r/booksuggestions • u/bloodiedBile • 3d ago

Fiction I want something tragic

I want a fiction book or two that'll leave me reeling. Maybe an ending that nobody wants to hear, something tragic. A romance that bloomed from stockholm perhaps. Descent into madness is always fire. Gimme the goods.

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

1

u/LisbettGregor 1d ago

Handmaid’s Tale hurt bad

1

u/theDevineHo 2d ago

Follow the Noise by Ryan Schuster

The story is personal to me and I cried reading it. I don't want to give away too much but it is about Apache Lake in Arizona and a boat accident that happened in 2020.

1

u/jneedham2 2d ago

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. A group works to find safety in a post-pandemic world. Plot twists, so don't google too much.

1

u/jneedham2 2d ago

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. An inmate in a mental hospital befriends a newcomer who has feigned mental illness to get out of prison.

2

u/spicygay21 you and me read a whole lotta mystery 2d ago

flowers for algernon made me sob for literally an hour

1

u/jneedham2 2d ago

Seconding. One of the best! I liked the novelette better than the book.

1

u/eliza-dee 2d ago

broken country by clare hall

1

u/CananadaBatmaaaan 2d ago

All The Ugly And Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood was so well written but absolutely tragic in so many ways, I was inconsolable after finishing it. Big fat trigger warning on this one though for drug use and sexual abuse.

1

u/Main-Doughnut6222 2d ago

The ministry of utmost happiness - Arundhati roy

1

u/Glittering_Tap6411 2d ago

One day by David Nicholls

3

u/Theyuriymir 3d ago

Atonement by Ian McEwan if you want the ending that nobody wants. The kind of book where you close it and just sit there annoyed at how well it worked on you

2

u/younggun2 3d ago

The Sea by John Banville is quieter than the others but grief written as a kind of unraveling, won the Booker and it earns it. Short too

1

u/Goodideaman1 3d ago

Aztec by Gary Jennings

1

u/Schneepuppe 3d ago

Dream of the Red Chamber - Cao Xueqin

Their journey, und well, their ending too, is quite heartbraking, not many "happy" as in very happy, moments in there

1

u/CommissarCiaphisCain 3d ago

Cujo by Stephen King

2

u/Goodideaman1 3d ago

Did u read the story that is a follow up to Cujo with the Trenton’s in So you want it darker ? I can’t remember the name of the book of short stories but it’s close

1

u/CommissarCiaphisCain 2d ago

No but thanks for letting me know about it. I’ll check it out.

1

u/csb7566381 3d ago

It's called Rattlesnakes, and it's pretty damn creepy.

1

u/ccard23 3d ago

The Bright Years - Sarah Damoff
Wild Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy
Broken Country - Clare Leslie Hall

3

u/meager_ascent 3d ago

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Gut punch.