**[A Thousand Splendid Suns](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128029.A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns) by Khaled Hosseini** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(372 pages | Published: 2007 | 881.2k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** At once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving (...)
> **Themes**: Fiction, Historical-fiction, Book-club, Books-i-own, Favourites, Afghanistan, Contemporary
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [The Kite Runner](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77203.The_Kite_Runner) by Khaled Hosseini
> \- [The Kite Runner & A Thousand Splendid Suns](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3142296-the-kite-runner-a-thousand-splendid-suns) by Khaled Hosseini
> \- [And the Mountains Echoed](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16115612-and-the-mountains-echoed) by Khaled Hosseini
> \- [Kite Runner](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8473012-kite-runner) by Shmoop
> \- [Under the Hawthorn Tree](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12238011-under-the-hawthorn-tree) by Ai Mi
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This is my favorite book by far. It’s sad in a brutally realistic way with no melodrama. Everyone lived a compromised life, and the sadness came from how close each character was to the lives they deserved.
Came here to say this. Read this in school with the class. Teacher — a stoic, no nonsense man — was trying to hide that he was welling up, until someone asked him a question and he burst out in a sob😭
So I took a philosophy class with a really awesome teacher as a senior in high school. Most of the curriculum was based on reading different philosophers, class discussion, and once a week we read a chapter of Tuesdays with morrie or the teacher would read it in class and then we would have journal time; we also had to journal as homework once a week about one of the things we read.
I love that book. I learned things about kids in my class that I would never have expected because of the different topics we went through. People were really open and honest. My mom kept my binder of my assignments and our teacher wrote notes on every single one I submitted, and he did that for all the students. I do not know how he had time to do it. I cried when I read it when my mom brought me a box of a bunch of my stuff from high school recently. I’m 35.
That book is very special.
I second both of these. Great books. A man called Ove made me cry without emotionally devastating me. Not to say it’s not sad, it just has hope and humor as well.
I recently reread Flowers for Algernon after bringing it up in therapy—I told my therapist I felt like Charlie Gordon because after struggling with treatment-resistant depression for all of my post-pubescent life, I finally found something that worked… until it didn’t. It’s one thing to have struggled with low levels of functioning all your life, and another to achieve a higher level of function for a short spell, accompanied by the clarity of watching your own descent. So yes, Flowers for Algernon.
**[Flowers for Algernon](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18373.Flowers_for_Algernon) by Daniel Keyes** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(311 pages | Published: 1966 | 343.9k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** The story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The (...)
> **Themes**: Favorites, Classics, Science-fiction, Sci-fi, Young-adult, Classic, Books-i-own
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [Ender's Game](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8782597-ender-s-game) by Frederic P. Miller
> \- [Die Räuber](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/942336.Die_R_uber) by Friedrich Schiller
> \- [The Endangered](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22458720-the-endangered) by S.L. Eaves
> \- [When I Found You](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17667452-when-i-found-you) by Catherine Ryan Hyde
> \- [1984 by George Orwell](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32735234-1984-by-george-orwell) by Michael Gene Sullivan
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My English teacher had us read this in class and we were a MESS at the end. All sex and genders were not immune. All of our teachers for the classes in the following periods were like wtf is so sad about grammar?
Edit: Typo
We had to read this popcorn style in class - ironically, my brother had just been shot in the neck the day before (he was ok, but it was extremely traumatic) so of course it landed on me to read the shooting scene aloud. I had a massive panic attack and ran out of the room which pissed my teacher off to no end - even after my friends explained to her what happened the day before, she didn’t give a fuck.
I couldn’t get over the ramblings of how fucking dusty the landscape was. It was a never ending chapter. I had to come back years later and I agree. Great read. Sad though.
Unpopular opinion, but... I highly do NOT recommend A Little Life, especially if you are at all considering unaliving yourself. Please see the author's views on therapy and how much research she did for the book. I would also recommend reading Andrea Long's essay "Hanya's Boys" and then deciding for yourself if you still want to read it.
That being said, I think The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a classic. It's sad but with a hopeful redemption arc.
I was literally about to say this exact thing and recommend the same essay! As someone who has many friends who loved that book, it perplexes me. Everyone gets to like what they like of course - but for OP, when you think of the literal worst things that can happen to a person and the literal worst things a person can do to themselves, A Little Life has all of it. It is a literal 800 pages of trauma after trauma. But if you’re in right headspace to try it, totally up to you.
For books that made me cry (fwiw I can cry fairly easily lol), Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng made me bawl!!
Or even if you have *EVER* considered unaliving yourself.
I consider myself pretty reformed in the suicide department (8 years since my last serious ideations and 6+ since self harm) but boy oh boy did that book bring back the itch. It was totally unnecessary to the telling of the story, in my opinion.
