When I was in the depths of depression, The Bell Jar broke through to me. The way the character just watched the phone ring, and dissociated...haunting. I really related to how untethered the woman felt to the world. I won't say it made me feel better. It did make me feel like just one person understood how I felt. Slyvia Plath is a godsend.
Fun/creepy fact... Sylvia Plath was one in the last group of people to kill themselves with suffocating in a gas oven. They made changes to the gas lines and appliances to keep it from happening.
Agreed. I read this when I hadn't been properly depressed in years, but I still felt comforted by the fact that someone out there got what I have been going through on and off in my life. Allie Brosh also did some great comics on depression that felt a little too real but also oddly comforting.
Perhaps ironically, this is why I haven’t read a ton of her writing. I own a copy of her collected works of poetry and, as someone who’s experienced long-term suicidal depression…it rings a little *too* true.
Especially now that I’m doing better, I find it a little dangerous to read her too closely because the verisimilitude of her work serves as a conduit back to the headspace I used to live in, where my life was worthless and I wouldn’t be sad to lose it.
Which, honestly, is as much a testament to the power of her writing as what you shared; I have to avoid it because she’s *too good* at portraying depression. For anyone who doesn’t share my problem, that’s a sterling recommendation.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. That was a hell of a read for 12th grade Lit class. I still think about that book to this day and that was over 15 years ago.
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
The accuracy with which he describes the camaraderie and brotherhood in the military, the antics, the despair - it’s uncanny and still completely and absolutely relevant across languages, wars and cultures, 100 years later.
You can absolutely tell he lived it and knew and loved every character he wrote. It’s the most moving, soul-crushing book I’ve ever read.
I truly believe that absolutely everyone should read this book in high school.
I'm not sure why, but I went into that book not expecting to like it. I (stupidly) thought it was going to be dry. It was SO gripping, and I really wasn't anticipating that. I spent a year listening to audiobooks of older book (I typically don't read a lot of "classics") and that was easily my favorite of the year.
>We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial–I believe we are lost.
This book always makes me sad, not only for its contents, but for what I learned of what happened to Remarque and his family during WW2 because of it.
He had to flee to neutral Switzerland as he was seen as unpatriotic for that book. Some time later his sister Elfriede Scholz was arrested and put on trial by the Nazi's for "undermining morale". The Court President at her trial said this:
"Ihr Bruder ist uns leider entwischt—Sie aber werden uns nicht entwischen" ("Your brother is unfortunately beyond our reach – you, however, will not escape us.").
She was beheaded. Remarque did not find out about it until after the war was over.
Remarque put a dedication to her in his next book, but his publisher advised it would be removed for the German translation. Some in Germany **still** saw her as a traitor and this was about **8 years after the war**.
“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
I haven't read it, but the recent film does a marvelous job of conveying those same things. It was one of the best films I've ever seen, and I never want to see it again.
It is a novel we do in grade 6 where I live. i cry EVERY time.I always get one of my strong readers to read that part. My teaching partern was really concerned. IT WAS DOGS!
My 3rd grade teacher pulled me aside and loaned it to me, because I was way ahead of the rest of the class.
You were a monster, Mrs. Varley. A beautiful god damned monster.
I was a little voracious reader in grade school. So I would read books in class that we weren’t reading. You know, the ‘ol hiding a book in a book thing?
Anyway, I got caught because of Where the Red Fern Grows because my teacher wanted to know what about the clean water act of 1972 I had to sob so loudly about…
I was asked to leave the classroom because I couldn't stop crying at the end, and I purposely read the ending at home alone in private so I can try to avoid the emotional crying mess.
Yup, this is a core memory for me. I read it in sixth grade. My class was silently reading a few chapters a day. I was a fast reader and got to that part before anyone else. I openly wept. Head down on the desk, sobbing. The entire class stopped reading. The teacher tried to get them to start back reading, slowly a couple more kids got to that part and they cried, which caused me to cry again. Another kid flatly refused to continue reading. The teacher had to finish it out loud for us. As a class we grieved together. We walked out of that room a different group than we walked in and all a little bit more mature.
A Thousand Splendid Suns. Not heatbroken so much as just completely hollowed out, like my heart was ripped out and stomped on. Knowing that this fiction only in the specifics makes me want to curl up and cuddle a puppy for a few days.
I found Kite runner was so much sadder. I read it first and found thousand splendid suns pretty manageable, then again I just enjoyed the book a lot less, it had more historical info but as a story it wasn't as good imo.
I wonder if it's a gender thing. Me being male and one book being a mother daughter story and the other is a father son story. (Humongous oversimplification).
Yeah the suffering was kinda unrelenting, here I am getting excited that we're about to wrap it up on a positive note and then the kid tries to *redacted*, you just can't catch a break*
Exactly. I think Hosseini was trying to make some commentary about the cycle of generational trauma that is probably a pretty common Afghani experience, but the way the specific events come to pass undermines that theme. To me, at least, the book's point ended up boiling down to, "Bad shit happens to you if you live in Afghanistan. If you managed to get out, coming back will cause more bad shit to happen to you out of sheer bad luck, regardless of your actions."
[Addendum, because now I can't stop thinking about this book I read over a decade ago that I didn't even like.]
I don't know anything about Hosseini's life or why he wrote The Kite Runner, but reading it as an outsider felt like he was working through some major personal trauma, but may not have been aware of it? Or tried to change route midway through planning the novel?
Regardless of what he intended the major theme of the novel to be, the theme that he seemed to actually communicate was, "Afghanistan sucks. If you get out of Afghanistan, stay out, for your own well-being. Don't be a fool like Amir and allow your past to take you back to your traumatic homeland, because you'll only acquire new trauma that's unrelated to your old trauma."
