to suicide and I'm not coping well. Having a distraction really helps and there was nothing that she loved more than books, so it feels like a connection to her to read. However, we had a difficult relationship due to her trauma and lack of honesty, so I have really complex emotions right now and anything remotely triggering is giving me a really hard time. I'm turning to reddit to help. I'm looking for books, especially fantasy and (to a slightly lesser extent) sci-fi, that are engrossing and interesting without being too emotionally heavy. To give some frame of reference, I have been trying to read The Murderbot Diaries (a series she really liked and recommended), but I have been finding some of the situations a little too triggering.
Things I'm looking for:
- Interesting world-building and a chance for escapism
- Preferably fantasy and especially a book involving faeries would be particularly amazing
- Something that is generally cozy or at least not actively a reminder of the depressing parts of this world we live in
- Something that isn't terribly cognitively demanding as my mind isn't firing on all cylinders right now
Things I need to avoid:
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault, harassment, or just any non-consensual sex acts (preferably no sex in general)
- Drug use (voluntary or characters being drugged by others)
- Excessive death, especially of characters the reader cares about
- Any kind of child abuse, particularly from family
- Characters being held against their will in a way that's too heavy/intense
- Significant dishonesty (I guess mostly just in relationship context, but not sure?)
- Not too romance-focused
Some of my partner's favorite books:
- The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
- Babel by RF Kuang
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
- The Murdebot Diaries by Martha Wells
- Fredrik Backman's books
- The Little Prince
- Probably lots of others that I'm not thinking of or that never came up. She also really loved anything to do with faeries, as do I, hence that part of the request
I think I've covered everything and hopefully haven't missed anything. I'd really appreciate some suggestions to help me get through things
Thank you
by badthanksforasking