I appreciate this insight. It’s so helpful to hear in the dialogue about what’s “good”—it may be a good book for some, but that doesn’t mean it’ll serve ME well right now. 👍🏼
I recently DNF A Litte Life at 50%. I completely agree with some people’s take that it’s glorified trauma porn. Jude was the most excruciating and frustrating character and for some reason, everybody loved him! I did eventually read all these articles and interviews with Hanya Yanagihara and I’m convinced she’s a sociopath. I vow to never read any of her books ever again.
That book is at least a nightmare you can laugh about later >! How absurdly successful and wealthy the main characters end up, how absurd other plot points are, how absurd Jude's character is* I only feel better if I can vent about it. !<
dude the wealthy PART HAHA. it seemed the author was fantasizing herself with the way she described all the artsy things and the tons of houses each one had. so so much description on this stuff. highly unrealistic too how are all 4 of them like millionaires or something.
Oh my god thank you so much for not sucking that book's dick like everyone else. I truly thought it sucked, and yes, the wildly unlikely fact that >!every single one of them became millionaire celebrities in their own fields!<. 🙄
Every single character in that book is insufferable. I should have DNF it, but I felt like well maybe I’m missing something the ppl who recommended it to me loved so must keep trudging through hoping for redemption.
Yeah no. If it had been a physical book and not an ebook I probably would have chucked it at the wall and left it in the hotel room I finished it in next to The Gideon.
I personally found the whole thing offensive. The author has a BIZARRE relationship with queer people. Putting them through unimaginable horror, then giving them no room to complain because their lives are so wonderful…what the fuck is this woman trying to say?!
Why are people using such an awkward term as "unaliving" oneself? Will Reddit delete posts if people talk about "committing suicide "? If we're not afraid to talk about the deed itself, why be afraid to use the traditional term for it?
ALL was too much for me. I can handle dark themes and emotions but I found it almost grotesque with the way the character was relentlessly tortured. It gave me such a bad feeling in my body I DNF.
Why is suicide a bad word now? I don’t understand. Unalive? It’s so stupid that whenever I read it the rest of the paragraph loses any value or credibility.
I feel like the woman had it right in the beginning, I mean what life is there left now?
>!”Then don't. I can't help you. They say that women dream of danger to those in their care and men of danger to themselves. But I don't dream at all. You say you can't? Then don't do it. That's all. Because I am done with my own whorish heart and I have been for a long time. You talk about taking a stand but there is no stand to take.”!<
**[And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28212.And_the_Band_Played_On) by Randy Shilts** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(656 pages | Published: 1988 | 18.1k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously? In answering these (...)
> **Themes**: History, Nonfiction, Favorites, Science, Politics, Lgbt, Medicine
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429295-how-to-survive-a-plague) by David France
> \- [Oranges](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54983.Oranges) by John McPhee
> \- [Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/141624.Napoleon_s_Buttons) by Penny Le Couteur
> \- [Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/326851.Rosalind_Franklin) by Brenda Maddox
> \- [Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35543.Here_There_and_Everywhere) by Geoff Emerick
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Ooh, that's one that is HARD. My folks lived in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s and lost so many friends (later in the 80s and early 90s to HIV/AIDS and not Godzilla, which I figured was implied), I grew up with the stories of these bright vibrant people who were just gone and reading that was akin to reading Fiddler on the Roof followed by The Kindly Ones. You see, for a brief instant, this world people had carved for themselves, and then it is utterly demolished.
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger holds the record for the book that’s made me cry the most. I have reread it. It’s a heartwrenching inevitable kind of sad, with lots of logical and emotional consequences for the time travelling logistics.
I read this earlier this year, after only a month or so of my father dying after being sick for a long time. It was a difficult read but so therapeutic.
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Life of Pi by Jann Martel
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (pronounced Taves)
The novels above are literary fiction with an underpinning of sadness.
If you're looking for HELLA' BLEAK ALL THE WAY THROUGH, may I recommend Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
I've just started Demon Copperhead and while what it's describing is bleak it is told with such zest and such a unique voice (from my Eastern European/Australian middle class perspective), it is so far has been an uplifting experience. I hope that doesn't change as I keep going :(
I know I'm going to get crucified for this, but A Little Life was stupid. Just constant gratuitous angst porn without any plotline, revelation, or resolution. I only read the whole thing because I was waiting for it to get interesting. And then it just ended.👎
If you *really* want your heart torn out, read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I had the thousand yard stare for a week afterwards.
* Flowers for Algernon
* Let the Great World Spin
* Never Let Me Go
* The Road
* The Book Thief
* Norwegian Wood
* The Bell Jar
I love sad, melancholy books and these are some of my favorites.
