i think a lot of “sad girl / depressive literary fiction” has a real issue right now.
you can write a depressed narrator. you can even write a narrator who’s a genuinely shitty person but that can’t be the entire book.
repetition isn’t character development. flat affect isn’t depth. watching someone disengage from life for 200+ pages without escalation, consequence, or insight isn’t profound its boring! (cough cough a new me)
i think books such as boy parts or even eileen work so much better. both irina and eileen are awful, but they’re interesting. their interiority reveals something new instead of looping the same emotional note .
alienation alone isn’t a theme if nothing is done with it. (cough cough a year of rest and relaxation)
that’s my hot take
by illbeurmirrorwnico
2 Comments
completely agree about the flat affect thing. there’s this weird assumption that monotone = deep when really it just reads like the author couldn’t be bothered to give their character any actual personality beyond “sad”
boy parts was brilliant because irina’s awfulness had layers and contradictions. you could see how her mind worked even when she was being completely unhinged. meanwhile half these books just have protagonists who feel interchangeable – same voice, same detached observations about how meaningless everything is
the repetition issue is so real too. like we get it, she’s depressed and buys expensive skincare, you don’t need to tell us seventeen more times
What are some examples of these books?
Other than my year of rest and relaxation?