Well, you were certainly right about the 'horribly depressing' part. Wow.

I am sorry; I'm not quite sure what to recommend. You could try reading some recent scientific work by women, but that still wouldn't help with the scrolls and knowledge.

I appreciated so much that she is intelligent and fascinated by science and aromantic, and that she never gets raped.

Yes.

It is a painful image, but I appreciated too that her last view in life is not a religious icon or a human face, but the circle of sky through the ruined library's rotunda, forming an ellipse.