# Saddest Book You've Ever Read



## caelum

What's the saddest book you've ever read?  One that really choked you up.

For me, it's a non-fiction, Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire.  Romeo Dallaire was a Canadian general who oversaw the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the genocide in the early nineties.

It recounts how from the very beginning, Dallaire's efforts were hindered, if not broken, by politics and the orders from his superiors.  It recounts how when the genocide finally began his pleas to the international community and his superiors were outright ignored, even suppressed.  He had to wrangle for personnel, ammunition, and every crate of rations, which became extremely important when his camp was flooded with thousands of refugees dieing from starvation.

The book also shows the true horror of genocide and what happens when hate is left unchecked.   I'm not kidding when I say this book put me into something like a mild depression for a few months.  But it's also one of the most inspirational books I've ever read, in how Dallaire continued to fight tooth and nail for the victims to the point where he suffered a mental breakdown.


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## Tom88

Sounds like a pretty powerful read. Don't know if I'd be willing to take on something so heavy right now, but I'll be sure to keep it in mind.

This thread has kind of put me on the spot, but the first book that comes to mind would probably be _The Great Escape_ by Paul Brickhill. I haven't seen the movie or anything, and I wouldn't say that it's a sad novel in the traditional sense. In fact, for the most part, it's a very funny novel. The band of affable prisoners get caught time and time again trying to escape from more than one POW camp. It's the tone of the novel that belies the seriousness of their predicament, and it makes you deeply care about the characters' endeavours.

What makes it sad is that, after devising the most foolproof tunnel conceivable, narrowly escaping so many close calls, and having the stars align for them (in terms of the few uncontrollable variables in their plan), things still turn out pretty dire in the end. After being conditioned to believe in the power of the human spirit life still proves that She writes the rules, and that no manner of planning or effort can help escape fate.

I don't think I'd like to see the movie, iconic as it may be. The novel was such a pleasant surprise to me that I don't think I'd risk tarnishing my memories of it. I just don't think the film would convey the emotional pull, though the potential for comedy is definitely there.


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## JosephB

Only two books have made me cry, _The Heart is a Lonely Hunter_, by Carson McCullers, and _The Yearling_, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I read _The Yearling_ when I was 12 or so and bawled. _The Heart is a Lonely Hunter_ is a beautifully written novel and one of my favorites. I've read it a few times and it always makes me cry. The movie, also a gem, really gets me too.


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## shadows

sadddest book I ever read was Malka by Miriam Pressler - about a seven year old Jewish girl who is separated from her mum and sister in Hungary in World War 2.  She ends up in the Ghetto having to survive alone and avoid being taken by the Nazis.


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## Guy Faukes

Dallaire's book was a very powerful read and an eye opener to how inept the United Nations and the world community really are. It was really sad on how there were several peace officers, each a hero in their own right who that died without any recognition whatsoever.  

Read a few books on PoWs of WW2 and Holocaust survivor accounts. They were depressing and mortifying enough to ruin a few of your days.


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## Bilston Blue

Primo Levi's 'Is This A Man.' Autobiographical account of the author's time as a prisoner in one of the Auschwitz camps, I believe it was the Monowitz camp, though can't quite remember. It's been nearly twenty years since I read it and I still remember how sad I felt reading it, and humble to.


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## Geometric Parable

'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley.

 I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it, so I'll smply state: It is a beutifully written work of art that several times nearly brought tears from mine eyes.


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## QueenBee2015

I just finished _The Grapes of Wrath_ bySteinbeck, and it had me crying several times.  I won't say it's the saddest book I've read, but it might be up there.  Ask me what I think in a few weeks; I'll probably have a new one.  Books make me cry easily.


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## Dudester

Black Heart Horror (a true story) from which came the movie Poltergeist. I had to sleep with the lights on after this one as I didn't live all that far from the real location. That family needlessly went through unnecessary crap (they moved the headstones, but not the bodies).


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## gagoots

Probably 'The Book Thief'.


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## Bilston Blue

Another one, I recently found it in the loft, that was very moving was 'Hillsborough: The Truth,' by Phil Scraton. Any football fan, rather, any football fan who was going to matches regularly at the time of the disaster, should read this. It could have happened at many grounds of the time. Very, very sad.


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## jedi

Les Misérables.
perhaps more moving than sad, but...


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## Slugfly

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - That it's written for kids adds power to the story, almost like coaxing one's guard down.


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## dwellerofthedeep

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.


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## Erin Moede

Brightly Burning by Mercedes lackey! This one really got me. It's about a young boy who isn't very well liked by many people because he's a little off. And then what was making him odd turns out to be what is needed to save the country from invasion, but inevitably causes his own death. It's basically about self sacrifice and not needing to be appreciated by everyone to be important. Good moral standing, but the ending is just so unfair!  haha.


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## Thom McNeilly

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt. Death and poverty just about sums it up, and a Child Called It - Dave pelzer.


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## Hoot08

Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac. The devestating loss of friendship was captured so sweetly and sincerely, I was left in a dark void for a week after finishing it.


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## KaitieL1995

Pretty much anything by Mitch Albom, I own two of his books, "For One More Day" - about a man ready to take his own life after his wife left him and his daughter refused to invite him to her wedding, but his deceased mother, whom he sees waiting for him at his former childhood home, talks him out of it. 

His other one, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" - about a man who dies trying to fix a broken down rollercoaster, experiences five people in Heaven that affected his life, or were affected by him. 

And, "The Wednesday Letters" which is fairly new, about a couple who passed away next to each other, and their children proceed to find letters that their father wrote to their mother each Wednesday, accounting their lives, right up until the end.


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## garza

Angela's Ashes beats them all. When I read it all I could think of was my Grandfather and the stories he told about growing up on the Irish side of Belfast.


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## The Backward OX

Why would anyone choose to read a sad book? If some whacko wants to write 'em, that's their problem, but why read them?


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## garza

Because that's a part of reality, an authentic part of the world where we all live. To read McCourt's account of his family's struggle to survive, and the often unpleasant reaction to misery, is to gain a fuller understanding of what it is to be human. 

Frank McCourt, by no stretch a 'whacko', had a story to tell, and he told it simply and brilliantly.


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## Sir Roberts

The Bible was pretty gruesome, and the end shakes me up everytime.


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## Tom88

Well said Garza.

Katie, I actually find Mitch Albom to be a little _too_ sentimental. He's great for one-liners, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he was trying so very hard to move me.


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## caelum

I'll have to read Angela's Ashes.

Wuthering Heights was a sad, poignant book.  The abuse in the families, the relationship that was never meant to be.


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## Suzette

gagoots said:


> Probably 'The Book Thief'.


 
Same here.


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## obi_have

The book that bummed me out the most was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. 

There are references to cannibalism, including one part where a group of desperate people plan to cook and eat a newborn baby.

I think what it was that got to me is that it seemed plausible to me, that could be our future.


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## Prinkes

Spoilers btw: 
_Looking for Alaksa _by John Green was pretty difficult to get through. Mostly because I had a friend die in a car accident right before I started reading. 

Bits of _The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants_ always made me cry, too. Sometime because the same things had happened to me (parents replacing you with a new family when they divorce) or because I couldn't imagine going through that pain (Bailey). 

And _The Lovely Bones_ made me cry before it confused me.


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## DickC

"Crossing To Safety" by Wallace Stegner. Just read it, you'll see.


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## Jinxi

The saddest book I have ever read must have been Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian. I was quite young when I read it, but I sobbed through a lot of it.


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## johnbriner

I'm not a fan of tear-jerker books, but I have read some that almost made me cry such as "to kill a mocking bird," "she's come undone," and "100 years of solitude."


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## Trides

The only book that I remember ever making me cry was The Land by Mildred D. Taylor... but what comes to mind immediately is Night by Elie Wiesel, not only sad but shocking and gruesome as well.

200th post!


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## FantSweetGirl

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I cry every single time I read it, and I have read it about 7 times.


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## Ladyhawk

Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson. I read it as a child and cried. I read it to my children and cried. I watched the original film and, you guessed it, cried. It’s a very moving true story about a dog’s loyalty.


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## Jen

obi_have said:


> The book that bummed me out the most was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
> .



Same here and another of his novels, Child Of God.

Others which has reduced me to tears (note that It doesn't actually take THAT much to make me cry) would include Les Miserables, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Of Mice and Men and Wide Sargasso Sea.


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## Robert_S

I think the saddest book I've read was Shadowdale, a TSR book based on D&Ds Forgotten Realms, but that was a different kind of sad.

The one that perhaps moved me most was For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Hemmingway.

Short stories move me the most though. I love short stories. So much awesome in so little space.


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## Kel Sicarius

Norwegian Wood. It's about a relatively young man who's in a "trio" of friends with his best friend and his best friend's girlfriend. His best friend is the "big guy" - everyone finds him fun, he's popular... But his best friend kills himself. His girlfriend then goes mad and sent to a home, and the story follows on from there.


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## MeeQ

> I love short stories. So much awesome in so little space.



No book I've read have I ever deemed sad. Short stories however, effect me far more dramaticly. 

"Beauty is in the simple"


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## terrib

The Lovely Bones was pretty sad.


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## Winston

_Childhood's End_ by Arthur C. Clarke.

Watching a person's spirit die and wither is profoundly sad.  Seeing mankind submit and give up..... disturbing beyond belief.


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## Bloggsworth

Somewhat oxymoronically, the saddest and happiest were one and the same, *1066 and All That*. When I first read it, while on a train from Ipswich to Cambridge, in 1964, I laughed uproariously, so much so that girls further down the carriage started laughing too. When I tried to read it a couple of years ago I wondered what an earth I'd found so funny - a great disappointment.


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## Pariah

John Irving's A prayer for Owen Meany.  I cry every time I read it and I read it at least once or twice a year.


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## just-me

Bridge of Courage by  Jennifer Harbury.  If you can read that without crying then you have a coal black heart...


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## sir_vile_minds

Jen said:


> Same here and another of his novels, Child Of God.
> 
> Others which has reduced me to tears (note that It doesn't actually take THAT much to make me cry) would include Les Miserables, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Of Mice and Men and Wide Sargasso Sea.



I thought I was going to be the only one to say Of Mice and Men which was more moving than sad. Probably because my little brother's autistic so the slightly dumb guy reminded me of him.

I whimpered at the end of Green Mile by Stephen King when the black guy is sent to the chair.


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## Walt1093

The Visitation by Frank Peretti. A former minister who is being harassed by a false-prophet having flashbacks of his childhood and deceased wife, very touching story. Planet of The Apes had a pretty morbid ending, I'll certainly never forget it.


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## Orchid

Inside the mind of the BTK by John Douglas. A very difficult read and a tragic true event.


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## oxumoron

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.


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## BlueJay

I don't tend to read extremely emotional books; as far as I can remember, only one has made me cry so far..
_*Interview with the Vampire *_by Anne Rice


Spoiler



When Lestat died. Both times


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## LaughinJim

Germinal by Emile Zola was probably the saddest and most horrific book I remember reading. The demise of Catherine and her creep of a lover: pathetic. What the miners' wives did to the manager of the company store was gruesome. (He deserved it.) I was on the edge of my chair in agony for the last hundred pages both times I read it.


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## frappie3

Before I Die by Jenny Downham.... Its something I read a while ago, but it made me bawl my eyes out, and its the only book that's ever made me do so.  Its about a teenage girl who has terminal cancer.  The part that really got me is in the last bit of the book its her describing everything that happens as she goes through the process of dying.  Shes conscious but too weak and sick to even say anything to her family as they are in the room.  



> Only two books have made me cry, _The Heart is a Lonely Hunter_, by Carson McCullers, and _The Yearling_, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I read _The Yearling_ when I was 12 or so and bawled. _The Heart is a Lonely Hunter_  is a beautifully written novel and one of my favorites. I've read it a  few times and it always makes me cry. The movie, also a gem, really gets  me too.



I once began reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and I found it quite boring.  I tried to push through and finish it but I eventually got caught up in a different book-- Water for Elephants, I think.  That was quite a few years ago though, so maybe I'll have to give it another go.


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## newkidintown

I don't read many really sad books, so the saddest two I've ever read is _Beauty _and_ The Old Man and the Sea._ I forget who the first one's by, but the second one's by Hemingway, of course. The author who wrote _Beauty_ seems to have a thing for brutal deaths: in _Beauty, _*spoiler alert* the horse is killed by a cattle trap, and there's a lot of painful, gory detail about how this all happens. And _The Old Man and the Sea_ is just a tradgedy, in so, so many ways. For some reason, I actually was more sad reading that than when I read _Romeo and Juliet_.


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## Yvaine

For me it's The Five People You Meet in Heaven.


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## QueenAnkh

I tend to avoid sad books but 'Mockingjay' from The Hunger Games trilogy made me cry. I think it was (trying to avoid spoilers!) the evolution of Katniss that moved me because  she has grown up in front of my eyes and I felt _proud _of her. I know she isn't real but I felt so proud of the person she became. Its rare that someone can create a character so realistic. Thank you Suzanne Collins!


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## Stray Wolf

I don't think I've ever really felt truly saddened by a book, but The Road by Cormac McCarthy has come the closest.

It's a story of a father and his young son as they attempt to travel to the coast in an exteremly hostile earth that's been struck by an apocalyptic disaster (it never what exactly happened but it was probably mass solar flares).


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## TinyDancer

I broke into cry here and there in Delirium and Pandemonium.. pathetic perhaps but there you go


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## Bilston Blue

_Hillsborough: The Truth,_​ by Phil Scraton.


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## Bloggsworth

*1066 and All That* - The second time I read it, I couldn't understand why I thought it so funny the first time. Perhaps it was the 40 year interval...


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## Deleted member 49710

Stray Wolf said:


> I don't think I've ever really felt truly saddened by a book, but The Road by Cormac McCarthy has come the closest.
> 
> It's a story of a father and his young son as they attempt to travel to the coast in an exteremly hostile earth that's been struck by an apocalyptic disaster (it never what exactly happened but it was probably mass solar flares).



Yup, the end of this book got me, too. And I'd seen the movie, so I knew it was coming, but still.

WWII concentration camp stuff is rough. Robert Antelme, Elie Wiesel. _Dora Bruder_ by Patrick Modiano is a good one, much more recent, trying to unearth information about this obscure young girl who died in the camps. One of those books that makes you feel like everyone is precious and we're all gonna die, and then you fall on your face for a while over the beauty and futility of it. "You" meaning me, obviously. Especially in winter.


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## The Backward OX

I don't read sad books. When a book turns sad, I pitch it at the wall. People who read sad books are masochists.


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## Jeko

As a renowned masochist, I enjoyed Animal Farm by George Orwell. It nearly made me cry.

The Hunger Games was also very sad - the whole series. Mockingjay in particular.

All books are sad at one point. The end. Who was ever happy when they finished a story, especially if it's not in a series? And even then, when you finish a series...

Oh. Twilight. Yeah, you'd be happy to get through all that.


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## KevinMckie

Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire i read this a couple years back it is really sad.


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## Aesmind

I remember 'The Shack' by William P. Young made me bawl. He loses his little one, and I couldn't help but picture my little sister dying too .


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## Dave Watson

Couple have got me a bit dewey eyed. From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz and Lisey's Story by Stephen King are the first to come to mind.


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## IndigoCypher

_Gregor and the Code Of Claw _and _Mockingjay_ by Suzanne Collins both made me cry at the end. Not necessarily depressing, either, but sad and bittersweet. _Nevermore_​ by James Patterson was very close as well.


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## Lilly Davidson

Hi, 
One of the saddest books I ever read was a small book called '*The Five People You Meet in Heaven' *by Mitch Albom. It was just so touching and I cried several times especially when the old man who is telling the story meets his wife again and just cannot believe it really is her. It is a book that truly makes you wonder what life is about. It is only a short book but powerful. 

These days I consciously don't choose sad books to read. It is for the same reason that I never watch horror films or films about the horrors of war etc. It is cowardly I suppose! Art is art and maybe we should explore it bravely and allow ourselves to feel all the emotions it triggers off in us.


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## Lilly Davidson

Oh and_ '*The Life and Times of Michael K*_' by JM Coetzee made me cry when I read it years ago. Such a desolate and powerfully moving story.


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## J Anfinson

Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas is probably the saddest novel I can think of.  Also his short story "Twilight of the Dawn" in his collection Strange Highways is my favorite short story ever.


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## TheFuhrer02

It isn't exactly sad in the strictest sense, but I found Coelho's Eleven Minutes to be rather, in a lack of a better word, vulnerable.


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## InDeathITrust

Sara Plain and Tall. A book written as a diary of a young woman in the middle of the dust bowl. Many parts of the book makes you say out loud, "and you thought it couldn't get worse." 

Bender would enjoy it as a raging comedy.


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## FridgeOtter

I don't usually read _sad_ books. But, back in fifth grade my grandmother bought me _Bridge to Terabithia. _I couldn't believe that Leslie died, especially because it was a children's book. It was the first time I cried from a book. Other than that, _Angela's Ashes _(Frank McCourt) and _Night _(Elie Wiesel). I think when things  actually happened, it makes it infinitely sadder.


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## Lilly Davidson

Hi FridgeOtter, 
I know what you mean. In recent times I actively avoid reading sad books or watching sad films. I don't know if this is good or not but I want to be uplifted and inspired by what I read.


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## Dominique

Speak by Laurie Anderson. I found it to be really moving, while painful to read but in a who general sense it was a great book about the after effects of some traumatic events. Another one I found really moving was "Keeping you a Secret" by Julie Anne Peters which I related very closely to, being a GLBTQ book and being Q myself. The last book I found to be one of the most moving was "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. The movie was very good, but the book was amazing in my opinion, I cried so many times while reading it.


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## Lilly Davidson

Hi Dominique, 
'_The Lovely Bones_' was indeed an incredible book, I was moved in so many surprising ways by it. I did not watch the film though.


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## dolphinlee

To kill a Mockingbird - had a profound effect on my life.

Ring of Bright Water - I still hate animals being killed senselessly

Diary of Anne Franks - even though I knew she had died I still cried when I read the words at the end of the book.


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## Lilly Davidson

Hi Dolphinlee, 
I loved 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and have downloaded it onto my new Kindle now to enjoy again. We did it at school. I can't bear to read the diary of Ann Frank though. A friend just visited Amsterdam and went to the Anne Frank house, she said it was a profound experience.


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## moderan

"John Dies at the End". John died.


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## Charlie

At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald


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## Lewdog

When I was young I read "The Outsiders" and it was really sad when Johnny died at the hospital after saving the children from the burning church.


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## Lilly Davidson

Charlie said:


> At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald



Hi Charlie, 

That looks interesting, I have made a note to look into getting that book. Is it a book of particularly sad stories though? I just glanced at Amazon and saw it is an anthology and looks like a good one.


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## moderan

William Blinn's Brian's Song, when I first read it.


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## Charlie

Hi again Lily. It was actually written for children. It's a novel, not a collection or anthology. (Don't know why anybody would say that. Must have been mis-worded.) In fact, it's rather lengthy as children's books go. There's a lot os symbolism in it. It's about a little boy who seems very peculiar and backwards to most people. Truth is, he's one of the few people who see the world for what it really is. He has sleep-like or visionary encounters with a beautiful lady who calls herself the north wind, and she takes him on excursions now and then where he learns more about how the world works. I think she's symbolic as God, or the Great Spirit, or even the Earth Mother etc. depending on a person's beliefs. She could sort of fit them all. It was always MacDonald's best selling book. Samuel Clemons wore out at least two copies reading it to his own children who loved it.


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## Whisper

_Where the Red Fern Grows_ by Wilson Rawls
and
_The Elfstones of Shannara _by Terry Brooks
I believe they are turning _Elfstones_ into a movie. _Red Fern _already is.


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## moderan

They're reviving the disaster movie genre?


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## Mairead27

I needed a box of tissues for _The Shack._ I was practically bawling during one scene.


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## Clarity

The end of 'The Book Thief' (Markus Zusak) was probably the most I've ever cried for a fictional character.


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## Ever2222

I know this will be extremely arguable but, I'd say My Sister's Keeper. The ending literally crushed me.


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## squidtender

Where the Red fern grows. Still can't read the last chapter in that.


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## FleshEater

Cormac McCarthy's _The Road_​.


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## StevenW

It's not a book, it's a short story.

Flowers for Algernon


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## moderan

StevenW said:


> It's not a book, it's a short story.
> 
> Flowers for Algernon


It was an award-winning novella, then a novel. It was also mentioned previously. It _is_ very sad though. Poor Algernon. Poor Charly.


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## Angelwing

For me, probably Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. Especially when you combine it with the movie.


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## Rosier

Calling You by Otsu-ichi
Calling You (anthology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



> Ryo is a high school freshman who tends to take people's words literally. After being hurt several times because she misunderstood someone, she avoids people. She creates an imaginary cell phone, feeling it would be pointless to buy one when no one would call. One day while she is on the bus, however, her imaginary cell phone begins to ring. At the other end is a boy named Shinya who is also calling with an imaginary cell phone. Ryo is shocked and after they disconnect, she tries calling people and connects with a college student named Yumi, who instructs her in the ways of imaginary phones. Though Shinya lives an hour in the past from Ryo, they talk regularly through their imaginary phones, staying constantly connected. Through their friendship, Ryo is able to find her voice and begin talking in the real world. They eventually talk on the real phone, and decide to meet. Ryo takes a bus to the airport, but a car nearly runs her over. Shinya pushes her out of the way and is struck instead. In the ambulance, Shinya dies. Ryo calls Shinya in the past. She tries to save him by saying she hated him on sight, but he sees through her and gets her to admit what happened. He is determined to save her, so they frantically say their good-byes.
> 
> Ryo goes to his funeral and afterwards finds his locker where he left a cassette radio he'd promised her. Ryo also realizes that Yumi is really her future self.


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## CyanideBreakfast

There has really only been one book that left me crying, but a few that have left me feeling like my heart was torn out. Before I say though, can I just ask what people enjoyed in Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins? I'm not being nasty or whatever here, I just never got it as a book, as a story. It never made any sense to me. I've picked it up three times to read, and only finished it the first time it just absolutely bored me to death and I found the first two absolutely incredible!

Anyways.
The book that made me cry is Moreta: Dragon Lady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. It is technically a spin-off on the Pern series. The main bulk of the series is set about 2500 years into their history (the people who colonized the planet Pern) and a few characters reference Moreta, Moreta's Ride so she is a very important historical figure to them. And an entire book was written about it. I won't say too much, it'll only spoil the story for anyone who wishes to read it, but it is a heartbreaking story, and similar has probably happened on our own planet.

The most...difficult book I've ever read is one part autobiography, one part psychological thriller. A singer I like, Emilie Autumn, is well known for suffering with bipolar disorder. She takes pride in promoting awareness wherever possible. She wrote a book entitled The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls. It describes her time in an asylum after a suicide attempt, and that was the difficult part for me as I lost a friend to bipolar disorder last year. The psychological thriller, and the part that supplied the title for the book is set in Victorian London - Emilie is obsessed with Victorian London where asylums as we know them were invented. The story, surprisingly, is about a girl who ends up in one of these asylums.

