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Original poster

Last miserable book you read

129 replies

whatausername · 18/10/2023 23:21

What was the last book you read that left you thinking what a miserable story it was?

For me it was Flaubert's The Three Tales. That left me in need of a glass of wine and some comedy.

OP posts:
Dogsitterwoes · 10/12/2023 16:59

Just finished Mother Mother by Annie Mac. It's about generational trauma and it's supposed to end with hope for the future.

However, by that point I was so depressed by it that when I read the ending, which was a genuinely positive note, I honestly didn't realise it was the ending, and turned the next page convinced it was going to finish with her being killed in a road accident.

Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 10/12/2023 17:01

Can’t think of the name but it was a novel about the plague and burying the dead… was out in last 2-3 years. Hardly cheerful but then what did I expect?! It was quite graphic though.

Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 10/12/2023 17:09

AllLopsided · 19/10/2023 23:35

I also found "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro to have a sad and kind of hopeless atmosphere running through it.

I enjoyed "The Remains of the Day"... i guess I found the hopelessness relatable. I found Ishiguro's "Never Let me Go" quite upsetting though. I'd never read anything quite like it and it stayed with me for a long time.

I didn't mind the wallowing in Sorrow and Bliss!

Did anyone read The Lovely Bones? I had to give up on that one Sad

I read The Lovely Bones a few times and though it was very sad because they were hunting for her murderer it seemed to have meaning to it. I loved the part about dogs (her dogs?) runnimg/playing through the fields/sports fields which added hope and happiness to what was basically the musings/monologue of someone who was dead/murdered and I actually thought it was done well.

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like hyped bestsellers either so myself by liking it.

StellaOlivetti · 10/12/2023 17:20

I am slogging through Shuggie Bain and not enjoying it. I don’t think I will read to the end.

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