I would recommend the book Welcome to Lizard Motel (http://swarmofbeasts.blogspot.com/2006/02/feinberg-barbara-welcome-to-lizard.html) to anyone who is loving the awesomely depressing books. It's about the author's experiences as a mother whose children are assigned depressing books, and more generally is torn between protecting her children and not being able to... I had mixed feelings about it, but I don't think any book I've read so deliciously excoriates gratuitous emoness.