Listopia > Depressing Book Lists

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank1984 by George OrwellThe Road by Cormac McCarthyA Story of Yesterday by Sergio CoboNight by Elie Wiesel
Most Depressing Book of All Time
1,228 books — 3,919 voters
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay AsherSpeak by Laurie Halse AndersonThe Lovely Bones by Alice SeboldIf I Stay by Gayle FormanBefore I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Best Depressing Books
429 books — 429 voters

1984 by George OrwellThe Lovely Bones by Alice SeboldThe Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
What a Downer...
331 books — 117 voters
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodAnna Karenina by Leo TolstoyTess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas HardyThe Road by Cormac McCarthy
Masters Of Misery
407 books — 99 voters

The Fault in Our Stars by John GreenThe Book Thief by Markus ZusakThirteen Reasons Why by Jay AsherEleanor & Park by Rainbow RowellThe Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Sad teen novels
74 books — 70 voters
The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsThe Meat Market by James ChalkDivergent by Veronica Roth1984 by George OrwellUglies by Scott Westerfeld
Wow, What a Crappy Future
62 books — 55 voters

American Psycho by Bret Easton EllisFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyA Clockwork Orange by Anthony BurgessOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseyNot Okay by Brett Axel
Dark Literary Fiction
131 books — 51 voters
The Giving Tree by Shel SilversteinLove You Forever by Robert MunschDer Struwwelpeter by Heinrich HoffmannSylvester and the Magic Pebble by William SteigCoraline by Neil Gaiman
Nightmare Fuel for Children
123 books — 43 voters

The Fault in Our Stars by John GreenThe Diary of Anne Frank by Anne FrankCharlotte’s Web by E.B. WhiteA Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty  SmithWatership Down by Richard  Adams
I Shed a Few Tears
121 books — 37 voters
The Fault in Our Stars by John GreenThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John BoyneMe Before You by Jojo MoyesRoom by Emma DonoghueThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
So sad you're afraid to read it
48 books — 33 voters

The Fault in Our Stars by John GreenLooking for Alaska by John GreenIf I Stay by Gayle FormanBridge to Terabithia by Katherine PatersonThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Depressing Books
45 books — 23 voters

Rabbit, Run by John UpdikeThirteen Reasons Why by Jay AsherThe Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins ReidThe Fountains of Silence by Ruta SepetysGhost Story by Peter Straub
Abandoned in 2020
91 books — 13 voters
And Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieBy Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth  SmartAll My Friends Are Dead by Avery MonsenMaus I by Art SpiegelmanWe Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Ou... by Philip Gourevitch
The Most Depressing Book Titles
35 books — 10 voters

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. GibsonBreaking the Chain by Stacie  WebbGirl, Interrupted by Susanna KaysenThe Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Depressing and boring non-fiction
4 books — 3 voters
The Man Without Qualities by Robert MusilThe Book of Disquiet by Fernando PessoaHamlet by William ShakespeareFranz Kafka by Franz KafkaAgainst Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans
Doomer Side
75 books — 3 voters

Norwegian Wood by Haruki MurakamiDoctor Zhivago by Boris PasternakStoner by John  WilliamsOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezThe Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Crying Over Spilled Milk
6 books — 2 voters
Winterkill by C.J. BoxSuicide Forest by Jeremy Bates
Unexplained Death
2 books — 2 voters

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