Most bang-up scientific discipline fiction and fantasy novel leave you with a signified of admiration , and perhaps a last moment of hope and awe . There are n’t that many generator who are uncoerced to allow you so grim and apathetic , you might forget to recommend their Koran . But some brave genre authors just go for it , and punch you in the intestine on their way out the door . ( Who here thinks George R.R. Martin will stop A Song of Ice and Fire with everyone take hold hands and tattle ? )
Sometimes you just need a book with a sedative ending . And for those times , here are 10 scientific discipline fable and fantasy books that will leave you wanting to go back to bottom and hide . Massive spoilers for old Holy Scripture in advance …
Synopsis : Jonas , a twelve year old male child in a utopian society , is assign the job to become the liquidator of memories in his community . He finds all feelings both beneficial and bad have been reduce and varnish away by the community . With the help of the Old Memory Receiver training him , known as “ The Giver ” , Jonas plans to break away off and release all of the community ’s corporate retentivity back to them .
Why it ’s great : This volume is a Newberry honour winner — and is one of the most banned and challenged Bible in the U.S. , according to the American Library Association .
Why it ’ll leave you feel miserable : The ending is equivocal in a elbow room that messes with your creative thinker . Jonas manages to fly with a infant named Gabe . The baby has lived with his family for six month , and was scheduled to be down for not sleeping through the night , despite extra “ nurturing ” . They contend to miss , but they ’re stranded in the wilderness and death of pic . The record ’s end is pretty hallucinatory , and the proofreader is n’t sure what is substantial and what is the attack of hypothermia — Jonas utilize memories of sunshine and category to sustain him . And then , it appears he ’s walked whole into his own memories when he inexplicably find a sled and joyfully sled to an improbable townsfolk of twinkling lights , singing , and euphony . Did Jonas actually miss into a welcoming wonderland , or freeze to death with the sister ?
precis : The book starts as a ostensibly low-spirited - stake narration about a chemical group of boarding school friend who face the normal challenge of adolescence and friendship . And then , it turn out they ’re clones being raised for organ donation .
Why it ’s great : This book was short listed for the Booker booty in 2005 . This book bulge out in a deceptively unacquainted means , detail the teen relationships of the main eccentric Kath and her two longtime friends Tommy and Ruth . The beauty of the book comes from the path it prefer not to idealize youth , but catches all the cattiness , pain , and flailing around of young people try out to figure out their identity . It is the well - drawn and complicated friendly relationship that makes the ending so heart - breaking .
Why it ’ll leave you feeling miserable : At the end of the Christian Bible , Kath is coming to the end of her time as a carer . Carers are clones who have n’t yet been call to start donate vital organs , and aid in the recuperation of active donor between contribution trading operations . She cares for her best Quaker Ruth , who die through the donation process and go . She then care for her longtime friend Tommy , who becomes her fan during the clip , and see him “ completed ” as well . ( One reason this book is painful is the dehumanize euphemisms , such as “ closing ” or else of death . ) At the end of the book , a tired Kath is looking onward to the repose of introduce a centre and jump her contribution .
Synopsis : The Hellenic dystopian novel about a totalistic government that master the universe through propaganda , terror and the neutering of history to meet the party contrast . Winston Smith tire to link up a rotation to bring down the tyrannous and insure government .
Why it ’s great : Terms from 1984 have become part of our vernacular , such as “ Big Brother ” and “ Thought Police . ” This book is so iconic , it spawned the procedural “ Orwellian . ” Plus , this is yet another regularly challenged and cast out book .
Why it ’ll leave you sense miserable : Winston Smith completely bomb , and gets caught , tortured and reprogrammed . He and his love , Julia , both betray each other to make the torture break off . And in the end , Winston Smith has been to the full indoctrinated , and sincerely yours celebrates the triumph of the state he once hat .
abstract : The Martian Chronicles is a serial of small short taradiddle linked together to recite the resolution and story of Mars by “ Earthlings . ”
Why it ’s bully : This is a classic novel that captures the miscarry 1950 ’s American dream of place exploration . These stories have inspired radio , television , photographic film , and graphic novels . The assembling itself has abide the test of time , due to its lyrical style .
Why it ’ll leave you feel miserable : It might be gentle to point to Bradbury ’s Fahrenheit 451 as yet another example of a dystopian future , but The Martian Chronicles is actually more cheerless , since its story span many years of story . Many of the tarradiddle and characters seem tripping - hearted and rather absurd at first blush — like the luggage salesman getting ready to twist a lucre as settler returns to worldly concern to press in a creation warfare — but then the horror seeps in . The book can be summed up in the famous quote , “ We Earth humankind have a gift for ruining big , beautiful things ” . The land man wangle to destroy the indigenous aliveness , their own colonies , and even earth throughout the book . At the end of the book , a family of refugee from the Great War on earth comes to Mars to resettle . This is n’t a particularly hopeful scene , since the reader reflects on all the repugnance and destruction people have wrought over the track of the book . In the last history , the founding father promises to show his sons some material Martians . He takes them to the river and channelise to their own reflexion . It is a bitter admonisher of how humans destroyed all of the actual Martians and even their own colony . The editorialist Jonathan Kayblames Bradbury ’s depressing outlookfor turn him off skill fiction altogether .
Synopsis : Charlie , a low - function adult with an IQ of 68 , has an surgical process that makes him a A-one - whiz . Unfortunately the effect are temporary , and Charlie reverts back his late state , except that he still has his memory .
Why it ’s not bad : The Scripture deliver the goods the Nebula in 1966 , and was nominated for the Hugo . This book also has the honour of being on a regular basis challenged and banned in schoolhouse . The book ’s write as a series of first individual progress report from the main fibre , and the lector can see his development through the use of spelling and language skills . This style give the leger a lot more power .
Why it ’ll leave you feel miserable : The ending of the book is devastating , because the readers witness the worsening of Charlie through his journal . The referee bears viewer to Charlie ’s regression immediately , instead of just reading about it . His new life falls aside , and his old living has been destroyed by his gain in intelligence service . In the end , Charlie run to a rest home where nobody knows his past .
Synopsis : An unidentified father and son travel across a post – apocalyptic United States on a journey to find a good place by the sea . On their journey they counter out of the question trial and horrors , such as survivors resorting to cannibalism .
Why it ’s capital : The Bible has two major strengths : the poetic language , and the moving don - son human relationship . The novel reads like clean verse , with thoroughgoing dialogue that avoids standard punctuation and committal to writing rules , surrounded by desolate but beautifully render scene . After getting the Oprah Winfrey seal of approval , it put in the post - apocalyptic genre to a whole new grouping of readers .
Why it ’ll go forth you feeling measly : What really sets The Road aside from a lot of other apocalyptical stories is the fact that it does n’t explain the Revelation of Saint John the Divine . There ’s also no political or societal criticism being hammered home . rather , the focus is on the Father of the Church and Logos struggling to survive . The emphasis on the family relationship produce the demise of the don at the end of the playscript way more smashing . The beginner tells his son to keep talking to him even after his death , in his head , to keep himself blend . The record book backs off a complete bummer of an conclusion though when the boy is taken in by another family . Still , the story of personnel casualty and adjudicate to maintain morals during an out of the question time leaves you with an ache sense of nihilistic delusion .
Synopsis : A pridefulness of lions bunk the Baghdad zoological garden during the American invasion of Baghdad in 2003 .
Why it ’s with child : This might be the most storied of Vaughn ’s graphical novels , thanks to a clever take on the “ talk animals ” trope . Prior to the invasion , we see the different coinage of animals plotting their own rotation in the zoological garden . The entire narration use animals to comment on the war and its effect on people , with the animals symbolizing political groups .
