For the better or for the worst, which book actually affected you. I’ll start, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Such an amazing book, well written and suprised me.
[SPOILERS]
The blurb on the back stated that each Lisbon sister k1lled themselves one by one. What I was expecting was throughout every 3 or so chapters, a Lisbon sister would kill themselves. But actually, 85% of the book, was only 1 Lisbon sister dead and the other 4 alive until the end when they all k1lled themselves. If I was told that the large majority of the book was just about the Lisbon girls life through the eyes of teenage boys and then eventually in the end they all k1ll themselves, I would probably be less interested in the book. But this book was hard to put down, it was so well written with amazing vocabulary and it spent the right amount of time explaining things (instead of using 12 pages to describe a staircase or only 3 sentences to describe a plot etc). It kept me interested and also with it being on a slightly alarming topic (suicide), it gave the book an eerie feeling which filled me with a strange comfort.
Slaughterhouse 5 resonated with me on a “someone else gets it” level, especially with things falling out of order and happening all at once, the passively resigned motto of “so it goes”, the avoiding the point for as long as possible until you can’t anymore.
The vimes disc world series is a comfort go-to, though I don’t know that was the intended emotion.
The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The vocabulary was hard to follow at times, but you’re right there with the characters in every emotional beat. It also captured the “dragon rider” concept in a way that most high fantasy just fails to do for me.