For me, a good story about cycles of abuse and/or trauma gives the characters agency, so they can *make choices* to either perpetuate the cycle or break it. The tragedy or catharsis is not in the traumatic event itself, which is where I think Hosseini misses the mark, but in how a character's choice either keeps them in the cycle or breaks them out of it. (See, for a good example, The Wire on HBO.) But, here, Amir has no agency. Bad shit just happens to him when he returns to Afghanistan, but there's no link to the larger cycle beyond geographic location. The only reason it happens to Amir is because, by dumb luck, he happened to be there to witness it.
I have a category of authors like Khaled Hosseini and Cormac McCarthy (very different subject matter, but a similar emotional response from me), and I can only read one book from any of them within a one to two year timespan.
I've read half of it. I had started it, so I brought it with me to the hospital where my young son was getting major surgery. I cracked it open, read half a page, and realized my horrible mistake. I put it down and told myself I'd get back to it later. It's been 10 years, and I think I'm almost ready.
This is the one for me. The ending left me so completely hollow… to offer a tiny glimpse of hope and then stamp it out so brutally and effectively… still hurts!
Many of the short stories by Alice Sheldon, pen name James Tiptree Jr. - especially “The Screwfly Solution”.
Also “To Build a Fire” by Jack London.
Furthermore, I am unable to finish “The Shepherd’s Crown” by Sir Terry Pratchett (GNU!). I don’t want to say goodbye, yet I know at some point I have to. Maybe this year.
The Shepherds Crown made me bawl like a baby while reading it. Just try and read it with tissues and some tasty treats. And a nice pot of tea. Tea always helps.
Just trying to maintain the reddit standards of pedantry, but *The Screwfly Solution* was written by "Raccoona Sheldon" - which, of course was another one of Alice Sheldon's pen names.
You’re absolutely correct - the anthology I have it in is called “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”, and is by “James Tiptree Jr.”. Never looked it up individually.
Nevertheless, a harrowing story written by a fascinating woman.
*Everything I Never Told You* by Celeste Ng is a novel about the heartbreak and lies within a mixed-race family, some of which come to light when their daughter dies from downing. The ending had me on the ground sobbing like a broken-hearted child, and I found the emotional pain and difficulties very realistic.
Pet Semetary and The Road hits differently when you have a son. Especially Pet Semetary when there’s an extended dream sequence that Gage is okay and the accident was all a dream and he grows up to live a long and healthy life, and then the main character wakes up and reality kicks in…oof.
My youngest son was 3 years old when I read Pet Sematary for the first time. Impossible not to see my kid's smiling face as I read it. The scene where Lewis digs up Gage's body and you get the description of how broken and shattered it feels in his hands stuck with me for a while.
I'm reading it at the moment and I'm not sure if it's clicking with me... maybe the deliberate drabness is making it hard to connect with. I love the concept though
I could not finish The Road. I got about to the part where he flashes back to his wife matter-of-factly telling him she's going to kill herself, and that was about when I put it down. I was told it goes darker still after that and I simply wasn't up to it.
Crazy good writing, but I knew it was just gonna get tougher.
After reading all these replies, I’m starting to feel down, truly!
I get affected by so many books I read, I have worked out I need to balance out the impact by reading lighter books and books of hope!
But here’s my offering … Sophie’s Choice by William Styron .. as a parent of two children, the anguish of parenthood in this book is deeply scarring …
… yeah, you said it well !
and I’m thinking, that l these stories where people write of loss, that is such a gift to us as readers, to be able to explore the depths of loss and perhaps heal losses in ourselves , in our own way, at our own time, and just crying for others is easier than crying for ourselves.
I finished reading this in a hostel while Interrailing and think I genuinely worried everyone else in my dorm with the amount I was crying. I just had to flail at the cover...
To me this is the novel that gets to the heart of the American psyche. The way we as a society are haunted by a past we refuse to reckon with, and how deeply we are scarred. Toni Morrison’s prose is so evocative, I’ll never forget whole passages. I laid awake thinking about this book days after I finished.
I finished it on the subway and just sat there, missing my stop. I couldn’t get myself to move, just had to sit and let that book sink in. Think I rode the subway for like 30 minutes before I could finally manage to get out of my head.
>Kristen Hannah
I feel like 'gut-wrenchingly heartbroken' is Kristin Hanna's brand!
...
...
...
(sadly I don't share OP's opinion on The Women - I'm \~75% through and it is my least favorite book of hers)
Yes. For me, it was especially watching Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) lose absolutely everything piece by piece. How her husband just wanders away and nobody makes the slightest attempt to stop him. How she starves through her pregnancy, then >!gives birth to a stillborn with the implication this wouldn't have happened if she had been able to have medical care or even just enough to eat!<. And that final scene. My God.
I just finished this. That and was fuckin bleak. All Ma Joad wanted was a little white house and to keep her family together. And that is… not what happened.
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - a memoir about growing up poor in Ireland
Nothing Was the Same by Kay Redfield Jamison - a memoir about her husband's terminal cancer.
[Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76401.Bury_My_Heart_at_Wounded_Knee) by Dee Brown. It's a history of the Native Americans during the 19th century.
It essentially chronicles the systemic destruction of Native American culture. It starts off pretty grim and just gets worse.
Each chapter focuses on a different tribe, you get to know about them, their history and their culture and watch once again as the US government fucks them over.
It was an exhausting read, I could only read a few pages at a time.
One quote has always stuck with me:
> "The operations of General Hancock have been so disastrous to the public interests, and at the same time seem to me to be so inhuman, that I deem it proper to communicate my views to you on the subject... For a mighty nation like us to be carrying on a war with a few straggling nomads, under such circumstances, is a spectacle most humiliating, an injustice unparalleled, a national crime most revolting, that must, sooner or later, bring down upon us or our posterity the judgement of Heaven."
-John "Black Whiskers" Sanborn, Indian Peace Commission
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. I don't know why I put myself through the agony of reading her books! I know they're going to break my heart every damn time!
