Ten Literary Fiction Books I Wholeheartedly Recommend, Part I

Hello! I'm finally starting my blog, yay! I'll mostly be writing about books and music and other things that make me happy ❤️

For my first post, I thought I'd share ten of my favourite literary fiction books that I wholeheartedly recommend. Because I tend to overwrite (oops), I've split it into two posts, so this is part I!

If you've read any of the books below, I'd love to hear your thoughts! :)

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♡ Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney!!!! She is one of my all-time fav authors. While I like all her books, Conversations With Friends is my favourite ❤️ It's about a young woman named Frances who begins a love affair with a married man, Nick. But the novel also explores Frances's relationship with her best friend, and ex-gf, Bobbi (who is actually very pretentious and annoying and I don't like her). I really love books about complex relationships and something about Frances really appeals to me.

Memorable quote(s):

"I thought about all the things I had never told Nick about myself, and I started to feel better then, as if my privacy extended all around me like a barrier protecting my body."

"I realised my life would be full of mundane physical suffering, and that there was nothing special about it. Suffering wouldn't make me special, and pretending not to suffer wouldn't make me special. Talking about it, or even writing about it, would not transform the suffering into something useful."

♡ Mudflowers by Aley Waterman

I buddy read this with a bunch of strangers on Instagram last year, which was both fun and kind of terrifying (social anxiety, anyone?)

Mudflowers follows Sophie (it's me! Kind of), an artist who lives in Toronto with her best friend and sometimes friends-with-benefits Alex. One night, she meets Maggie, and becomes instantly infatuated with her. The two then begin a romantic relationship, but ultimately the dynamic between Sophie, Alex, and Maggie becomes complex and strained. At its core, Mudflowers is a story about relationships, individualism, loss, grief, and love. Some might see Sophie as self-absorbed and therefore annoying and immature, but how can we not appear self-absorbed when we see the world through our own perspectives and beliefs and contexts? We all, to an extent, think that we're unique individuals with unique experiences. To me, it's a very human response.

Memorable quote(s)

"Maybe it was possible that some manifestations of love allowed people to grow, but some love is so big it takes up the whole room."

"When I think about this time that I didn't get, it hurts more than anything else hurts, because it is as imaginable as it is impossible and there's no getting out of it, the space between the feeling of inevitability and impossibility."

♡ Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie is the name of the mc, a young woman in her twenties, whose bf has just broken up with her. What follows is a downward spiral of her mental health, as she tries to grapple with her feelings.

There were two main aspects of this book that went hand in hand: mental health and race. Regarding the latter, Carty-Williams presents a vivid experience of the racism that Black women encounter daily, as well as how that affects both mental and physical health. We learn that Queenie's ex bf, Tom, and his family, who are white, were continuously racist towards her in the past, with Tom dismissing her feelings every time she brought it up. The author also shows how racism has impacted Queenie in the workplace, among her friends, in public, and with other men she's dated.

In terms of mental health, Queenie has been through a lot of trauma. This book delves into how unprocessed trauma can affect individuals and their loved ones around them.

Memorable quote(s):

"I feel worried, like something really bad is about to happen, but I can't pinpoint what, and then I feel even more worried because I can't work out why I feel the way I do. I feel frightened, like, properly scared."

♡ Shut Up You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji

Mutonji's debut novel is a beautifully written story about a Congolese girl's upbringing in Scarborough, a mainly low-income and culturally diverse suburb of Toronto. The book discusses themes of racism, poverty, immigration, sexuality, and more.

What first drew me to this book was the title. I felt so captivated by it (and still do!). Shut Up You're Pretty is described as a series of short stories, which is technically true. But each short story is about the same girl, Loli, and different moments in her life. It's truly a coming-of-age-type novel. To me, the stories just got better and better as I read. Mutonji has a way of storytelling that's very vivid and emotional, and I also appreciated the sense of blaséness (is that a word lol?) throughout. But that's how the characters coped with their surroundings; with a sense of indifference, though it's clear as a reader how much certain situations in their lives actually affected them deep down.

Memorable quote(s)

"I liked the night. I liked how it came at the end of every day, no matter what."

"Was it the greatest love of my life, or was it just the one that I had?"

♡ Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

My first thought after finishing: "Well, that was depressing." 🫠

Ripe follows a young woman named Cassie, who works at a tech company in Silicon Valley, as she navigates toxic bosses, long hours, and unethical projects. Very quickly, she starts to feel the effects of severe burnout, as well as a surprise pregnancy that causes the black hole that's followed her throughout her life to expand and grow.

I thought this book was brilliant. It reads like dystopian fiction, and then you realize quickly "oh it's actually reality," so basically, we're all living in a dystopia right now. At its heart, it's a critique of capitalism. I was so anxious throughout because I could feel the lack of control Cassie had over her life. Her job is demanding, toxic, and unethical, but she needs money to survive, even though she can barely afford rent, which just keeps getting higher. On top of that is the climate crisis, rising temperatures, and a mysterious virus that's starting to spread. Sound familiar?

Two things that stood out to me were the black hole that's been with Cassie since she was born, and her "fake" self that comes to the surface at work. I felt like the black hole was a representation of how her anxiety and depression have been with her her whole life. I could also deeply relate to the fake self mask she puts on at work, as I feel like I have to do that sometimes when I'm interacting with people. I thought the author did a great job with adding these two elements to the story.

Memorable quote(s):

"When you're young, every part of life seems big and monumental. Once older, you can see it for what it is: smaller pieces of a larger game you have no choice but to play."

"You wake up one day and realize what you've become, what you allow. When you have to stare down into the pit at yourself, at your own choices, at the ways in which you have been cunning, and stupid, and false, and wretched, to keep up with the world around you."

And that's it for now! Stay tuned for part II ❤️

Love,

Sofie 🌸📖

Painting: Miss Auras, The Red Book by Sir John Lavery, circa 1892