Saddest Stories/Novels You've Read

[Vince W]

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. Horribly depressing novel.

 

[Tanith]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Bleakest book I've ever read.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

There are a lot of Irish authors who pull the oul heartstrings:

Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes makes me cry in the best way
Maeve Binchy does it every time - Echoes, Firefly Summer, Light a penny candle…

A lot of Scott Card’s shorts make me cry in a good way

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - the final scene with Carlo is just … desperate altogether (@Abernovo - have you read it? I think you’d love it)

And the end of the TimeTravellers Wife. I’m a mess….

And The Last Battle

AndFlowers for Algernon.

It seems I’m the big softy of the Chrons. Who knew?

 

[hitmouse]

I have read plenty of depressing books that have not actually made me feel sad. Nineteen Eighty Four is bleak and depressing, but I didnt feel like shedding a tear at the end in the same way as, for example, All Quiet on the Western Front, or Earth Abides.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have read plenty of depressing books that have not actually made me feel sad. Nineteen Eighty Four is bleak and depressing, but I didnt feel like shedding a tear at the end in the same way as, for example, All Quiet on the Western Front, or Earth Abides.

For me it’s not about depressing but if I like the characters and can feel empathy as if they were my friends or me. The setting or premise is separate from that

 

[alexvss]

The protagonist from The War That Saved my Life has one of the saddest backstories I've ever came across. But, as the title suggests, her life gets better throughout the book, so it's a worth read. That said, a downright sad story without a single glimpse of hope will likely be a no-no for me. There's a quote from Family Guy that I like a lot: "People of France, a depressed, good-looking guy smoking a cigarette is not a movie!"

 

[BAYLOR]

The Ship of Ishtar by Abraham Merritt

 

[elvet]

Every time I reread the Malazan Book of the Fallen, I have to steel myself for an emotional rollercoaster. Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice have the most tragic moments overall (for me).

 

[Abernovo]

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - the final scene with Carlo is just … desperate altogether (@Abernovo - have you read it? I think you’d love it)

I have read it. I think we discussed it once, agreeing that the book should have ended slightly differently. That scene was...yeah.

I've read a Maeve Binchy years ago, and it did the emotional twist. On hitmouse's note, I find 1984 bleak, yes, but the ending is desperately sad, as well.

I always thought that part of Iain Banks' genius was his ability to create bittersweet prose, mixing humour, joy, and sadness. The Crow Road, in particular, twists the heartstrings.

In the same way as both Banks and Binchy, Sheila Hancock's Miss Carter's War was a mix of emotions. It was both joyous and sad enough to bring me to tears.

For me it’s not about depressing but if I like the characters and can feel empathy as if they were my friends or me. The setting or premise is separate from that

Exactly. I differentiate sadness from depressing. A story could be redemptive, or ultimately uplifting, but have significant sadness in it, where you feel for the characters. It's an oft-commented thing that reading can help build empathy, and this is part of it.

That, for me, is very different from a depressing book, which is relentless, or devoid of hope. In the same way, I don't like 'misery porn', which has become a big selling non-fiction category.

On the Edge of Gone, by Corinne Duyvis, and Peadar Ó Guilín's The Call both have pretty bleak scenarios, but they're not depressing. Rather, they have characters I found myself empathising with, sharing highs and lows. McCarthy's The Road, however, I found too bleak and depressing, so it wasn't just sad, but left me feeling empty. I couldn't get far into it, despite three attempts, and is a confirmed DNF. And, yes, I know they are from different sub-genres, but the comparison stands.

 

[nixie]

I remember the first time I read Goodnight Mr Tom, tears came freely.

 

[nixie]

Every time I reread the Malazan Book of the Fallen, I have to steel myself for an emotional rollercoaster. Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice have the most tragic moments overall (for me).

I'm the same, didn't think anything could move me as much as Deadhouse Gates, then I read Memories of Ice.

 

[Rodders]

Of Mice and Men was devastating to me when i first read it.

A second for Flowers for Algernon, although it wasn't his regression that made me sad, but his loneliness throughout.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

"Assassin's Quest" by Robin Hobb. which is the third book of the Farseer trilogy. Don't think I've ever read a fantasy epic where the finale was such a Phyrric victory. I love those books, but she does love torturing poor old Fitz- it takes another three books before he finally catches a break.

"Jude the Obscure." The second and last Hardy book I've read- very good, but the relentless misery was unbearable.

I wallowed in Graham Greene a lot as a teenager, and he's a master of bleakness. I think "Brighton Rock" is possibly the saddest, just because Rose is far more innocent than the characters Greene usually detroys.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

That, for me, is very different from a depressing book, which is relentless, or devoid of hope. In the same way, I don't like 'misery porn', which has become a big selling non-fiction category.

In the wake of "Angela's Ashes," our local WHSmiths started a new section called "Tragic Life Stories." which I found just hilariously crass. The genre and its readers remind me of a bit in one of Jasper Fforde's "Thursday Next" books, where the inhabitants of an Enid Blyton story are so starved of strong emotions that they arrange for people to Tragically Die On Their Wedding Day in order to have something to tut and sigh about.

 

[BAYLOR]

Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner . M'Cori the daughter of the king didn't deserve the fate she received.

 

[Abernovo]

where the inhabitants of an Enid Blyton story are so starved of strong emotions that they arrange for people to Tragically Die On Their Wedding Day in order to have something to tut and sigh about.

Yes, that has a ring of truth to it. And no doubt related to the infamous 'Disgusted, from Royal Tunbridge Wells'.

 

[Dan Jones]

Hardy's Jude the Obscure, Joyce's "The Dead", Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," Wharton's The Age of Innocence, Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, McCarthy's The Road, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Ishiguro's Remains of the Day.

Great list. I'd agree with pretty much all of them, but for me Jude The Obscure tops the lot - that's as bleak and as tragic as hell, that book.

 

[BAYLOR]

Great list. I'd agree with pretty much all of them, but for me Jude The Obscure tops the lot - that's as bleak and as tragic as hell, that book.

You want bleak and sad?

Johnny Got his Gun by Dalton Trumbo
Shattered Like a Glass Goblin by Harlan Ellison
The Eternal World by Clark Ashton Smith
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O' Connor

 

[BAYLOR]

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Arthur Miller

 

[The Big Peat]

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson is the single most depressing novel I've read, and I think it put me in a funk for a solid three days or so.

Bittersweet, I tear up at the ending of Gemmell's Ravenheart and Stormrider, and pretty much every GGK I've read (but A Brightness Long Ago is the winner there). Sutcliff's Knight's Fee did me dirty the other day. But, should I get back there to confirm, I think Sutcliff's Mark of the Horse Lord might be the saddest I've read.