With their vast scope and the unparalleled ability to bore into someone’s head, novels have perhaps the greatest potential for affecting us emotionally. As much as I love movies and television, novels have the ability to move me the most.
So which novel most affected you? And what was the part that did it?
As a kid I remember being deeply affected by classics like Johnny Tremain, The Bridge to Terebithia, My Brother Sam is Dead and Where the Red Fern Grows.
As an adult, well, I’m not actually much of a crier, but I was pretty moved by The Sky is Everywhere, The Secret Year, Atonement and, of course, The Book Thief.
What about you?
Art: Never Morning Wore To Evening But Some Heart Did Break by Walter Langley
Mary Vensel White says
The Book Thief! Read it twice and convulsed with sobs both times. Love that book.
Melanie says
The Sky is Everywhere left me a little teary-eyed. But no book has ever made me cry harder or touched my soul more than Between Shades of Gray by Rupta Sepetys. Truly moving.
Fadzlishah Johanabas says
13 Reasons Why. Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe for the sheer beauty of the storytelling.
E. Arroyo says
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. And I made the mistake of watching the movie first.
Tasha Seegmiller says
Bridge to Terabithia, Friday Night Knitting Club, The Fault in our Stars and Me Before You all got me.
NotaWarriorPrincess says
Conversation with my then-eight-year-old:
Him: I just finished Where the Red Fern Grows.
Me: Oh? Are you ok?
Him: [shakes his head no]
Me: Do you need to cry for a while?
Him: Yes please. [throws himself into my arms and sobs]
Kai Strand says
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Liberty Speidel says
As a kid, "Beauty" by Bill Wallace had me bawling.
As an adult, quite a few books have brought tears to my eyes, but I can't think of a novel particularly that moved me so much that I cried a lot (although a couple of scenes in "Conspiracy in Death" always get my crying, no matter how many times I've read the book!)
Some non-fiction books have caused me to cry buckets, too, though…
Joe Beernink says
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons had me seriously tearing up at the end. Need to go back and reread it.
Sarah Marino says
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I think a lot of it had to do with a decade long journey coming to an end, and having grown up with the books, it somewhat symbolically signified the end of my childhood.
Liberty Speidel says
As a new mom, I received a book called "Just Like You". I couldn't get through 5 pages without crying!
Jory says
Oh, geez. There have been so many. Atonement made me ball my eyes out. Deathly Hallows? Yep. The Fault in Our Stars, Last Summer of You and Me,and probably more that I can't think of right now.
Sharon V says
The Book Thief had me crying like a baby for a good ten minutes.
Richard Gibson says
The Grapes of Wrath, the last paragraph.
Nathan Bransford says
Whoops, meant to include Atonement.
Fred says
Old Yeller. Nothing even came close. I was inconsolable for a month.
Anonymous says
There are two books, actually. The first one is The Hobbit (it's been years since I've read it so I can't remember why I cried, I just know I did)
The second book is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Such a sad, sad book.
Anonymous says
Flowers for Algernon
kdjameson says
Pawn in Frankincense – Dorothy Dunnett
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K Rowling
Brokeback Mountain – Annie Proulx
Some because they had devastating endings, some because of heartrending scenes which impacted the course of events; all made me cry so hard I could no longer see the page to read.
Lisa Voisin says
I just finished reading The Obvious Game by Rita Arens, and it had me crying not only when I was reading, but as I was going about my day later. LOVED it.
KJ Rennie says
Mila 18 by Leon Uris.
I was only about twelve and this was my first exposure to WWII Polish and Jewish Ghetto history, so the emotional impact of the novelised tale was extreme!
I remember crying like a baby as the Polish cavalry charged the German tanks, and being utterly devastated when some mothers poisoned their own children rather than have them die on the trains/in the camps. I'm sure I'd have cried a lot more, but I was numb by that point!
It made such an impact on me I've never even attempted to reread it as an adult.
Gretchen says
The Road made me cry. I cried repeatedly while reading The Fault In Our Stars. But no book has ever made me cry the way The Book Thief made me cry.
LadySaotome says
I remember literally sobbing the first time I read The Two Towers and thought Frodo was dead. It took me something like half an hour to calm down enough to finish the last few pages of the book. Then I found out he was alive & flung the book across the room, I was so mad at all that weeping for nothing. 🙂
david hanley says
Flowers for algernon.
Sam Beringer says
The only one I remember is Jim Butcher's "Blood Rites." There was a scene in there that made me tear up and have to put the book down to recover.
my honest answer says
Tess of the D'Urbevilles. Oh how I ugly cried at that one. My now husband found me in the kitchen in floods, and when I told him what it was over, he thought I was pretty nuts. He then bought me a rare edition of Anna Karenina though, which also resulted in lots of ugly crying, so maybe he likes it?
Jessica Brooks (coffeelvnmom) says
NEVER FALL DOWN was pretty horrible. And I agree with THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, and THE BOOK THIEF too! My daughters have all had to read MY BROTHER SAM IS DEAD and I've helped them with their reports and whatnot. So sad!
