I DID quit!! lol I made it well over halfway through, realized I was too distracted by the author to ever enjoy it, and just gave up. I haven’t quit many books without finishing them, no matter how bad. I can only think of two at this point…Eat, Pray, Love, and Gone Girl.
Thank you for sharing that. There is such hype about the book, it was on my TBR list. Did you watch the movie, before, after or not at all? Wanted to read the book before I watched the movie. Time is precious, looks like I can skip both.
Tracy, a lot of people did really like it but I wouldn’t recommend it. Mainly because I disliked her so much. We were on a flight and that movie was what was playing…I read my book instead. :/
Exactly how I felt about it!! I won’t read anything by her either. It is so great that others share my viewpoint of her. I was nervous putting this book on this list.
I plowed through it, took foreveR. I couldn’t understand what the big deal,was. Never saw the movie. I made myself read her one about her marriage… not much better. Just drags…, no more will I even try.
Really i just give up on this book after reading one chapter i couldnt get through it i dont know why if its get beterr just tell me to give it a try again and why you find it so deppressing
The ending of Jenny Eclair’s novel Camberwell Beauty -I really had me on a downer, I remember sitting feeling on it for ages after I’d finished reading, it was really grim, I didn’t expect and-they-lived-happily-ever-after – but it left me feeling like I’d been slapped around the chops with the harsh reality of life. ? Hasn’t put me off her as a writer though.
All the Bright Places, jennifer Niven. do NOT read that bookif you have depression, depressive tendencies or suicidal thoughts, its just a downward spiral
Any Holocaust novel. I did get the BookThief and Zookeeper’s Wife or whatever it’s called, at Goodwill. I plan to only read them in the morning before getting up. Can’t read depressing books before bed, which limits my reading considerably.
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Road
Withering Heights.
In Cold Blood
The book thief
boy in the striped pajamas
Stranger in a strange land
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee
Jodi Picoult books
Human Acts by Han Kang :'(
The big book.
The Bronze Horseman
The green mile
I saw the movie a looong time ago
Thousand splendid susn
Loved that book.
That’s too?
Flowers in the Attic
Anne frank the diary of a young girl
A fine balance
True! I read that one too.
@Barbara I haven’t read a book about India since ?
@Sharon have you read Lion? So good. They made a movie about the book but of course the book was better!
@Barbara will have a look at it thanks Barbara ??
A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown
Ps I love you
The Shack
Impossible vacation
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
American Psycho
On the Beach
So many; the most recent was Revival, by Stephen King.
The Lake of Dead Languages. Not only is it depressing but it made me physically ill. Worst book I have ever read. I wish I could forget it.
The Shack
50 shades of grey I never finished it though.
A Little Life
Omgoodness. I know, right?
Yep!
One of two best books I have EVER read!
A child called it
The Shack, couldn’t read it.
Natchez Burning by Greg Iles. Reading it now and might have to put it aside.
Yes, that was sad. I read it through but it was a struggle. He is an excellent writer.
The Book Thief
Sophie’s Choice and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
War And Peace
The Bell Jar
I couldn’t finish it
Me too,left it in the middle
Same. Is the saddest book for me.
Catcher in the rye
A Little Life
One of two best books I have EVER read!
Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Why was I ever born?
Ruby by Cynthia Bond
And the mountains echoed by Khalid Hosseni
Left it after a few chapter
Thought it was a great book.
Eat, Pray, Love …Such a selfish woman!!
Yes!! Everybody looks at me like I’m crazy when I say that. lol
I get the same looks but I had to read it for a book club. Otherwise, I would have quit!! Blech!!
I DID quit!! lol I made it well over halfway through, realized I was too distracted by the author to ever enjoy it, and just gave up. I haven’t quit many books without finishing them, no matter how bad. I can only think of two at this point…Eat, Pray, Love, and Gone Girl.
Thank you for sharing that. There is such hype about the book, it was on my TBR list. Did you watch the movie, before, after or not at all? Wanted to read the book before I watched the movie. Time is precious, looks like I can skip both.
Tracy, a lot of people did really like it but I wouldn’t recommend it. Mainly because I disliked her so much. We were on a flight and that movie was what was playing…I read my book instead. :/
Took me over a year to read torturous and painful selfish woman and truly depressing ugh
@Lola Yes!!!! 😀
@Debra almost narcissistic won’t read anything else by Gilbert
Exactly how I felt about it!! I won’t read anything by her either. It is so great that others share my viewpoint of her. I was nervous putting this book on this list.
