I have the flu AND strep throat right now, and I want to read a book about someone who’s having a worse time than me. It just makes me feel a little bit better. I already read A Little Life (and hated it btw). I have Curse of the Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (idk if this fits? but I love fantasy) and My Year of Rest and Relaxation on my bookshelf, but I’m looking for some other recs!
by Deriveit789
16 Comments
Curse of Chalion totally fits— the narrator has a pretty rough go of it! I’d say A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (fantasy, girl trying to survive magic school filled with monsters) and The Wager by David Grann (nonfiction, story of a shipwreck and the surviving castaways) both would hit.
I hope you feel better soon!
“Five days at Memorial: life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital” by Sherri Fink.
the metamorphosis maybe lol. the road by cormac mccarthy
sorrow and bliss by meg mason. or animal by lisa taddeo. the mars room by rachel kushner
the discomfort of evening is pretty bleak. so is no longer human
The grass arena – John Healy
Brain on fire – memoir about some SERIOUS medical issues
Edit: also everyone in Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte is pretty miserable
A little on the nose but what about Misery – Stephen King
-American Psycho for funny miserable
-The Four Winds for depressing miserable
Candide
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
The Haunting of Hill House
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
A whole family has a miserable time
*W;t* by Margaret Edson. It’s a one act play: “The action of the play takes place during the final hours of Dr. Vivian Bearing, a university professor of English, dying of ovarian cancer.”
Ones Company- so original!! A very lonely woman develops a very unhealthy relationship with her favorite tv show
We Were the Mulvaneys – Joyce Carol Oates
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
The Long Walk by Stephen King.
Look up any book by Paige Dearth. You won’t be disappointed.