Jessica
niloufer says
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry At lots of specific places, but also at the end just because it seemed so incredibly hopeless
thewwaitingroom says
Goodbye Mr. Chips was so sad when I was in middle school, on a family vacation, that my mom ended up having to take me on an outdoor adventure for a day, just to lift my spirits. I was also so completely heartbroken by The Time Traveler's Wife that when I finished reading it at 3 in the morning and called my mom (seeing a pattern here…hmm…) who works the night shift, I was sobbing so hard that she was worried the house had burned down or my sister who I was watching had been murdered. It took me about five minutes to calm down and tell her it wasn't anything real life, I was just really upset by a book plot.
E.J. Wesley says
A Dog Called Kitty and Where The Red Fern Grows are two favorites.
L. Shanna says
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It even made my husband cry, which he will never admit to, but we both know it did 🙂
Andrew says
Uncontrollable gush when Larry McMurtry killed off Augustus in "Lonesome Dove." Months later, got home to sight of wife sobbing convulsively on the couch and knew exactly what section of the book she had gotten to…
Alyssa says
The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness.
If you've read it, you know the part I'm talking about!!
And Stolen by Lucy Christopher.
This one still makes me cry if I think about it for more than five seconds…
Anjali says
Didion's A Year of Magical Thinking and McCracken's An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
Joey says
"Eva Moves The Furniture" by Margot Livesey.
A stealth treasure of a book, that makes me cry now as much as it did a decade ago.
And recently, "The Fault In Our Stars." I finished it on an airplane, and had to hide my face in my hoodie on the tray-table in front of me.
R. Eddie Smith says
Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein: Total ugly cry.
Also, The Time Traveler's Wife killed me because it was given to me as a "beach read." And for the record: there's nothing worse than sobbing on a sunny beach in Mexico.
Anonymous says
An intermediate children's book Baby by Patricia MacLachlan. A beautiful story that had me sobbing in the Philadelphia airport. Even as I type this thinking of the book I can feel the emotions welling up.
Carrie Monroe says
The Book Thief
Plain Kate
The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere, the Sandman series- finishing a Neil Gaiman book makes me cry.
T.L. Bodine says
As a kid, there were a few:
Where the Red Fern Grows (requires no explanation)
Sasha, My Friend (by Barbara Corcoran…it tells the story of a kid who befriends a wolf while living in ranch country. You can guess how well that goes.)
Summer of My German Soldier (by Bette Green — about a Jewish teenager in the US who ends up harboring and falling in love with a detained Nazi. This left me inconsolable for days)
Dogsbody (by Diana Wynn Jones, about a star who's wrongfully accused of murder and imprisoned in a dog's body on earth. His only friend is an orphaned Irish girl.)
More recently:
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. (I re-read the series about once a year, and this makes me weep ever. single. time)
The White Bone (by Barbara Gowdy. Tells the story of a group of elephants on the quest to find a mythical white bone that will lead them to safety away from poachers. Not a kid's book – very adult, and very disturbing. It also has the single hardest to read scene I have ever seen in any book anywhere.)
Kim Woodruff says
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr.
Khanada says
I don't remember exactly why, but I know I cried for a long time after finishing Lois Lowry's MESSENGER. Am reading THE GIVER right now with my 5th grader, so maybe I'll just keep going with them!
Robena Grant says
Atonement.
But I have The Book Thief on my TBR pile and am waiting until I need a good cry. Ha ha.
Elizabeth Seckman says
"The Outsiders" by SE Hinton
then I cried during the movie too
heatherkamins.com says
The Fault in Our Stars.
The Time Traveler's Wife.
And the ending of The Amber Spyglass, which I made the mistake of finishing on the train.
Crystal says
Oh gosh, as with many others, Where the Red Fern Grows. I was eleven, I finished it at midnight and had to trek upstairs to find some tissues and then explain to my mother, first, why I was crying, and second, why I was reading at midnight.
The only other two books that made me cry were by Nicholas Sparks. Shut up! I know. The books were way sadder than the movies. at some point, A Walk to Remember, and when I was sixteen, and a very hard, don't show your feelings, tough sixteen, The Notebook. I remember lying on the couch using the book to hide my face as I finished the book. In the movie, they die together, but in the book, he ends the day knowing that the next would be the same, and the day after that as well, on for the unknown future. I was weeping. I tried to sneak past my younger sister to steal some tissues and terrified her. She thought someone had died.
swedishfish says
The Fault in our Stars. I was weeping on the subway. The Book Thief – weeping on a plane. Harry Potter 4, when his parents briefly come back – weeping on the couch. (at least that one wasn't in public.)
Michelle says
Lots of things make me cry, so that isn't often terribly notable. But I recently read The Fault in Our Stars, which did not just make me cry. I SOBBED.
Crystal says
(not the same Crystal as the above commenter)
I don't have much time for fiction reading these days, but In Face of Danger made me cry when I was a kid.
…and I must admit…I cried when Dumbledore died.
Alex Villasante says
i'm not much of a crier at all (except for Hallmark commercials,FTW?) but The Fault in Our Stars just broke my heart. There was something about the relationship between Hazel and her parents that resonated with me. And when I say resonate, I mean made me bawl.
Scribbles From Jenn says
The Book Thief is an old favorite that pulls on my heart strings. A new favorite is The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. Great emotional writing. I loved every page.