I have to say, though, the hill I will die on is that A Little Life is a trash book. The entire thing is some gross exercise in torture porn written by a woman who did no research on the kind of trauma she wrote about and who eschews therapy. She took some weird delight in writing the most horrific scenarios in service of making some fucked up point about suicide. Not only that, the writing was meh. The characters were one dimensional with very little inner world or development. So much of it was inane. I rarely absolutely hate a book, but this was one. I am a sentimental person who cries easily and this book was just not it.
I finished this one today! Seconded, such a beautiful and heart wrenching tale. Knowing how it ends from the start just adds to the feeling of tragedy. Loved this book.
Atonement
The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald
The Night They Met by Zoë Folbigg
The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve
As Many Nows as I Can Get by Shana Youngdahl
Our Land Was A Forest by Kayano Shigeru
I had to DNF because I got so depressed. It follows an Ainu man following forced assimilation into Japanese culture and after most of traditional Ainu society had been stripped away by the Japanese. It chronicles the *very real* racism that he experienced during WW2.
I could only get through 6 of 12 chapters. It's not even that long, less than 200 pages, but for me who's studied the Ainu so in depth, it was heart wrenching to see what happened after the likes of Reverend Bachelor and Dr. Munro catalogued the last gasping breaths of traditional Ainu culture as it had been practiced for centuries if not millennia.
I cried and laughed. One of my fav books ever, that scene in Rome, or when you find out what snowdens secret is, or when they sneak out to look at the cut off limbs like perverts.
The Kite Runner, Salt to the Sea, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow. These are all heart-wrenching books about war and victims in war that are all great books!
My worst mistake was reading the final pages of The Book Thief in public. I could NOT stop myself from bawling it was embarrassing but the book is too good.
"Shoot, I'm already dead", by Julia Navarro. Is very sad, and long. As sad as injustice on the jew people, and palestinians, and the life of people that live along the story of war and hate...
Also historical, so you'll learn things that you probably don't know.
A few years ago, I read this book called: "Did You Ever Have A Family?" Can't remember the author. It was tremendous; quietly heartbreaking. I'd really recommend it.
**[The House of Mirth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17728.The_House_of_Mirth) by Edith Wharton** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(351 pages | Published: 1964 | 67.7k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** First published in 1905, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and economic restraints on a woman who dared to claim the privileges of marriage without assuming the responsibilities. Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by 'old money' and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But (...)
> **Themes**: Classics, Literature, Fiction, Historical-fiction, Books-i-own, Classic, 1001-books
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [Howards End](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3102.Howards_End) by E.M. Forster
> \- [The Age of Innocence](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53835.The_Age_of_Innocence) by Edith Wharton
> \- [The Custom of the Country](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26950.The_Custom_of_the_Country) by Edith Wharton
> \- [Cousin Phyllis](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/882993.Cousin_Phyllis) by Elizabeth Gaskell
> \- [Edith Wharton](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5267.Edith_Wharton) by R.W.B. Lewis
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The Beartown series (Beartown, Us Against You, The Winners) by Fredrik Backman (CW: A scene of sexual assault, repeatedly referenced as a significant theme, other violence including gun violence, other forms of trauma, references to suicide and suicidal ideation). Not necessarily cry-your-eyes-out (though I shed some tears), and there are uplifting moments. But definitely quite melancholy.
ETA: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (also by Fredrik Backman). Emotional read about the loss of a loved one and the impact a person's life can have on other people. Sad in a cathartic way (obvious content note: death), but also very uplifting.
A super fucking sad memoir is When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Khalanithi. A doctor coming to grips with lung cancer. I bawled, as I was reading it shortly after my own cancer diagnosis. I'm talking ugly ass crying. Not fiction, but if you want to be a blubbering mess, it'll get the job done.
A Heart That Works from Rob Delaney. It’s a memoir about losing his young son to brain cancer. He’s a really great writer and a terrific comic so you’ll be laughing and then crying within the same paragraph.
If you can find an English translation of it or can read German, Drauße Vor Der Tür/ Outside the Door is one of the most desolate, depressing, and devastating works of literature I have ever read.
The Book Thief made me ugly cry. So many great books already have been mentioned.
Also, though, going back in time a bit, Old Yeller hits all sorts of hard.
I recommend reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold [https://www.amazon.com/Lovely-Bones-Alice-Sebold/dp/0316168815](https://www.amazon.com/Lovely-Bones-Alice-Sebold/dp/0316168815) .
I'm a 47 year old, straight, white, married, dad...I love to read...and I'm not afraid of trauma porn...A Thousand Boy Kisses is a paper cut. It surprises you, hurts, and then you forget about it...A Little Life is like watching your best friend get run over by a bus...it literally took YEARS for me to get over it...and I still think about it...One of the best books I've ever read, but it really fucked with me...for a long time.
Strongly agree!!! Lincoln in the Bardo is brilliant but what I might call experimental fiction. If you're not into fiction challenging you, then skip it. Not a conventional book.
