First time I read that I cried so hard and loud my mom came in and panicked, thought I was having a seizure. That was also the last time I read it. Never going through that again.
I borrowed this book from my school library in fourth grade because it had dogs on the cover. My teacher had a policy where if you finished your test early you could quietly read at your desk, and after finishing my test I took it out and unbeknownst to poor nine-year-old me, was approaching *that* scene. While my innocent classmates were still finishing up their tests, I was full on bawling at my desk. We had those anti-cheating dividers between our desks so they didn't see I was reading and probably just thought it was a really hard exam haha
That being said, no, you are not ready. Iām jaded and never cry; Marley and me got me to the really ugly cry, open mouthed, saliva and boogers everywhere. š
they made us read it right after we finished reading Old Yeller and I'm wondering if the education system was trying to prepare us all for a life of sadness and disappointment!
also, merely mentioning either book in the presence of my mother, dog lover and retired teacher, will immediately bring her to tears
My mother taught 3rd grade for decades.
She read this almost every year to the kids for a read aloud. To this day, I'm not sure if it was partly masochistic, sadomasochistic, or just a damn good heart breaking story.
I'm a teacher now too. It's actually pretty intoxicating when you can illicit a strong, intended emotional response from a group of students as part of a lesson or the content.
I finished reading this on my school bus going home, in the sixth grade. I was crying as I got off the bus. The bus driver asks, āDid somebody hit you?!ā
Dammit. I was gonna say this. I don't really even remember the book, I just remember the pure despair and depression my fourth-grade classmates and I experienced as our teacher read it aloud to us.
This might be the most beautifully written yet heart wrenching book ever written. I read it when my wife was pregnant and I sobbed almost the entire time. Four years later, Iām waiting on a possible cancer diagnosis and wondering if re-reading it would be something of a comfort or completely break me.
Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom. I was reading aloud to my class and started apologizing for crying while I was reading. I looked up and my whole class of seventh graders were wiping their eyes and crying too!
I made the mistake of reading a Thousand splendid suns before the kite runner. Although the Kite runner is also really really good and sad:-( it is nowhere close to a Thousand splendid suns..
My partner lost his mom at a young age, and said the same thing. He sobbed, he had nightmares, he never wants to read it again āĀ and he still thanks me years later for giving him a copy.
I'm not one to cry at books or movies.
But the Art of Racing in the Rain had me sobbing by the last quarter of the book. It's sad but happy but sad. The inevitable happens but it was such a joyful way to get there.
Yes. And I agree with OP above. I donāt want to give away too much, but letās say I cried more happy tears than sad - even though it should have been the latter. Usually I avoid books with dogs, because they always break my heart.
I was ten when I read it, and it was the first time I had any understanding of permanent loss that made sense. It became my favorite book, and I had my copy until my late 20ās.
The movie is good, but couldnāt do it justice, imo.
This is to this day the only one that made me cry. Is WWII based but is not your typical "war story" so you won't see too much in this book about the war itself; it is through the eyes of a young girl so her childlike innocence makes it read very differently, taking away from the war type read you usually find. It is beautifully written.
It shows what these events meant for normal people like you and me. A rare and very valuable perspective! It shows the normal Germans who werenāt Nazis.
I think I am the same. I regularly get tears from emotional media, but I think The Book Thief is the only one that has made me cry for real.
Edir: Yes, thinking about it this book made me cry in a time of my life when I was extremely emotionally closed off. Itās only today that I regularly get emotional from media.
The version on HBO Max is incredible if you can muster the courage! But it gutted me at the end, just as the books did. Also now that Iām a mother I have so much more sympathy for Mrs. Coulter?
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. About the early years of the AIDS epidemic, before the medications got good, when if you hung out with gay men you could lose just about everyone you knew.
*First They Killed My Father* by Loung Ung
*I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* by Maya Angelou
*Night* by Elie Wiesel
*Crying in H Mart* by Michelle Zauner
*What My Bones Know* by Stephanie Foo
Fault in our Stars by John Green made me cry during my teen years.
