Snakes and Earrings - Hitomi Kanehara

Tough one. Self-destructive masochist waster as a protagonist never invites much sympathy. I suppose there was Fight Club. I didn't like it at first. I had exactly zero sympathy for the narrator (not that she or the author intended to provoke sympathy I'm sure, but that's not the point) and it seemed sparsely written and just too grim and nihilistic (even for me, which is saying something). As it went on I got more into it. The death of a main character had quite a powerful effect on my emotions in fact. Short and not at all sweet, but worth the read.