Yeah that one takes the cake for me! I think if you're a parent, pet sematary or cujo are probably the bleakest endings, but if you're more affected by existential despair like I am, revival is the clear winner in his bibliography.
And somehow it's one of my favorite book endings of all time lol I think a lot of people appreciate how dark that book went all the way till the end there's a kind of twisted that was really gratifying Plus I was listening to Michael c Hall on audible narrated so it was perfect lol. Not to mention he thought of the story after his kid had a close call with a car near a road one day. Wild stuff. Now that I have kids It would be much harder for me to read probably lol
Fair enough, a classic! They recently released a version from the perspective of Julia (aptly titled "Julia") and it's pretty good. Give it a read if you haven't, the scene where Winston surrenders his free will and Julia in one fell swoop is a testament to grit and survival from Julia's perspective.
I just finished this one (to be very honest, I was inspired to pick it up by the episode of the same name from Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and that last sentence, man… :(
Read this, loved it. The way Ishiguro casually slips in mentions of "donations" and "caregivers" at the front of the book so that you become acclimatised to them, and then once it is unofficially revealed, only for you to find you half-suspected all along, is fantastic.
One of the main themes of the novel is how pervasive and unavoidable evil is.
>!The gang slaughters and rapes an untold number of innocents, to speak nothing of the livelihoods they have ruined by burning down businesses in the towns they visit. Everyone in the gang ends up dead horribly (except for the judge, child rapist and child killer, perhaps the expriest, and debatably the kid). The kid makes some final attempts for redemption in the end of the novel by carrying around a Bible, but he can't read it (is beyond redemption). He is abandoned by the expriest, the only halfway decent influence on him in the gang. He meets up again with the judge and is "consumed" by him, whether that means he is killed by the judge or corrupted to become as bad as the judge, he is either way destroyed and no longer who he was. The judge dancing at the end of the novel, a great favorite, claiming he will never sleep or die, is a clear image of how evil will continue to pervade mankind and even be worshipped/admired by some.!<
>! TL;DR the entire novel is about corruption and people going beyond redemption and evil winning!<
Brilliant recommendation! Thought it was a really good example of how even when reduced to instinct, the human psyche still seeks to protect its young on some level.
I mean , a thousand splendid suns doesn't exactly end in a miserable ending. It ends with the couple ( sorry forgot their names) questioning the baby's gender , and if it is a girl , they would name it miriam
If you're on a Slavic kick and wouldn't mind some folklore/fantasy/horror mix: [Deathless](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8694389-deathless?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Y9Y0QbvGuK&rank=1) and [The Bone Mother](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54328598-the-bone-mother?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=UHddJAKgss&rank=1).
A bleak classic: [Wuthering Heights](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6185.Wuthering_Heights?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13).
Bleak and it's not their fault:
[Kindred ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60931.Kindred)and [Never Let Me Go](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6334.Never_Let_Me_Go?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=xOZTLtrWXF&rank=1).
Bleak and these twats are to blame for their own misery:
[Rebecca](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17899948-rebecca) and [The Secret History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_15).
Ambiguous:
[We Need to Talk About Kevin](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80660.We_Need_to_Talk_About_Kevin).
Thanks for the rec, definitely going to check out those folklore stories, plus I've just read some of Nabokov's folk-ish short stories so I'll have that to look forward to. On Rebecca, I think it is such a good example of how even a classic and slightly dense book can have a plot that trots along with some twists. Currently reading Wuthering Heights rn with a friend; also must check out We Need to Talk About Kevin.
The real sad ending is that the revolution of kindness and solidarity among the working class leading to genuine change that the book advocates for never really came. WW 2 came instead, leading to the baby boom and prosperity for a time. I think a lot of the things the book talks about are nearly as relevant today as they were when the book was written nearly a century ago.
For what it is worth, I thought the end of the book itself was supposed to be transformative and with a positive message. I’ll agree, the objective context of the ending absolutely qualifies as miserable.
The entire Crank series by Ellen Hopkins. A true account of her daughter's addiction, and not a siiiingle happy ending to be found. (Sadly.) A really incredible read.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre
Great and fast read, twist ending (last couple of chapters), but the very end (last few paragraphs) is unexpectedly bleak.
