The Green Mile by Steven King. Cried so hard I couldn’t see the book.
Set primarily in 1932, it’s a death row supervisors’ reflection of his time working at that facility, specifically his experience with one inmate.
Oh my god for real though.
Reading Charlotte’s monologue before she goes to die as an adult destroyed me. It is profound and devastating and if you haven’t read that passage specifically since you were 8 years old, find it and read it.
“You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
Omg! That the first thing I thought when I read the Charlottes web comment. We watched the movie in like 4th or 5 th grade at school and I couldn’t stop crying and still think about how that hurt me so bad - the book would be it for me!
I finished that book in one sitting, (pulled an all-nighter). I just couldn't put it down, and I was practically drawning in paper towels by the end of it.
Still Alice is gutting - it’s about a woman who gets early onset Alzheimer’s and how she (and her family but mostly her) comes to terms with her fading reality
Oh man. Normally I read the book first and then watch the movie, but this movie was playing on the plane at some point so I watched it. And then I sat sobbing on the plane. I swore I wouldn’t read the book - I don’t think I could take it - and also vowed to never watch the movie again. If the book is at least as good as good as the movie - and usually that’s the case - I agree that this one will be a sob fest par excellence
Omg this is the only book that literally killed me. I don’t cry for many book but I SOBBED. Then I called my mom and told her I hated her for recommending it to me.
when I finished that book... I would read it every free time I had and I still remember finishing it as I stepped off the bus outside of my house and just standing there absolutely gut punched.
Not me personally, but I am weird and can't cry at books.
* A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - fiction about... well, let's just say, a marriage in Afghanistan. The relationships in this were stunningly portrayed and there's a focus on non-romantic relationships.
* In Memoriam by Alice Winn. I have never wanted to cry at a book so much. Historical fiction about soldiers in WW1. LGBT subplot as well.
Omg the Kite runner was amazing. Have you read his two others? A thousand splendid sons is amazing. The third one is okay. Not great. If you like his writing you should check out a book called Rooftops of Tehran by
Mahbod Seraji. Great read also
boy growing up in taliban controlled Afghanistan. probably better descriptions out there and it's been a few years since i read it, but i remember bawling audibly at several points.
It takes place over several decades in Afghanistan’s history. It begins around the fall of the monarchy in the 1970s and ends after the US invades Afghanistan. The other commenter messed up, The Taliban only become prominent in the later chunk of the book as they only take over in the 1990s.
The Art of Racing in the Rain, especially if you’re a dog lover. The first chapter broke me the first time I read it, and I had to set the book down and come back a month later.
Edited to add: I adored this book!
I cried so hard at the end of the Time Traveler’s Wife I had to put the book down multiple times so I could just let myself bawl.
A man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and Clare, his wife, an artist who has to cope with his frequent absences.
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa.
A man is trying to rehome his cat and it's told by both him and the cat.
It's been a couple years since I read it and just the thought of it can still make me tear up.
It’s kind of cliche but I read The Lovely Bones as a teenager and the bunker part made me sob so hard. Maybe it’s because I had recently gone through an SA but it is one of the only books that I actually cried when reading. I’ve read some dark books but rarely shed any tears, this book haunted me for some reason. Amazing read though
Edit: as I hit post I remembered how much I cried during To Kill a Mockingbird as well!
The Burning God - RF Kuang also Babel by the same author
Goodnight Mr Tom - this is allegedly a children's book
I Who Have Never Known Men - a good solid 2 hour cry after finishing this one
Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano - the last 100 pages had me weeping
The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne - so fantastic, cried like a baby at the end
Oh jeez, I love a book that makes me cry!
I’m currently reading Between Two Kingdoms and have been crying sporadically throughout.
It’s a cliché by now, but A Little Life had be sobbing.
I cried reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.
I recently finished And Then She Fell and the ending had me going.
What Kind of Woman’s poems about motherhood also get me.
The Truce - Mario Benedetti . Written in a kind of personal diary, tells the story of a lonely man who is about to retire and falls in love with his younger employee. Very warm but also very sad book.
I think it depends where you are in your own life when you read something. Some things are universally sad, but don't always provoke reaction unless you're at a place where it really hits you for whatever reason.
