Discussion Any good books that deal with suicide?

[SilentVelvet]

Hey everyone :)

I'm looking for book recommendations, preferably novels, that deal with suicide as a central theme. I'm especially interested in stories that explore suicidal thoughts, grief, loss, or a character's personal experience with these feelings rather than just mentioning the topic briefly.

Do you have any books that really stayed with you or that you felt portrayed the subject particularly well?

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

 

[Hystearical]

Well there is the Bell Jar by Plath that is kind of the suicidal novel par excellence. Maybe you already read that as that's the clichéd suggestion.

It's interesting that suicide is a common plot element in a lot of world literature especially among heroines. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina are said to be in the top five best novels in all of world literature and in both of those the heroine ends up killing herself. I think Madame Bovary does a good job of portraying how someone is driven to that but there isnt that deep of a psychological exploration in that regard.

I don't know anything about contemporary books.

 

[underairpressure]

There's this book called Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, that follows 3 teens who are in a psychiatric facility after attempting suicide. The whole book is written in prose and I remember that the discussions and depictions of suicide were very frank. It's been well over a decade since I read it though, so I can't say whether it was GOOD or not.

I'm sure I've read more books that involved suicide, but...... for some reason I can't remember them. I'll keep thinking. Most of them were probably autobiographies or memoirs, though, rather than fiction

 

[fleurdelune]

coming in with the obligatory No Longer Human recommendation :*)