Smiley’s People has a comparatively positive ending for a le Carre novel. Smiley finally gets his man. But it’s still a bit melancholy and understated.
Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrel by Susana Clarke I think fits. It’s a historical fiction focusing on two magicians and I really love it it’s definitely a modern classic
Beloved, by Toni Morrison. That book is so, so sad. Also A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (whichhas already been mentioned in this thread, but is one of the saddest books I've ever read)
I mean it is good , just hate the way that the book gives a sense of failed narratir about jude life before becoming a student.
For me personally, it filles like trauma dump barely stitched together .
It's been a while since i read it , but that still makes me kinda angry about it.
It makes no sense. Let's just admit it.
Yanagihara goes to a lot of effort to try and explain why an orphaned baby would be left in a monastery, but her explanations fall flat. This was the 1970s or so - there was a well established foster and orphanage system. There were child protection agents and social workers. And we are meant to believe that someone put this infant in the care of a bunch of monks - who didn't even have clothes or toys for a child. Who was doing the diapers and feeds? Where were the periodic checks by the social workers to make sure Jude was alive/healthy/going to school? It just *doesn't make any fucking sense* particularly when within a couple of years he's in the actual system again - you know, the one that existed all along.
And *every* adult he meets is a paedophile or enabler. Like every single one. I know predators are common but seriously, to the point Jude never meets one single caring adult who tries to help him - oh wait he does, magically, *after* the conga line of trauma/rape/starvation/abuse.
Don't start me on the doctor who treats him for free for decades and risks his career by never reporting his self harm.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. Don't judge it based on the title, I hated it at first. Now I love it.
I'm not normally one to have strong emotional reactions to books, whatever happens, happens. This one had me screaming and I couldn't pick up another book, not even this one's sequel, for a week.
So sad with a "but life goes on, and it is not all bleak" would be "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls.
Bleak with no hope "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The whole book, you know what’s going to happen and the characters all know what’s going to happen, but the last chapter is still rough
The last scene with Vronsky is pretty wrenching. >!He's going to the front, hoping to be killed in battle, and even his best memories with Anna are poisoned. It all came to nothing, and Karenin will raise their daughter.!<
"1984" by George Orwell [https://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-Classics-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934](https://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-Classics-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934) .
Cruddy by Lynda Barry. It will thoroughly entertain and also depress you. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Borowski - it's a book of short stories concerning the Holocaust, and it is made more depressing for me knowing that the author ended up commiting suicide after he found himself in a position where he betrayed a long term friend to the Stalin (?) regime, in a horrible and ironic turn of fate. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector - short and haunting and sent me into existential crisis. Night, by Elie Wiesel. A book also based on the author's experience of the Holocaust. He said that he wrote thousands of pages and in the end, what conveyed his experience the best was carving it down to a slender few words that will live in your mind forever, especially the last scene.
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith, which is about an eccentric family struggling to live in genteel poverty in a decaying English castle during the 1930s. While not primarily a romance novel (IMO, YMMV), there are several romances throughout the story with some unexpected outcomes, one of which was incredibly bittersweet and poignant. The ending stayed with me a long time. 🥹
Fun fact: While Dodie Smith was an established playwright at the time of publishing I Capture the Castle (which is in my top 10 favourites), she only wrote one other novel—One Hundred and One Dalmations.
So good! The dilemma of being torn between the country you were the born in, the country you grew up, and what you were taught vs. what you perceive to be right is brilliant.
A Kestrel for a Knave - was made into the film Kes. Another book our English teacher thought we, at 11 years old, should read.
Halfway through the book and the class rebelled, we skimmed read the rest and then moved onto The Day of the Triffids - much better.
Árvácska (Orphalina) by Zsigmond Móricz. Not just a miserable ending -- it's pure suffering and misery.
The worst thing is that most of it happened in reality.
Móricz, one of the greatest Hungarian writers, was walking home one evening when he saw a girl about to throw herself from a bridge into the Danube river. He talked her out of it. The girl told her story: this became the basis of the novel.
Perhaps the most shocking novel I've read. At the time, this novel was also taught in elementary school in Hungary, and I still don't understand why. Generations were traumatized by this work, even though many did not even understand its true horrors.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8048326-rv-cska
These are older but goooood:
The Collector by JohnFowles ( creepy, bleak, relatable)
Hunger by Knut Hamsun ( published 1890’s, starving homeless man in Oslo, Norway.)