I plowed through it, took foreveR. I couldn’t understand what the big deal,was. Never saw the movie. I made myself read her one about her marriage… not much better. Just drags…, no more will I even try.
You are a brave soul to read another one of hers…lolol!!
Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe.
sarah’s key by tatiana de rosnay
The Plague by Albert Camus
The Girl with All the Gifts
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Really i just give up on this book after reading one chapter i couldnt get through it i dont know why if its get beterr just tell me to give it a try again and why you find it so deppressing
Catcher in the Rye
??
Why is that so?
A Little Life ?
Same.
One of the two best books I have EVER read!
For me it is Gulliver travels and kafka’s trial
The Dark by McGahern
Angela’s Ashes
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas or The Book Thief
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott or A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Oh and The Road by Cormac McCarthey
The ending of Jenny Eclair’s novel Camberwell Beauty -I really had me on a downer, I remember sitting feeling on it for ages after I’d finished reading, it was really grim, I didn’t expect and-they-lived-happily-ever-after – but it left me feeling like I’d been slapped around the chops with the harsh reality of life. ?
Hasn’t put me off her as a writer though.
1984
Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Lullibies for little criminals
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
War Against All Puerto Ricans
The grapes of wrath/ of Mice and Men/ The kiterunner/ One thousand splendid suns.
We Need to Talk about @Kevin
yes ,what do you Need to say ?
Lie Down In Darkness
Last Exit to Brooklyn, hands down.
The Book Thief, empire of storms, crooked kingdom, and sooo many more
Also We are okay by Nina lacour
Where the red fern grows. But I’m reading the shack so things might change
I can open Where the Red Fern Grows at the end and immediately start sobbing
Angela’s Ashes
Yeah this book was so depressing…
Yes but what a great life lived. I’m so happy I traveled to meet him and hear him read before he passed.
Things Fall Apart de Chinua Achebe
A Fine Balance
Alone in Berlin
In the line of fire.
The Double (Dostoyevsky), Flowers For Algernon.
Lemony snicket
I find it both humorous and depressing.
@Claire it’s depressing Cathy Cassidy is better
The Last Day of a Condemned Man
A Little Life
One of the two best books I have EVER read!
My biggest mistake . depressing but I loved it
The one I wrote.
https://medium.com/@stevenbhow/getting-my-novella-published-last-year-has-been-a-lot-like-getting-kicked-in-the-nuts-fcfccff8ba11
Wow….great article. Now I don’t feel so bad about not getting published & doing it myself. I edited the hell outta mine. I think it’s almost perfect!
All The Bright Places
The Time Traveler’s Wife
I liked this one. It is sad but still….I found it impressive.
@Claire yes me too. I loved this book and will remember it forever
Haha, I wanted my husband’s name to be Henry 😉
And I want my future husband to be a librarian or one who loves books
Sadly, my husband likes video games more!
Oh. That’s still fun, though!
It’s okay with me. I can read while he is playing games.
Oh, yeah. The joy of being left alone with your books… Ah, that’s the ideal life.
My ideal life is that I don’t have to care about money and have plenty of time to read!!
Affinity
I was waiting for you to say that! Seconded!
The Mayor of Casterbridge
A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer
Lord of the Flies
All the Bright Places, jennifer Niven. do NOT read that bookif you have depression, depressive tendencies or suicidal thoughts, its just a downward spiral
I thinl the same. I never cried so hard about a book. Its just so hard if the readrr is not mentally stable.
^^
The book thief.
Any Holocaust novel. I did get the BookThief and Zookeeper’s Wife or whatever it’s called, at Goodwill. I plan to only read them in the morning before getting up. Can’t read depressing books before bed, which limits my reading considerably.
Adultery
A child called it. It has a happy ending, but so sad what was done to him.
Mystic River
I thought this was a great book!
Atonement by Ian McEwan ?
Following
Handle with Care – Jodi Picoult
The fault in our stars
The Old Curiosity Shop. Read it 20 years ago and it still breaks my heart.
I read it till the narrative change to third person.
The Road. Very depressing.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Clockwork princess, a monster calls, we are the ants.
The End of the World As We Know It – Robert Goolrick.
Heartbreaking but written so beautifully.
Cancer Ward.
My autobiography.
1984 or Flowers for Algernon
Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss
The Kite Runner.
i watched the movie
The Story of Lucy Gault.
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
It’s not a difficult read, and I love his work, but it’s brutal.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
McCourt’s ANGELA’S ASHES & Oates WE WERE THE MULVANEY’s. Seems Irish & Catholic are dreary beyond belief.
The God of Small Things
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks