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Original poster

Literary Misery, Please...

95 replies

LittlePrecious · 22/04/2024 15:06

I like dark, disturbing, atmospheric and/or miserable fiction books. I veer towards literary fiction.

As a flavour of where I'm at;
I love everything that Hanya Yanagihara has written.

I love most of Siri Hustvedt's fiction books, even if the art bits are a bit pompous.

I love most of Ottessa Moshfegh's books.

I love Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" though struggled with his other works.
I love "My Dark Vanessa" by Kate Elizabeth Russell.

I love "The Handmaid's Tale" but hate everything else Attwood has ever written. I've never tried "The Testaments" because HMT ended perfectly for me.

I love most of Kazuo Ishiguro's books but was taken completely aback at how shit "The Buried Giant" was and so haven't gone back to his works.

I love "Washington Black" by Esi Edugyan but hated "Half Blood Blues" and so haven't tried anything else from her.

Not quite as dark, by other favourite authors are:
Isabelle Allende
Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Bernadine Evaristo
Karen Maitland
Yaa Gyasi
Sarah Waters

Currently waiting be read I have:
"Shuggie Bain" by Douglas Stuart
"The Virgin Suicides" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Wise readers of MN, do you have any recommendations for other dark, atmospheric, disturbing and/or miserably novels which veer towards literary fiction?

OP posts:
IfIwasrude · 26/04/2024 15:58

The book of Ruth

A high wind in Jamaica

IfIwasrude · 26/04/2024 15:54

Juneteenth

The orphan master's son.

1984

IfIwasrude · 26/04/2024 15:52

A little life. It's well written but incredibly disturbing.

A girl is a half formed thing. Brilliant but harrowing.

Beloved.

onitlikeacarbonnet · 26/04/2024 15:49

Not long finished prophet song by Paul lynch. Misery on a stick

Echobelly · 26/04/2024 15:47

I found 'A Fine Balance' too oppressively miserable, than and Elias Cannetti's 'Auto da Fe', so maybe you'd like that 😜

Hilary Mantel's 'Beyond Black' is as the title suggests, but entertaining with it.

Anything by Zola seems to be crushingly dark and full of people who hate each other, I had to read 'Germinal' at university and recently wondered whether I should try some of his other stuff but all the summaries suggested they were equally misanthropic!

SevenSeasOfRhye · 26/04/2024 15:44

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

Surprised no one has mentioned Orwell yet - 1984 and Burmese Days are pretty miserable!

SilverBranchGoldenPears · 26/04/2024 15:36

Oh you should absolutely read The Dumb House and Glister by John Burnside. Single handledly the darkest stuff I’ve read.

Haruki Murakami‘s Wind Up Bird Chronicle may tick your boxes (maybe all of his would actually

WhisperTree · 26/04/2024 15:35

Bookmarking. Right up my street.

School run beckons, but just quickly -

Over the Easter hols I inhaled Diane Cook's The New Wilderness. Oh my gosh. If you're in the market for feeling miserable, this more than delivers. She's brilliant. And the novel is Bleak As.

LunaNorth · 26/04/2024 13:11

I found Secret Histories by Donna Tartt quite dark.

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

The Underground Railroad and Nickel Boys, both by Carlson Whitehead.

Beloved by Toni Morrison is about as dark as it gets Sad

OhYoko · 26/04/2024 13:05

Just read Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss after reading the recommendation here and I thought it was brilliant. I'm just downloading some more of her stuff onto my kindle now. Thanks for the recommendation, whichever poster it was!

cheapskatemum · 25/04/2024 23:13

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Hartley99 · 25/04/2024 23:05

Chocolateisameal · 23/04/2024 15:09

I was also going to suggest Hardy. He is good at atmosphere. He’s also the most consistently depressing author.

I did Tess for A level and still hate Angel Clare, 40 years later.

Jude may be the bleakest book in the history of mankind.