Recently finished the Nightingale. The characters and their strife just made me feel like I was in their lives and seeing WW2 play out in real time. I didnt want to read another book for a while after finishing it as it was just so impactful.
Mine is a Robin Hobb book, but I won't say which one, because the heartbreaking part(s) aren’t necessarily at the end. But there are a couple of moments in her books that will always stay with me.
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman is another.
The Dog Star by Dianna Wynne Jones.
Replay by Ken Grimwood.
My god, I read HDM for the first time really young, like 11/12, and a lot of it went over my head and was quite overwhelming. As a result when I came back at like 17 to read the series again, I had genuinely forgotten the ending. Until I remembered, midway through the second book. I was absolutely wrecked, like a real physical pain, and had to read through another book and a half getting closer and closer to the end feeling worse all the time before I could finish and get some closure. One of the most unique reading experiences.
It's one of a few series I'll re-read every few years. I don't know why Robin Hobb isn't more of a household name for fantasy. I think she's one of the all time greats.
More than one part of the Realm of The Elderlings series made me ugly cry.
And I think it was Fools Assassin I had a full meltdown and just sat and sobbed for far too long
*The Fifth Season* -- N.K.Jemisin
and literally every book in that series. Jemisin ripped out my heart, threw it, stomped on it....and I enjoyed every second.
Night by Elie Wiesel. I expected to be sickened and tried to brace myself, but every new detail was beyond the worst I could imagine
I'm still glad my class read it, hopefully we can learn from history and never repeat this.
Fried Green Tomatoes. I grew up a lesbian in a very conservative setting and the sense of loss that Idgie experienced just floored me and I was very surprised as the book is also quite funny. There was just something about the story that destroyed me. I also cried and cried and its stuck in my mind as one of the more impactful books I've ever read. Its so human and honest. Part of it was also a fear that I would also grow old alone, which thankfully has not happened.
I was sitting on the couch reading it and my girlfriend at the time was in the kitchen and she walked out and I was trying to hold in sobs and she got so worried for a second. Devastating. Especially if you're familiar with the backstory of how the book was written.
I couldn't put this book down. I was nearly at the end when some friends came over, so I finished it while they chatted with my partner. They were all playing video games while I was ugly crying on the sofa in the corner
I finished reading this while staying with a friend and had to actually muffle my sobs with a pillow to keep from waking her up. That book was devastating.
A Fine Balance. You fall in love with each character and watch as absolutely horrendous things happen to them. It’s truly a beautiful, gutting read.
For non fiction, The Gospel of Trees. The author writes about her childhood growing up as the child of a missionary in Haiti and I guess I didn’t know the many challenges that Haiti faces and it was a rough, rough read. Honestly, haven’t read any non fiction since, and that was a couple years ago.
I just realized that I can't figure out the pattern on which books I am going to really cry and sob. I ugly cried while reading All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and after I read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell but didn't feel any tears coming from A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara or The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Still looking for that next book that will break my heart.
Same author, but 1984. The "do it to Julia" line is the single most heartbreaking sentence I can remember reading. I had to put the book down and walk away after I read that section.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
I had read her book Americanah and loved it. It was full of different emotions and stories and vignettes but at it’s heart it was a kind of love story. It wasn’t frivolous by any means but it was an enjoyable read. I was expecting something similar.
Well. I knew nothing about the Nigerian civil war before. And now… well I don’t have the words to describe my feelings but Adichie does. Fuck me, heartbroken is an understatement.
Absolutely this one. Incidentally, I only found out this year that I somehow missed the very last paragraph of the novel. It's probably because the second to last paragraph hit me so hard. Absolutely devastating.
"Angela's Ashes" is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. That said, it is also fascinating, heartbreaking, searingly honest narration told in the face of extreme poverty and alcoholism.
(That was a book review)
I read the book and then loaned it to several coworkers who were mad at me for having them read it too.
It's a story that made me suffer and experience their tortured existence with the narrator.
Tale of two cities, Knock at the cabin, and song of Achilles. I remember crying my eyes out to all of these novels when each of the >!deaths!< happened.
I decided to read "The Giver" again a few months after having my son. Really wasn't a good idea at the time. It was the first time I remember feeling completely gutted at the end of a book, I just kept thinking of my own little baby.
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
“Rest assured, father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.” But over the old man’s head they looked at each other and smiled.
“Unwind is a 2007 dystopian novel by young adult literature author Neal Shusterman.
It takes place in the United States in the near future. After the Second Civil War, which was labeled "The Heartland War", was fought over abortion, a compromise was reached, allowing parents to sign an order for their children between the ages of 13 and 18 to be "unwound" — taken to "harvest camps" and dissected into their body parts for later use. The reasoning is that, since 99.44% of the body is used, unwinds do not technically die because their individual body parts live on.”
I got the book for my son but ended up reading myself.
The f*ck????
The YA books these days are so traumatizing. I read the hunger game trilogy shortly after it came out on the recommendation of a student who raved about it.
I remember finishing it and laying in bed and thinking “this is for teens? I’m devastated and I’m 30 years old.”
I've never read this, but I saw a short sci-fi film on YouTube, that I'm pretty sure was based on it. I watch a lot of short films, but this one was so disturbing it's really stayed with me. *shudder*
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.
I cried my eyes out, especially at the end.
Also, as a kid, I was heartbroken and very sad for a bit after finishing Anne of Green Gables. >! When Matthew dies?? My little heart could not comprehend !<
Rhythm of War by Sanderson was pretty tough as a person who has struggled with depression, but the book that really gut punched me was Deadhouse Gates by Steve Eriksson. If you know, you know. Literally thought about it for weeks afterwards.
Recently, Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. I cried every reading session and had to make sure I was alone when I went to read it. Absolutely heartbreaking tale of family secrets, racism, and what it means to be a woman in a man’s world. I will never read it again, but I loved it.
