History Main / MiseryLit

The readership is 80 to 90 percent female, making this a subgenre of women's literature ("Chick Lit"). The misery lit titles are more likely to be sold at drugstores or grocery stores, rather than bookstores. May be related to TrueArtIsAngsty and gritty KitchenSinkDrama about impoverished people.

Literary genre about painful, tragic stories; usually memoirs, but not always. Common topics include AbusiveParents (or [[ParentalAbandonment lack of parents]], and dealing with [[FosterKid foster homes]] and [[OrphanageOfFear terrible orphanages]]), sexual abuse or sexual assault, [[AddledAddict drug addiction]]/[[TheAlcoholic alcohol addiction]], [[TheOldestProfession prostitution]], growing up in terrible poverty, or living through historical horrors such as UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, particularly the Holocaust. As autobiographies or memoirs, these are marketed as non-fiction, but lawsuits may occur if people mentioned in the book disagree with the author's version of events. Such a tale will usually have a [[WhiteVoidRoom bleak white cover]], often with a picture of a wretched-looking child on it amidst a scorched or impoverished landscape. Sometimes, this will be the author as a child, but stock images are often used, particularly if there is a need to protect the anonymity of those involved. Expect to see a dramatic-sounding title like ''Wrecked'', ''Tormented'' or ''Please, Daddy, Stop!'' in cursive writing. Subtitles which talk about the author's childhood being "lost" or "stolen" are also common.

* ''Literature/AngelasAshes''.

Sometimes turns out to be BasedOnAGreatBigLie, when an author with weak morals senses a big potential payday from inventing a sad backstory for their life. Some well-known misery lit books, such as ''Go Ask Alice'', a lurid account of drug abuse, have bern revealed as literary hoaxes (they are fictional). If it gets turned into a film, it's often OscarBait.

Literary genre about painful, tragic stories; usually memoirs, but not always. Common topics include AbusiveParents (or [[ParentalAbandonment lack of parents]]), [[FosterKid foster homes]] and [[OrphanageOfFear terrible orphanages]], sexual abuse or sexual assault, [[AddledAddict drug addiction]]/[[TheAlcoholic alcohol addiction]], [[TheOldestProfession prostitution]], growing up in terrible poverty, or living through historical horrors such as UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, particularly the Holocaust. As autobiographies or memoirs, these are marketed as non-fiction, but lawsuits may occur if people mentioned in the book disagree with the author's version of events. Such a tale will usually have a [[WhiteVoidRoom bleak white cover]], often with a picture of a wretched-looking child on it amidst a scorched or impoverished landscape. Sometimes, this will be the author as a child, but stock images are often used, particularly if there is a need to protect the anonymity of those involved. Expect to see a dramatic-sounding title like ''Wrecked'', ''Tormented'' or ''Please, Daddy, Stop!'' in cursive writing. Subtitles which talk about the author's childhood being "lost" or "stolen" are also common.

Literary genre about painful, tragic stories; usually memoirs, but not always. Common topics include AbusiveParents (or [[ParentalAbandonment lack of parents]]), sexual abuse, [[AddledAddict drug addiction]]/[[TheAlcoholic alcohol addiction]], [[TheOldestProfession prostitution]], growing up in terrible poverty, or historical horrors such as living through UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, particularly the Holocaust. As autobiographies, these are marketed as non-fiction, but lawsuits may occur if people mentioned in the book disagree with the author's version of events. Such a tale will usually have a [[WhiteVoidRoom bleak white cover]], often with a picture of a wretched-looking child on it amidst a scorched or impoverished landscape. Sometimes, this will be the author as a child, but stock images are often used, particularly if there is a need to protect the anonymity of those involved. Expect to see a dramatic-sounding title like ''Wrecked'', ''Tormented'' or ''Please, Daddy, Stop!'' in cursive writing. Subtitles which talk about the author's childhood being "lost" or "stolen" are also common.

The readership is 80 to 90 percent female, making this a subgenre of women's literature ("Chick Lit"). The misery lit titles are more likely to be sold at drugstores or grocery stores, rather than bookstores.

May be related to TrueArtIsAngsty and gritty KitchenSinkDrama about impoverished people. Sometimes turns out to be BasedOnAGreatBigLie, when an author with weak morals senses a big potential payday from inventing a sad backstory for their life. Some well-known misery lit books, such as the lurid If it gets turned into a film, it's often OscarBait.

May be related to TrueArtIsAngsty and gritty KitchenSinkDrama about impoverished people. Sometimes turns out to be BasedOnAGreatBigLie, when an author with weak morals senses a big potential payday from inventing a sad backstory for their life. If it gets turned into a film, it's often OscarBait.

May be related to TrueArtIsAngsty and gritty KitchenSinkDrama about impoverished people. Sometimes turns out to be BasedOnAGreatBigLie, when an author with weak morals senses a big potential payday from inventing a sad backstory for their life. If it gets turned into a film, it's often OscarBait. Not to be confused with the Creator/StephenKing novel ''{{Literature/Misery}}''.

It been a profitable genre over the last decade, with the rise in interest in "heart on sleeve" confessionals, although in recent years the demand has slowed down. Some bookstores devote an entire section to "Tragic Life Stories" or "Painful Lives." Among publishers, the genre is euphemistically termed "inspirational lit" or "inspi-lit." More cynical people may suspect that readers actually get off on wallowing in the graphically-described horrific abuse described in such books (see DoNotDoThisCoolThing), leading to the term "misery porn".

* The ultimate example: ''Literature/TheDiaryOfAYoungGirl'', about a young Jewish girl who lived in hiding with her family from the monstrous Nazi regime. Unlike many other examples on this page, it has the distinct advantage of actually being true. What also distinguishes it is that, perhaps rather surprisingly given the circumstances, it's not all unremitting bleakness and misery and in many ways simply reads like the thoughts of a rather ordinary and at times quite optimistic and cheerful teenage girl adapting to rather unusual circumstances. But that said, the ForegoneConclusion makes it hard to place this book anywhere else.

* ''A Woman In Berlin'' is a diary written by Anonyma, a German journalist who preferred keep her identity a secret till her death. The diary tells about the mass rapes suffered by German women at the hands of Red Army soldiers after the fall of Berlin and how the protagonist and other women managed to survive starvation, rapes and abuses becoming the mistress of a Soviet officer.
* Dave Pelzer is the best known modern-day pioneer of the genre for ''Literature/AChildCalledIt'' and sequels, which center around his "true-life" story of suffering horrific abuse from his mentally unstable, alcoholic mother while his father stood by and did nothing. A good part of his family has stated that he was lying through his teeth, one of his brothers agrees, the other one says it was all true and that he became the scapegoat in the family when Dave was finally removed. David's [[NotHelpingYourCase reply]] to the disagreements is [[{{Hypocrite}} calling the brother who disagrees "a retard"]]

* Another controversial example: ''Don't Ever Tell'' by Kathy O'Beirne, about the author's experience of growing up in Ireland's Magdalen Laundries. So heavily contested that at least one other book has been written to directly refute her story.

Literary genre about painful, tragic stories; usually memoirs, but not always. Common topics include AbusiveParents (or [[ParentalAbandonment lack of parents]]), sexual abuse, drug/alcohol addiction, prostitution, growing up in terrible poverty, or historical horrors such as living through UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. As autobiographies, these are marketed as non-fiction, but lawsuits may occur if people mentioned in the book disagree with the author's version of events. Such a tale will usually have a [[WhiteVoidRoom bleak white cover]], often with a picture of a wretched-looking child on it. Sometimes, this will be the author as a child, but stock images are often used, particularly if there is a need to protect the anonymity of those involved. Expect to see a dramatic-sounding title like ''Wrecked'', ''Tormented'' or ''Please, Daddy, Stop!'' in curly writing. Subtitles which talk about the author's childhood being "lost" or "stolen" are also common.

Has been an incredibly profitable genre over the last decade, although in recent years the demand has slowed down somewhat. Some bookstores now devote an entire section to "Tragic Life Stories" or "Painful Lives." Among publishers, the genre is euphemistically termed "inspirational lit" or "inspi-lit." More cynical people may suspect that readers actually get off on the horrific events described in such books (see DoNotDoThisCoolThing), leading to the term "misery porn".

May be related to TrueArtIsAngsty. Sometimes turns out to be BasedOnAGreatBigLie. If it gets turned into a film, it's often OscarBait. Not to be confused with the Creator/StephenKing novel ''{{Literature/Misery}}''.

Literary genre about painful, tragic stories. Usually memoirs, but not always. Common topics include AbusiveParents (or [[ParentalAbandonment lack of parents]]), sexual abuse, drug/alcohol addiction, prostitution, growing up in terrible poverty, or historical horrors such as living through UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. As autobiographies, these are marketed as non-fiction, but lawsuits may occur if people mentioned in the book disagree with the author's version of events. Such a tale will usually have a [[WhiteVoidRoom bleak white cover]], often with a picture of a wretched-looking child on it. Sometimes, this will be the author as a child, but stock images are often used, particularly if there is a need to protect the anonymity of those involved. Expect to see a dramatic-sounding title like ''Wrecked'', ''Tormented'' or ''Please, Daddy, Stop!'' in curly writing. Subtitles which talk about the author's childhood being "lost" or "stolen" are also common.

* ''Literature/GoAskAlice'' tried to pass itself off as this, but is now [[DanBrowned widely agreed to be a work of fiction]].

* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'': Sixteen Days Of Coldest April is a [[TakeThat jab]] at Russian classical literature, a {{Doorstopper}} of a book that damages both your Health and Morale just by reading it. Pain Threshold skill loves it.
-->''CONCEPTUALIZATION'' – Real art is dense and difficult. If it didn't feel like you had to wrestle a suicidal bear to get through it, you weren't really reading.

* Parodied in ''Literature/IPartridgeWeNeedToTalkAboutAlan'', a mock autobiography by Franchise/AlanPartridge, who desperately ''tries'' to make his childhood sound like it belongs in one of these books by trying to paint his parents as abusive monsters and his schoolmates as vicious thugs. In fact, it's nakedly obvious that he's only trying to cash in on the Misery Lit craze and dress his actually rather boring childhood up a bit so that it seems more interesting to his publishers; his parents in fact appear to have been rather stereotypically dull Middle-England types (if perhaps not the most pleasant people, judging by [[{{Jerkass}} how their son turned out]]) and while he was legitimately bullied at school it doesn't appear to have been to an abnormally cruel degree, being mainly fairly typical stuff like playground name-calling and childish pranks.

* Dave Pelzer is the best known modern-day pioneer of the genre for ''Literature/AChildCalledIt'' and sequels, which center around his "true-life" story of suffering horrific abuse from his mentally unstable, alcoholic mother while his father stood by and did nothing. A good part of his family has stated that he was lying through his teeth, one of his brothers agrees, the other one says it was all true and that he became the scapegoat in the family when Dave was finally removed. David's reply to the disagreements is [[{{Hypocrite}} calling the brother who disagrees "a retard"]]

* Gail Honeyman's ''Literature/EleanorOliphantIsCompletelyFine''. Honeyman admits that the title character is not based on her or on anyone she knows. Most of the book follows Eleanor as she does her best to get through life day by day while at the same time revealing her many past traumas. Her mother, long abusive to her, harasses her over the phone every single week. When Eleanor was 10, her house burned down, leaving her with facial scarring that she still has 20 years later. She spent the rest of her childhood shuffling from foster home to foster home. After all that, it's no surprise that anything better than just OK seems too good to be true to her. [[spoiler:Eventually, she suffers a massive, vodka-fueled, near-fatal breakdown. Her concerned coworker sends her to a therapist, who helps her turn her life around. During the healing process, we learn that her mother and sister died in the aforementioned fire and that the phone calls have been all in Eleanor's head.]]

* ''Wild Swans'', to a certain extent: pre-dates the boom of the genre, and is told in a more literary style

* ''My Pet Virus'' by Shawn Decker -- Decker recounts his life dating back to when he was an 11 year old hemophiliac who gets a blood transfusion, and gets AIDS from it. His drug regimens and general ill-health made him unfit for an eight-hour workday, and finding a woman who was comfortable enough with his HIV status was less than easy, and others with AIDS die all around him. Meant to be a comedy, according to Amazon.com.
* ''Fearless Living'' by Rhonda Britten -- Though mostly an inspirational self help book on how to live fearlessly, Rhonda Britten spends a great deal of time detailing how, at the tender age of 14, she saw her father shoot her mother and then himself, and how badly it messed her up, leading to alcoholism and other miserable situations, and climaxing in a suicide attempt and catatonic collapse in a friend's guest bedroom.

* Miserable childhoods and horrendously abusive upbringings seem ''de rigeur'' for charismatic preachers and televangelists. It sometimes seems from the outside that there is an informal competition to claim bragging rights for the worst childhood ever - reminiscent of Creator/MontyPython's ''Four Yorkshiremen'' sketch. It isn't hard to see why: establishing that the power of Christ saved you from misery is an accepted part of the script and the worse the misery, the greater the redemption. The very conservative evangelist and political lobbyist Dr Mike Evans is a typical example. A theme of his past few books has been the horrendous abuse he suffered at the hands of his drunken father; Evans repeatedly stresses that his conversion happened at age eleven after being beaten and left for dead, locked in a cold cellar. He had a vision of Jesus, and movingly relates that Jesus Christ was the first to call him "my son". All very moving and heartstring-plucking. Except... when you go back to Evans' earliest books, such as ''Young Lions Of Judah'', there is no mention ''at all'' of beatings, abuse, neglect and misery. In the earlier version of his autobiography, Mike Evans tells of being happy, successful, eighteen, and owning a fast car with lots of money in his pocket. Yet something seemed missing, so he started attending church to see if he could pull Christian girls... and he stayed. No mention of an abusive drunken dad, beatings and dark cold cellars in which he was visited by Jesus at age eleven. (Though you'd have thought face-time with Jesus was significant enough to put into a book). He may just have repressed the bad memories and they emerged later... at a time when his ministry needed lots of money.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monique_De_Wael Monique de Wail aka Misha Defonseca]] wrote [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misha:_A_Mémoire_of_the_Holocaust_Years a bestselling memoir about her life during the Holocaust]] (where she escaped from an abusive foster family, went to search for her Jewish parents, was literally RaisedByWolves, killed a rapist at age 9, etc.), later exposed as a hoax. She admitted the story was a fake but claimed that "rewriting" her past was her way of coping with the genuine tragedies she had experienced (her parents were LaResistance members who were captured, tortured and killed; she was ostracized for this for years), by "feeling Jewish" and fantasizing about going off with wolves.

* The CreepyPasta's ''I Caught My Grandfather Talking to an Air Vent'' ([[MadwomanInTheAttic The protagonist's mentally-challenged twin sister was kept locked in the attic, and they communicated by talking through the vents]]) and ''I Did Something Bad Last Halloween'' ([[RazorApples the protagonist poisons halloween candy as a way to act out against her abusive family]]).

* Parodied in ''Film/DateNight'' with the book Phil is forced to read for Claire's book club, about a girl who gets her first period in Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

* The "Books" episode of ''Stewart Lees Comedy Vehicle'' mentions these, presenting the parody ''The Teats That Wept Tears'' by Paddy [=McGinty's=] Goat.

* Parodied in ''Literature/IPartridgeWeNeedToTalkAboutAlan'', a mock autobiography by Series/AlanPartridge, who desperately ''tries'' to make his childhood sound like it belongs in one of these books by trying to paint his parents as abusive monsters and his schoolmates as vicious thugs. In fact, it's nakedly obvious that he's only trying to cash in on the Misery Lit craze and dress his actually rather boring childhood up a bit so that it seems more interesting to his publishers; his parents in fact appear to have been rather stereotypically dull Middle-England types (if perhaps not the most pleasant people, judging by [[{{Jerkass}} how their son turned out]]) and while he was legitimately bullied at school it doesn't appear to have been to an abnormally cruel degree, being mainly fairly typical stuff like playground name-calling and childish pranks.

Literary genre about painful, tragic stories. Usually memoirs, but not always. Common topics include AbusiveParents (or [[ParentalAbandonment lack of parents]]), sexual abuse, drug/alcohol addiction, prostitution, growing up in terrible poverty, or historical horrors such as living through UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. As autobiographies, these are marketed as non-fiction, but lawsuits may occur if people mentioned in the book disagree with the author's version of events. Such a tale will usually have a [[WhiteVoidRoom bleak white cover]], often with a picture of a wretched-looking child on it. Sometimes, this will be the author as a child, but stock images are often used, particularly if there is a need to protect the anonymity of those involved. Expect to see a dramatic-sounding title like ''Wrecked'', ''Tormented'' or ''Please, Daddy, Stop!'' in curly writing. Subtitles which talk about the author's childhood be "lost" or "stolen" are also common.

** Similarly, Jerzy Kozinski's book ''The Painted Bird'' was at first interpreted as an autobiographical account of his experiences in Poland during the Holocaust. Not only did it become clear that the book was a work of fiction, but he faced accusations of plagiarizing the book, derailing his career as an author. He committed suicide after enduring ill health as well as his literary damnation. In spite of the controversy, [[VindicatedByHistory the book is regarded today as a masterpiece of Polish literature]].

* ''They Cage the Animals at Night'' by Jennings Michael Burch. It's pretty similar to ''Literature/AChildCalledIt'', albeit not as graphic. It's about a boy and his problems with [[FosterKid foster homes]] and [[OrphanageOfFear orphanages]] from the late '40s to the early '50s.

* The CreepyPasta's ''I Caught My Grandfather Talking to an Air Vent'' ([[MadwomanInTheAttic The protagonist's retarded twin sister was kept locked in the attic, and they communicated by talking through the vents]]) and ''I Did Something Bad Last Halloween'' ([[RazorApples the protagonist poisons halloween candy as a way to act out against her abusive family]]).