I’ve been trying to get back into reading lately. I tried the Honeywitch, Priory of the Orange, Tree, ACOTAR and The September House. I only finished September House. I know three of these are fantasy novels which I thought I would enjoy due to my game and movie preferences.
I understand a lot of these books are popular but I can’t get into the writing. My brain says “this is silly” when reading about the characters and the style of the Honeywitch was cringe and atrocious to me. Meandering and tacky the whole “After all, a bitch is the closest thing a woman can be to a wolf” eyeroll. ACOTAR is just beauty and the beast with the main girl trope “she was plain but very beautiful, very skinny but strong and without doing anything she was the most special and every man wanted her.”
Anyways, anyone have a recommendation for a novel that has a main character with more grit? Not over the top but perhaps flawed, pessimistic, suspicious or slightly funny. I don’t need it to be a sapphic novel but I do tend to look for those. (Though to be honest I don’t know if I even enjoy romance novels) Genre can be anything, i’m open minded. I want something that is a touch more nihilistic in a believable way maybe even an unreliable narrator. I don’t want the book to be overwhelmingly sad but some struggle is totally fine. Perhaps I’m not in the headspace to readily accept a flowery and all falls into place at the end narrative.
I know this is vague but I am very open to suggestions!
Edit: For clarification I think I’d prefer an adult book over YA and since I didn’t cling to fantasy I’m open to any genre. I do seem to like sci-fi and horror quite a bit. But any genre is good! I’m wanting to branch out.
by TimelyIsopod38
15 Comments
It may not be exactly what you are looking for since it isn’t higher fantasy, but I found Katniss from The Hunger Games to be a strongly written but bitter protagonist. I found she had a sarcastic streak also which at times brought some levity into a very tragic series.
i think the scholomance trilogy from naomi novik is in the realm of what u describe – the main character is rather pessimistic, overall i found the series and writing style hilarious though
True Grit — Charles Portis
A Wrinkle in Time — Madeleine L’Engle
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine — Gail Honeyman
Scar Lover — Harry Crews (maybe his other book Body too)
All the Birds, Singing — Evie Wyld
Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series, first book Magic Bites. Fantasy
Tanya Huff, Valor’s Choice, sci-fi.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir might fit the bill. Kind of like a locked room mystery, with necromancers. The main characters are sapphic and often very funny.
All the Mallory books by Carol O’Connell. Very well written mysteries.
Nevernight series by Jay Kristoff
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, she is 12 in the first book but the series gets darker and more mature with each book.
it gets quite dark and is a bit of a weird read in general but I LOVED Boy Parts by Eliza Clarke, in part due to how bitter and nihilistic the protagonist is. it hits the unreliable narrator part perfectly too, and the protagonist is also bisexual so it kind of hits the sapphic note.
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
T. Kingfisher if you’re looking for fantasy w/heroines that are a bit more ordinary women, rolling up their sleeves, getting shit done. They’re sometimes sarcastic too. There is sometimes some m/f romance but it’s not very heavy handed.
If you would be willing to check out just a straight up contemporary, I would try Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake. Sapphic romance w/a delightfully sarcastic heroine.
Talyn by Holly Lisle. Suspicious and pessimistic but smart and well-rounded. And an interesting magic system! A truce has been brokered and the military (which Talyn is a member) is being dismantled. No one seems to be as concerned as she is …
Dreamer’s Pool (and the rest of the Blackthorn & Grimm novels) by Juliet Marillier. Some trigger warnings here. The heroine is broken out of prison by a Fae lord near the start of the book and is understandably … bitter and distrusting of the human lord who ordered her there (and still has a vendetta). But she wants/needs to help as a hedgewitch to the innocent local villagers by the cottage where she settles. One of the best PTSD portrayals I’ve seen in fiction.
The Book of Seila by Wilda Hughes is a dystopian about sisters trying to help each other survive a prison town governed by biblical law. MC is a lesbian but there is no romance. And the novel is scary because it is too believable.
I think you may like Disconent by Beatriz Serrano, the narrator is actually funny and so relatable.
These bi female main characters (although they are paired with men in these stories) are some of my all time favourites. They are so prickly.
The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian – story starts with hero blackmailing her by anonymous letter and she is not having it.
Gilded Cage by KJ Charles – second chance romance where she is so bitter and mad at the hero even years later. But he is accused of murder that she believes him to be innocent of, and she is the only one smart enough to solve the case as a PI, and is so morally centred that she has no choice but to accept the case (since she won’t see someone hanged for something they didn’t do, even if she personally hates him).