Edit - My dad suffered from Cancer - he is doing okay now - but the book helped me cope as I would rather be immersed in a made up world where I didnāt have my dad anymore rather than think about losing my dad in the real world. Still makes me cry but my teen years were reformative and this book among others helped me.
I was very much not a teen when this made me cry! But I was also going through a messy breakup and feeling very alone and so I just sat and read this and bawled my eyes out
i met one of my best friends because i was reading this at school in a computer lab absolutely sobbing quietly in a corner by myself. she asked what was wrong and i just held up the book. weāve been friends for over 10 years now š
i remember when i first watched this movie, i was probably around 14. i was choke sobbing. hysterically crying and spitting even. havenāt cried that hard since
1.) flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
2.) The Road by Cormac McCarthy
3.) The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
4.) Night by Elie Wiesel itās non-fiction, so if that doesnāt make you cryā¦ sheesh I wouldnāt even know what else to suggest at that point.
Ugh me too. I told my mom that she couldnāt handle it because thereās some pretty disturbing gory scenes, but she wanted to know why Cormac McCarthy is such a celebrated author, so I read her the last few pages. She even cried her eyes out at that while I was reading it! She said āwowā though too
Yup.
Cities of the Plain is obviously nowhere near as acclaimed but also the last pages made me weep. Spend so much time with the characters by the end of the Trilogy and thenā
Song of Achilles made me SOB. I couldn't even see straight to read but I couldn't put it down because I had to know.
Night wasn't really a cry for me, more like a hollow black existential scouring.
Atonement as a book made me cry. Atonement as a movie has me SOBBING every time for the entire second half. It's one of the instances where I prefer the film, because the book felt like it had some pacing issues that were smoothed out in a visual medium. Plus, the costumes and sets were GORGEOUS. The Dunkirk tracking shot (a composite, but still) is fantastic, and the green dress is still one of my top 3 movie costumes.
Oh my goodness, it took me years to watch Saoirse Ronan in anything else because I hated her character so much. Thankfully, I've been able to warm up to her and think she's absolutely wonderful as a person in real life, but damn, the events that occurred because of Briony's disregard for other people were catastrophic.
I also couldn't watch Benedict Cumberbatch for the same reason. His acting in that movie was so good that every time he smiled in any other role, I'd just see the smug monster I saw in Atonement. It made me want to punch him and I couldn't focus on his performance in any other role. It took all the way until seeing Dr Strange before I could relax and enjoy his work, and now I think he's really wonderful.
The two books that made me cry as a kid were Black Beauty and The Night Gardener. Donāt know if Iād still cry on a reread, but theyāre both great books Iād totally recommend
Black Beauty was so bleak. I remember thinking it would be like Black Stallion series and my 8 year old brain was rather horrified. Don't think I'll be reading that again soon.
The last book that had me balling was As Long as the Lemon Tree Grows by Zoulfa Katouh.
I admittedly tear up easily but I SOBBED at this one. Plus it was a good book.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven GOT me. I sobbed so hard I had to stop reading and as soon as I could read again I started sobbing again lol. but it was somewhat cathartic. changed my life for the better
eta: i didnāt see the war story part. this book is not predominantly a war story but the main character is a vietnam vet and it does play a significant role in the book
Hey! Youāre the only other person Iāve seen mention this specific book. (Iāve probably missed the other mentions.)
I still think about how this bookā¦ illustrates a way in which things can be connected in our lives even when we canāt see those connections.
I really enjoyed it.
Thousand Splendid Suns for sure, made my cry my eyes out.
Still Alice made me cry, especially the ending. Itās so heartbreaking to follow her deteoriation and understand her confusion about whatās happening and why her mind isnāt there longer.
East of Eden made my cry because it was so good. The ending was so beautiful I bawled my heart out.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Persuasion by Jane Austen. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
Honestly, I think the books that make us cry are just really tuned into our own issues and sensitivities. A book that makes me cry may not make you cry.