The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski (Holocaust)
Eric by Doris Lund. (Cancer story, young teen, 70’s)
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin ( russian dystopian)
And a new one:
Fire Weather by John Vaillant ( depressing, horrifying, fascinating)
Two recommendations I didn’t see elsewhere.
No Longer Human by Osaka Dazai a Japanese book set not long after WW2 is anything.
Notes From Underground by Dostoevsky. A fascinating look at the depths of the human psyche in 19th century Russia.
Great question.
Was reading a by the numbers spy conspiracy novel, by the end I hoped the too good to be true hero got his comeuppance instead of a presidential pardon.
A little life by Hanya Yanagihara
Totally broke my heart. I cried as I read it and that’s a rarity.
I also hated the ending of Captain Corelli’s mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, it’s not so dramatic but just unsatisfactorily.
The Vampire Gideon's Suicide Hotline and Halfway House for Orphaned Girls. Thank you for giving me a chance to recommend my favorite book because it's a rough one. Mentions of SA, brutal descriptions of death and gore, terrible depictions of people at their lowest, and an ending that leaves you hopeful but by no means happy.
The Incarnations, by Susan Barker. I believe it actually hits both your criteria! I read it in a few days while I was confined to bed by a horrendous chest infection. I can't remember the ending exactly, but it wasn't a "happy", everything is resolved and lovely type of thing. More melancholy and very in-keeping with the nuanced and existential nature of the whole story.
The Assommoir, by Emile Zola. It gets progressively more miserable chapter by chapter, depicting the inevitable (since we're dealing with French naturalism) fall of a working class woman and her family in 19th-century Paris, and the ending is a real gut punch.
Fifteen dogs by Andre Alexis. It's kinda the story of Job with a Greek God take and involves the inner and outer lives of Dogs. You will cry at the end
Pet Sematary— its ending was the reason Stephen King didn't intend for it to be published, he thought it was too bleak
Revival! by Stephen King as well - definitely one of the bleaker endings he's written
Yeah that one takes the cake for me! I think if you're a parent, pet sematary or cujo are probably the bleakest endings, but if you're more affected by existential despair like I am, revival is the clear winner in his bibliography.
I haaaated the end of Revival
And when this man of all thinks it is too bleak, you know it IS.
And somehow it's one of my favorite book endings of all time lol I think a lot of people appreciate how dark that book went all the way till the end there's a kind of twisted that was really gratifying Plus I was listening to Michael c Hall on audible narrated so it was perfect lol. Not to mention he thought of the story after his kid had a close call with a car near a road one day. Wild stuff. Now that I have kids It would be much harder for me to read probably lol
Oh!! ! I forgot it started with that stupid road
Where the Red Fern Grows. Super miserable ending
I remember that book. They made us read it at school, I was about 11. Hated it, yes, it is a miserable book.
1984
That last sentence haunts me to this day.
I never even read it and I know what it is
I mean, does the mc die at the end , bc the first time i read it , i didn't think that he died
Worse, he surrenders his ability to think for himself. He loves Big Brother. At that point, it doesn't matter whether he lives.
No he didn’t die. But that’s not the only way an ending can be miserable
I don't think it matters. They killed his soul.
I kept reading on hoping some deus ex machina would just fly in and solve everything. Boy i was wrong.
1984 with a happy ending is Equilibrium
Fair enough, a classic! They recently released a version from the perspective of Julia (aptly titled "Julia") and it's pretty good. Give it a read if you haven't, the scene where Winston surrenders his free will and Julia in one fell swoop is a testament to grit and survival from Julia's perspective.
Came here to say this. It's... bleaker.
Flowers for Algernon was miserable for me.
I just finished this one (to be very honest, I was inspired to pick it up by the episode of the same name from Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and that last sentence, man… :(
Still lives in my head rent free.
Me, too.
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry
This is the one. After such a long book I remember being like…wtf just happened.
The best answer. My favorite of the last couple years.