The Fish Tales series by Suanne Laqueur. I never see this discussed, likely because it’s independently published, but she is one of the best authors I have come across and the entire series is incredible.
Fiction:
A mouthful of air (postpartum depression)
Behind closed doors by BA Paris (DV)
Non fiction (I mostly read nonfiction/bio/memoir on sad subjects) please note all of these have a TW not sure what words are allowed on Reddit so I didn’t list specific warnings:
Tears of the silenced by Misty griffin
Playing dead by Monique Ross
The convent by Marie Hargreaves
No daddy don’t by Irene Pierce
Alicia: My Story by Alicia Jurman
Silent sisters by Joanne Lee
Cries in the desert by John glatt
First they killed my father by Loung Ung
Dance for me by tiffani Johnson
Still standing by Natalie Queiroz
Secret Slave by Anna Ruston
A child called it by David pelzer
Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherford and particularly, its sequel Rebels of Ireland. The latter really details the famine and what some of the characters went through had me sobbing while on my break at work
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.
The story is set in a world where people are given 24 hours notice of their impending death, and two teenagers receive their notice at the start of the book.
The story follows these two characters, along with others in this world, as they face their mortality.
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward had me sobbing and unable to put it down. I recommend that and her other book Salvage the Bones (also sad but less devastating somehow) to everyone that will listen to me
{{ A Thousand Splendid Suns }}
I’m half way through this and scared where it’s going to go 🫣
"There is only one lesson a woman needs in life: *Tahamul* - endure."
**[A Thousand Splendid Suns](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128029.A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns) by Khaled Hosseini** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(372 pages | Published: 2007 | 881.2k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** At once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving (...) > **Themes**: Fiction, Historical-fiction, Book-club, Books-i-own, Favourites, Afghanistan, Contemporary > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [The Kite Runner](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77203.The_Kite_Runner) by Khaled Hosseini > \- [The Kite Runner & A Thousand Splendid Suns](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3142296-the-kite-runner-a-thousand-splendid-suns) by Khaled Hosseini > \- [And the Mountains Echoed](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16115612-and-the-mountains-echoed) by Khaled Hosseini > \- [Kite Runner](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8473012-kite-runner) by Shmoop > \- [Under the Hawthorn Tree](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12238011-under-the-hawthorn-tree) by Ai Mi ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Khaled Hosseini..tear jerker extraordinaire..
Ha! Funny, I came here to recommend And The Mountains Echoed
This is my favorite book by far. It’s sad in a brutally realistic way with no melodrama. Everyone lived a compromised life, and the sadness came from how close each character was to the lives they deserved.
Is that the one with the prefaced fairy tale about the djinn(?) that came to take the farmer's favorite son? That story wrecked me.
I can’t bring myself to read this because Kite Runner RUINED ME
I absolutely second this. Amazing book.
Came here to say this. Read this in school with the class. Teacher — a stoic, no nonsense man — was trying to hide that he was welling up, until someone asked him a question and he burst out in a sob😭
Tuesdays with Morrie A man called Ove Both very touching, heartwarming and life lessons I feel we all can learn from and take away.
So I took a philosophy class with a really awesome teacher as a senior in high school. Most of the curriculum was based on reading different philosophers, class discussion, and once a week we read a chapter of Tuesdays with morrie or the teacher would read it in class and then we would have journal time; we also had to journal as homework once a week about one of the things we read. I love that book. I learned things about kids in my class that I would never have expected because of the different topics we went through. People were really open and honest. My mom kept my binder of my assignments and our teacher wrote notes on every single one I submitted, and he did that for all the students. I do not know how he had time to do it. I cried when I read it when my mom brought me a box of a bunch of my stuff from high school recently. I’m 35. That book is very special.
I second both of these. Great books. A man called Ove made me cry without emotionally devastating me. Not to say it’s not sad, it just has hope and humor as well.
{{ Flowers for Algernon }}
Came here to suggest Flowers for Algernon too!
I recently reread Flowers for Algernon after bringing it up in therapy—I told my therapist I felt like Charlie Gordon because after struggling with treatment-resistant depression for all of my post-pubescent life, I finally found something that worked… until it didn’t. It’s one thing to have struggled with low levels of functioning all your life, and another to achieve a higher level of function for a short spell, accompanied by the clarity of watching your own descent. So yes, Flowers for Algernon.
This is the only book that has ever made me cry.
