Yup, just like the title says. I do have a clear book in mind that is my favourite, it's "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai (TW: suicide, rape, depression, nihilism). I hope the recommendations will be just as painful as this book. Any topic is welcome like social alienation etc. Don't hold back
It can be any genre except fantasy (since they're more likely to be edgy than depressing). I lean more towards literary fiction but any is welcome.
Some authors I have read: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Yukio Mishima, Albert Camus. So please don't recommend books by them.
Thank you readers, if you have not read No longer Human, I would highly suggest it
Please mention Trigger Warnings for new users
by Weak_Seesaw_1901
14 Comments
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding is about a WWII era housewife dealing with blackmailers after covering up a family member’s possible crime. It delves a lot into the panopticon of the nuclear household and how much she has to carry on her shoulders while having no power. It doesn’t have explicit elements to it but the despair is absolutely crushing.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I don’t know if I was depressed or just having an existential crisis or both or neither, but I still stare at walls when I think about it.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Tw grooming, sexual abuse, etc.
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames. It starts out okay, but the way this woman’s entire life is controlled by her conservative, pro-natalist family…
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.
The Goldfinch did that to me. I think just because it was very bleak and a lot like my own childhood, the actual content wasn’t too grim, at least next to Dazai. Still highly recommend for anyone who had a buggered childhood.
CW: death, terrorism, drug use, addiction, alcohol use, gun violence
Stoner, by John Williams, is also really depressing. I quite liked it though.
CW: war, depression, nihilism, alcoholism, death
Ham on Rye, Bukowski
CW: Child abuse, violence, alcoholism, explicit sexual content (r@pey themes)
By the sounds of it you’ll probably really like Nabokov as well.
*A Short Stay in Hell*
know my name TW
The Way I Used to Be
The Places I’ve Cried In Public
Both books are such a telling portrayal of what abusers do to their victims and how abuse can damage someone’s life. They were both real and raw in showing the emotions of victims as well as how their lives changed due to one event or one person.
Carbon Ideologies by William Vollmann
Hello beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The light between oceans by M. L. Stedman
Under the Volcano – Malcolm Lowry
{{Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald}}
I read this book 50 years ago and it still haunts me.
The Copenhagen Trilogy