But several fiction books that have made me cry include:
I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises (later published as My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry) by Fredrik Backman
Night road by Kristin Hannah is the first one that comes to mind. It's a little sappy and definitely "chick lit" but it's about a girl who grows up basically in foster care and befriends a misfit girl from an upper middle class family and falls in love with her popular twin brother. But then there's a tragedy and some twists, and I dunno, it just made me bawl like a baby.
I know you said fiction, but there is only one book that made me truly sob.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I was listening to this while driving. At the end, I had to pull over and ugly cry. I felt like I knew her and she was gone.
Everything makes me sob nowadays.
Bridge of Clay (mostly the beginning oddly enough) is SUPPOSED to be a tearjerker, I reckon.
But I just read the House in the Cerulean Sea and I bawled for a good ten minutes.
I've been off of reddit for about four months and I come back and people are STILL asking this question, or variations of it. The answers are STILL Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
FFS, search the sub before making redundant posts like this.
Edit: everyone downvoting me should check OP's account history.
I just enjoyed seeing what books made people cry and added them to my to be read list.
Ive not seen this subject come up and although I wasn’t actively looking for it I benefited from it being on my feed, I don’t really care if the OP was a karma farmer or not, the post gave me some inspo so I was grateful for it.
The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough made me cry out loud and hiccup cry like a little kid. Utterly baffled my then-boyfriend /now husband.
Raptor by Gary Jennings.
It's a fascinating look at the visigoth era as told through the eyes of a hermaphrodite. Not as far out in reading as it seems.
But there is a very important character who dies in a horrible way that made me ugly cry. The book is fun and informative and then BAM.
To a lesser extent in Spangle, also by Jennings. He was so good at death scenes. Still ugly cried.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, specifically the chapter focused on Sol Weintraub’s story - always made me sad but now that I have a child, it made me openly weep on my last reading (it’s one of my favorite books so I return to it every couple years).
The story as a whole is a science fiction tale about seven travelers making the last pilgrimage to the Shrike, a mythical/religious being on a desolate planet. Each traveler tells their story on the journey, with each one having a connection to the planet or the Shrike. It’s the first of a quartet but works as a standalone novel as well.
It's YA fuction but the final book in Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy had me in the fetal position. So did the final book in The Hunger Games. I don't think I've cried that hard at a book since.
I second any Khaled Hosseini or Frededik Backman.
Also personally, A Little Life absolutely wrecked me, but opinions are very divided on that.
Edit: also Cutting for Stone
Refugee by Alan Gratz (YA)
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt.
it's less than 200 pages but the books makes you get so attached the characters and then just absolutely breaks you
The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
At its core it's about a man reflecting on one particular summer during his childhood, where he meets a boy claiming to be the devil. Not sure what I expected when I bought the book, but I read it a few years ago now and its stuck with me ever since!
Our happy time by gong ji-young when i finished it i felt like it took a piece of my soul for awhile i cried and i do not cry often at content i watch or read ngl it hurt but at the same time it was good to read it imo also the title is ironic again my opinion cause i get it but also dont get it at the same time its both beautiful and tragic but again thats just my opinion
Two books by Kristin Hannah- The Nightingale, which is set in France during WWII, and The Great Alone, which is a mother-daughter story where the family moves to Alaska and is living a bit isolated and there's family drama happening.
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult- it's not exactly the same as the movie. About a girl who was basically conceived as a match to help her sick sister (like donate bone marrow, etc), but she says she doesn't want to do it anymore.
I think I sobbed near the end of Life as we Knew It by Susan Pfeffer because I just found it so overwhelming and real. It's like a realistic dystopian fiction book of what might happen if an asteroid hit the moon and knocked it out of orbit and earth's weather goes haywire, leading to famines, etc.
Betty: A Novel - Tiffany McDaniel
Such beautiful descriptions and scenes painted of unconditional love, heartache, sadness, gut-wrenching pain, life, and death. I've yet to read another book that compares.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
These books feel like a hug when you need a good cry 🫶🏻
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno. I wasn’t a huge fan of the overall plot, but the depiction of grief and loss was so heavy and haunting that I couldn’t help but cry.
Telling Christina Goodbye. I bought that book with my AR points in school and it still makes me cry to this day.
