The most depressing book you've ever read, but was still a good book (spoilers)

For me it was Angela’s Ashes. It took me several tries to get through it. Every time one of the kids died I had to put it down. I hoped for a happy ending and both Frank and I got one!

Is the movie worth watching?

What about you?

Have you read any Franz Kafka?

I will go with three of my faves…

Jude the Obscure
Germinal
Therese Raquin

Where the Red Fern Grows was a real downer for me in 5th grade. Old Yeller is supposed to be the standard for a depressing story for kids about that age but WTRFG beats it easily.

If you don’t count dead-dog books, I had to put Let the Right One In down because it was so damned bleak.

The Road. With especial reference to the campfire scene.

Steps by Jerzy Kosinski. Blegh.

Where the Red Fern Grows is certainly right up there for me too. So is The Yearling, and The Red Pony.

More recently, I read a book called Beem, originally written in Russian about a Gordon Setter. I had tried to find that book literally for YEARS and was so thrilled to find it. It was supposedly a true story about the dog, named Beem, whose owner was hospitalized for a lenghty period, and Beem escaped to go looking for him. After all the trial the dog went thru, he finally made it home, shortly after his wner came home… and was picked up by the dog catcher. Someone saw this and the next day, told the owner, who went to pick his beloved dog up.

I was all set for a happy reunion, but… Beem was dead when he got there.

I was reading this at work on my lunch break and broke down sobbing hysterically.

And I came in to nominate Outer Dark, by the same author.

Kafka’s a pretty good candidate, but I read all of that when I was a teenager and impossible to depress.

Sticking with Thomas Hardy, there’s The Mayor of Casterbridge

Also Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon.

I came in to mention this one. I cried for so long after finishing Where The Red Fern Grows as a kid. Part of me wants to reread it to see how it holds up, but I just can’t bring myself to pick it up.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

I won’t give away the ending, but there is a dog in it.

The most depressing book is probably Animal Farm.
The most depressing story is definitely “The Steadfast Tin Soldier.”

Flowers for Algernon. I have an autistic sister so it hit me especially hard.

Neville Shute’s On the Beach isn’t exactly a cheery barrel of laughs. I haven’t read it since I was a young teenager though, so maybe it doesn’t hold up, but at the time :frowning:

I don’t know if A Tale of Two Cities counts, since it’s kind of an uplifting sadness, but it sure depressed me back when I first read it. Atonement as well.

Otherwise, it’s hard to beat Where the Red Fern Grows or Jude the Obscure.

It’s going to be hard to top Where the Red Fern Grows. Why this is considered a kid’s book is beyond me.

It’s White Oleander for me. Totally depressing and not my typical read, but that author can really put a sentence together.

Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance. Was that depressing or what?

In the young adult fiction category, I recommend I am the cheese.

[spoiler]The protagonist believes he is taking a great, adventurous journey to save his family from government baddies.

It is gradually revealed that the government baddies have in fact already murdered his whole family and are using drugs to make him hallucinate his adventure in the hope he will reveal some useful intel - all of the people he encounters in his alleged adventure are other inmate/prisoners. In the end, realizing the kid knows nothing, they kill him, too. [/spoiler]

This is the one for me. There’s just absolutely nothing uplifting in it, just heartache and despair.