A Beloved Bunch of Books: Tales of Terrible Parenting

Tales of bad parents seem to be a popular theme and given the current trend of autobiographical fiction, it makes me wonder how many parents out there in the world that have truly failed, badly.

Here are my five favorite terrible parent tales.

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a book about dishonesty and cruel behavior.

That Christopher suffered from autism makes the book especially heartbreaking.

White Oleander by Janet Finch examines both the repercussions of a criminal parent, it also examines the failure of the foster care system.

It also demonstrates the effects a selfish parent can have on a child.

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton is one of those haunting books that have never left me.

Some people have a core of meanness, and those people should never have children.

Sarah Bernhard's Winter Loon is a book about selfish parents and how badly they can damage their children.

It will definitely make you evaluate the amount of alcohol you drink in front of your kids.

In Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens we learn about child abandonment and, really, one shouldn't leave their child to fend for themselves in a swamp. This shouldn't need to be said.

This one came to me via my cousin, I tried not to read too much into his recommendation.


Enjoy!

xoxo a.d.