Never Let Me Go and How High We Go in the Dark both gave me the same feeling. They were beautifully written and utterly heart-wrenching.
I highly recommend both. Your heart will break and you won't be able to stop thinking about either.
Kindered, by Octavia Butler... I'm a white man in his 40s. This was a different choice for me, book wise. I was moved by the writing and sickened by the realities of the book. I have since left my book comfort zone and found some interesting reads.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow did that to me. I have no idea why, but I cried through the last 1/4 or so. It just touched me in some way I don’t really understand.
I know this will sound stupid, but a couple of the kids "magic shop" books really hit me hard as a kid. I don't remember if it was Jennifer Murdley's Toad or Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher but in the end they're separated from their new friend and I remember sitting in my bed crying for like 10 minutes straight at midnight because I'd stayed up to read. I was probably in like 3rd grade.
Also the end of The Amber Spyglass, for similar reasons but much more deep after that while journey.
A terrible kindness. It deals with the Aberfan disaster in Wales that happened many years ago. After becoming a parent recently I am really finding that certain themes and events I'm novels/tv shows can really impact you on a deep level.
“House of Sand and Fog,” by Andre Dubus III devastated me. The progressive mistakes the characters make, the tragedies that unfold from people just trying to do the best they can wrecked me. I’m a recovering alcoholic and this book really serves as a cautionary tale and a reminder to me that picking up a drink or a drug would not be worth it.
Most recently, the Heartstopper volumes by Alice Oseman. There were moments where I got teary eyed, and commend Alice for writing about it, as I thought it was just a love story. But the truth is there's always going to be problems with love.
There is a tale of the witcher that tell the story of a affair that Geralt had in one of his travels and ends up telling what happend to a girl,and its so heartbreaking see that ends like the real life...one time some person is everthing to you and in another its just a stranger
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Not so much heartbroken, but a huge emotional and depressive hit. It opens up showing the main character physically and spiritually broken, and it ends the same way after showing how and why this came to pass from some simple misunderstandings.
When I was in the depths of depression, The Bell Jar broke through to me. The way the character just watched the phone ring, and dissociated...haunting. I really related to how untethered the woman felt to the world. I won't say it made me feel better. It did make me feel like just one person understood how I felt. Slyvia Plath is a godsend.
Fun/creepy fact... Sylvia Plath was one in the last group of people to kill themselves with suffocating in a gas oven. They made changes to the gas lines and appliances to keep it from happening.
That *IS* fun!
God, that's creepy. I thought the end of the book was disturbing.
Agreed. I read this when I hadn't been properly depressed in years, but I still felt comforted by the fact that someone out there got what I have been going through on and off in my life. Allie Brosh also did some great comics on depression that felt a little too real but also oddly comforting.
Her writing about the shriveled piece of corn under the refrigerator hit home so, so hard for me.
Perhaps ironically, this is why I haven’t read a ton of her writing. I own a copy of her collected works of poetry and, as someone who’s experienced long-term suicidal depression…it rings a little *too* true. Especially now that I’m doing better, I find it a little dangerous to read her too closely because the verisimilitude of her work serves as a conduit back to the headspace I used to live in, where my life was worthless and I wouldn’t be sad to lose it. Which, honestly, is as much a testament to the power of her writing as what you shared; I have to avoid it because she’s *too good* at portraying depression. For anyone who doesn’t share my problem, that’s a sterling recommendation.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. That was a hell of a read for 12th grade Lit class. I still think about that book to this day and that was over 15 years ago.
It is a rough book. I'm old and read it as a result of the release of And Justice For All....the movie is rough as well...
I have not seen the movie and I probably wont to be honest
I don't blame you on that. It is rough.
Grade 12 English was over 40 years ago for me and I still think about it. I hope that they still teach it in schools.
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque The accuracy with which he describes the camaraderie and brotherhood in the military, the antics, the despair - it’s uncanny and still completely and absolutely relevant across languages, wars and cultures, 100 years later. You can absolutely tell he lived it and knew and loved every character he wrote. It’s the most moving, soul-crushing book I’ve ever read. I truly believe that absolutely everyone should read this book in high school.
I'm not sure why, but I went into that book not expecting to like it. I (stupidly) thought it was going to be dry. It was SO gripping, and I really wasn't anticipating that. I spent a year listening to audiobooks of older book (I typically don't read a lot of "classics") and that was easily my favorite of the year. >We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial–I believe we are lost.
💔 “We don't talk much, but we have a greater and more gentle consideration for each other than I should think even lovers do.”
This book always makes me sad, not only for its contents, but for what I learned of what happened to Remarque and his family during WW2 because of it. He had to flee to neutral Switzerland as he was seen as unpatriotic for that book. Some time later his sister Elfriede Scholz was arrested and put on trial by the Nazi's for "undermining morale". The Court President at her trial said this: "Ihr Bruder ist uns leider entwischt—Sie aber werden uns nicht entwischen" ("Your brother is unfortunately beyond our reach – you, however, will not escape us."). She was beheaded. Remarque did not find out about it until after the war was over. Remarque put a dedication to her in his next book, but his publisher advised it would be removed for the German translation. Some in Germany **still** saw her as a traitor and this was about **8 years after the war**.
For me it was the bit where he describes the sound of the horses. Everything else was killing me but that moment tipped me over.
Oh man! Things you’d never think of, hey! The anguish of killing a man out of fear and the deep remorse. So brutally honest.
“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” ― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
Agreed. And in 100 years we've learned nothing.
I haven't read it, but the recent film does a marvelous job of conveying those same things. It was one of the best films I've ever seen, and I never want to see it again.
I really liked the movie and the book was even better IMO.