Weirdly, I don’t find Hardy depressing. You’re right, of course, that he’s bleak as hell, but he wasn’t an unhappy man. In general, he seems to have been relatively cheerful. The writers who really depress me were themselves depressed. It’s as if their depression seeps into the work. I can read Hardy and quite enjoy it. OK, it isn’t P G Wodehouse, but he doesn’t have the same effect on me as Joseph Conrad or Philip Larkin. I admire both, but god I feel depressed after reading them. And I think it’s because Conrad and Larkin suffered from depression, whereas Hardy didn’t.

Chocolateisameal · 23/04/2024 15:09

I was also going to suggest Hardy. He is good at atmosphere. He’s also the most consistently depressing author.

I did Tess for A level and still hate Angel Clare, 40 years later.

Jude may be the bleakest book in the history of mankind.

Original poster
LittlePrecious · 23/04/2024 15:05

There are so many amazing suggestions here, thank you.

I really enjoy Daphne Du Maurier - especially Jamaica Inn. But I couldn't get to grips with "The House on the Strand" and it kind of put me off her a little.

OP posts:
Anoisagusaris · 23/04/2024 15:05

Hartley99 · 22/04/2024 19:52

Can't believe no one has mentioned Thomas Hardy. It doesn't get much darker than Jude the Obscure.

Wilde's Dorian Gray is surprisingly dark, and so is early Evelyn Waugh. J G Ballard disturbs me too. I also find Tolkien's description of Mordor horrible.

Cormac McCarthy is beyond dark. He's utterly horrific, frankly. In fact, he makes Hardy look like P. G. Wodehouse!

Edited

I was going to suggest Jude the Obscure and The Road.

Original poster
LittlePrecious · 23/04/2024 15:02

Geebray · 22/04/2024 16:43

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

It doesn't get much more miserable than that.

Yep - this is my favourite book of all time. It ruined reading for me when I read it first time because absolutely no subsequent books could come close it it. Then I re-read it earlier this year and it did exactly the same thing (kind of hence me starting this thread!)

OP posts:
HowardTJMoon · 23/04/2024 12:54

Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory

Allshallbewell2021 · 23/04/2024 11:16

Cormac McCarthy - The Road
So so bleak and a bleak film

Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
Does it get bleaker than this?

Wilkie Collins - The Woman In White
Atmospheric as hell

The Suspicions of Mr Whitcher
Can't remember the author - stayed with me for ages

TassledFez · 23/04/2024 11:02

There’s the Kate Atkinson short stories every one of which ends tragically. Will look up title.

Just about anything by Jean Rhys.

Also some horrendously tragic short stories written by Olivia Manning. I’ve tried to find the book’s title but not having much luck. It was published by Virago.

pandora206 · 22/04/2024 21:26

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer - Patrick Suskind
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

Notellinganyone · 22/04/2024 21:04

@CrepuscularCritter - god yes. I don’t many people who have read these. I was obsessed with them as a teenager.

Notellinganyone · 22/04/2024 21:02

David Mitchell’s ‘Cloud Atlas’. Absolute genius.

NashvilleQueen · 22/04/2024 21:01

Cormac McCarthy?

Hamnet is pretty bleak.

I like southern gothic with a twist of sadness so recommend Carson McCullers.

Hartley99 · 22/04/2024 19:52

Can't believe no one has mentioned Thomas Hardy. It doesn't get much darker than Jude the Obscure.

Wilde's Dorian Gray is surprisingly dark, and so is early Evelyn Waugh. J G Ballard disturbs me too. I also find Tolkien's description of Mordor horrible.

Cormac McCarthy is beyond dark. He's utterly horrific, frankly. In fact, he makes Hardy look like P. G. Wodehouse!

Spinet · 22/04/2024 17:38

I've recently read Boy Parts and Penance by Eliza Clark, which I think meet the brief? She creates voice amazingly, I think. And it's definitely dark/ miserable/ verging on horrible. But it doesn't have the intense broodingness of the other stuff you're describing. You kind of have to bring that aspect yourself, if you know what I mean?