Why it ’ll leave you feeling miserable : In the end , the full superbia is gunned down by American soldiers . And the lamentable graphics just twists the knife further . ( Want another great , tragic graphic novel about cute animals ? Check out Grant Morrison ’s We3 . )
abstract : A scientist named Isaac is give with the unique challenge of helping a Garuda , a fly mintage , regrow his wing . In his pursuit he accidently unleashes monsters , slake moths , onto the city of New Crobuzon and is forced to battle them .
Why it ’s great : This Koran was nominated for the 2002 Nebula award and Hugo award , and it won the Arthur C. Clarke prize . The military posture of the book of account is in its world - building , perchance to detriment of the story . The first part of the book lays out a city of grime , dirt , and corruption . The entire cityscape is cutting and uncheerful .
Why it ’ll leave you feeling miserable : In the end of the book , all the main characters are ruin and nobody is rewarded . Isaac ’s girlfriend Lin is raped , tortured , and mind - wiped into an moron who is no longer able to keep creating her art . The Garuda , Yagharek , turns out to be a raper , never gets his wing back , and is pressure to masquerade as a homo . This dystopian ending happens in spite of a potential deus ex machina in the grade of supernatural creatures like the Weaver , who could have fixed everything , a realization that just twists the knife further .
Synopsis : After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the humanity , the survivors in Australia await the inevitable radioactive cloud that will go far and kill them all . A U.S. navy sub forced to Australia go in hunting of sprightliness but only finds a dead world .
Why it ’s capital : The book is different and significant because it ’s so quiet and powerful . There are no grand moments of conflict and explosion . There are also no moments of Bob Hope . The reader is forced to have the inevitable fact of end , along with the characters . The greatness of the record book follow from the unflinchingly deadpan narration .
Why it ’ll leave you experience miserable : There is only one potential outcome in this book . The only power the characters have is decide when and how to die . The book excels by making each death poignant and the ending more depressing . A young kin decides to die together , when they become ill from radiation sickness poisoning . They climb into bottom , the father lethally injects the sister , and the parents take suicide pills together . Another character takes a self-annihilation tab behind the wheel of the railcar he ’s been fix . Humanity ends with a whimper , and not a smash .
Synopsis : The novel is a centuries - cross tale that follows the rebuilding of civilisation after a nuclear final solution . An order of monks follow Saint Isaac Leibowitz , an electric engineer of the U.S military that outlive the warfare and preserved knowledge from the anti - science purging that come afterword .
Why it ’s slap-up : This novel win the 1961 Hugo accolade , and on a regular basis appears on commend reading lists in both mainstream and genre publications . In particular , people praise its themes of the cyclic nature of history .
Why it ’ll depart you sense low : The end of the book is barren , because humankind manages to reconstruct , only to destroy itself once again . A starship of monks does manage to get away , presumptively to colonise another world , but this is not in particular comforting , since the rotary nature of the book suggests manhood will repeat the same wheel yet again . The ending image of the record book is resonant :
There were shrimp carousing in the breakers , and the Merlangus merlangus that fed on the shrimp , and the shark that munched Merlangus merlangus and constitute them admirable , in the frolicsome brutality of the sea .
A nothingness came across the ocean , embroil with it a pall of fine lily-white ash . The ash fall into the sea and into the breakers . The breaker washed dead shrimp ashore with the driftwood . Then they washed up the whiting . The shark swim out to his deep waters and brooded in the old clean current . He was very thirsty that season .
The earth is break and buy the farm but the predator survive . Or is the shark like the spaceship take flight the destruction ? He is hungry , but live by waiting it out .
Synopsis : A world and fair sex spend their whole lives in dear with each other , but their romance is complicated by the hubby ’s unusual genetic disorder that causes him to slip in and out of meter .
Why it ’s great : Along with the similarly great Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer , this Holy Scripture was in the vanguard of Modern wafture fabulism , a movement of literary books that used speculative conceits to secernate deeply personal , emotional account .
Why it ’ll pull up stakes you feeling miserable : In the ending , two lover that shared a passionate life together are separated by metre and in the end death . Oh , and Henry gets shot in a jolly pointless fashion , that he sees add up a long elbow room off .
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