Like I want to read this with my heart feeling like it’s being ripped out of my chest. I want it to feel like im listening to a song by Ethel Cain or Nicole Dollanganger. No happy ending.
* *Play It As It Lays* by Joan Didion – follows the story of a former movie star, struggling with her daughter’s illness, dissatisfying marriage and a general feeling of emptiness in her life. Quite depressing as she doesn’t get better and the void seems to be omnipresent in her life, even though she leads a privileged life.
* *The Loft* by Marlen Haushofer – the main character is a house wife, who recollects her past by reading her diary from her time when she was deaf, living in a secluded home stuck in a circle of mundanity. Deals with themes like solitude, withered marriage and restrictions we put on ourselves. It has sort of an uplifting ending, but to me it still felt very sad.
* *The Death of a Beekeeper* by Lars Gustafsson – a terminally ill man recounts his life, current living in pain and knowing that he will soon die. While the book is generally not sombre in writing (the narrator tries to make the best of the days he has left), the subject and consciousness of the inevitable end make it sad.
* *Our Wives Under the Sea* by Julia Armfield – horror, the main character’s wife comes from an underwater expedition mysteriously changes. I don’t want to spoil it, but it heavily deals with themes of grief.
be_passersby on
If you’re interested in nonfiction, perhaps check out Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown, Fateless by Imre Kertész, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, or All Quiet on the Western Front.
For fiction I always recommend A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O’Nan, Song of Kali by Dan Simmons, and Pet Sematary and Apt Pupil by Stephen King.
Or for plays, Antigone and Macbeth.
Evan88135 on
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. That’s a book that’ll warm your heart before shattering it into a million pieces. If you make it to the end it’s hard not to cry.
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Flowers for Algernon
A Little Life
The Travelling Cat Chronicles, Hiro Arikawa
* *Play It As It Lays* by Joan Didion – follows the story of a former movie star, struggling with her daughter’s illness, dissatisfying marriage and a general feeling of emptiness in her life. Quite depressing as she doesn’t get better and the void seems to be omnipresent in her life, even though she leads a privileged life.
* *The Loft* by Marlen Haushofer – the main character is a house wife, who recollects her past by reading her diary from her time when she was deaf, living in a secluded home stuck in a circle of mundanity. Deals with themes like solitude, withered marriage and restrictions we put on ourselves. It has sort of an uplifting ending, but to me it still felt very sad.
* *The Death of a Beekeeper* by Lars Gustafsson – a terminally ill man recounts his life, current living in pain and knowing that he will soon die. While the book is generally not sombre in writing (the narrator tries to make the best of the days he has left), the subject and consciousness of the inevitable end make it sad.
* *Our Wives Under the Sea* by Julia Armfield – horror, the main character’s wife comes from an underwater expedition mysteriously changes. I don’t want to spoil it, but it heavily deals with themes of grief.
If you’re interested in nonfiction, perhaps check out Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown, Fateless by Imre Kertész, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, or All Quiet on the Western Front.
For fiction I always recommend A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O’Nan, Song of Kali by Dan Simmons, and Pet Sematary and Apt Pupil by Stephen King.
Or for plays, Antigone and Macbeth.
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. That’s a book that’ll warm your heart before shattering it into a million pieces. If you make it to the end it’s hard not to cry.
Because I Loved You by Dead King.