What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

This thread is for people to discuss collections of tropes/features you've noticed in a number of books but which (as far as you know) don't have a specific genre or sub-genre label. Maybe it has a label but you haven't heard it; maybe there aren't enough books like this for anyone to have come up with a label yet. New sub-genres appear all the time, often coalescing as marketing labels once a particular book becomes highly successful - see for example the various "Twilight Knockoffs But We Don't Want To Call Them That" labels used by booksellers, such as "dark fantasy" and "paranormal romance".

To start things off, a possible genre/sub-genre/trope collection I've identified lately, which gave me the idea for this thread, is what I call "cozy misery". It combines features of "misery lit" (stories of suffering and abuse meted out to hapless protagonists) and "cozy" fiction (happy, gentle, often wish fulfilment-based fiction). In theory these two genres shouldn't really go together, and that's probably why most of the books I've identified as falling into this category were (in my opinion) not very good, suffering from see-sawing between very dark and very light. However, there are some common features which I assume are what allow the two to co-exist, such as frequently very black-and-white characterization (i.e. every character is either "good" or "bad", with few in between) and a degree of audience emotional gratification from catharsis and "niceness". In theory, mixing very dark and very upbeat or light-hearted tones in fiction is possible, and I've read some darkly comedic works, or ones with cathartic transitions from misery to a happy or bittersweet ending, which do achieve this, but I've yet to see a really successful use of "cozy misery", maybe because I don't like the black-and-white good/evil or "cutesy" characterization that seems to go with "cozy misery".

Books which I've identified as falling to some degree into the "cozy misery" category:

Just One Damned Thing After Another (ostensibly sci-fi, but relies heavily on a strange mixture of supposed "wackiness" and glurgey emotional moments with nasty scenes of abuse or moments of tragedy)
The Nothing Girl (by the same author, featuring the same mix of wackiness, romance, nastiness and melodrama, with added cutesy animal and human waifs and strays for extra glurge)
The Keeper of Lost Things (a less extreme example, with a bit less outright nastiness but again, a mix of cutesiness and emotional melodrama; the "wacky" mentally disabled character with magical powers is a lowlight)
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (this is probably the nearest thing to a good "cozy misery" book that I've read, but it still suffers from jarring tonal shifts between what I thought was over-the-top abusive backstory stuff, inappropriate levity and cutesy coziness)

Has anyone else read any "cozy misery" books? Are there unrecognized sub-genres that you've identified?

I haven't read the books you are referring to, but a couple of months ago I heard about the up lit genre - seems similar and this article also has some of the same titles: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Johanne wrote: "I haven't read the books you are referring to, but a couple of months ago I heard about the up lit genre - seems similar and this article also has some of the same titles: https://www.theguardian.c..."

Interesting - I didn't find Eleanor Oliphant to be heartwarming uplifting "happiness porn" at all; I found it tragic and doom-laden with its relatively upbeat ending only coming after a descent into total misery. I thought it didn't do a very good job of "embracing the different" as the article suggests - I felt it made Eleanor into a Sheldon Cooper-esque comic caricature in places, which I didn't like. I don't find someone making constant social faux pas because of their abusive background at all funny. That said, there were parts of it I did like a lot, and I think the author was brave to make Eleanor quite a "spiky" and potentially "unlikeable" character rather than a poor pathetic little woobie.

Another book in a similar "lonely person meets lovely cuddly friends who hug them and snuggle them and love them no matter what" vein is The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which doesn't really fall into "cozy misery" because it doesn't have much in the way of misery.

It's an interesting discussion, but it's difficult for me to engage in fully since I haven't read the books. But it sounds like it's not the same.
I will think of some other examples for this thread, it's a great discussion topic.

Another "new sub-genre" into which The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet could fall would be something like "kinder, gentler sci-fi". That is, science fiction with less focus on action, violent conflict, scientific/technological details etc. and more focus on relationships etc., while not being simply romance/soap opera/whatever in space/the future, often by female and/or non-white authors and with diverse casts. The sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, was in my opinion a more successful example of this sub-genre - it had less outright "coziness" and more proper conflict while still having heartwarming elements and being focused on character. Another book in this vein which I read recently was Waiting on a Bright Moon.

Still reading "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" I stumbled on this discussion, interesting point made here. Will certainly follow and probably check out other books mentioned here. Thanks for bringing this ideas out in the open here.