Slain Dark Lords? Rescued royals? Saved realms? Yeah, these fantasy don’t have any of that. Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we hoped. The hero fails. The lovers die. The bad guys win. If you’re in the mood for something bleak, if you wanna work out your emotional kinks, if you need an ugly cry, these bummer fantasy books are exactly what the depression doctor ordered. Sit back and relax with a box of tissues, these are the 10 saddest fantasy books of all time.
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles is famously sad, the textbook definition of downer fantasy. Considering that the novel was inspired by a tale written by the people who practically invented tragedy, the emotional gut punches shouldn’t come as a surprise. A retelling of The Iliad, The Song of Achilles follows the titular demigod and his lifelong companion Patroclus, beginning with their childhood friendship and ending with their (spoiler) deaths in the Trojan War. While one would think that the novel’s sorrows end when its lovers are separated by death, one would be wrong. The story goes on for at least fifty pages after one of the pair bites the bust, and you will ugly cry through all of them. Thankfully, the novel features a happy ending that is exactly one sentence long – The Song of Achilles is a minor key dirge that ends on a major chord.
The Amber Spyglass
The final novel of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, The Amber Spyglass teaches one of life’s cruelest lessons: sometimes love isn’t enough to make a relationship work. Warning, massive spoilers ahead, but essentially the novel centers around two preteens from separate universes on a quest to overthrow an unjust God – and fall in love in the process. For plot reasons that are too complicated to get into here, young Lyra and Will are forced to return to their own universes at journey’s end, never to see one another again. Lyra and Will’s final goodbye is devastating, and I still get misty eyed when I think about the passage that describes the ground as wet with rain from another universe where Will closed the portal to his world for good. Despite the fact that they saved the world, Lyra and Will don’t get to experience the thrill of victory at the end of this trilogy – just the pain of staggering loss.
Tigana
When it comes to sad fantasy, few can contend with Guy Gavriel Kay. While his novels The Fionavar Tapestry and The Lions of Al-Rassan are famous for jerking tears, his masterpiece Tigana is arguably his magnum opus of depressing. Set in a realm cursed by a sorcerer-king, the story follows the citizens of Tigana as they attempt to free their nation from a dark magic that causes outsiders to forget their country exists. It’s a novel about the grief that comes from the erasure of an entire culture, generations of pain crying out in a voice fighting to be heard.
Grendel
John Gardner’s Grendel isn’t a “make you cry” kind of novel, more of a make you go “oof” kind of novel while shaking your head in grim disbelief. Inspired by the Norse epic Beowulf, Gardener frames his story around the original poem’s antagonist – a man eating monster that lives with his mom. Desperate for connection but unsure how to get it without murdering people, Grendel’s life is a solitary one. His friendship with a nihilistic dragon certainly doesn’t help his spirits, neither does his eventual maiming by Beowulf himself. This is novel is a glimpse at the howling face of utter aloneness. It’s not a tragedy of a character ruined by love, but one who never got any to begin with.
Beloved
Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a devastating work of historical fantasy inspired by the real life story of Margaret Garner, enslaved woman who killed her own daughter in order to free her from a life of bondage. The novel follows Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman haunted by the ghost of a girl named “Beloved” – which happens to be the name inscribed on the tombstone of her eldest daughter. Unable to escape the trauma of her past, Sethe’s pain is given a spectral voice by the daughter that she never knew. Featuring some of the most profoundly beautiful prose on this list, passages from Beloved have a way of sticking themselves like needles into the heart. After reading this novel, you’ll never look at rain the same way again.
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard And Glass
While Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series features more emotional dropkicks than a cage match with a kangaroo, the series’ fourth novel Wizard And Glass is arguably the hardest hitting. The novel paints the portrait of the gunslinger as a young man, detailing the life of Roland Deschain before he was a grizzled loner we meet a series beginning. Framed as a story within a story told around a campfire, Roland recounts one of his very first adventures – the one that turned him from boy to man. Accompanied by his now long-dead companions Cuthbert and Alain, young Roland once journeyed to ranching village and fell in love with a beautiful girl named Susan Delgado. Sadly, fate was unkind to these two young lovers, and Susan’s tragic loss turned Roland’s soul from a soaring hawk to a leathery piece of gristle. Featuring one of the most haunting death sequences Steven King has ever written, this novel turns average tear ducts into Niagara Falls.
The Farseer Trilogy
Beginning with Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb’s The Farseer Trilogy is the story of fate-cursed FitzChivalry Farseer, a high fantasy cinnamon roll who deserves far better than what he gets. Born a bastard to the King-in-Waiting, Fitz is forced to serve his royal relatives from the shadowy sidelines as an assassin. Hated and feared for his budding magical talent, Fitz is trained in the arts of murder – carrying out political hits for the realm as an act of duty. Fitz’ story is one of total devotion, the tale of a boy who gave his life for the good of a family that spurned him – and received almost nothing in return. There is no glory for Fitz, no bard to sing his song, no maiden to hold his hand. From his boyhood days mucking out the stables to his teenage years spent putting knives in people’s backs, Fitz continually gets his hands dirty for the kingdom – and the kingdom continually refuses to acknowledge his existence.
The Children of Hurin
While J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings series can wax melancholic at times, his lesser known The Children of Hurin sees the author spread his depressing wings and lift off into the grey skies of literary tragedy. This the tale of Túrin Turambar, the unluckiest man in all of Middle Earth history. After his father Húrin was defeated in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (off to a sad start), Túrin and his family were cursed by the dark power of Morgoth. While Túrin attempts to travel far away to escape his fate, the curse follows him. He grows up to become a great warrior, but circumstance and his own pride inevitably tip his life toward ruin – ending with the deaths of friends, family, and lovers. There’s a little known Marvel comic about a man named David who is tortured by Thanos every day on his birthday. Turin is essentially the Middle Earth version of that guy, but unlike poor David, much of Túrin’s daily misfortune is his own fault.
A Monster Calls
Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls is a children’s fantasy novel that packs a heavyweight adult punch. It’s the story of Conor O’Malley, a twelve year old boy who lives with his cancer-afflicted mother. Bullied at school and burdened at home, Conor begins to have a recurring nightmare about his mother’s death. One night, a tree monster visits Conor and tells him three stories, and in return Conor must tell the truth about the nightmare’s meaning. As the story progresses, Conor sinks deeper into his grief, but is finally able to come to terms with the inevitable in the end. It’s a gut wrenching tale about the suffering that comes from watching a loved one suffer, and the guilt one feels for wanting that suffering to stop by any means necessary.
The Buried Giant
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro is what you’d get if you took A24’s The Green Knight, got it really high, and then asked it to recount some long-forgotten childhood trauma. Set in a mist-drenched version of Arthurian England, the novel follows an elderly couple on a quest to find their son – whose name and face they can’t quite remember. As they continue on their quest, they begin to realize that the miasma that hangs over the land has a dementia-like effect, causing everyone in the realm to forget the past. On their hunt for answers, the couple realize that ignorance might just have been bliss after all. The bloodstained history of their homeland is too painful for the realm to recall, and perhaps the past is better off hazy.
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