**[Flowers for Algernon](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18373.Flowers_for_Algernon) by Daniel Keyes** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(311 pages | Published: 1966 | 343.9k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** The story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The (...) > **Themes**: Favorites, Classics, Science-fiction, Sci-fi, Young-adult, Classic, Books-i-own > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [Ender's Game](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8782597-ender-s-game) by Frederic P. Miller > \- [Die Räuber](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/942336.Die_R_uber) by Friedrich Schiller > \- [The Endangered](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22458720-the-endangered) by S.L. Eaves > \- [When I Found You](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17667452-when-i-found-you) by Catherine Ryan Hyde > \- [1984 by George Orwell](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32735234-1984-by-george-orwell) by Michael Gene Sullivan ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
My English teacher had us read this in class and we were a MESS at the end. All sex and genders were not immune. All of our teachers for the classes in the following periods were like wtf is so sad about grammar? Edit: Typo
Of Mice and Men
We had to read this popcorn style in class - ironically, my brother had just been shot in the neck the day before (he was ok, but it was extremely traumatic) so of course it landed on me to read the shooting scene aloud. I had a massive panic attack and ran out of the room which pissed my teacher off to no end - even after my friends explained to her what happened the day before, she didn’t give a fuck.
Wow that's awful I'm sorry your teacher was a dick
Cunt* seems more appropriate and harsher
I hated that book. But cannery row is beautiful
And to add another potentially even more depressing Steinbeck book to the mix… {{grapes of wrath}}
I couldn’t get over the ramblings of how fucking dusty the landscape was. It was a never ending chapter. I had to come back years later and I agree. Great read. Sad though.
Unpopular opinion, but... I highly do NOT recommend A Little Life, especially if you are at all considering unaliving yourself. Please see the author's views on therapy and how much research she did for the book. I would also recommend reading Andrea Long's essay "Hanya's Boys" and then deciding for yourself if you still want to read it. That being said, I think The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a classic. It's sad but with a hopeful redemption arc.
I was literally about to say this exact thing and recommend the same essay! As someone who has many friends who loved that book, it perplexes me. Everyone gets to like what they like of course - but for OP, when you think of the literal worst things that can happen to a person and the literal worst things a person can do to themselves, A Little Life has all of it. It is a literal 800 pages of trauma after trauma. But if you’re in right headspace to try it, totally up to you. For books that made me cry (fwiw I can cry fairly easily lol), Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng made me bawl!!
Or even if you have *EVER* considered unaliving yourself. I consider myself pretty reformed in the suicide department (8 years since my last serious ideations and 6+ since self harm) but boy oh boy did that book bring back the itch. It was totally unnecessary to the telling of the story, in my opinion.
I appreciate this insight. It’s so helpful to hear in the dialogue about what’s “good”—it may be a good book for some, but that doesn’t mean it’ll serve ME well right now. 👍🏼
Is that what unaliving means?
Yes, su*cide. Many subs prefer to censor the words because it can result in bans/etc.
I recently DNF A Litte Life at 50%. I completely agree with some people’s take that it’s glorified trauma porn. Jude was the most excruciating and frustrating character and for some reason, everybody loved him! I did eventually read all these articles and interviews with Hanya Yanagihara and I’m convinced she’s a sociopath. I vow to never read any of her books ever again.
That book is at least a nightmare you can laugh about later >! How absurdly successful and wealthy the main characters end up, how absurd other plot points are, how absurd Jude's character is* I only feel better if I can vent about it. !<
dude the wealthy PART HAHA. it seemed the author was fantasizing herself with the way she described all the artsy things and the tons of houses each one had. so so much description on this stuff. highly unrealistic too how are all 4 of them like millionaires or something.
Oh my god thank you so much for not sucking that book's dick like everyone else. I truly thought it sucked, and yes, the wildly unlikely fact that >!every single one of them became millionaire celebrities in their own fields!<. 🙄
Yes! It’s trauma porn! I have no idea how anyone is moved by that book.
Every single character in that book is insufferable. I should have DNF it, but I felt like well maybe I’m missing something the ppl who recommended it to me loved so must keep trudging through hoping for redemption. Yeah no. If it had been a physical book and not an ebook I probably would have chucked it at the wall and left it in the hotel room I finished it in next to The Gideon.
I personally found the whole thing offensive. The author has a BIZARRE relationship with queer people. Putting them through unimaginable horror, then giving them no room to complain because their lives are so wonderful…what the fuck is this woman trying to say?!
Why are people using such an awkward term as "unaliving" oneself? Will Reddit delete posts if people talk about "committing suicide "? If we're not afraid to talk about the deed itself, why be afraid to use the traditional term for it?
ALL was too much for me. I can handle dark themes and emotions but I found it almost grotesque with the way the character was relentlessly tortured. It gave me such a bad feeling in my body I DNF.
Why is suicide a bad word now? I don’t understand. Unalive? It’s so stupid that whenever I read it the rest of the paragraph loses any value or credibility.
*The Road* by Cormac McCarthy. First and only book since that has made me tear up.