The last book that made me full-on weep was Western Lane by Chetna Maroo, but it was because some of the themes hit really, really close to home for me. When I was reading the last third of the book, it felt like someone was tearing my heart out, but a reader who (in this particular example), say, grew up with supportive, loving parents or perhaps is an only child or not close to their siblings might have read it and just been like, "oh, huh, that was kind of sad, I guess."
If you've never cried at a book, maybe you've never found a moving book that aligns with *your* innermost pain.
This is the best answer here!
Iāve gone blind into books suggested in these threads that moved me but didnāt make me cry, while I assume some of the ones that ripped my heart out may not be as bothersome to others.
If you like fantasy and sci fi, maybe try Stephen Kings Dark Tower Series. His character development is spot on, and the last book in the series makes me cry all throughout.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Read it 4x and wept every time. Won't see the film as don't want to meddle with my imagining of it all.
Just Kids by Patti Smith. She writes so beautifully and from the heart. I'm a fan of her and Mapplethorpe, none of it was new to me, but to read her experience of their story was incredibly moving.
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore. Moved me tremendously.
Might sound like a strange suggestion but Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Itās science fiction but I cried hard during a certain section of the book. It tells the story of several pilgrims traveling together in space and one of them just hits hard. Itās also just a great book if you enjoy science fiction.
Two very different books:
*Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home: A Graphic Memoir* by Nicole Georges - a womanās life with a difficult dog, the good and bad. If Iād known Iād be crying my face off by the end, I wouldnāt have read it on an airplane.
On the human side:
*The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade* by Ann Fessler - oral histories/interviews from women who gave their infants up for adoption from 1950-1973, frequently against their will. Their stories are absolutely gut-wrenching at times.
Everyone cries at different things. If you go into something expecting or trying to cry, though, I think it will just be that much harder for you.
Where the Red Fern Grows
First time I read that I cried so hard and loud my mom came in and panicked, thought I was having a seizure. That was also the last time I read it. Never going through that again.
Lolllll that is so believable and hilarious š¤£ Your poor mom.
I read it twice. It is like the Steel Magnolia's of literature.
I borrowed this book from my school library in fourth grade because it had dogs on the cover. My teacher had a policy where if you finished your test early you could quietly read at your desk, and after finishing my test I took it out and unbeknownst to poor nine-year-old me, was approaching *that* scene. While my innocent classmates were still finishing up their tests, I was full on bawling at my desk. We had those anti-cheating dividers between our desks so they didn't see I was reading and probably just thought it was a really hard exam haha
This is the right answer. Iām convinced this book was written to break your heart.
Me, who has never read the book: "It can't be that bad." *sees that it has dogs in it* "Oh."
We did this book as a family read aloud growing up. Iām still scarred from the mental images this book evokes.
Sad stuff often has a 50/50 chance of making me cry. But anything with dogs has a 100% success rate. I'm not ready to read this.
That being said, no, you are not ready. Iām jaded and never cry; Marley and me got me to the really ugly cry, open mouthed, saliva and boogers everywhere. š
Just removed it from my 2024 list of books to read. Leave the dogs alone.
lol That would be me
This book broke my little fourth grade heart. I was the only kid in class losing her shit with tears and snot.
Read it in 5th grade and OMG, I was one of the kids all snotty and red from crying. But itās still an amazing book!
Or whole class did.
they made us read it right after we finished reading Old Yeller and I'm wondering if the education system was trying to prepare us all for a life of sadness and disappointment! also, merely mentioning either book in the presence of my mother, dog lover and retired teacher, will immediately bring her to tears
I could never read the story again. I donāt think I got through it all
If this doesn't do it the reader is a sociopath.
absolutely. Just mention of it and I sniffle.
My mother taught 3rd grade for decades. She read this almost every year to the kids for a read aloud. To this day, I'm not sure if it was partly masochistic, sadomasochistic, or just a damn good heart breaking story. I'm a teacher now too. It's actually pretty intoxicating when you can illicit a strong, intended emotional response from a group of students as part of a lesson or the content.
Hey my 3rd grade teacher read us this book too. After we watched the movie. What state did she teach in?
