Literary Misery, Please...

[LittlePrecious]

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?

These women
I loved the film women talking - bleak but brilliant

I’ve found my people! Making notes and adding to the suggestions

my absolute darling
the great alone
educated
parable of the sower

I’m seconding Cormac McCarthy (The Crossing almost ruined the holiday I read it on, that’s how bleak that was), the God of Small Things and Under the Skin.

Others:

Real Life - Brandon Taylor
His Bloody Project - Graeme McCrae Burnet
The Factory series of utterly surreal, pitch black crime novels - Derek Raymond
Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin
The Dig - Cynan Jones

(Both the Dig and The Crossing feature very detailed animal abuse - putting this as a trigger warning as, while both are fantastically written, I was genuinely upset by them.)

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

God's Own Country by Ross Raisin

Oh gosh - and The Time Travellers Wife!

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan is supposed to be super sad, and was just shortlisted for the women's prize: https://womensprize.com/library/brotherless-night/

Thanks for starting this thread. I love a bleakfest myself! Some good recommendations on here.

I definitely recommend Emile Zola. The Beast Within is my favourite. Others that are great are Therese Raquin, Nana, Earth, and L'Assommoir. Germinal is amazing.

Paint it Black by Janet Fitch is very dark.

I love Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion. Pure depression.

The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald is a fantastic portrait of a mutually destructive marriage.

Junk by Melvin Burgess is teen fiction, but really dark. It's about runaway teenagers getting into heroin.

How the Light Gets In by MJ Hyland has a very messed up narrator.

Leaving Las Vegas by John O'Brien is just beautiful.

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene is very depressing.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann doesn't let up.

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles has one of the bleakest passages I've ever read.

Do No Harm by Carol Topolski is full of super grim medical descriptions.

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent. Just horrible.

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham is another beautiful bleakfest.

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brute, although that's more gross than bleak.

And my all time favourite horrible book is American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

I never thought I'd recommend this but The End of Alice by A M Holmes.
Also may we be forgiven A M Holmes.

David Vann Legend of a suicide and Caribou Island.

Anita Brookner is pretty bleak. Superb stylist though.

Yes, The End of Alice was a bit much even for me. Loved May We be Forgiven though.

Also Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
I was quite proud that I'd managed it after reading NYT book critic said he'd only managed on his 3-4 attempt due to the violence. But it's a great book.
In fact, anything by Cormac McCarthy

Just started The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty and it seems like it will be quite miserable.

Incredible book - I directed the audio (totally
outing but it was an incredible experience working on it)

@Citygirlrurallife wow that's amazing!! is it indeed a complete weep-fest? I'm halfway through the audio of Demon Copperhead at the moment and the accent lends it so much authenticity, but I was thinking - how would this translate to a culture where English is not the first language!

Would you consider doing an AMA on the What We're Reading topic about directing audiobooks? I have so many questions and don't want to derail the literary misery here.

The road and the woman who walked into doors and Paula Spencer both by Roddy Doyle

Yes please @Citygurl
I would love an AMA about that.

I'm very confused about a jeremy Bowen middle eastern book where he's 'reading' it but there are some strange pronunciation oddities that made me wonder if it could partially AI?
Apologies to OP
As I love, Honour and respect this thread!

@Xiaoxiong the narrator is not a professional narrator so it wasn’t without its challenges, but it’s the woman who the whole story is based on so it was a deeply emotional experience. I spent my childhood in Sri Lanka (we moved there during the Tamil uprising in 1983) so doubly so

i feel like I’ve done an AMA, it’s a very niche one though so maybe I can do one just in the books topic!

No they won’t have done partial AI, will just be someone not paying attention to pronunciations (most publishing houses don’t use directors)

I never thought I liked miserable books but looking at the books recommended on here, many of which I adore , I clearly do!

I found Secret Histories by Donna Tartt quite dark.

The Goldfinch is even darker, and incredibly haunting.

Annue Proulx generally writes very depressing books (apart from The Shipping News which is lovely). In particular Fine Just the Way it is is a collection of short stories where the only story where nobody dies is set in hell.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is about a time travelling historian who goes vack to the Black Death by mistake. It is incredible, so atmospheric but lightened by the American author's Disnified view of modern Oxford.

The secret history of
🙌
I loved that book

Has anyone suggested Stoner by John Williams?
I think it's a miserable book, I thought it was really great

Lolita by Nabokov.
Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.

Oh, and Wuthering Heights, obvs

I loved The Road and Duggie Bain, so this thread is just up my street! I’m now googling some of these recommendations ready to download to the Kindle. Thanks all!