Reading slump – need a pageturner that has SOMETHING that feels “new”

Hi readers. I have gone through reading slumps before, but never one like this. You know it’s bad when I was able to actually give away some the books I owned, and hadn’t even read yet, because I am just so skeptical I can put down the phone and stay awake while reading a page.

Now, normally, when I have been in a book slump, I have usually been able to snap out of it by starting to reread Harry Potter or Sarah J Maas’s Throne of Glass series, or something along the same lines – quickly introduces at least one likeable character I can root for who finds themselves in a VERY interesting world and/or pickle, and is written in uncomplicated language.

But uh, then the pandemic happened, and I feel like TikTok has enshittified YA, especially of the fantasy bend.

Because if I pick up one more “plain, quiet, weak armed nice girl who just likes to read and prefers to be ignored, but ugh, this fucking guy, am I right? What an asshole, I’m gonna tell him so! …What? I told him he’s an asshole, and now someone, HE with the emotional maturity of a lemon, actually *sees* me for the incredible beauty I am, and actually is the *only* one who thinks I am beautiful?! I don’t even think more than just okay-looking?! Also wait if you thought this was just Pride and Prejudice but darker and less believable because my literal only personality trait is that I am basically Belle from Beauty and the Beast but in modern times – a pretty girl with access to a selfie camera but who doesn’t KNOW she’s pretty but also isn’t afraid of BULLIES – well, SURPRISE BECAUSE WE ALSO HAVE TO SAVE THE WORLD!”…

…I am going to personally deliver my barf bags to the HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and whoever else is to blame’s offices myself.

The two examples I listed above are “genre,” but that’s just because they’re what have worked in the past. I am by no means demanding a certain type of genre or ruling out any genres! It just seems to have usually done the trick to get me back to reading everything else. Until now.

So! My requirements are:

1. A plot device that will make me want to turn the page!
2. An interesting, engaging main character with *actual* character development, preferably one whose journey toward discovering their self worth is NOT the plot of the book, ESPECIALLY not if it’s via a romantic interest.
3. Fairly straightforward prose unless it’s SUCH gorgeous writing I’ll keep reading anyway!
4. End of list of requirements!

A romance unfolding in the course of events is fine! Just… you get it. Not the main course, and no more off-brand Belle’s, Lizzy Bennett’s, Jane Eyre’s. (I’m looking at you, Veronica Roth. I lay this wasteland at the feet of Tris Prior. See what you have done.)

But again, it can be genre or it can be… non-genre! (Contemporary? Literary? Just… fiction?) I’m just lost without my usual haunt of the YA scifi/fantasy section to rely on to jumpstart this engine with something easy to read and engaging.

So if you’ve got a straightforward, post-Victorian era novel set in the everyday real world that you still think fits the bill as a page turner with a protagonist who is quickly interesting, throw it at me!

A whodunit? If our detective is kinda fun (I loved Hercule Poirot books), sure!

Sci fi? If it’s okay if I don’t catch or follow every detail of the science part but I’ll still want to see what happens and root for our protagonist, sure!

Historical fiction? Uhhh again, you have my 2 main needs, so while I am skeptical about yet another “WWII spy but it’s a LADY SPY!” or Tudor-era romance, sure let’s try it!

And hey, maybe you’re thinking “girl haven’t you heard?!” because you’re sitting on the YA series that DOES fit my bill (say Fourth Wing and I’ll break you)! Sure, why not!

…thank you for reading.

by MelancholyLullaby