The Most Depressing Book You've Ever Read

[BloatedGuppy]

Wow, I've read almost all of these books. I particularly enjoyed The Road and 1984. Didn't even find the latter depressing so much as "upsetting".

I'd have to go with "A Fine Balance" as the most depressing book I've ever read, and until someone can adequately demonstrate otherwise, the most depressing book ever written. It's a beautiful, brilliantly written book, but DO NOT READ IT unless you like having your soul crushed.

 

[Heronblade]

#1 "All quiet on the western front" by Erich Remarque
#2 Tie between "The Idiot" and "War and Peace", both by Fyodor Dostoevsky
#3 "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo (sometimes it seems like Disney deliberately picks the least children oriented tales around for inspiration)

 

[e033x]

I can't remember what it was called, but it was about a teenage girl with terminal cancer. There is only so much fun and happiness you can have with that premise.

 

[Frokane]

Survivor Type By stephen king (short story)
eating parts of himself
A disgruntled surgeon survies on a desert island by using drugs, keeping a journal ....and eating parts of himself

I have no mouth and I must scream(short story)

one of the most depressing stories in the world about being kept alive for eternity just to be tourtured, while begging to die.

I implore you all to read these both online, they are quite short

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The Serpent Club. Definitely not a murder mystery I enjoyed in general due to the protagonist being too drunk and cynical and sour at everyone to be even remotely likeable, but the ending includes him losing his wife, him losing his job, and the villains (a powerful politician and his asshole son) getting away with the murder of the young girl that started the whole story. Yes, you read right. It might have actually gone better if he'd never tried to learn the killer's identity at all!

Sort of similar is Book 5 of Star Wards Legacy of the Force, Sacrifice. As a long-time fan of the EU, by the end of it everything was so horribly messed up I wasn't sure what to think. And this is from someone who really enjoyed Traitor and Shatterpoint, perhaps the most gruesome books in the entire franchise.

 

[Musette]

Tess of the d'Ubervilles

I swear, if I had to describe the book in two words, it would be "Murphy's Law". It's described as a "naturalist" piece of literature, so it's just one giant "life sucks and bad things will happen to you no matter how good of a person you are" kind of deal. It's almost comedic in a dark way because of just how improbable all the horrible events that happen to the character are, especially since they are no fault of her own, except for maybe the protagonist's one attempt to essentially take control of her life, but *surprise* that ends terribly as well.

 

[PFCboom]

Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins. Good. God. Henry Rollins can be exceptionally inspiring, and hilarious, when he wants to be, especially during his "spoken word" stand-up routines. Black Coffee Blues is not one of those moments. There's a segment of nothing but horrible things happening, often to people who don't deserve it.

You Are Worthless: Depressing Nuggets of Wisdom Sure to Ruin Your Day by Scott Dikkers. I don't know why in the nine hells we had this in my house, but I made the mistake of reading it one day. I couldn't help laughing at just how over the top it was, but damn, it still did what it set out to do.

 

[LtWigglesworth]

Well i'll go with the flow and say 1984 was the most "Bleak" book I've ever read, both in content and the writing style. Just so cold.

However I found The Sparrow to be very depressing as well. The extent of the main character's degradation and fall is quite powerful

 

[the clockmaker]

On the beach. A nuclear war kills everything north of the equator and the radiation spreads down south to kill off everyone in the southern hemisphere. The book is from the point of view of a group of Australian military personnel and the few survivors of the USN who attempt to find some hope. There are no riots, people do not suddenly attack one another and everyone is perfectly decent until their last breath.

It is so crushing because it robs us of the catharsis so often present in apocalyptic literature that we find when the suddenly savage humanity is killed off. We can cheer when Mel gibson or Denzel Washington kill scavangers because they are brutal and we can clap when a crack opens up in LA because they were desperately selfish and did not help each other. Here, we see quietly decent people who work together as best they can and do their best to keep society functioning even with no hope. They are everything people hope to be and they die badly because of choices they have no control over. By the last few chapters, I was having to take lengthy breaks in between paragraphs.

 

[capper42]

#2 Tie between "The Idiot" and "War and Peace", both by Fyodor Dostoevsky

War and Peace was written by Leo Tolstoy.

As for me, I can't think of a huge number of really depressing books I've read, but like many people the first to leap to mind was 1984. I recently read 'Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe (he actually died just a couple of weeks ago, but I was coincidentally reading the book for university), and that had a pretty miserable ending as

Spoiler

main character hangs himself rather than face the court set up by the encroaching colonials, preferring to choose what his people see as a dishonorable death not worthy of burial over the white mans trial.

 

[Eleuthera]

I read a book in high school about people in (Australia I think?) waiting to die slowly of radiation sickness after a massive nuclear exchange elsewhere on the globe. There was nowhere to go, nothing to do, the fallout was going to kill everyone eventually. It was called On The Beach if I recall correctly.

^this. It was the only book I ever read that made me choke up.

Also completely by accident this is the exact same topic and answer I posted my very first post in back in 2008.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

A Thousand Splendid Suns, a book focused around the lives of two women in Afghanistan.

 

[MetaKnight670]

If fan fics count then I'll have to go with My Little Dashie.
But, if it doesn't count for some strange reason, either because it is a fic or has to do with MLP, then I'll say Of Mice and Men.

 

[Trueflame]

Strange. I found 1984 to be really morose, depressing, and stifling in its atmosphere, but it could never reduce me to tears. I just didn't have that deep of an emotional connection with its characters or their problems.

For anyone interested in fantasy, the Malazan series has some really sad and tragic moments to it, the kind that put even Song of Ice and Fire to shame.

But most recently I was reading a book called Manchurian Legacy for class, a memoir of a Japanese girl living as a colonist in Manchuria in the 1930s and 40s, and her life before, during, and after WW2. Surprisingly enough, it's one of the best things I've ever read, and made cry in a few spots, and I'm not certain I can even explain why. It isn't a depressing book, but it is very moving and powerful.

 

[Hoplon]

the walking dead.

Seriously that thing is relentlessly miserable.