what’s the saddest book you’ve ever read? for me it’s my favorite book, ‘a little life’, but i’m curious.
what’s the saddest book you’ve ever read?
for me it’s my favorite book, ‘a little life’, but i’m curious.
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Bridge to tarabithia i was sad for a week in middle school
‘My Sweet Orange Tree’, a novel by José Mauro de Vasconcelos
The memoir Night
The Bluest Eye ?
Best book, but heartbreaking– “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich. TW: rape and violence against Indigenous women
The Elephant Man
Flowers for Algernon.
A walk to remember still gets me after all these years
Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce, I’m telling you, you will be traumatized, and I don’t know why I recommend it all the time lol I just need to share the traumatization
@Laura – I just requested it from my Library!
@Dana it is a brutal read, I still think about it
Also just requested it!
My Sister’s Keeper and The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Atonement.
The fault in our stars
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
A thousand splendid suns
Nineteen Minutes ?
A child called it.
oh yeah that was a brutal one
So sad ?
bruiser ? had me ugly crying!!
The kite runner
Man’s Search For Meaning. I can’t remember if it had me crying but it was definitely a sad book to read
Night by Elie Wiesel or almost anything by Jodi Picoult. She writes the saddest stuff.
Night, Tuesdays with Morrie
The spirit catches you and you fall down
The cat travelling chronicles.. ugly crying at a cafe while i was reading the ending
Same. A Little Life. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that.
salt to the sea!
the kitchen god’s wife
a thousand splendid suns is so devastatingly beautiful.
The book Thief
My sister’s keeper
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
@Matthew That’s next in my TBR pile…is it a good read despite being depressing?
Really good but depressing doesn’t even come close to describing it. Utter and soul crushing despair
@Matthew probably the bleakest book I ever read. I was kinda irrationally mad at Cormac McCarthy afterwards ?
Of Mice and Men. I read it when I was a kid and the ending has always stuck with me.
Others Of My Kind by James Sallis
or
Bastard Out Of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Romeo is homeless
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
The topic was definitely out there for this novel but it absolutely destroyed me. I bawled and bawled and bawled. I read it when it first came out, 9 years ago, and it still gets to me.
Sarah’s Key
@Stacy just bought this today. Excited to read
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Charlotte’s Web. Idc how old I am. It’s still the saddest book ever.
A Little Life is so devastating in the best possible way. The best book I’ve ever read.
It’s called “I too had a love story”. It’s written by an Indian author. Before I went to India, I asked a friend to recommend a book depicting the Indian culture and she raved about this one. I’ve never been as sad after reading a book as I was after this one. There’s a sequel too. It’s called “Can love happen twice”. It’s on my TBR but I haven’t gathered up the courage to start it yet
Tuesdays with Morrie
Sadie recently made me break down crying at the end but I don’t know if it’s the saddest I’ve read. The last book in the Golden Compass series fucked me up as a kid.
Currently making my way through A Little Life for the first time and I keep nearly weeping on the bus.
it’s a tough one
The kindness of strangers by Katrina Kittle
LOVE this book and no one else has ever heard of it :O
The Time Traveler’s Wife, One Day, My Sister’s Keeper & The Fault in Our Stars all made me weep.
@Lauren same. Time traveler’s wife gets me every time.
@Kathleen I don’t like rereading books but that & Harry Potter are the exceptions. And it gets me every time ?
Bridge to terribithia
A Little Life
Why do people chose to read sad books??
@Jessica I find it cathartic. I love a book that makes me feel something deeply.
@Jessica I like books that make me feel something. If a writer can make me so emotionally invested in a character I cry for them, they’ve done a good job.
?? This. I love a book that stirs up emotions and makes me feel. But I also like books where the sad, heartbreaking thing is more than just “someone died”. That seems too easy to me.
“Letters to the Dead” so soooooo sad and that twist got me even sadder ???
Charlotte’s Web
probably also a little life, although i do think that book is angst porn and pretty blatantly emotionally exploitative, so it’s not my favourite
the ending of the amber spyglass has haunted me for like… a decade, tbh
@Abi I couldn’t get past the first 75 pages of a little life!
The smell of other people’s houses.
When God was a rabbit by Sarah Winman
Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse
Where the Red Fern Grows…had it read to me in elementary school….it has stayed with me all these years
@Anai oh boy. So true. I have a theory that if a grown man ever says “only one book ever made me cry…” you can bet it’s this one.
The Kite Runner. Absolutely the most heart wrenching book I’ve ever read. ? But it was also beautiful and compelling. Truly a masterpiece.
Maybe it’s not sad in the traditional sense but I sure cried my eyes out – “everything happens for a reason and other lies I love”
A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry. First book that made me sob uncontrollably. I was in like 5th grade. Where the Red Fern Grows, Sarah’s Key, My Sisters Keeper…