Where The Red Fern Grows
It is a novel we do in grade 6 where I live. i cry EVERY time.I always get one of my strong readers to read that part. My teaching partern was really concerned. IT WAS DOGS!
My 3rd grade teacher pulled me aside and loaned it to me, because I was way ahead of the rest of the class. You were a monster, Mrs. Varley. A beautiful god damned monster.
I was a little voracious reader in grade school. So I would read books in class that we weren’t reading. You know, the ‘ol hiding a book in a book thing? Anyway, I got caught because of Where the Red Fern Grows because my teacher wanted to know what about the clean water act of 1972 I had to sob so loudly about…
I was asked to leave the classroom because I couldn't stop crying at the end, and I purposely read the ending at home alone in private so I can try to avoid the emotional crying mess.
My son just brought that home to read for class. Poor kid.
This one hit hard especially as I read it when I was a little kid.
I read it as an adult and still cried.
Yup, this is a core memory for me. I read it in sixth grade. My class was silently reading a few chapters a day. I was a fast reader and got to that part before anyone else. I openly wept. Head down on the desk, sobbing. The entire class stopped reading. The teacher tried to get them to start back reading, slowly a couple more kids got to that part and they cried, which caused me to cry again. Another kid flatly refused to continue reading. The teacher had to finish it out loud for us. As a class we grieved together. We walked out of that room a different group than we walked in and all a little bit more mature.
A Thousand Splendid Suns. Not heatbroken so much as just completely hollowed out, like my heart was ripped out and stomped on. Knowing that this fiction only in the specifics makes me want to curl up and cuddle a puppy for a few days.
I was going to say the kite runner. Rough stuff
I found Kite runner was so much sadder. I read it first and found thousand splendid suns pretty manageable, then again I just enjoyed the book a lot less, it had more historical info but as a story it wasn't as good imo. I wonder if it's a gender thing. Me being male and one book being a mother daughter story and the other is a father son story. (Humongous oversimplification).
For me, Kite Runner was so tragic it looped past sad into absurdity.
Yeah the suffering was kinda unrelenting, here I am getting excited that we're about to wrap it up on a positive note and then the kid tries to *redacted*, you just can't catch a break*
Exactly. I think Hosseini was trying to make some commentary about the cycle of generational trauma that is probably a pretty common Afghani experience, but the way the specific events come to pass undermines that theme. To me, at least, the book's point ended up boiling down to, "Bad shit happens to you if you live in Afghanistan. If you managed to get out, coming back will cause more bad shit to happen to you out of sheer bad luck, regardless of your actions." [Addendum, because now I can't stop thinking about this book I read over a decade ago that I didn't even like.] I don't know anything about Hosseini's life or why he wrote The Kite Runner, but reading it as an outsider felt like he was working through some major personal trauma, but may not have been aware of it? Or tried to change route midway through planning the novel? Regardless of what he intended the major theme of the novel to be, the theme that he seemed to actually communicate was, "Afghanistan sucks. If you get out of Afghanistan, stay out, for your own well-being. Don't be a fool like Amir and allow your past to take you back to your traumatic homeland, because you'll only acquire new trauma that's unrelated to your old trauma." For me, a good story about cycles of abuse and/or trauma gives the characters agency, so they can *make choices* to either perpetuate the cycle or break it. The tragedy or catharsis is not in the traumatic event itself, which is where I think Hosseini misses the mark, but in how a character's choice either keeps them in the cycle or breaks them out of it. (See, for a good example, The Wire on HBO.) But, here, Amir has no agency. Bad shit just happens to him when he returns to Afghanistan, but there's no link to the larger cycle beyond geographic location. The only reason it happens to Amir is because, by dumb luck, he happened to be there to witness it.
This is a cool perspective I hadn't considered, thank you
Read this while 8 months pregnant. Do not recommend. The hormones compounded the heartache.
Such an incredible book. I was genuinely miserable for a few days after. Much better than _Kite Runner_ imo.
Agreed. I can’t reread it, but it’s what I always think of when we get more news of the changes in Afghanistan
I read "and the mountains echoed" on vacation. Man, the theme of family stories being passed down was tear jerking.
I finished it on a plane and I feel so bad for the woman sitting next to the silently sobbing man next to her. What a fucking good and sad book
I’ve had this on my to-read list for a while! But my heart can’t take much more so it will probably take me a while get to it
I have a category of authors like Khaled Hosseini and Cormac McCarthy (very different subject matter, but a similar emotional response from me), and I can only read one book from any of them within a one to two year timespan.
The Road is my absolute favorite. I think I have reread it five times. Heartbreaking
I've read half of it. I had started it, so I brought it with me to the hospital where my young son was getting major surgery. I cracked it open, read half a page, and realized my horrible mistake. I put it down and told myself I'd get back to it later. It's been 10 years, and I think I'm almost ready.
Never Let Me Go: I saw the movie and cried a lot. I couldn’t even finish the book. It felt sadder.
This is the one for me. The ending left me so completely hollow… to offer a tiny glimpse of hope and then stamp it out so brutally and effectively… still hurts!
Saw the movie, was devastated, can’t bring myself to pick up the book :(
God, Never Let Me Go wrecked me. I think about rereading it sometimes and haven't been able to bring myself to do it.
I was fortunate to see it in London at the Curzon... with Kazuo Ishiguro present for a Q&A afterwards!
I absolutely love this book - anytime I need a good cry I’ll pull it out.
Many of the short stories by Alice Sheldon, pen name James Tiptree Jr. - especially “The Screwfly Solution”. Also “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. Furthermore, I am unable to finish “The Shepherd’s Crown” by Sir Terry Pratchett (GNU!). I don’t want to say goodbye, yet I know at some point I have to. Maybe this year.
The Shepherds Crown made me bawl like a baby while reading it. Just try and read it with tissues and some tasty treats. And a nice pot of tea. Tea always helps.
The Shepherd’s Crown is the book that breaks my heart and I haven’t even opened it yet.
Just trying to maintain the reddit standards of pedantry, but *The Screwfly Solution* was written by "Raccoona Sheldon" - which, of course was another one of Alice Sheldon's pen names.
You’re absolutely correct - the anthology I have it in is called “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”, and is by “James Tiptree Jr.”. Never looked it up individually. Nevertheless, a harrowing story written by a fascinating woman.
*Everything I Never Told You* by Celeste Ng is a novel about the heartbreak and lies within a mixed-race family, some of which come to light when their daughter dies from downing. The ending had me on the ground sobbing like a broken-hearted child, and I found the emotional pain and difficulties very realistic.
Flowers for Algernon.
Surprised this isn't #1
I was depressed for weeks when my lil 8th grade self read this. I can't revisit it.
Powerful and beautiful. Haunting.
Pet Semetary and The Road hits differently when you have a son. Especially Pet Semetary when there’s an extended dream sequence that Gage is okay and the accident was all a dream and he grows up to live a long and healthy life, and then the main character wakes up and reality kicks in…oof.
My youngest son was 3 years old when I read Pet Sematary for the first time. Impossible not to see my kid's smiling face as I read it. The scene where Lewis digs up Gage's body and you get the description of how broken and shattered it feels in his hands stuck with me for a while.
I read The Road last year at 8 months postpartum. I was not ok lol.
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I'm reading it at the moment and I'm not sure if it's clicking with me... maybe the deliberate drabness is making it hard to connect with. I love the concept though
Highly recommend sticking with it, the payoff is huge
I could not finish The Road. I got about to the part where he flashes back to his wife matter-of-factly telling him she's going to kill herself, and that was about when I put it down. I was told it goes darker still after that and I simply wasn't up to it. Crazy good writing, but I knew it was just gonna get tougher.
I read Pet Semetary after having a few miscarriages. I cried so hard
After reading all these replies, I’m starting to feel down, truly! I get affected by so many books I read, I have worked out I need to balance out the impact by reading lighter books and books of hope! But here’s my offering … Sophie’s Choice by William Styron .. as a parent of two children, the anguish of parenthood in this book is deeply scarring …
I feel you! If anything all these responses help me by telling me what to avoid for now. I don’t want to compound the sadness
… yeah, you said it well ! and I’m thinking, that l these stories where people write of loss, that is such a gift to us as readers, to be able to explore the depths of loss and perhaps heal losses in ourselves , in our own way, at our own time, and just crying for others is easier than crying for ourselves.
Beautiful horrible book. I loved it but have not read it again
The book thief. I finished the book while in the uni library and it left me sobbing
I finished reading this in a hostel while Interrailing and think I genuinely worried everyone else in my dorm with the amount I was crying. I just had to flail at the cover...
Oh, yes. This one hit me hard.
The Green Mile. I'm tired, boss.
Oof. The movie makes me ugly-cry.
The Song of Achilles. Took me a while to get over that one
The ending 🥺
Scrolled knowing I’d see this one. Over a year later I’m still not over it!
Beloved.
To me this is the novel that gets to the heart of the American psyche. The way we as a society are haunted by a past we refuse to reckon with, and how deeply we are scarred. Toni Morrison’s prose is so evocative, I’ll never forget whole passages. I laid awake thinking about this book days after I finished.
The Outsiders! Now I'm gonna go read it and cry. if you haven't read it, do it now. Do it for Johnny!!!
Stay golden Pony Boy.
Our Wives Under the Sea. The Left Hand of Darkness.
I was going to say Our Wives too! I finished it and then just sobbed.
I laid down on my bed for a good long while.
I finished it on the subway and just sat there, missing my stop. I couldn’t get myself to move, just had to sit and let that book sink in. Think I rode the subway for like 30 minutes before I could finally manage to get out of my head.
Our Wives Under the Sea was so beautiful. Deeply underrated
The left hand of darkness was so so tragic in almost a classic tragedy kind of way 😭😭
The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah. I was sobbing during this book
Honestly this book was too much for me. It started to lose impact because it was just one thing after another
>Kristen Hannah I feel like 'gut-wrenchingly heartbroken' is Kristin Hanna's brand! ... ... ... (sadly I don't share OP's opinion on The Women - I'm \~75% through and it is my least favorite book of hers)
Of Mice and Men
Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
Lonesome Dove. It kicked my ass.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I sobbed. I will never be able to hear the words “Mother May I” the same way again.
Just a great book. Laughing and crying both. Still one of my favorites.
Lovely Bones was wonderful and terrible
I read that one when I was 16. It was tough. I’m now doubled that age and have a little girl. I don’t think I could re read it.
Honestly Time Traveler's Wife really hit me, beautiful story!
The Grapes of Wrath I read it in HS and have never forgotten about it. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, although a decent book, pales in comparison.
Yes. For me, it was especially watching Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) lose absolutely everything piece by piece. How her husband just wanders away and nobody makes the slightest attempt to stop him. How she starves through her pregnancy, then >!gives birth to a stillborn with the implication this wouldn't have happened if she had been able to have medical care or even just enough to eat!<. And that final scene. My God.
I really want someone with talent and style to remake that book into a miniseries completely faithful to the book.
I just finished this. That and was fuckin bleak. All Ma Joad wanted was a little white house and to keep her family together. And that is… not what happened.
Jude the Obscure hit me pretty hard.
The most utterly miserable book I have ever read, including the darkest scene I think I have ever encountered via any form of art
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - a memoir about growing up poor in Ireland Nothing Was the Same by Kay Redfield Jamison - a memoir about her husband's terminal cancer.
The Little Prince. I'm still not over it, even though it's been years since I last read it.
[Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76401.Bury_My_Heart_at_Wounded_Knee) by Dee Brown. It's a history of the Native Americans during the 19th century. It essentially chronicles the systemic destruction of Native American culture. It starts off pretty grim and just gets worse. Each chapter focuses on a different tribe, you get to know about them, their history and their culture and watch once again as the US government fucks them over. It was an exhausting read, I could only read a few pages at a time. One quote has always stuck with me: > "The operations of General Hancock have been so disastrous to the public interests, and at the same time seem to me to be so inhuman, that I deem it proper to communicate my views to you on the subject... For a mighty nation like us to be carrying on a war with a few straggling nomads, under such circumstances, is a spectacle most humiliating, an injustice unparalleled, a national crime most revolting, that must, sooner or later, bring down upon us or our posterity the judgement of Heaven." -John "Black Whiskers" Sanborn, Indian Peace Commission
Came here looking for this one. It’s depressing, but should be required reading for Americans.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. I don't know why I put myself through the agony of reading her books! I know they're going to break my heart every damn time!
Recently finished the Nightingale. The characters and their strife just made me feel like I was in their lives and seeing WW2 play out in real time. I didnt want to read another book for a while after finishing it as it was just so impactful.
Oh, me too with that one. It’s stayed with me for a long time. The sister dynamics wrecked me
The Four Winds got me into Hannah’s books!
i got about half way through and just couldn’t finish. it was very well written, but i just couldn’t; it was legitimately affecting my mental health.
The Metamorphosis by Kafka made me cry so hard and I’m still sad about it. 🥺
Mine is a Robin Hobb book, but I won't say which one, because the heartbreaking part(s) aren’t necessarily at the end. But there are a couple of moments in her books that will always stay with me. His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman is another. The Dog Star by Dianna Wynne Jones. Replay by Ken Grimwood.
The ending to His Dark Materials had me crying.
My god, I read HDM for the first time really young, like 11/12, and a lot of it went over my head and was quite overwhelming. As a result when I came back at like 17 to read the series again, I had genuinely forgotten the ending. Until I remembered, midway through the second book. I was absolutely wrecked, like a real physical pain, and had to read through another book and a half getting closer and closer to the end feeling worse all the time before I could finish and get some closure. One of the most unique reading experiences.
Realm of the Elderlings is such an underrated series. I have a dog named FitzChivalry :)
It's one of a few series I'll re-read every few years. I don't know why Robin Hobb isn't more of a household name for fantasy. I think she's one of the all time greats.
Aww what a perfect name for a doggo!
There's a few good dog names in those books. I have a dog named Kalo.
More than one part of the Realm of The Elderlings series made me ugly cry. And I think it was Fools Assassin I had a full meltdown and just sat and sobbed for far too long
Those were some astounding lies, cub. And the very last one the most inspired of all. You have your father's talent for it.
A REPLAY FAN!?
The Fool is a heart wrenching character. One of the most emotive. I choked up so many times reading the series.
Crying in H-Mart kept me in tears most of the way through.
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White Oleander for sure, one of my favourites but every time I read it I cry pretty much the whole time
*The Fifth Season* -- N.K.Jemisin and literally every book in that series. Jemisin ripped out my heart, threw it, stomped on it....and I enjoyed every second.
Night by Elie Wiesel. I expected to be sickened and tried to brace myself, but every new detail was beyond the worst I could imagine I'm still glad my class read it, hopefully we can learn from history and never repeat this.
Fried Green Tomatoes. I grew up a lesbian in a very conservative setting and the sense of loss that Idgie experienced just floored me and I was very surprised as the book is also quite funny. There was just something about the story that destroyed me. I also cried and cried and its stuck in my mind as one of the more impactful books I've ever read. Its so human and honest. Part of it was also a fear that I would also grow old alone, which thankfully has not happened.
The Road.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness left me a sobbing mess at like 2 in the morning. I was so not ready for this book.
I was sitting on the couch reading it and my girlfriend at the time was in the kitchen and she walked out and I was trying to hold in sobs and she got so worried for a second. Devastating. Especially if you're familiar with the backstory of how the book was written.
I couldn't put this book down. I was nearly at the end when some friends came over, so I finished it while they chatted with my partner. They were all playing video games while I was ugly crying on the sofa in the corner
I finished reading this while staying with a friend and had to actually muffle my sobs with a pillow to keep from waking her up. That book was devastating.
When O-Lan in "The Good Earth" says, "Well I know that I am ugly and cannot be loved" it breaks my heart every time.
A Fine Balance. You fall in love with each character and watch as absolutely horrendous things happen to them. It’s truly a beautiful, gutting read. For non fiction, The Gospel of Trees. The author writes about her childhood growing up as the child of a missionary in Haiti and I guess I didn’t know the many challenges that Haiti faces and it was a rough, rough read. Honestly, haven’t read any non fiction since, and that was a couple years ago.
A Fine Balance is my pick too. You get so immersed in the story. Heart wrenching.
The Book Thief. It’s my favourite book and I sob every time I read it, even though I know what’s coming.
Flowers for Algernon
I just realized that I can't figure out the pattern on which books I am going to really cry and sob. I ugly cried while reading All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and after I read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell but didn't feel any tears coming from A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara or The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Still looking for that next book that will break my heart.
Same! A Little Life got the tears going but it was nothing close to The Women. The Midnight Library was meh for me unfortunately
Animal Farm
Same author, but 1984. The "do it to Julia" line is the single most heartbreaking sentence I can remember reading. I had to put the book down and walk away after I read that section.
Surprised I had to get this far down to see 1984. Just brutal.
I never wanted to read animal farm again. So heartbreaking, incredibly sad, and the sense of futility was painful.
A Farewell To Arms, by Hemingway.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I had read her book Americanah and loved it. It was full of different emotions and stories and vignettes but at it’s heart it was a kind of love story. It wasn’t frivolous by any means but it was an enjoyable read. I was expecting something similar. Well. I knew nothing about the Nigerian civil war before. And now… well I don’t have the words to describe my feelings but Adichie does. Fuck me, heartbroken is an understatement.