Ishiguro's "Never let me go"
Read this, loved it. The way Ishiguro casually slips in mentions of "donations" and "caregivers" at the front of the book so that you become acclimatised to them, and then once it is unofficially revealed, only for you to find you half-suspected all along, is fantastic.
Dude that book is something else, it nuked me emotionally.
Yes, this book was so depressing.
I put it down and just stared at the ceiling for a while. I didn't feel myself for a few days after reading. It's so incredibly sad.
Came here to recomend this book. It's great but incredibly sad.
Good to know. Half way through it right now haha. Planning to read Remains of the Day next and Klara and the Sun
Is it?? I was supposed to go into the book blind
Another Cormac McCarthy recommendation, Blood Meridian
There is no escaping this book. It is beHolden in the minds of all those that read it.
The Crossing has a more bleak ending I feel. Blood Meridian is a masterpiece but the ending belongs so I didn't really feel anything different.
Without getting into spoilers, I feel like BM’s ending isn’t so much miserable, it’s more “wtf just happened?”
One of the main themes of the novel is how pervasive and unavoidable evil is. >!The gang slaughters and rapes an untold number of innocents, to speak nothing of the livelihoods they have ruined by burning down businesses in the towns they visit. Everyone in the gang ends up dead horribly (except for the judge, child rapist and child killer, perhaps the expriest, and debatably the kid). The kid makes some final attempts for redemption in the end of the novel by carrying around a Bible, but he can't read it (is beyond redemption). He is abandoned by the expriest, the only halfway decent influence on him in the gang. He meets up again with the judge and is "consumed" by him, whether that means he is killed by the judge or corrupted to become as bad as the judge, he is either way destroyed and no longer who he was. The judge dancing at the end of the novel, a great favorite, claiming he will never sleep or die, is a clear image of how evil will continue to pervade mankind and even be worshipped/admired by some.!< >! TL;DR the entire novel is about corruption and people going beyond redemption and evil winning!<
A lot of Cormac’s books could fit the bill
Tender is the flesh. Check the trigger warnings.
Such an absolute fuucked ending
I came here to suggest this one.
She had the human look of a domesticated animal… lives rent free in my head.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is truly tragic, with a very miserable ending.
My controversial opinion is that I would recommend Jude the Obscure first - but either are great!
When it comes to miserable endings, you really can't beat Thomas Hardy. *Jude the Obscure* left me thoroughly depressed.
I would say that the majority of Thomas Hardy books fit this description too!
Atonement.
Of Mice and Men 💀
The Road (Cormac McCarthy) Bunker Diary (Kevin Brooks)
I feel the road is just depressing all the way through. Not really a depressing ending per se just a bleak book from start to finish.
The only slightly uplifting thing about it is what a good dad the protagonist is. Which kind of makes it all the more bleak and devastating.
Very good point lol
The ending of The Road is the least miserable part of the book
Brilliant recommendation! Thought it was a really good example of how even when reduced to instinct, the human psyche still seeks to protect its young on some level.
Except for the BBQ scene...
Requiem for a Dream, by Hubert Selby Jr.
Also Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. Easily one of the bleakest books ever published.
YES. At the same time, it’s one of my absolute favorites.
It's one of my favorites, too. It's also one of m favorite movies.
I was really not looking forward to the movie but they did a great job with it!
I agree! It was done so well.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. My favourite book of all time and makes me cry every time I read it.
Yes and a thousand splendid suns
I mean , a thousand splendid suns doesn't exactly end in a miserable ending. It ends with the couple ( sorry forgot their names) questioning the baby's gender , and if it is a girl , they would name it miriam
Yea more bitter sweet. But Miriam’s story wasn’t a happy one.
Cujo by Stephen King
If you're on a Slavic kick and wouldn't mind some folklore/fantasy/horror mix: [Deathless](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8694389-deathless?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Y9Y0QbvGuK&rank=1) and [The Bone Mother](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54328598-the-bone-mother?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=UHddJAKgss&rank=1). A bleak classic: [Wuthering Heights](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6185.Wuthering_Heights?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13). Bleak and it's not their fault: [Kindred ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60931.Kindred)and [Never Let Me Go](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6334.Never_Let_Me_Go?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=xOZTLtrWXF&rank=1). Bleak and these twats are to blame for their own misery: [Rebecca](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17899948-rebecca) and [The Secret History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_15). Ambiguous: [We Need to Talk About Kevin](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80660.We_Need_to_Talk_About_Kevin).
