I’ve been thinking about a rather important literary question. If you could live inside the world of any book, which would you choose? More importantly, what book world would be your absolute nightmare?

I have a few candidates.

First, anything involving a dystopian society where the government controls every aspect of your existence. No thanks. I already have enough people telling me what to do.

But my real nightmare might be a world where everyone is perpetually pleasant. Think a fictional village where everyone smiles, bakes bread, knows their neighbors, and spends their afternoons discussing gardening and the weather.

Nobody is sarcastic. Nobody is cynical. Nobody has an inappropriate thought. Everyone communicates using emotionally intelligent statements beginning with, “I hear what you’re saying.”

I would last approximately 11 minutes.

Imagine being unable to roll your eyes, make an irreverent observation, or privately question someone’s life choices. No dark humor. No complicated characters. No morally questionable antiheroes. Just an endless parade of wholesome people having wholesome experiences.

And let’s be honest, I need a little chaos. Give me complicated characters, questionable decisions, a good mystery, and at least one person whose psychological profile would keep an entire clinical team employed.

Perhaps this says something about me. Maybe I’m not looking for a perfect fictional world. Maybe I’m looking for one that keeps me entertained, occasionally horrified, and sufficiently occupied that I don’t have to talk to the neighbors about hydrangeas.

So, no thank you to literary utopia.

I’d rather live in a murder mystery than a neighborhood book club where everyone agrees.

Now I’m curious. What’s your worst book world? And how quickly would you need to escape?