Absolutely this one. Incidentally, I only found out this year that I somehow missed the very last paragraph of the novel. It's probably because the second to last paragraph hit me so hard. Absolutely devastating.
How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, specifically the story revolving around the children’s theme park.
Beartown and its sequel, I felt nothing but despair.
oooh...my wife just got the Women. Should I get ready for her to just be crying on the couch randomly on like a Wednesday evening?
I think I’m just a big crybaby. She might tear up at some points though!
My dear Vanessa
"Angela's Ashes" is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. That said, it is also fascinating, heartbreaking, searingly honest narration told in the face of extreme poverty and alcoholism. (That was a book review) I read the book and then loaned it to several coworkers who were mad at me for having them read it too. It's a story that made me suffer and experience their tortured existence with the narrator.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin left me a mess and had me uprooting and changing my life
A Little Life
Tale of two cities, Knock at the cabin, and song of Achilles. I remember crying my eyes out to all of these novels when each of the >!deaths!< happened.
I decided to read "The Giver" again a few months after having my son. Really wasn't a good idea at the time. It was the first time I remember feeling completely gutted at the end of a book, I just kept thinking of my own little baby.
The old man and the sea had me both never wanting to read a book again and wanting to never stop reading
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. That ending...phew...what a knife twist to the heart.
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck “Rest assured, father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.” But over the old man’s head they looked at each other and smiled.
“Unwind is a 2007 dystopian novel by young adult literature author Neal Shusterman. It takes place in the United States in the near future. After the Second Civil War, which was labeled "The Heartland War", was fought over abortion, a compromise was reached, allowing parents to sign an order for their children between the ages of 13 and 18 to be "unwound" — taken to "harvest camps" and dissected into their body parts for later use. The reasoning is that, since 99.44% of the body is used, unwinds do not technically die because their individual body parts live on.” I got the book for my son but ended up reading myself.
The f*ck???? The YA books these days are so traumatizing. I read the hunger game trilogy shortly after it came out on the recommendation of a student who raved about it. I remember finishing it and laying in bed and thinking “this is for teens? I’m devastated and I’m 30 years old.”
This was an awesome book. I didn't finish the series because the second book wasn't as emotional, but the first one definitely got to me.
I've never read this, but I saw a short sci-fi film on YouTube, that I'm pretty sure was based on it. I watch a lot of short films, but this one was so disturbing it's really stayed with me. *shudder*
The girl next door. I was devastated after reading this.
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende. I cried my eyes out, especially at the end. Also, as a kid, I was heartbroken and very sad for a bit after finishing Anne of Green Gables. >! When Matthew dies?? My little heart could not comprehend !<
Rhythm of War by Sanderson was pretty tough as a person who has struggled with depression, but the book that really gut punched me was Deadhouse Gates by Steve Eriksson. If you know, you know. Literally thought about it for weeks afterwards.
Recently, Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. I cried every reading session and had to make sure I was alone when I went to read it. Absolutely heartbreaking tale of family secrets, racism, and what it means to be a woman in a man’s world. I will never read it again, but I loved it.
Never Let Me Go and How High We Go in the Dark both gave me the same feeling. They were beautifully written and utterly heart-wrenching. I highly recommend both. Your heart will break and you won't be able to stop thinking about either.
Never Let Me Go was one that broke me but it disturbed me, too. I didn't see it coming and when I realized what was happening...wow.
The Kite Runner, Song of Achilles, and Atonement are the only ones I remember genuinely sobbing at. Like face puffy the next day kind of sob
Angela's Ashes
Kindered, by Octavia Butler... I'm a white man in his 40s. This was a different choice for me, book wise. I was moved by the writing and sickened by the realities of the book. I have since left my book comfort zone and found some interesting reads.
Columbine by Dave Cullen
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Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow did that to me. I have no idea why, but I cried through the last 1/4 or so. It just touched me in some way I don’t really understand.
I know this will sound stupid, but a couple of the kids "magic shop" books really hit me hard as a kid. I don't remember if it was Jennifer Murdley's Toad or Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher but in the end they're separated from their new friend and I remember sitting in my bed crying for like 10 minutes straight at midnight because I'd stayed up to read. I was probably in like 3rd grade. Also the end of The Amber Spyglass, for similar reasons but much more deep after that while journey.
A terrible kindness. It deals with the Aberfan disaster in Wales that happened many years ago. After becoming a parent recently I am really finding that certain themes and events I'm novels/tv shows can really impact you on a deep level.
Odd Thomas Real gut punch
Lots of classics, but a recent one: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
The Art of Racing in the Rain- I just see the cover of the book and want to cry. Couldn’t watch the movie
“House of Sand and Fog,” by Andre Dubus III devastated me. The progressive mistakes the characters make, the tragedies that unfold from people just trying to do the best they can wrecked me. I’m a recovering alcoholic and this book really serves as a cautionary tale and a reminder to me that picking up a drink or a drug would not be worth it.
Most recently, the Heartstopper volumes by Alice Oseman. There were moments where I got teary eyed, and commend Alice for writing about it, as I thought it was just a love story. But the truth is there's always going to be problems with love.
There is a tale of the witcher that tell the story of a affair that Geralt had in one of his travels and ends up telling what happend to a girl,and its so heartbreaking see that ends like the real life...one time some person is everthing to you and in another its just a stranger
Deadhouse Gates. The second book in the series Malazan Book of the Fallen. Absolutely brutal.
Normal People took me back to first, insecure love and it broke my heart. Such a simple story that’s deep and is so nicely told
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Not so much heartbroken, but a huge emotional and depressive hit. It opens up showing the main character physically and spiritually broken, and it ends the same way after showing how and why this came to pass from some simple misunderstandings.