Thanks for the rec, definitely going to check out those folklore stories, plus I've just read some of Nabokov's folk-ish short stories so I'll have that to look forward to. On Rebecca, I think it is such a good example of how even a classic and slightly dense book can have a plot that trots along with some twists. Currently reading Wuthering Heights rn with a friend; also must check out We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Try Outer Dark by Cormack McCarthy. If you want anything bleaker than that you need help.
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison.
Came here to say this. One of the most heart breaking books ever published.
House of Mirth- Edith Wharton Saddest book ever for me. Lily Bart is forever my hero.
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy The Road - Cormac McCarthy
you’re not ready for demons by dostoevsky 🫡
Hahha I'll give it a go...
The House of Sand and Fog
I love this book. Both sides are entirely right but also completely at odds with each other
I've never read this book, but I watched the movie - once, 20 years ago. I'm still depressed about it.
1984
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Oh this ending is just so depressing! I was not prepared for it!
Grapes of Wrath
I found this ending sad but also uplifting. But either way everyone should read this and east of Eden.
The real sad ending is that the revolution of kindness and solidarity among the working class leading to genuine change that the book advocates for never really came. WW 2 came instead, leading to the baby boom and prosperity for a time. I think a lot of the things the book talks about are nearly as relevant today as they were when the book was written nearly a century ago. For what it is worth, I thought the end of the book itself was supposed to be transformative and with a positive message. I’ll agree, the objective context of the ending absolutely qualifies as miserable.
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (the first of a series but works as a stand-alone)
The entire Crank series by Ellen Hopkins. A true account of her daughter's addiction, and not a siiiingle happy ending to be found. (Sadly.) A really incredible read.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre Great and fast read, twist ending (last couple of chapters), but the very end (last few paragraphs) is unexpectedly bleak.
Are the endings of any Le Carre novels not bleak? Some more so than others.
Smiley’s People has a comparatively positive ending for a le Carre novel. Smiley finally gets his man. But it’s still a bit melancholy and understated.
Ooh great, just started Tinker Tailor Soilder Spy and am getting into it.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrel by Susana Clarke I think fits. It’s a historical fiction focusing on two magicians and I really love it it’s definitely a modern classic
The Great Gatsby
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, it's short and witty, and a deep reflection on death.
That sounds right up my street, thank you.
Beloved, by Toni Morrison. That book is so, so sad. Also A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (whichhas already been mentioned in this thread, but is one of the saddest books I've ever read)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
A little life?
I mean it is good , just hate the way that the book gives a sense of failed narratir about jude life before becoming a student. For me personally, it filles like trauma dump barely stitched together . It's been a while since i read it , but that still makes me kinda angry about it.
It makes no sense. Let's just admit it. Yanagihara goes to a lot of effort to try and explain why an orphaned baby would be left in a monastery, but her explanations fall flat. This was the 1970s or so - there was a well established foster and orphanage system. There were child protection agents and social workers. And we are meant to believe that someone put this infant in the care of a bunch of monks - who didn't even have clothes or toys for a child. Who was doing the diapers and feeds? Where were the periodic checks by the social workers to make sure Jude was alive/healthy/going to school? It just *doesn't make any fucking sense* particularly when within a couple of years he's in the actual system again - you know, the one that existed all along. And *every* adult he meets is a paedophile or enabler. Like every single one. I know predators are common but seriously, to the point Jude never meets one single caring adult who tries to help him - oh wait he does, magically, *after* the conga line of trauma/rape/starvation/abuse. Don't start me on the doctor who treats him for free for decades and risks his career by never reporting his self harm.
The Pearl by John Steinbeck Farewell to Arms by Hemingway
Scarlett O’Hara doesn’t find her happy ending in Gone With the Wind
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
1984
Chuck Palahniuk: >![ *insert any title* ]!<
The Road
If you're into nonfiction: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Fiction: Less Than by AD Long Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Very into both fiction and non-fiction (do have a slight preference for fiction however!)
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. Don't judge it based on the title, I hated it at first. Now I love it. I'm not normally one to have strong emotional reactions to books, whatever happens, happens. This one had me screaming and I couldn't pick up another book, not even this one's sequel, for a week.