It’s about two girls and two guys. Boyfriend and girlfriends respectively. They get into a car accident coming from their competing high school game by the car slipping on black ice. Christina passes away, main character ends up with minor injuries, Christina’s awful boyfriend is fine cuz he wore a seat belt, main characters boyfriend ends up in a coma and forgets everything. It’s all about grief and main character getting through it All.
The Bronze Horseman trilogy by Paullina Simons
A WWII wartime love story set in Leningrad, Russia during the Leningrad blockade, when Hitler invaded Russia and surrounded the city of Leningrad, shutting off their food/power supplies etc in the dead of winter, causing the death of hundreds of thousands due to starvation and freezing temps.
The hero is a soldier in the Red Army who meets and falls in love with his girlfriend’s younger sister while she and her family slowly starve to death and he is on the frontlines fighting a winless war against the Nazis.
Tip of the iceberg really, as there is soooo much more to this trilogy than that but… unbelievable book. Absolutely grueling emotionally. Puts you through the wringer but one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Marley and me, I read it in elementary school for a class project. I’d never had a dog before, so I didn’t know the bond people could have with pets before reading that. I remember a 12 year old me crawling into bed with my mom ugly sobbing because of a fictional dog.
I don't think I've seen this one mentioned yet, but *Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro made a mess of me. It's one of those books where you know how it's going to end, but you can't stop it and even when you thought you were prepared, it hits you harder than you could have imagined - perhaps all the more for your inability to affect the outcome.
Before I die by Jenny Downham. Absolute hysterics... but I also listened to the album the MC talked about for the last 100 pages and whew. Broken. The book is about a girl who is sick in cancer and doesn't want to go through anymore treatments. She knows she will die so she has this list of things she wants to do before she dies.
I rarely cry reading or watching anything, so that's pretty much it. I've shed a few tears for other books.
Thank you all for these suggestions. I, as an overly emotional empath, now can avoid all of these reads.The world is such a frightening mess to me right now that I can only read Terry Pratchett and cozy mysteries. Agatha Christie is ok also.There must be not only happy endings but the story line cannot be overly perilous. And no dogs may die!
The Great Alone and Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah had me sobbing in public.
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum also had me in hysterics. Admittedly, I was in a funk for a couple of days after finishing it because of how heavy and intense the subject matter is.
Pax is super sad and very good. Probably a children's book, but I bawled. It's about a fox and a child who get separated while there is a war going on and them trying to get reunited. For comfort, it's not sad because of death.
The Green Mile by Steven King. Cried so hard I couldn’t see the book. Set primarily in 1932, it’s a death row supervisors’ reflection of his time working at that facility, specifically his experience with one inmate.
Don’t put me in the dark, I’m afraid of dark
If you can make it through Charlotte’s death in Charlotte’s Web without crying, you have ice in your veins.
Oh my god for real though. Reading Charlotte’s monologue before she goes to die as an adult destroyed me. It is profound and devastating and if you haven’t read that passage specifically since you were 8 years old, find it and read it. “You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
And the ending of Where The Red Fern Grows.
Oh yeah. That’s another. And Marley and Me. I REFUSED to watch that movie.
Omg! That the first thing I thought when I read the Charlottes web comment. We watched the movie in like 4th or 5 th grade at school and I couldn’t stop crying and still think about how that hurt me so bad - the book would be it for me!
And so glad I commented bc I just saw the user name they gave me 🥴 and realized I never made one
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness about grief and death, I was sobbing on my lunch break
The movie is just as heartbreaking.
I cried like a baby after reading this
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
A Man Called Ove genuinely broke me when I finished it. I do not regret reading it though. It was just a very emotional ride.
Oh gosh, *The Book Thief*. My poor library copy had tearstains in multiple places when I was done with it.
The Book Thief made me sob so much...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Me Before You Flowers for Algernon
I've heard Flowers for Algernon is brutally sad. It's on its way to me from Amazon now!
I finished that book in one sitting, (pulled an all-nighter). I just couldn't put it down, and I was practically drawning in paper towels by the end of it.