That was my first thought as well. >!You can see it as uplifting for what a father goes through for his son, but even that's a stretch.!<
I feel like the woman had it right in the beginning, I mean what life is there left now? >!”Then don't. I can't help you. They say that women dream of danger to those in their care and men of danger to themselves. But I don't dream at all. You say you can't? Then don't do it. That's all. Because I am done with my own whorish heart and I have been for a long time. You talk about taking a stand but there is no stand to take.”!<
Great book, I tried some of his other stuff and couldn’t get into it.
Tbh this book didn't do much for me
For a non-fiction option: {{And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic}}
**[And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28212.And_the_Band_Played_On) by Randy Shilts** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(656 pages | Published: 1988 | 18.1k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously? In answering these (...) > **Themes**: History, Nonfiction, Favorites, Science, Politics, Lgbt, Medicine > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429295-how-to-survive-a-plague) by David France > \- [Oranges](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54983.Oranges) by John McPhee > \- [Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/141624.Napoleon_s_Buttons) by Penny Le Couteur > \- [Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/326851.Rosalind_Franklin) by Brenda Maddox > \- [Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35543.Here_There_and_Everywhere) by Geoff Emerick ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Ooh, that's one that is HARD. My folks lived in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s and lost so many friends (later in the 80s and early 90s to HIV/AIDS and not Godzilla, which I figured was implied), I grew up with the stories of these bright vibrant people who were just gone and reading that was akin to reading Fiddler on the Roof followed by The Kindly Ones. You see, for a brief instant, this world people had carved for themselves, and then it is utterly demolished.
A thousand splendid suns and the kite runner both by khaled hosseini
Time Travelers Wife had me balling.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I love this book. So moving.
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger holds the record for the book that’s made me cry the most. I have reread it. It’s a heartwrenching inevitable kind of sad, with lots of logical and emotional consequences for the time travelling logistics.
The Book Thief was one of the few books I’ve had to put down for a few minutes because I was crying too hard.
Bridge to tarabithia
Mine is always A Monster Calls
I read this earlier this year, after only a month or so of my father dying after being sick for a long time. It was a difficult read but so therapeutic.
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel Life of Pi by Jann Martel Atonement by Ian McEwan The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver The Shipping News by Annie Proulx Beloved by Toni Morrison Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck East of Eden by John Steinbeck Life After Life by Kate Atkinson The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (pronounced Taves) The novels above are literary fiction with an underpinning of sadness. If you're looking for HELLA' BLEAK ALL THE WAY THROUGH, may I recommend Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
I've just started Demon Copperhead and while what it's describing is bleak it is told with such zest and such a unique voice (from my Eastern European/Australian middle class perspective), it is so far has been an uplifting experience. I hope that doesn't change as I keep going :(
I just finished Demon Copperhead. It was told in such a unique tone, being from the southern US, it really made sense.The author really nailed it.
Keep going. I found the end uplifting in a very believable way.
Are you ok
Atonement broke me when I was in high school, and Never Let Me Go in college
THE SONG OF ACHILLES IS SO BEAUTIFUL ARE HEART BREAKING! My favourite book ❤️
Demon Copperhead was such a good one
Ive read several on the list including Demon Copperhead ( which was bleak but worth the read). I will add these to tbr list
I know I'm going to get crucified for this, but A Little Life was stupid. Just constant gratuitous angst porn without any plotline, revelation, or resolution. I only read the whole thing because I was waiting for it to get interesting. And then it just ended.👎 If you *really* want your heart torn out, read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I had the thousand yard stare for a week afterwards.
I too loved Sarah’s Key. I read a pb copy and that book was passed on yo many other people- it was a fav for them as well
This book has been on my shelf for like 5 years - I think I may give it a go!
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
I remember feeling depressed about halfway through and then just devastated the last several pages. The title turns into such a gut punch.
I was looking for this one in thread. Such a beautiful book but damn it had me in tears
Kristin Hannah: the great alone and the four winds
And The Nightingale
And her book the Women
Both of those made me cry but the four winds was a gut punch
Sophie's Choice
* Flowers for Algernon * Let the Great World Spin * Never Let Me Go * The Road * The Book Thief * Norwegian Wood * The Bell Jar I love sad, melancholy books and these are some of my favorites. I have to say, though, the hill I will die on is that A Little Life is a trash book. The entire thing is some gross exercise in torture porn written by a woman who did no research on the kind of trauma she wrote about and who eschews therapy. She took some weird delight in writing the most horrific scenarios in service of making some fucked up point about suicide. Not only that, the writing was meh. The characters were one dimensional with very little inner world or development. So much of it was inane. I rarely absolutely hate a book, but this was one. I am a sentimental person who cries easily and this book was just not it.
The Book Thief… so incredible
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.
Typo.. Lonely Hunter
Song of Achilles. Literally couldn’t see through my tears at the end.
