/lit/ - Literature

I'm in self-destructive mode. I'm no suicidal and not clinically depressed, but I'm losing my shit with my life, harming myself and others, sabotaging endeavours, split between an anxious lust for life and an a powerful motion towards not living. Feels like walking through a desert, getting to an oasis and instead of swimming in those waters right away, just putting the hand in the water and licking it, with a sour taste in mouth, skeptical, undeserving, partial to going out and burning myself in the sun regardless of the oasis.

What makes a book sad?

It has to be more than "and then bad stuff happened", so what is it that touches you and makes you feel for the characters?