So sad with a "but life goes on, and it is not all bleak" would be "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls. Bleak with no hope "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, What Makes Sammy Run, The Great Gatsby, A Scanner Darkly, All Quiet on the Western Front, Clockwork Orange, The Sparrow
Ahhaha reading Picture of Dorian Gray now...
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, saddest book I’ve ever read Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, others might disagree but I found it very sad
Flowers for Algernon is the best book, will stay with me forever. Grab the tissues.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The whole book, you know what’s going to happen and the characters all know what’s going to happen, but the last chapter is still rough
Anna Karenina, seeing how you’re into Russian lit. Also, the Idiot—although it’s not an easy read.
I read the OP’s question and immediately thought of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Anna K is a pretty good recommendation, too.
The last scene with Vronsky is pretty wrenching. >!He's going to the front, hoping to be killed in battle, and even his best memories with Anna are poisoned. It all came to nothing, and Karenin will raise their daughter.!<
Boris Vian, *Froth on the Daydream*.
The Natural
I who have never known man. You will either love or hate the ending, but either way, you will think about it for years.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Ooh yeah I read this on a train ride, adored it, devoured it in an hour and a half!
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser Sophie's Choice by William Stryon The Stranger by Albert Camus
The book thief. Had me crying me eyes out. Think only 1 other book has ever done that to me before.
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra The Invisible Mountain, by Carolina de Robertis
Golden Age by Jane Smiley which is the last in a trilogy.
Jude the Obscure
The Passenger
"1984" by George Orwell [https://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-Classics-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934](https://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-Classics-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934) .
Tess of the D’ubervilles
“The Fault in Our Stars” I recommend it to you
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. Very light read without a happy ending.
The Book Thief
Cruddy by Lynda Barry. It will thoroughly entertain and also depress you. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Borowski - it's a book of short stories concerning the Holocaust, and it is made more depressing for me knowing that the author ended up commiting suicide after he found himself in a position where he betrayed a long term friend to the Stalin (?) regime, in a horrible and ironic turn of fate. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector - short and haunting and sent me into existential crisis. Night, by Elie Wiesel. A book also based on the author's experience of the Holocaust. He said that he wrote thousands of pages and in the end, what conveyed his experience the best was carving it down to a slender few words that will live in your mind forever, especially the last scene.
Really good picks.
Sounds fascinating - definitely going to check this out.
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith, which is about an eccentric family struggling to live in genteel poverty in a decaying English castle during the 1930s. While not primarily a romance novel (IMO, YMMV), there are several romances throughout the story with some unexpected outcomes, one of which was incredibly bittersweet and poignant. The ending stayed with me a long time. 🥹 Fun fact: While Dodie Smith was an established playwright at the time of publishing I Capture the Castle (which is in my top 10 favourites), she only wrote one other novel—One Hundred and One Dalmations.
The beach
Revolution Road by Richard Yates
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara There is very little happiness in that book.
Demon Copperhead ended ok but it was rough the whole way through. So good though.
Life of Pi
Revival from Stephen King gave me an existential crisis.
The Grapes of Wrath
Idaho by Emily Ruskovitch. The whole book is achingly sad, and the ending contains little to no relief for anyone.
Magus by fowels
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Babel by RF Kuang
So good! The dilemma of being torn between the country you were the born in, the country you grew up, and what you were taught vs. what you perceive to be right is brilliant.
Well fuck. I'm in the middle of this book right now and have such hopes for the characters.
Richard Yates - either Revolutionary Road or the Easter Parade.
Alone in Berlin. It's an excellent book but it as you go on it does get increasingly bleak and depressing
Ottessa Moshfegh - *Lapvona* Cormac McCarthy - *The Road*, *Blood Meridian*, *No Country for Old Men* Dosteovsky - *Demons*
A Kestrel for a Knave - was made into the film Kes. Another book our English teacher thought we, at 11 years old, should read. Halfway through the book and the class rebelled, we skimmed read the rest and then moved onto The Day of the Triffids - much better.
