To be fair: I am currently reading "how high we go in the dark" by Sequoia Namamatsu. It's so sad. It's speculative fiction, but everything is too real and too sad.
Being an adult means also confrontation with sad topics
Well I have 4 decades already and I've read a lot of books. Light and heavy. Because that's what life and art is about. I don't believe in comfort food all the time. Sometimes you just need the poetry of hardship.
Thanks, this is good. I've just started with the 100 year old guy and it's interesting (early days, though!).
The thing I've always hated is stories always revolve around conflict and (usually) people making terrible choices. Watching lessons in chemistry was mostly delightful because of this (must read that!)
I'd quite happily read lots of stuff that's just 'nice' and people being good. I'm sure I'd get tired of it eventually, but I'm sick of manufactured BS.
I'm quite aware I've grown up on lots of sci fi, so love me some world building and crazy ideas, but I'm starved for characters, broadly speaking...