Neither part of this book is something I would normally pick up, but I admit I really enjoyed the story and as it drew to a close, it left me feeling very odd. It was almost painful but it was a beautiful ending. It was cleverly ended, too. And writing the book inspired Emilie to write an album - an album based on her book. That is a great album, but only dare to look up Fight Like A Girl if you're good with weird because one song off it, Time for Tea left me genuinely concerned for her sanity and I'm pretty good with weird.

Anyway I will stop obsessing. It's a fascinating read and brings out a roller coster of emotions when you read it and it helped me come to terms with what happened to my friend.

So those are my 2 books for this list: Moreta by Anne McCaffrey and The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn.


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## JosephB

_The Yearling_ made me bawl my eyes out. I guess when I saw the movie not too long ago, it conjured up those memories --and I got choked up all over again. There are greeting cards and a McDonald's commercial that made my wife cry -- she was sad -- but she wasn't affected in the same way. The other novel that choked me up was _The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,_ which is one of my favorites. But the movie was an even bigger tear-jerker for me. I've learned it's OK to cry over movies -- chicks dig it.


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## AtlanshiaSpirit

For me, its John Grogans, Marley and Me. I read the book within a week of it coming out, and I laughed, I cried, and I fell deeply in love with the best dog to ever grace the planet. The ending had me In tears for days, and while I haven't had the courage to read it again since, It has never left my book shelf.


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## Caragula

The House at Pooh Corner:

""Pooh," said Christopher Robin earnestly, "if I -- if I'm not quite --"
he stopped and tried again -- "Pooh, whatever happens, you willunderstand,
won't you?"
"Understand what?"
"Oh, nothing. He laughed and jumped to his feet. "Come on!"
"Where?" said Pooh.
"Anywhere," said Christopher Robin."


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## SarahStrange

The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. My god. When Olan is dying and when her husband takes her pearls, I die. Tears everywhere. It's my favorite book though. So powerful.


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## Yurika

_Anybody Out There? _by Marian Keyes. Bought this little chick lit number with the purpose of having a nice light read on my holiday. Man, was I wrong. Halfway through you  realise what's going on and it just gets sadder and sadder. The character is so blissfully unaware that it's painful to read. 
Oh! And _The Electric Michelangelo_ by Sarah Hall. Not so much sad as just downright depressing. Read it when I was 18 and I still can't get it out of my head.


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## Panthera Onca

_The Archivist's Story_ by Travis Holland, it is sad not because of any particular tragedies but because of the crushing tyranny of Stalinist Russia which forces the protagonist to interview his favorite author, who has been imprisoned and abused in Lubyanka(sp? ) prison, eventually the protagonist decides to secret away the author's works, putting himself in danger. Although there are deaths tin the story the sadness is due to relentless oppression that seems very much a part of life in the story, and the protagonist's mother's struggles with what would probably later be called Alzhiemer's.


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## philistine

_The Diving Bell and the Butterfly_ was quite depressing.


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## Abrahamburger

This may sound lame, but in High School I was introduced to a novel by Dean Koontz called Odd Thomas I was in class when I finished the book and nearly broke down in tears at the ending. It may not be the saddest book I've read but certainly memorable!


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## Origen

The Book of Ecclesiastes.  Very close in tone to the Book of Job in many respects, which is also quite upbeat.  Beware of adopting the author's attitude toward life as your own.


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## Pennywise

The book that made me the saddest and put me in mini depression is 'Innocent Man' by John Grisham. Its a true story of a man who gets convicted of a crime he did not commit and became a victim of Police Witchhunt purely because of perception issues. He loses his mental balance in the end and dies a sad man. A very touching story and many times I had to put the book down because I could not take the suffering of this man and his family. I remember when I was reading the end I was so touched that I started weeping ...


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## escorial

Paw Tracks in the Moonlight...true story of  a man who lives on his own befriends a young Tom cat..not for it's writing impact but the truth,compassion and warmth.


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## Jeko

> Beware of adopting the author's attitude toward life as your own.



Already have, actually. It's made me a much happier person overall.

Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!


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## gusgus

For me it's Peter Pan. Neverland and the fact that the kids never get old there kind of remind people to treasure their childhood and that time's slipping away. :cry:


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