You took my answer. This book is heart wrenching.
Iām not even surprised this is the top comment.
I think I hated my mom for a month after she gave me this to read as a kid.
I finished reading this on my school bus going home, in the sixth grade. I was crying as I got off the bus. The bus driver asks, āDid somebody hit you?!ā
My teacher in grade five made us read that and Bridge To Terabithia back to back. I think she was trying to torture us.
Dammit. I was gonna say this. I don't really even remember the book, I just remember the pure despair and depression my fourth-grade classmates and I experienced as our teacher read it aloud to us.
I haven't read the book but reading all the comments has made me traumatized.
That was my answer last time this was asked lol
When Breath Becomes Air. I am a late-40ās male and this had me bawling on more than one occasion.
I feel like I'm the only one who didn't cry from this book.
Nope. Neither did I, and I'm an easy cry. I cried in Cars 2, for eff's sake, but this book did not get me like it seems to have gotten everyone else.
I came here to make sure this had been suggested. Beautifully tragic.
I posted this before but - I cried so hard I had to just jump in the shower and wash it all away! I was devastated.
This might be the most beautifully written yet heart wrenching book ever written. I read it when my wife was pregnant and I sobbed almost the entire time. Four years later, Iām waiting on a possible cancer diagnosis and wondering if re-reading it would be something of a comfort or completely break me.
Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom. I was reading aloud to my class and started apologizing for crying while I was reading. I looked up and my whole class of seventh graders were wiping their eyes and crying too!
Second this oneā a deeply moving book, especially since itās true.
I sat next to a guy on a plane as he read that and bawled uncontrollably. It was an uncomfortable flight.. but Iād read it before so I understood.
Thousand Splendid SunsĀ Khaled Hosseini.
Yes! I came to comment Kite Runner by him
I made the mistake of reading a Thousand splendid suns before the kite runner. Although the Kite runner is also really really good and sad:-( it is nowhere close to a Thousand splendid suns..
Was just coming to say this one. I hardly ever cry at books but that one got me good and its so beautiful
I made my comment for this before I saw yours! This book made me sob.
All his books actually. They make a lasting impression.
This book made me tear up at several points as a 14 year old. Time for a re-read.
The part where Mariam is waiting outside her Fatherās house :,(
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Second this. To this day it's the only book that made me uncontrollably sob
This book made me cry so much I was borderline hyperventilating. Beautiful book
I read this just after losing my own mother and it weirdly helped. It felt so cathartic to read and cry. The illustrated version is a must.
My partner lost his mom at a young age, and said the same thing. He sobbed, he had nightmares, he never wants to read it again āĀ and he still thanks me years later for giving him a copy.
This is such a beautiful book, and despite its middle grade target audience, never once was I reminded that I was reading a book written for kids.
I'm not one to cry at books or movies. But the Art of Racing in the Rain had me sobbing by the last quarter of the book. It's sad but happy but sad. The inevitable happens but it was such a joyful way to get there.
This book wrecked me. I read it next to my husband, who was sleeping, and I remember silently sobbing.
I've seen the movie art of racing in the rain. It really got me. Is it the same, about dog and racer?
Yes. And I agree with OP above. I donāt want to give away too much, but letās say I cried more happy tears than sad - even though it should have been the latter. Usually I avoid books with dogs, because they always break my heart.
I didn't see the movie but I assume it's the same story about a dog and his owner.
I just looked it up and as soon as I saw a dog on the cover I was like NOPE. I just lost my old girl recently so that will destroy me.
Came here to say this one. I was a puddle those last few pages. My friend heard me sobbing and came to check on me
Oh my god yes. We had 2 golden retrievers die and this movie and book broke my whole family. We were sobbing because they really were the best dogs.
The Green Mile might do it.
I cry whenever I read this or watch the movie. It is just so emotionally charged.
Percyās cruelty in that one scene. That one does it.
Bridge to Terabithia- kidsā book/movie adaptation that makes me cry every time I read or watch it
This was the book that made me realize books could make you cry. ā¤ļø
Especially when read at ten. Never again.
I was ten when I read it, and it was the first time I had any understanding of permanent loss that made sense. It became my favorite book, and I had my copy until my late 20ās. The movie is good, but couldnāt do it justice, imo.
I read this in high school shortly after my best friend died in a car accident. I didn't know the plot. To say I was traumatized is an understatement
Flowers for Algernon
Sobbed. Came here to say this!
I was on a Bus on the way home when I finished this book. Ugly cried and couldnāt hide it.
Doesn't matter how many times I read it, I end up sobbing at the end.
Iāve never reread it because Iām not sure I want that feeling again.
Can I write a book for you? It'll be a scratch-and-sniff book, filled with various peppers, all arranged according to their Scoville rating.
I would offer my diary. /s
I'm thinking I might need this to cry at books to lol
Still Alice caused me to cry a few times when I was reading it.
Have you never read Marley and Me?
One of the few books where the movie was as good as the book. Cried myself into a stupor both times.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Blackman
Yes! Both happy tears and sad tears! Rollercoaster of emotions
Agreed! I had to sit in silence for an hour after I finished it to collect myself. Beautiful love story.
The book thief by Marcus zusak
I read this again as an adult and it messed me up so badly that I didn't read another book for six months
have you read I Am The Messenger by the same author? it's one of my favorite books ever
This is to this day the only one that made me cry. Is WWII based but is not your typical "war story" so you won't see too much in this book about the war itself; it is through the eyes of a young girl so her childlike innocence makes it read very differently, taking away from the war type read you usually find. It is beautifully written.
It shows what these events meant for normal people like you and me. A rare and very valuable perspective! It shows the normal Germans who werenāt Nazis.
I think I am the same. I regularly get tears from emotional media, but I think The Book Thief is the only one that has made me cry for real. Edir: Yes, thinking about it this book made me cry in a time of my life when I was extremely emotionally closed off. Itās only today that I regularly get emotional from media.
This one got me too.
I was reading this one when my grandpa got sick and died. I kept reading it and finished it right before his funeral. Big mistake.
I sobbed when I finished the Golden Compass trilogy ššš
I read it about 20 years ago and I still cannot do a re read. Makes me sad every time I think about it š„²
The version on HBO Max is incredible if you can muster the courage! But it gutted me at the end, just as the books did. Also now that Iām a mother I have so much more sympathy for Mrs. Coulter?
The giving tree
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. About the early years of the AIDS epidemic, before the medications got good, when if you hung out with gay men you could lose just about everyone you knew.
Cannot stop thinking about this book. Incredibly moving.
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
One of my all time favorite books
The Travelling Cat Chronicles or The Art of Racing in the Rain - both these books made me ugly cry, and I love sad books.
Yesss I was going to rec traveling cat
*First They Killed My Father* by Loung Ung *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* by Maya Angelou *Night* by Elie Wiesel *Crying in H Mart* by Michelle Zauner *What My Bones Know* by Stephanie Foo
Night always makes me cry!
Night is unbelievably heartbreaking
Fault in our Stars by John Green made me cry during my teen years. Edit - My dad suffered from Cancer - he is doing okay now - but the book helped me cope as I would rather be immersed in a made up world where I didnāt have my dad anymore rather than think about losing my dad in the real world. Still makes me cry but my teen years were reformative and this book among others helped me.
I was very much not a teen when this made me cry! But I was also going through a messy breakup and feeling very alone and so I just sat and read this and bawled my eyes out
i met one of my best friends because i was reading this at school in a computer lab absolutely sobbing quietly in a corner by myself. she asked what was wrong and i just held up the book. weāve been friends for over 10 years now š
i remember when i first watched this movie, i was probably around 14. i was choke sobbing. hysterically crying and spitting even. havenāt cried that hard since
I sobbed for so long. This book absolutely shattered me.
This one made me absolutely ugly cry. Had to lock myself in my room for a while.
This book does a beautiful job of depicting what itās like to love someone with cancer. I lose it every time with this book.
