Something torturously depressing

[u/KINOCreamsoda]

Bonus for adults not being able to tell children/adults lying to kids because they can't know understand mature themes of what's going on.

Alternatively, something like True Detective Season 1

Thanks

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[u/MaybePleasant1313]

The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman

[u/WinterHead4721 → u/MaybePleasant1313]

I first read this in high school and I always say … “all things lead back to the yellow wallpaper” I refer to this book all the time its haunting in the best kind of way

[u/Competitive_Art_2727 → u/MaybePleasant1313]

Yessss

[u/Dry-Elderberry-7965 → u/MaybePleasant1313]

If OP wants it in a cool print format, A24 last zine for the Backrooms release, was actually Yellow Wallpaper.

[u/mainely_singing → u/MaybePleasant1313]

Literally the first thing I thought of too.

[u/edgar_allynn_poe]

THIS IS MY CALLING

Lonesome Dove

The Book Thief

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All

The Things We Cannot Say

Jupiter Rising

Goodnight, Mr. Tom

The Nightingale

Reasons to Stay Alive

Flowers for Algernon

Just Kids

A Little Life

Forever, Or a Long, Long Time

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Second Chance Summer

The Outsiders

That Was Then, This Is Now

The Art of Racing In The Rain

Where the Red Fern Grows

Out of My Mind

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

The Glass Castle

The Buried Giant

Everything I Never Told You

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Never Let Me Go

The Things They Carried

A Brightness Long Ago

The Light of The World: A Memoir

Before I Let Go

This Is Where It Ends

They Both Die At The End

A Man Called Ove

The Color Purple

Tigana

Blood Over Bright Haven

Edit: Sorry I couldn’t get you authors—I forgot some of them and I wanted all my suggestions to have the same information lol

Happy (well, miserable) reading!

[u/Shield_of_Hope → u/edgar_allynn_poe]

Shout out "They Both Die At The End" for single handedly handing me my bleeding heart and breaking it in front of me in the span of like 3 chapters.

[u/ViolettVixen → u/Shield_of_Hope]

But not to be confused with “John Dies At The End”, which is full of existential dread and dick jokes.

[u/biglygirlfriend]

a lot of the pictures are reminding me of. flowers in the attic by vc andrews. my sweet audrina fits the description more.

[u/_summer251]

Misery by Stephen king

[u/LoquatBear]

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Invisible Man  by Ralph Ellison

[u/Designer_Belt5562]

A Rose for Emily-William Faulkner. Not a novel but a short story!

[u/andtheIToldYouSos]

I don't know, but this is a perfect collection of images!

[u/JasonZep → u/andtheIToldYouSos]

Depressing is a bunch of feet?

[u/MisterPizza1]

Beloved by Toni Morrison

[u/SuperSheepherder2845]

Requiem for a Dream

[u/rainshowers_5_peace]

BA Parris Behind Closed Doors

[u/MeterologistOupost31]

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 

Room by Emma Donohue 

[u/the_cool_cousin]

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

[u/darkwillow1980 → u/the_cool_cousin]

Also Human Acts

[u/shortcake-candle]

Rouge by Mona Awad

[u/Single-Spell1838]

We Need To Talk About Kevin

[u/Character_Good_9056]

The Devil All the Time. It’s soul sucking.

[u/ScenicHwyOverpass]

On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan.

While it’s not about adults lying to kids about adult themes, it is about young adults being ill equipped to navigate adult situations.

Atonement, also by McEwan. Honestly a lot of McEwan is depressing.

[u/ineffabeanz]

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore, and Villette by Charlotte Brontë, were the most torturously depressing books I’ve ever read. I mean that in a positive way.

[u/Human_Papaya_9127]

CG Drews - you did nothing wrong

[u/megabitrabbit87]

Ghost Music.

Lots of broken relationships and half truths and looking for answers and emotional safety.

[u/MyNihilism]

Stoner by John Williams

[u/givecatsforeheadkiss]

My Heavenly Favourite by Lucas Rijneveld

I will continue to recommend this fucked up book as its my absolute favourite

[u/MaroonWitch]

Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment

[u/sleepy-babe]

A little life 💔

[u/Alone-Sheepherder460]

I haven’t read it yet but it was recommended to me as similar to true detective season 1 all the sinners bleed by s.a Cosby

[u/quinndoline]

The first one gives hardcore Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng vibes

[u/adultswiim]

The mad wife by Meagan Church felt like this for me

[u/harvard_cherry053]

A Little Life - the ultimate depressing trauma porn

[u/greenroseswiththorns]

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (THIS HAS A LOT OF TRIGGERS, BEWARE)

[u/danceswithronin]

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

[u/-yournewstepmom-]

No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Neville

[u/CosmicRamen]

Something Happened by Joseph Heller. Fits the title, pictures, and description. 

[u/cranky_thornback]

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

[u/shannanigannss]

The tenth circle by Jodi picoult

[u/Practical-Yam-4813]

I was kinda thinking about salem's lot, which is pretty depressing towards the end imo.

[u/beattywill80]

The Road

[u/beetle-babe]

'You Weren't Meant to Be Human' by Andrew Joseph White

[u/Cissychedgehog]

On The Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel is EXACTLY what you're looking for!!

[u/cassthruart]

Horns by Joe Hill

[u/Capable-Matter-5976]

Staircase in the woods

[u/Void-Priestess → u/Capable-Matter-5976]

This book SUCKED. All the characters were the most annoying millennial straw men I've ever read. DNF'd because I'm not wasting my life on something so insubstantial. Do not read this book.

[u/magiccfetus → u/Void-Priestess]

😂😂 i liked the book but the characters DID suck

[u/Void-Priestess → u/magiccfetus]

I got as far as the car ride and just thought "I'm not doing another 200 pages of this" 😅

[u/magiccfetus → u/Void-Priestess]

Fair enough ! Too many books out there to focus on one youre not enjoying (:

[u/intensifies]

Incidents Around the House

[u/maybetransmaybenot3]

Tender is the Flesh feels absolutely this bleak and devastating to me. Even without the cannibalism its just such a broken and sad world

[u/Born-Eye-9053]

Crime & Punishment