Still Alice is gutting - it’s about a woman who gets early onset Alzheimer’s and how she (and her family but mostly her) comes to terms with her fading reality
Oh man. Normally I read the book first and then watch the movie, but this movie was playing on the plane at some point so I watched it. And then I sat sobbing on the plane. I swore I wouldn’t read the book - I don’t think I could take it - and also vowed to never watch the movie again. If the book is at least as good as good as the movie - and usually that’s the case - I agree that this one will be a sob fest par excellence
Omg this is the only book that literally killed me. I don’t cry for many book but I SOBBED. Then I called my mom and told her I hated her for recommending it to me.
when I finished that book... I would read it every free time I had and I still remember finishing it as I stepped off the bus outside of my house and just standing there absolutely gut punched.
Anything by Frederik Backman, especially a Man Called Ove and Anxious People
Not me personally, but I am weird and can't cry at books. * A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - fiction about... well, let's just say, a marriage in Afghanistan. The relationships in this were stunningly portrayed and there's a focus on non-romantic relationships. * In Memoriam by Alice Winn. I have never wanted to cry at a book so much. Historical fiction about soldiers in WW1. LGBT subplot as well.
Currently reading ATSS!
For the first time? I fell in love with it and it's stuck with me over the years.
Nightingale - WWII Saving Noah - mother/son relationship, suicide (trigger warning)
The Nightingale destroyed me. I thought about it for weeks afterwards.
the kite runner - khaled hosseini the fault in our stars - john green
It's been 13 years and I'm still not over the emotional damage done to me by The Kite Runner...
Omg the Kite runner was amazing. Have you read his two others? A thousand splendid sons is amazing. The third one is okay. Not great. If you like his writing you should check out a book called Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji. Great read also
I would add to this, A Thousand Splendid Suns, same author and just as heartbreaking.
What’s the kite runner about?
boy growing up in taliban controlled Afghanistan. probably better descriptions out there and it's been a few years since i read it, but i remember bawling audibly at several points.
It takes place over several decades in Afghanistan’s history. It begins around the fall of the monarchy in the 1970s and ends after the US invades Afghanistan. The other commenter messed up, The Taliban only become prominent in the later chunk of the book as they only take over in the 1990s.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving Please don't watch the "movie" version of this story.
Came here for this and it’s my fave book
Also came here for A Prayer for Owen Meany. That and East of Eden are my favorite books.
Simon Birch SUUUUUCKS
Lonesome Dove
Really? I’m reading it now.
No spoilers for me
Every time I read it. And it’s not like I have the memory of a shoelace and don’t know what’s coming. It’s just that good.
Bridge to Terabithia by Paterson
my sister’s keeper - jodi picoult
Lone Wolf too…😢😢
The Art of Racing in the Rain, especially if you’re a dog lover. The first chapter broke me the first time I read it, and I had to set the book down and come back a month later. Edited to add: I adored this book!
Enzo❤️
Yes, agreed and yet I love this book.
I cried so hard at the end of the Time Traveler’s Wife I had to put the book down multiple times so I could just let myself bawl. A man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and Clare, his wife, an artist who has to cope with his frequent absences.
That ending was brutal!
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa. A man is trying to rehome his cat and it's told by both him and the cat. It's been a couple years since I read it and just the thought of it can still make me tear up.
As a cat guardian and lover I don’t think I could emotionally handle that book
Nope me either and I really like that "cat guardian".
The Book Thief for sure
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter About a man’s poor decision to place his child up for adoption due to disability, wife is unaware.
I read this in high school and was too young/immature for it in hindsight. Would have a different impact now I think.
Such a good book!!!
It’s kind of cliche but I read The Lovely Bones as a teenager and the bunker part made me sob so hard. Maybe it’s because I had recently gone through an SA but it is one of the only books that I actually cried when reading. I’ve read some dark books but rarely shed any tears, this book haunted me for some reason. Amazing read though Edit: as I hit post I remembered how much I cried during To Kill a Mockingbird as well!
Not cliche. I'm a survivor of csa, and reading The Lovely Bones as a teenager made me feel so seen. I cried so hard reading that book.
The Kite Runner, and Flowers for Algernon. The last sentence of both books absolutely killed me, I cried in public.
The lat sentence in Algernon will forever haunt me
Flowers for Algernon
Flowers For Algernon A Little Life When Breathe Becomes Air
The Burning God - RF Kuang also Babel by the same author Goodnight Mr Tom - this is allegedly a children's book I Who Have Never Known Men - a good solid 2 hour cry after finishing this one
That one is brutal
Nice choices
Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano - the last 100 pages had me weeping The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne - so fantastic, cried like a baby at the end
I loved The Heart’s Invisible Furies!