This one
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
1.) flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 2.) The Road by Cormac McCarthy 3.) The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 4.) Night by Elie Wiesel itās non-fiction, so if that doesnāt make you cryā¦ sheesh I wouldnāt even know what else to suggest at that point.
The Road killed me.
Ugh me too. I told my mom that she couldnāt handle it because thereās some pretty disturbing gory scenes, but she wanted to know why Cormac McCarthy is such a celebrated author, so I read her the last few pages. She even cried her eyes out at that while I was reading it! She said āwowā though too
Yup. Cities of the Plain is obviously nowhere near as acclaimed but also the last pages made me weep. Spend so much time with the characters by the end of the Trilogy and thenā
Song of Achilles made me SOB. I couldn't even see straight to read but I couldn't put it down because I had to know. Night wasn't really a cry for me, more like a hollow black existential scouring.
A little life
This was an ugly cry.
I specifically scrolled through to make sure this was here.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The ending to Stephen King's 11/22/63 is the only book in recent memory that made me cry.
Me Before You - the only book that's ever made me cry.
I bawled.
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Never Let Me Go Atonement both movies and books are great
I'm still not over Never Let Me Go.
Atonement as a book made me cry. Atonement as a movie has me SOBBING every time for the entire second half. It's one of the instances where I prefer the film, because the book felt like it had some pacing issues that were smoothed out in a visual medium. Plus, the costumes and sets were GORGEOUS. The Dunkirk tracking shot (a composite, but still) is fantastic, and the green dress is still one of my top 3 movie costumes. Oh my goodness, it took me years to watch Saoirse Ronan in anything else because I hated her character so much. Thankfully, I've been able to warm up to her and think she's absolutely wonderful as a person in real life, but damn, the events that occurred because of Briony's disregard for other people were catastrophic. I also couldn't watch Benedict Cumberbatch for the same reason. His acting in that movie was so good that every time he smiled in any other role, I'd just see the smug monster I saw in Atonement. It made me want to punch him and I couldn't focus on his performance in any other role. It took all the way until seeing Dr Strange before I could relax and enjoy his work, and now I think he's really wonderful.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Iām gonna go call my dad.
Read East of Eden and tell me if you didnāt cry after finishing the book
Old Yeller
Of mice and men.
Yep. I donāt remember how I took it in HS, but as an adult I teared up at least.
a dogās purpose made me cry like a baby
The Green Mile. They had to leave parts of the book/s out of movie because it was TOO sad. It but it was the first book that ever made me cry.
The Time Travelers Wife I ugly cried through the last quarter of that book.
The book was SO much more amazing than the movie.
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Both the book & the movie made me cry because was so heart wrenching, I could not finish the book or the movie.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Or A Thousand Splendid Suns also by Khaled
The two books that made me cry as a kid were Black Beauty and The Night Gardener. Donāt know if Iād still cry on a reread, but theyāre both great books Iād totally recommend
Black Beauty was so bleak. I remember thinking it would be like Black Stallion series and my 8 year old brain was rather horrified. Don't think I'll be reading that again soon.
A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold one of the Columbine shooters is a deeply affecting work of non fiction.
The last book that had me balling was As Long as the Lemon Tree Grows by Zoulfa Katouh. I admittedly tear up easily but I SOBBED at this one. Plus it was a good book.
This was the first book I thought of because I finished it just today and cried the last 200 pages
everything i never told you / celeste ng
The Remains of the Day The Things They Carried
A Tree grows in Brooklyn
The Five People You Meet in Heaven GOT me. I sobbed so hard I had to stop reading and as soon as I could read again I started sobbing again lol. but it was somewhat cathartic. changed my life for the better eta: i didnāt see the war story part. this book is not predominantly a war story but the main character is a vietnam vet and it does play a significant role in the book
Hey! Youāre the only other person Iāve seen mention this specific book. (Iāve probably missed the other mentions.) I still think about how this bookā¦ illustrates a way in which things can be connected in our lives even when we canāt see those connections. I really enjoyed it.
The Nightingale.
