I gravitate towards reading books with heavy themes, like racism, sexism, abuse, immigration, war, etc. Then I find myself being overwhelmed by heaviness, so I pick up something light and silly, and I hate it. Most of those books end up on the DNF shelf because I just can't get into them. Please give me some suggestions of books that fall somewhere in the middle! Some books I feel fit that criteria that I've enjoyed recently:
Circe
Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
In the Time of our History
Wild Seed
Blue Skinned Gods
BTW, I don't literally mean "silly." I was just trying to alliterate. Silly = more lighthearted, everyday interactions, not too intense
by akreun1
6 Comments
I think Dungeon Crawler Carl would fit you.
It both has its serious moments but has its funny moments that wow you.
The Thursday Murder Club is a fantastic mystery series that is mainly comedy about murder mysteries with the shenanigans of 80 yr olds solving cases together from their retirement bome and being generally amazing. So mostly silly/fun some suspense but also some sad/intense stuff that comes up when you have such older characters. Very clever books though, and I only read mysteries! The most recent book is the “heaviest” but even those parts aren’t the main focus of the book.
Grady Hendrix books
Perhaps the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells? Deals with serious issues like exploitation and capitalism via a sarcastic, anxious bot/human construct who just wants to be left alone to watch its tv shows.
I also like Victoria Goddard’s Nine Worlds books for this, like *The Hands of the Emperor*. The characters have experienced a lot, but overall goodness and justice get the upper hand.
M. C. A. Hogarth’s books vary in seriousness – I’ve only read the lightest series, starting with *Mindtouch*, but there’s also serious themes like grief mixed in.
I think project Hail Mary is another good option. Same guy as who did the Martian. It’s got plenty of silly but also a ton of heart and some cool plot-lines.
Thanks everyone for the great suggestions!