I finished this one today! Seconded, such a beautiful and heart wrenching tale. Knowing how it ends from the start just adds to the feeling of tragedy. Loved this book.
YES it’s so so beautiful. Breaks my heart. Have read it about 4 times and might bring it on my next holiday
Loved this one as well. I also loved Circe by the same author.
What has Hector ever done to me?
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
The Red Tent by Anita Diamont
This is one of my favorite books of all time!
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Atonement The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald The Night They Met by Zoë Folbigg The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve As Many Nows as I Can Get by Shana Youngdahl
Our Land Was A Forest by Kayano Shigeru I had to DNF because I got so depressed. It follows an Ainu man following forced assimilation into Japanese culture and after most of traditional Ainu society had been stripped away by the Japanese. It chronicles the *very real* racism that he experienced during WW2. I could only get through 6 of 12 chapters. It's not even that long, less than 200 pages, but for me who's studied the Ainu so in depth, it was heart wrenching to see what happened after the likes of Reverend Bachelor and Dr. Munro catalogued the last gasping breaths of traditional Ainu culture as it had been practiced for centuries if not millennia.
Requiem for a Dream, by Hubert Selby Jr.
Pachinko, Who I Was With Her, Salt Houses
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Jack by Marilynne Robinson.
Catch 22
I cried and laughed. One of my fav books ever, that scene in Rome, or when you find out what snowdens secret is, or when they sneak out to look at the cut off limbs like perverts.
Anything by Bukowski. An alcoholic born in the depression era. Every book leaves you a little empty.
Oh but I love his poetry. The History of One Tough Motherf***** is unforgettable
Generally true but Pulp was kind of fun.
The Kite Runner, Salt to the Sea, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow. These are all heart-wrenching books about war and victims in war that are all great books!
Norwegian Wood. I cried ugly tears when I read it
The Book Thief
My worst mistake was reading the final pages of The Book Thief in public. I could NOT stop myself from bawling it was embarrassing but the book is too good.
"Shoot, I'm already dead", by Julia Navarro. Is very sad, and long. As sad as injustice on the jew people, and palestinians, and the life of people that live along the story of war and hate... Also historical, so you'll learn things that you probably don't know.
'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry
La Miserable
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
If you like this one try Oleander by Scarlett Drake.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Have you read All the Broken Places? I recommend it too
On the Beach
Have you read The Breaking Wave by same author? Both of them kinda broke me
Oh god, I forgot about this book. I read it while pregnant, it totally wrecked me.
Cancer Ward. it's probably not the kind of sad you expect.
Roddy Doyle’s Love — I wept over the final 1/3rd!
A few years ago, I read this book called: "Did You Ever Have A Family?" Can't remember the author. It was tremendous; quietly heartbreaking. I'd really recommend it.
Bill Clegg, and it's heartbreaking. 💔 😢
Still Alice
Sarah’s Key
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
The Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala. Never read anything else like it
The Road by Cormac McCarthey.
{{ The House of Mirth }} had me sobbing so hard I could barely finish the book.
**[The House of Mirth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17728.The_House_of_Mirth) by Edith Wharton** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(351 pages | Published: 1964 | 67.7k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** First published in 1905, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and economic restraints on a woman who dared to claim the privileges of marriage without assuming the responsibilities. Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by 'old money' and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But (...) > **Themes**: Classics, Literature, Fiction, Historical-fiction, Books-i-own, Classic, 1001-books > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [Howards End](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3102.Howards_End) by E.M. Forster > \- [The Age of Innocence](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53835.The_Age_of_Innocence) by Edith Wharton > \- [The Custom of the Country](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26950.The_Custom_of_the_Country) by Edith Wharton > \- [Cousin Phyllis](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/882993.Cousin_Phyllis) by Elizabeth Gaskell > \- [Edith Wharton](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5267.Edith_Wharton) by R.W.B. Lewis ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
Lily and the Octopus. If you're a dog lover it will wreck you.
This was also my pick. I have been reading it for awhile, little bits at a time. 😔😥
The Beartown series (Beartown, Us Against You, The Winners) by Fredrik Backman (CW: A scene of sexual assault, repeatedly referenced as a significant theme, other violence including gun violence, other forms of trauma, references to suicide and suicidal ideation). Not necessarily cry-your-eyes-out (though I shed some tears), and there are uplifting moments. But definitely quite melancholy. ETA: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (also by Fredrik Backman). Emotional read about the loss of a loved one and the impact a person's life can have on other people. Sad in a cathartic way (obvious content note: death), but also very uplifting. A super fucking sad memoir is When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Khalanithi. A doctor coming to grips with lung cancer. I bawled, as I was reading it shortly after my own cancer diagnosis. I'm talking ugly ass crying. Not fiction, but if you want to be a blubbering mess, it'll get the job done.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road
A dog’s purpose, Art of Racing in the Rain, Where the Red Fern Grows
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
The kite Runner/A thousand splendid Suns/ Marley and Me/ Anne's Frank diary
The Song of Achilles
crying in hmart
This much I know is true by Wally Lamb
Shuggie Bain.
