I've been re-reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series lately and one thing that stuck out to me is how much GRRM's writing makes each chapter feel like a children's' short story in length and structure. Coupled with the alternating viewpoints and the books feel rather than like an anthology of fairy tales. This then only further exacerbates the starkness of the sex, the violence, and the horror that the series doesn't shy away from. We're anticipating a happy-ever-after at the close of chapters that rarely deliver.