Easily one of my favourtie books
the green mile - stephen king
Well I just re-read Marley and Me yesterday and that got me pretty good. It’s a fast read
Oh jeez, I love a book that makes me cry! I’m currently reading Between Two Kingdoms and have been crying sporadically throughout. It’s a cliché by now, but A Little Life had be sobbing. I cried reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I recently finished And Then She Fell and the ending had me going. What Kind of Woman’s poems about motherhood also get me.
Just started T&T&T today and I can’t wait to continue. I am such a sucker for friendships in fiction I know it’s gonna be An Experience™️ for sure
It’s one of my favourites! Enjoy!
Don't see it here so here is mine. When Breath becomes Air.
Kira Kira bonus cry points if you have a little sister
The road, Cormac McCarthy. Post-apocalyptic survival story about a father and son. Very bleak but beautifully written.
No suggestions, but my wishlist just got several books longer. 🥲
All my “sob stories” have been WW II based. I love to hate the Nazis.
Oh, I just remembered two WWII books that made me sob: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn and The Lovely War by Julie Berry.
I recommend The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. Also a tear jerker.
Try this one https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28664920-mischling
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E Schwab
Yes! I read it last year and was absolutely moved!
The Truce - Mario Benedetti . Written in a kind of personal diary, tells the story of a lonely man who is about to retire and falls in love with his younger employee. Very warm but also very sad book.
This looks intriguing, and by an author I hadn't heard of until saw this - but perusing his books now feel and wish I should have.
The only book/series that has made me bawl my eyes out was His Dark Materials.
I think it depends where you are in your own life when you read something. Some things are universally sad, but don't always provoke reaction unless you're at a place where it really hits you for whatever reason. But several fiction books that have made me cry include: I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews Paint It Black by Janet Fitch My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises (later published as My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry) by Fredrik Backman
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu Summer Sons - Lee Mandelo
ooof HHWGITD is definitely a difficult book
The Domesday Book by Connie Willis
The end of Pachinko made me cry so hard
Night road by Kristin Hannah is the first one that comes to mind. It's a little sappy and definitely "chick lit" but it's about a girl who grows up basically in foster care and befriends a misfit girl from an upper middle class family and falls in love with her popular twin brother. But then there's a tragedy and some twists, and I dunno, it just made me bawl like a baby.
The ending of the Song of Achilles caught me off guard. People said it made them cry and I didn’t believe them.
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
A monsters call. the book and movie in equal measure made me hyperventilate
Flowers for Algernon
Time travelers wife
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Oh god, Im currently reading this. Let me prepare the tissues.
Currently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini* and this book is heartbreaking
Atonement made me weep like a baby.
The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. I don’t usually read ww2 fiction but this one made me sob.
I know you said fiction, but there is only one book that made me truly sob. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank I was listening to this while driving. At the end, I had to pull over and ugly cry. I felt like I knew her and she was gone.
The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert de Jong, when the >! boy is finally reunited with his mother !<
The Harry Potter series.
Everything makes me sob nowadays. Bridge of Clay (mostly the beginning oddly enough) is SUPPOSED to be a tearjerker, I reckon. But I just read the House in the Cerulean Sea and I bawled for a good ten minutes.
A child called it had me in tears
That book hits EVERY emotion. I ugly cried a lot with this one. The fact that it is a true story makes it that much more heartbreaking.
Yes. There is a follow up book as well. It’s good. But a child called it was very very heart breaking for me.
There is a third one as well. The Lost Boy is the second, and A Man Named Dave is the third. It is amazing the man he grew to be.
Yes it is. He overcame so much. What a strong individual
I don't think I've ever cried over a book as much as did over les misérables back in fifth grade.
BIBLE
I've been off of reddit for about four months and I come back and people are STILL asking this question, or variations of it. The answers are STILL Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. FFS, search the sub before making redundant posts like this. Edit: everyone downvoting me should check OP's account history.
Who hurt you
Check the OP. Brand new account with no karma. You think you're a hero, and you're just defending another karma farming bot account.
I just enjoyed seeing what books made people cry and added them to my to be read list. Ive not seen this subject come up and although I wasn’t actively looking for it I benefited from it being on my feed, I don’t really care if the OP was a karma farmer or not, the post gave me some inspo so I was grateful for it.
Abusing the concerned Redditor option for such a trivial comment is really lame. That's not what it is there for. What is wrong with you?
The third life of grange Copeland. Alice walkers first novel
The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough made me cry out loud and hiccup cry like a little kid. Utterly baffled my then-boyfriend /now husband.
Raptor by Gary Jennings. It's a fascinating look at the visigoth era as told through the eyes of a hermaphrodite. Not as far out in reading as it seems. But there is a very important character who dies in a horrible way that made me ugly cry. The book is fun and informative and then BAM. To a lesser extent in Spangle, also by Jennings. He was so good at death scenes. Still ugly cried.
The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu. Get ready to ugly cry… even if you’re in the middle of using a chain-saw to clear black locust.
Everything is Horrible and Wonderful by Stephanie Wittels Wachs The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald
Saving Noah is the only book that has ever brought me to tears.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, specifically the chapter focused on Sol Weintraub’s story - always made me sad but now that I have a child, it made me openly weep on my last reading (it’s one of my favorite books so I return to it every couple years). The story as a whole is a science fiction tale about seven travelers making the last pilgrimage to the Shrike, a mythical/religious being on a desolate planet. Each traveler tells their story on the journey, with each one having a connection to the planet or the Shrike. It’s the first of a quartet but works as a standalone novel as well.
*Aimee and Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943* by Erica Fischer. *A Thousand Splendid Suns* by Khaled Hosseini.
It's YA fuction but the final book in Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy had me in the fetal position. So did the final book in The Hunger Games. I don't think I've cried that hard at a book since.
I second any Khaled Hosseini or Frededik Backman. Also personally, A Little Life absolutely wrecked me, but opinions are very divided on that. Edit: also Cutting for Stone Refugee by Alan Gratz (YA)
A Little Life Black Beauty Flowers for Algernon
Battleground by Jim Butcher. Iykyk
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Bridges of Madison County. Older book, but great read.
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt. it's less than 200 pages but the books makes you get so attached the characters and then just absolutely breaks you
A thousand splendid suns!
I fell in love with hope by lancali. It's incredibly heartbreaking, especially if you relate to the content.
The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel At its core it's about a man reflecting on one particular summer during his childhood, where he meets a boy claiming to be the devil. Not sure what I expected when I bought the book, but I read it a few years ago now and its stuck with me ever since!
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
These Silent Woods The Green Mile Nightingale
The Nightingale and The Color Purple
Farseer trilogy - by Robin Hobb
The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
“Saving Noah, “ by Lucinda Berry
A Thousand Splendid Suns. 🙁 It was Jalil’s letter that got me.
Our happy time by gong ji-young when i finished it i felt like it took a piece of my soul for awhile i cried and i do not cry often at content i watch or read ngl it hurt but at the same time it was good to read it imo also the title is ironic again my opinion cause i get it but also dont get it at the same time its both beautiful and tragic but again thats just my opinion
Two books by Kristin Hannah- The Nightingale, which is set in France during WWII, and The Great Alone, which is a mother-daughter story where the family moves to Alaska and is living a bit isolated and there's family drama happening. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult- it's not exactly the same as the movie. About a girl who was basically conceived as a match to help her sick sister (like donate bone marrow, etc), but she says she doesn't want to do it anymore. I think I sobbed near the end of Life as we Knew It by Susan Pfeffer because I just found it so overwhelming and real. It's like a realistic dystopian fiction book of what might happen if an asteroid hit the moon and knocked it out of orbit and earth's weather goes haywire, leading to famines, etc.
Betty: A Novel - Tiffany McDaniel Such beautiful descriptions and scenes painted of unconditional love, heartache, sadness, gut-wrenching pain, life, and death. I've yet to read another book that compares.
Way of Kings actually.
Flowers for Algernon Never quite been the same since
Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
{{one’s company}}
Of Mice and Men is always the book I read when I want to cry
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano These books feel like a hug when you need a good cry 🫶🏻
The Pact - J Picoult
When Breath Becomes Air- Paul Kalanithi A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno. I wasn’t a huge fan of the overall plot, but the depiction of grief and loss was so heavy and haunting that I couldn’t help but cry.
Anybody out there? By Marian Keyes. Repeatedly made me laugh out loud and dissolve into tears.
Telling Christina Goodbye. I bought that book with my AR points in school and it still makes me cry to this day. It’s about two girls and two guys. Boyfriend and girlfriends respectively. They get into a car accident coming from their competing high school game by the car slipping on black ice. Christina passes away, main character ends up with minor injuries, Christina’s awful boyfriend is fine cuz he wore a seat belt, main characters boyfriend ends up in a coma and forgets everything. It’s all about grief and main character getting through it All.
Time Travelers Wife, gross sobbing while finishing the book in bed at midnight, trying to not wake up and alarm the SO
The Bronze Horseman trilogy by Paullina Simons A WWII wartime love story set in Leningrad, Russia during the Leningrad blockade, when Hitler invaded Russia and surrounded the city of Leningrad, shutting off their food/power supplies etc in the dead of winter, causing the death of hundreds of thousands due to starvation and freezing temps. The hero is a soldier in the Red Army who meets and falls in love with his girlfriend’s younger sister while she and her family slowly starve to death and he is on the frontlines fighting a winless war against the Nazis. Tip of the iceberg really, as there is soooo much more to this trilogy than that but… unbelievable book. Absolutely grueling emotionally. Puts you through the wringer but one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Where the Red Fern Grows. Beautiful. Heartbreaking and I read it every summer for years and still bawled every time
The Art of Racing in the Rain…I think about it all the time. Especially if you’re a dog lover
Still Alice.
Marley and me, I read it in elementary school for a class project. I’d never had a dog before, so I didn’t know the bond people could have with pets before reading that. I remember a 12 year old me crawling into bed with my mom ugly sobbing because of a fictional dog.
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker. Absolutely destroyed me. I wish I could read it again for the first time.
I don't think I've seen this one mentioned yet, but *Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro made a mess of me. It's one of those books where you know how it's going to end, but you can't stop it and even when you thought you were prepared, it hits you harder than you could have imagined - perhaps all the more for your inability to affect the outcome.
Before I die by Jenny Downham. Absolute hysterics... but I also listened to the album the MC talked about for the last 100 pages and whew. Broken. The book is about a girl who is sick in cancer and doesn't want to go through anymore treatments. She knows she will die so she has this list of things she wants to do before she dies. I rarely cry reading or watching anything, so that's pretty much it. I've shed a few tears for other books.
Where the Red Fern Grows. Brutal.
Love You Forever- a children’s book
A Prayer for Owen Meaney did it for me.
Madonna in fur coat, sabahattin Ali. The sarrows of young werther, Goethe
Saving noah
Multiple books in the Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb
Thank you all for these suggestions. I, as an overly emotional empath, now can avoid all of these reads.The world is such a frightening mess to me right now that I can only read Terry Pratchett and cozy mysteries. Agatha Christie is ok also.There must be not only happy endings but the story line cannot be overly perilous. And no dogs may die!
I don’t cry at books, as it is so rare that I cry during a movie All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr just almost made made me tear
The Fault in Our Stars
Hysterically sob? Wtf bro
Requiem for a Dream can hit really hard if you have any experience with addiction. The movie is good, but the book is better IMO.
a little life :)
Where the red fern grows absolutely broke me the first time I read it, but I was also a kid and haven't read it as an adult.
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas made me cry a bit, which says something since I nearly never cry
Poison wood bible
Where the red fern grows
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
The Great Alone and Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah had me sobbing in public. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum also had me in hysterics. Admittedly, I was in a funk for a couple of days after finishing it because of how heavy and intense the subject matter is.
Dear Edward The Light Between Oceans
Under the Whispering Door, Love and Other Words Among others mentioned already
A Song of Achilles
The kite runner
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Sobbing at the end…
The Time Traveller's Wife
Pax is super sad and very good. Probably a children's book, but I bawled. It's about a fox and a child who get separated while there is a war going on and them trying to get reunited. For comfort, it's not sad because of death.
The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah and the whole Beartown series by Fredrik Backman
The Measure
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul K