 DonateMay is Mental Health Awareness Month. Here are some fiction books in which characters are grappling with – or trying their best to ignore – aspects of their mental health. Titles link directly to the library catalog so you can see if the book is available and request it if it’s not.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – A classic semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman working at a magazine in New York who experiences a mental breakdown.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf – Another classic, this one chronicles a fairly mundane day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, which is punctuated by the suicide of a young man she has never met.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara – A harrowing novel about trauma and addiction, but also about friendship and found family.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang – A woman’s nightmares make her give up eating meat, but she becomes ever more obsessive and spirals into a very dangerous place.
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb – The story of Dolores Price’s troubling journey from her childhood in a dysfunctional family to middle age.
Dora by Lidia Yuknavitch – A darkly humorous coming of age story about a girl who begins seeing a psychiatrist at her father’s insistence.
The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage – Another work of dark humor, this one about a middle-aged man chronicling his own downward spiral.
Post-traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson – A lawyer who advocates for mentally ill patients contends with the aftereffects of her own childhood trauma.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman – A socially inept and isolated woman accidentally makes a couple of new friends and gradually learns that she is not, in fact, fine.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman – A curmudgeonly widower is feeling very much done with his life, until a new family moves in next door and insists upon striking up a friendship.
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi – A young Nigerian woman develops separate selves which only grow more powerful as she leaves her home to start a new life America.
Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee – Two sisters, one of whom is mentally ill, narrate this story of their lives and relationships after their mother dies.
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett – The story of a marriage, and how a man’s depression and anxiety affect his wife and children.
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn – A reporter fresh from a stay at a psychiatric hospital returns to her hometown to cover a murder.
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi – A family of immigrants from Ghana are ravaged by depression, addiction, and grief.
Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin – An atheist, animal-loving lesbian obsessed with death ends up, through a misunderstanding, replacing the recently-deceased receptionist at a church.
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason – Martha has long felt that something is wrong with her, but only after sabotaging her marriage does she finally begin to deal with her depression.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh – A young woman whose life looks pretty glamorous on the surface decides to try and hibernate for a year rather than come to terms with why she is so unhappy.
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert – If most of these books seem too dark, here’s a romance! A PhD student and a security guard with anxiety are caught on a video that goes viral and leads them to romanc