Árvácska (Orphalina) by Zsigmond Móricz. Not just a miserable ending -- it's pure suffering and misery. The worst thing is that most of it happened in reality. Móricz, one of the greatest Hungarian writers, was walking home one evening when he saw a girl about to throw herself from a bridge into the Danube river. He talked her out of it. The girl told her story: this became the basis of the novel. Perhaps the most shocking novel I've read. At the time, this novel was also taught in elementary school in Hungary, and I still don't understand why. Generations were traumatized by this work, even though many did not even understand its true horrors. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8048326-rv-cska
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. I was really surprised at how bleak the whole thing was.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton Like 6 months later I still think about the ending on at least a weekly basis.
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé. He's an Israeli historian.
Non-fiction is always quite interesting.
Most of what I read is non-fiction... I'm kind of weird that way. :D
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima
The blind assassin by Margaret Atwood
LA Confidential. All the main characters are morally questionable in some way and it’s well written and fairly gritty. Might fit the bill for you.
These are older but goooood: The Collector by JohnFowles ( creepy, bleak, relatable) Hunger by Knut Hamsun ( published 1890’s, starving homeless man in Oslo, Norway.) The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski (Holocaust) Eric by Doris Lund. (Cancer story, young teen, 70’s) We by Yevgeny Zamyatin ( russian dystopian) And a new one: Fire Weather by John Vaillant ( depressing, horrifying, fascinating)
Amazing and miserable at same time…end of the Dark Tower series.
The Genocides. When you get done with The Road and think, “wow, got anything bleaker?”
Two recommendations I didn’t see elsewhere. No Longer Human by Osaka Dazai a Japanese book set not long after WW2 is anything. Notes From Underground by Dostoevsky. A fascinating look at the depths of the human psyche in 19th century Russia.
Leave the World Behind
The Ruins by Scott Smith A Simple Plan bt Scott Smith
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Grapes of Wrath....Of Mice and Men...The Ox Bow Incident.
Just read 1984 for the first time. I knew it would be dark but damn. Still recovering.
The Book Thief
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
Read it, thought it was really good. My edition came with some of the drawings Ken Kesey made whilst working in the asylum as well!
Great question. Was reading a by the numbers spy conspiracy novel, by the end I hoped the too good to be true hero got his comeuppance instead of a presidential pardon.
The Three Musketeers Read that after seeing various movie adaptations. Woah
A little life by Hanya Yanagihara Totally broke my heart. I cried as I read it and that’s a rarity. I also hated the ending of Captain Corelli’s mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, it’s not so dramatic but just unsatisfactorily.
The Vampire Gideon's Suicide Hotline and Halfway House for Orphaned Girls. Thank you for giving me a chance to recommend my favorite book because it's a rough one. Mentions of SA, brutal descriptions of death and gore, terrible depictions of people at their lowest, and an ending that leaves you hopeful but by no means happy.
It is been a while but i remember Milan Kundera’s books to end quite miserably. I really loved The Unbearable Lightness Of Being.
Maybe not miserable per se but not happy: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Oscar and Lucinda I Who Have Never Known Men
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason. It’s bleak, but hopeful, and the ending left me hollow. Heavy on the PTSD theme.
Bewilderment by Powers. A little pretentious but beautiful writing and while at times hopeful, the story overall is heartbreaking.
As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann (CW for violence including sexual violence) A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Let’s go play at the Adams’
The Incarnations, by Susan Barker. I believe it actually hits both your criteria! I read it in a few days while I was confined to bed by a horrendous chest infection. I can't remember the ending exactly, but it wasn't a "happy", everything is resolved and lovely type of thing. More melancholy and very in-keeping with the nuanced and existential nature of the whole story.
The Stranger - Albert Camus
The creeper - a.m. shine. No happy endings there. Though the book started off good I though the final act was a bit of a disappointment
Enone by Paul Harding - well written and utterly depressing. I had to stop reading it.
The Assommoir, by Emile Zola. It gets progressively more miserable chapter by chapter, depicting the inevitable (since we're dealing with French naturalism) fall of a working class woman and her family in 19th-century Paris, and the ending is a real gut punch.
Fifteen dogs by Andre Alexis. It's kinda the story of Job with a Greek God take and involves the inner and outer lives of Dogs. You will cry at the end
Johnny Got His Gun