I'm done with joyless books.

Sad vs. joyless books, an enhanced Buffy rewatch, and are spoilers actually good?

Sep 13, 2022

Yesterday, I put down a book that has a 4.4 rating on Goodreads, has been picked by multiple national books clubs, and has had all kinds of buzz. I’d made it through 6.5 hours of the audiobook but still had 7.5 hours left and I just…couldn’t.

It wasn’t because it was badly written. It was beautifully written. And it wasn’t because it was sad, though it was setting up to have a Big Sad happen later. I realized, after putting it aside, that the reason I couldn’t go on with it was because it was joyless. The whole mood of the book felt like a fog of mild depression. Characters, though interesting and well-drawn, never seemed to have the energy to have even glimmers of joy.

It made me realize that I don’t dislike sad books. I can appreciate those if I’m in the right mood. I dislike joyless books. Sad books often have glimmers of hope or redemption. There’s a sense of coming through something and making it to the other side. Like one of my favorites this year, Emma Straub’s This Time Tomorrow, had sad parts but was ultimately a hopeful, uplifting story. I mean, I can even enjoy a Jodi Picoult novel, an author who’s known for sad stories. I read true crime. And I read horror where things can be super dark, but there’s often triumph at some point, some hope.

Joyless books often have characters that seem “too cool” or “too sophisticated” to feel positive emotions. Like being able to experience joy or enthusiasm makes a character less intelligent or something? I don’t get it. Maybe it’s a literary fiction thing (though I see this in suspense sometimes, too.)

All I know is that I’m done with the joyless book. As someone who struggles with my mood sometimes, I can’t immerse myself in books where everything is grim with no hope for it to get better.

And I know I’m preaching to the choir because we’re romance readers here, but I’m sharing this because I want to encourage you to drill down deeper into your own reading tastes to find the specific things that turn you off—even within the romance genre. Realizing now that it’s not sadness I need to avoid but joylessness will help me better choose books. I’ve already pulled a stack of lit fic from my shelves to donate to the library because when I looked at reviews of those books, I could see that they have the same mood of the one I just DNFed.

Life is too short to read books that make us feel worse. (Unless reading depressing books is your jam, then you do you!)

I need to mainline the hope.

Do you have ultra specific things in a book that just don’t work for you?

Things That Are Making Me Happy for Now

Enhancing my Buffy Rewatch

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been doing a rewatch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer because I’ve been in a vampire mood and Buffy makes me happy. But what I haven’t shared is that I’m watching it this time while using this guide from Vox that ranks every episode from Worst to Best. (Note: I’m still watching the episodes in release order, I’m just reading the paragraph about each episode from this article before I watch the episode.)

I’m so surprised by how much this has enhanced my rewatch. The authors of the article did a fantastic job giving a little paragraph about each episode and telling you why it’s significant (or not) in the grand scheme of the show or sharing little bits of trivia about the episode. And you can tell the authors are heartfelt fans because they’re coming at these descriptions from a place of loving fandom instead of doling out harsh critiques. To speak to the theme above—they’re full of joy. I love it so much!

I’ve also further enhanced this rewatch by watching the Angel episodes in the order they aired after each Buffy one (starting in season 4) so that I watch them in the way they originally came out, as back-to-back shows on the same night. If you want the order of Buffy and Angel episodes as they aired, here’s the best list I found.

Note: If you’ve never watched the show, you may not want to look at the ranking list until a second watch. It does have spoilers.

But speaking of spoilers…

I read this article…

Stop Worry About Spoilers—They Actually Help You Enjoy the Story More via Gizmodo.

and I was really fascinated by what psychologists found. They found that people actually liked a show more when they were spoiled before watching.

It seems counterintuitive, but I definitely see how this can be the case. There are certain movies or books I wouldn’t have wanted to be spoiled on, but there have also been times that I like knowing what’s coming because I can relax into the watching or reading and notice other things.

I think that’s what makes rewatching TV shows so fun. I know what’s going to happen on Buffy, but now I can see all the little forewarning things or see pieces that will become something bigger later.

Also, romance novels have the ultimate spoiler built in, right? We know they’re going to end happily. That is the VERY REASON we’re reading them. We want to be spoiled on that part because then it feels safe to read. The characters aren’t going to break up or get killed or die of some horrible disease. Therefore, we can sink into the darker parts or black moments of the story because we know, in the end, they’re going to be okay.

That’s a spoiler I’m happy to have!

How do you feel about spoilers? Do you ever flip to the end of a book or look up spoilers?

I'm done with joyless books.

Sad vs. joyless books, an enhanced Buffy rewatch, and are spoilers actually good?

Things That Are Making Me Happy for Now

Enhancing my Buffy Rewatch

But speaking of spoilers…

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