Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes 1966

Devastation Rating

Existential Dread
loss mental health literary fiction grief

Our Take

The cruelest science fiction ever written. You watch Charlie Gordon become brilliant, then lose it — and worse, he knows he's losing it. The spelling deteriorates. The prose shrinks. And you feel every step of the descent because Keyes made you love him before he made you grieve him.

This page contains affiliate links. If you buy a book through one of these links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure →