I think you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. You shouldn’t be feeling any anxiety when your reading for pleasure. You can just keep going and if it turns out you missed an important detail, you can always go back later. And I wouldn’t worry about time investment. It may take you longer to get thru the book, but you shouldn’t worry about that if your reading for fun anyways. Go at your own pace.

One of my favorite books. There’s so many characters packed into this book and everyone is given a pretty in-depth storyline. Trying to keep track of everything can be a bit of a challenge. I found myself having to flip back and forth re-reading certain chapters or sections to understand it all. But it’s worth is because the book is so good.

The fact that each characters had multiple names was a bit confusing at first. It helped to just think of them as having legal names and nicknames. I think my copy also had a name reference guide in the front of the book so that might have helped as well.

If I had to pick one, it would be Black Swan Green by David Mitchel.

But others that come to mind are

Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

On Beauty by Zadie Smith and

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov