Cassandra at the Wedding
Dorothy Baker
A sharp-tongued young woman drives through 1960s California to her family’s ranch, coming apart as her identical twin prepares to marry
Both: Melancholic · Mental health
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Play It As It Lays
Joan Didion
A fading actress drives the Los Angeles freeways for hours to keep from falling apart as her marriage and Hollywood life come undone
- Classics
- Dark
- Melancholic
- Mental health
- Fame & ambition
- Steady
- Short read
Top picks
Picks suggested by readers, each with one line on why.
The Dry Heart
Natalia Ginzburg
A lonely Italian schoolteacher looks back, in a flat, numb voice, on a loveless marriage, a lost child and the day she shot her husband
Both: Dark · Melancholic
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My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Ottessa Moshfegh
A young Upper East Side woman decides to sleep through an entire year in 2000 Manhattan, helped by the most careless psychiatrist in New York
