Best fiction to read when depressed

[Bathandbed]

Hey - can anyone recommend a good book to read when you feel depressed. I’ve already read the midnight library. Wondered if there were any other recommendations please.

Me too! Reminds me of a simpler, easier time.

The chicken soup for the soul series got me out of a huge funk in my teenage years and then 16 years later when getting divorced.

Women achieving amazing physical feats to remind me to not give up - Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Grandma Gatewood's walk.

Marian Keyes- explores major issues but hysterically funny - love ALL her books

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Silly, funny, very dated, but I find it really comforting. It’s also a ‘trilogy in four parts’ so there’s plenty to read!

Agree with a pp about David Sideris.

I agree with others on Marian Keyes - Rachel's Holiday is great - especially if you like Maeve Binchy. Also agree with Thursday murder club series, I've read them all and they are good fun. If you're looking for something light and easy to read then The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella would be my recommendation- it's very funny. I always go back to Judy Blume and Sweet Valley High when I'm feeling down. I've recently been reading famous five to my youngest and I've enjoyed that too. Hope you get well soon.

A court of thorns and roses basically got me out of a horrendous bout of depression. It's a fantasy novel that's basically an adult fairytale and the escape from reality is just what I need sometimes!

Sure! If you're looking for something uplifting, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a great choice. It's all about following your dreams and finding purpose. Another good one is Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman – it’s a mix of humor and heart, and really shows the power of connection.

Joan Jonker. Her books are set in Liverpool, mostly during or just after WW2. She is joyous! I have reread so many, many times and they always make me feel good and I’ve read them through some of my darkest times and they always bring me comfort. She writes about families living in difficult and dire situations but Jonker writes with such joy and humour and compassion and she makes you feel so grateful for the little things in life. Also, they always have happy endings!

Jane Austen.

PG Wodehouse is an excellent suggestion! When I’m in a mood of not knowing what to read I always turn to ‘Full Moon’, it’s perfect.

’Diary of a Nobody’ is also very funny.

After my mum died i was really in a bad way. I realised i had no more females left in my family (that i loved). I craved womens company. I read a few books of Danielle Steel, they are very easy to read. I wrote to the author to say what a comfort i found in reading her books at a really difficult time and i got a lovely letter back from her. I really appreciated it.

I find The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency wonderfully uplifting.

Thoroughly recommend David Sedaris.
Any book.
Observational essays which make me snort through my nose in a deeply unattractive way.

I love him.

I was coming here to say A Court of Thorns and Roses. There are five books so far in the series and I hadn't read fantasy or romantasy before but I absolutely inhaled them and read the whole series in a month. Pure escapism and they got me out of a slump.

The first book is essentially an adult retelling of beauty and the beast.

I am 'down' most of the time and hate frothy/fun books now, they just seem so far away from my life and feelings. I read to get through the day not to be cheered up (if only it were that easy). I go for detective books, fantasy anything that takes me out of my world. Am agreeing with some suggestions above - Eva Ibbotson and Jodie Taylor. Try Naomi Novik, Laini Taylor for fantasy. So many good detective books but yes Agatha Christie.

I like the Shopaholic books!

Even better... HGTTG is in 5 parts now.

The Adrian Mole diaries.

Maeve Binchy or old childhood favourites like Noel Streatfeild Pamela Brown Enid Blyton School series Anne Digby school series and never forget a very old fashioned favourite all the Miss Read stories.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford.
Anything by PG Wodehouse.
Any of the James Herriot books.

Nothing too introspective.

A writer called Clare Pooley they are just lovely easy to read . And I got mine via the Libby app

I have a selection of Tom Sharpe books on my shelf, and will pick one up if I'm feeling down. The Wilt ones are my favourites. They're very silly and absolutely hilarious, and never fail to make me laugh.

Oooh - that passed me by! Thanks!

I love Taylor Jenkins Reid (apart from After I Do, that book annoyed me so much I literally threw it down at the end) and Curtis Sittenfeld. Rodham & American Wife by CS are kind of alternate histories based on Hilary Clinton & Laura Bush (wife of George W). Both throughly enjoyable.

Depends. Do you want to cheer yourself up or wallow and make yourself feel worse? I admit I am a sucker for the latter.

Hope you're okay OP

Oddly enough "If This Is A Man" and "The Drowned and The Saved" by Primo Levi. Not fiction, but short stories of his time in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Because it reminds you that however bad it is, it could be so much worse