Good Sad/depressing Teen Books?

1. Anonymous Says

   i was going to recommend ellen hopkins, but you already said her. lol
   “sold” by patricia mccormick
   it’s about a nepali girl who’s sold as a sex slave in india.
   “hate list” by jennifer brown
   a girl and her boyfriend aren’t very popular in school, so they create a ‘hate list’ of everyone who bullies them, etc. to her, it was just a way to vent, but one day, the boyfriend shows up to school ready to make those people pay.
   “give a boy a gun” by todd strasser
   this book is interesting. it’s loosely based on the columbine shootings, but it ficitional. it’s put together like a compiling of coversations between the shooters and interviews with people who knew them.
   “it’s kind of a funny story” by ned vizzini
   the main character suffers from depression and checks himself into a mental hospital. this book isn’t a tear jerker, but it’s very good =]
   “deadline” by chris crutcher
   the main character learns that he has a year to live.
   “the virgin suicides” by jeffrey eugenides
   five sisters committ suicide and the neighborhood boys, over several years, try to piece together why.
   “the secret year” by jennifer hubbard
   a boy and girl have a secret romance for a year, and then she tragically dies. he can’t openly mourn because no one knows how close they were, but when he gets her journal, he tries to discover if she actually loved him.
   “born blue” by han nolan
   this book centers around janie, a 13 year old girl who dreams of being a singer. because of a rough past and some bad choices, she ends up a drug addict.
   “Rx” by tracy lynn
   a girl steals some ritalin to keep up her A+ grades, and soon finds herself the leader of prescription drug dealing ring.
   “thirteen reasons why” by jay asher
   the main character is sent 7 cassette tapes. the tapes are from a fellow high school student who recent killed herself. she made the tapes to reveal the 13 reasons why she was going to kill herself. she explains that if you have been sent the tapes, that means that you appear somewhere on her list, so you have to listen and then pass them on to the next person. (this is actually one of my favorite books… when i got, i literally couldn’t put it down).
   “the perks of being a wallflower” by stephen chbotsky
   i don’t know if this book is really a tearjerker, but it awesome and pretty twisted. it definitely shocked me. i can usually finish a book and then immediately pick up the next one, but i had to let this book sit for a little while. it was a day or two before i felt ready to start a new book.
   ok… well i think that’s all i got =]
   EDIT:
   hp_resource [look, I'm using brackets] reminded me of another book! =]
   i love john green’s books, but i didn’t find “paper towns” as sad as “looking for alaska”. that’s my favorite book by him.
   i don’t want to give too much away about this book, so i’m going to copy the summary from the back of the book: “Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words – and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the ‘Great Perhaps.’ Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.”

2. Koko Says

   i just finished reading two ellen hopkins novels and i’m starting my third-they are so good, i love that she is so graphic and doesn’t sugar coat anything.
   The ones i’ve read are Identical and Tricks and the one i’m starting is crank, which i believe is her first (but i could be wrong) anyway i highly recommend them.
   also try: prep-curtis sittenfeld
   come clean- terri paddock
   junk-melvin burgess
   13 reasons why-jay asher
   the virgin suicides – jeffrey eugenides
   before i die -jenny downham
   you know where to find me -rachel cohn

3. hp_resource [look, I’m using bra Says

   I basically sobbed at the end of Paper Towns by John Green
   Paper Townshttp://www.amazon.com/Paper-Towns-John-G…
   It’s about a guy named Q who’s intrigued by his mysterious and exciting neighbor, Margo. It began when they were kids and discovered a dead body together, but they drifted apart as they grew older. Then, unexpectedly, in the middle of their senior year of high school, Margo comes to Q’s window, just like the old days, and they have a night of mayhem and revenge. Then, just as quickly as she came back into his life, Margo runs away. Q finds clues that point to where she may have gone, and (horrified) other clues that suggest she’s suicidal. He has to find her before she does it.

4. ♥Sam♥ Says

   Recently I’ve been recommending Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy. It details the author’s abuse-filled childhood, racism, hate, rejection, poverty, hunger… it’s pretty depressing. I still really liked it though because the style was so lyrical, it was like a Greek tragedy.

5. Pudinii Says

   If I Stay by Gayle Forman and Go Ask Alice is the only two good ones I’ve ever read.
   EDIT: You can also try Scars by C. A. Rainfield. I have the book, but I haven’t read it yet. It’s about a girl whose sexually abused by her father.

6. midnight Says

   The Pact by Jodi Picoult is about a suicide, and another book of hers is Nineteen Minutes, which is about a school shooting.
   Red Tears by Joanna Kenrick is about cutting.

7. x.noradr Says

   Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
   Life in the Fat Lane by Cherrie Bennett
   Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
   The Wind Blows Backward Mary Downing
   Life is Funny by E.R. Frank
   You Don’t Know Me by David Klass
   It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

8. Sarah Says

   Prayers for Bobby (About a gay teen’s suicide)

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