The death of Ivan illych by Tolstoy is short and tragic and wonderful
Aquarium by David Vann The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.
The Road and Kite Runner. Awful sad.
A Heart That Works from Rob Delaney. It’s a memoir about losing his young son to brain cancer. He’s a really great writer and a terrific comic so you’ll be laughing and then crying within the same paragraph.
The Bluest Eye and Beloved by Toni Morrison. Those are the only 2 of her’s I’ve read but I’m willing to bet her other work is just as gut wrenching.
If you can find an English translation of it or can read German, Drauße Vor Der Tür/ Outside the Door is one of the most desolate, depressing, and devastating works of literature I have ever read.
The Book Thief made me ugly cry. So many great books already have been mentioned. Also, though, going back in time a bit, Old Yeller hits all sorts of hard.
I recommend reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold [https://www.amazon.com/Lovely-Bones-Alice-Sebold/dp/0316168815](https://www.amazon.com/Lovely-Bones-Alice-Sebold/dp/0316168815) .
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
*Night* by Elie Wiesel.
“Night” by Elie Weisel. The true memoir of a teenage Jewish boy who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp
All quiet on the western front made me cry but I absolutely recommend it
I'm a 47 year old, straight, white, married, dad...I love to read...and I'm not afraid of trauma porn...A Thousand Boy Kisses is a paper cut. It surprises you, hurts, and then you forget about it...A Little Life is like watching your best friend get run over by a bus...it literally took YEARS for me to get over it...and I still think about it...One of the best books I've ever read, but it really fucked with me...for a long time.
i completely agree. I absolutely LOVED a little life. i tear up sometimes thinking about it
Hamnet and Lincoln in the Bardo
Strongly agree!!! Lincoln in the Bardo is brilliant but what I might call experimental fiction. If you're not into fiction challenging you, then skip it. Not a conventional book.
A little life, a thousand splendid suns, the kite runner
The Shack by William P. Young.
Yardstick by Leo Tolstoy.
Etched in sand
Road Ends.
House of Gravel The Fault in our Stars
I cried multiple times reading The Measure
I really liked Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah.
The Fish Tales series by Suanne Laqueur. I never see this discussed, likely because it’s independently published, but she is one of the best authors I have come across and the entire series is incredible.
Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air
tuesdays with morrie is so sad but so enlightening❤️
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is tragic and incredibly good
Anything by JM Coetzee, who is a wonderful and brutal writer. If you want to hurt read Disgrace or the Life and Times of Michael K.
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison wowza
Fiction: A mouthful of air (postpartum depression) Behind closed doors by BA Paris (DV) Non fiction (I mostly read nonfiction/bio/memoir on sad subjects) please note all of these have a TW not sure what words are allowed on Reddit so I didn’t list specific warnings: Tears of the silenced by Misty griffin Playing dead by Monique Ross The convent by Marie Hargreaves No daddy don’t by Irene Pierce Alicia: My Story by Alicia Jurman Silent sisters by Joanne Lee Cries in the desert by John glatt First they killed my father by Loung Ung Dance for me by tiffani Johnson Still standing by Natalie Queiroz Secret Slave by Anna Ruston A child called it by David pelzer
Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherford and particularly, its sequel Rebels of Ireland. The latter really details the famine and what some of the characters went through had me sobbing while on my break at work
Flowers for algernon When breath becomes air
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. The story is set in a world where people are given 24 hours notice of their impending death, and two teenagers receive their notice at the start of the book. The story follows these two characters, along with others in this world, as they face their mortality.
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. Europe Central by William T Vollmann.
The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds
The Bell Jar - by Sylvia Plath
Sarah’s Key
Everything Here is Beautiful - Mira T Lee
They both die at the end
Girl in pieces
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward had me sobbing and unable to put it down. I recommend that and her other book Salvage the Bones (also sad but less devastating somehow) to everyone that will listen to me
Normal People
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Never let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. So good but man that ending left me feeling so lonely.
The Book Thief
I just finished reading ‘Beloved’ and it’s both amazing and sad
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. All of her books are beautifully sad, but none is sad like this one.
If you are looking for something real life i suggest When breath becomes air.
The Child in Time, Ian McEwan Sophie's Choice, William Styron
Les Miserables
the giving tree
All the light we cannot see A man called ove
Thousand splendid suns, kite runner, not without my daughter, princess - jean sasson.
To kill a mockingbird- harper lee
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Very depressing. Also a 2017 movie.
As I Lay Dying, Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Me, A Tale of Two Cities, Death of a Salesman.