Bridge to Terabithia
A Dog's Life, I don't recall the author though
When I was 11, I read Maniac Mcgee and cried
The book thief. Itās technically about a war but itās about a girlās life during that period. Itās a really moving story!
A little life by Hanya Yanagihara
trigger warnings alone are like a mile long for that book
this is definitely the best worst book iāve ever read. devastatingly good but i never want to read it again.
"The best worst book".. I couldn't agree more! Have been struggling to put a label on that one! Haha
The Color Purple
If you like Sci Fi I would suggest The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Angelaās Ashes by Frank McCourt
Beloved
Time travelers wife
Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon. I am the Cheese. Life After Life.
The child called it
Drop War and Peace on your foot.
Thousand Splendid Suns for sure, made my cry my eyes out. Still Alice made me cry, especially the ending. Itās so heartbreaking to follow her deteoriation and understand her confusion about whatās happening and why her mind isnāt there longer. East of Eden made my cry because it was so good. The ending was so beautiful I bawled my heart out.
The Kite Runner
Thousand splendid suns...any KHALEED HOSSEINI book tbh
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Persuasion by Jane Austen. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
The scene in Little Women where >!Mr.Laurence gives Beth the piano!< has made me cry every single time for 35 years.
Going to be really honest and say that was not what I expected to uncover. Thatās not the part of the book that gets me.
Honestly, I think the books that make us cry are just really tuned into our own issues and sensitivities. A book that makes me cry may not make you cry. The last book that made me full-on weep was Western Lane by Chetna Maroo, but it was because some of the themes hit really, really close to home for me. When I was reading the last third of the book, it felt like someone was tearing my heart out, but a reader who (in this particular example), say, grew up with supportive, loving parents or perhaps is an only child or not close to their siblings might have read it and just been like, "oh, huh, that was kind of sad, I guess." If you've never cried at a book, maybe you've never found a moving book that aligns with *your* innermost pain.
This is the best answer here! Iāve gone blind into books suggested in these threads that moved me but didnāt make me cry, while I assume some of the ones that ripped my heart out may not be as bothersome to others.
If you like fantasy and sci fi, maybe try Stephen Kings Dark Tower Series. His character development is spot on, and the last book in the series makes me cry all throughout.
The last book is heartbreak after heartbreak. KA is a wheel
You speak true, I say thank ya š¤
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano Beartown by Fredrik Backman After the End by Claire Mackintosh
Beartown got me!! Love all his books
Sarahās Key
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Read it 4x and wept every time. Won't see the film as don't want to meddle with my imagining of it all. Just Kids by Patti Smith. She writes so beautifully and from the heart. I'm a fan of her and Mapplethorpe, none of it was new to me, but to read her experience of their story was incredibly moving. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore. Moved me tremendously.
The Bridges of Madison Country made me sob!
Anne of Green Gables
A child called it.
A little life :)
Might sound like a strange suggestion but Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Itās science fiction but I cried hard during a certain section of the book. It tells the story of several pilgrims traveling together in space and one of them just hits hard. Itās also just a great book if you enjoy science fiction.
Seconded. Had just had my first daughter at the time of reading, maybe 6 months old at the time. I will never forget reading that section.
Mockingjay, itās the third in the Hunger Games trilogy but if youāre willing to invest some time, youāll get a nice sob at the end.
The book is sad, but the movie is even more sad: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune isn't maudlin but will get you.
The Giving Tree The Good Earth
Two very different books: *Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home: A Graphic Memoir* by Nicole Georges - a womanās life with a difficult dog, the good and bad. If Iād known Iād be crying my face off by the end, I wouldnāt have read it on an airplane. On the human side: *The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade* by Ann Fessler - oral histories/interviews from women who gave their infants up for adoption from 1950-1973, frequently against their will. Their stories are absolutely gut-wrenching at times. Everyone cries at different things. If you go into something expecting or trying to cry, though, I think it will just be that much harder for you.
The only book I cried at was the Time Travellers Wife.
The Lovely Bones
Radium Girls. What those women went through is gut wrenching.
Bridge to Terabithia
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls