# sad books?



## writersblock14 (Nov 3, 2004)

I'm intending on writing a book that just makes the reader breakdown and cry.  I wanted to know if there were any other books that I could take a look into like this or has this effect?


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## Iorek Brynison (Nov 3, 2004)

Read 1200 pages of His Dark Materials.


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## Aeryn (Nov 4, 2004)

Night by Elie Wiesel

That is the saddest book I have ever read.  Well, that and Where The Red Fern Grows. =]


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## Chris (Nov 4, 2004)

Beloved by Toni Morrison


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## kerpoe (Nov 18, 2004)

It is a war book, it is brilliant and everyone at the end of it cries!

IT is called......All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Remarque


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## Crunchy Hamster (Jan 23, 2005)

The Velveteen Rabbit - short, but good.


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## Ruiner999 (Jan 27, 2005)

Another war novel, A Farewell to Arms.  Something about the protagonist's apathy is just saddening to realize.


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## Ralizah (Jan 27, 2005)

*Re: re:sad books?*



			
				kerpoe said:
			
		

> It is a war book, it is brilliant and everyone at the end of it cries!
> 
> IT is called......All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Remarque



 I remember that book made me cry at the end. It was so awful and boring that when it finally ended I was crying in glee. ^^;

 Anyhow, I haven't read 'Night,' but my old girlfriend had, and she said it was emotionally destructive. Take that for what it's worth. I'll read it myself one day.


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## Zatoichi (Jan 28, 2005)

*Re: re:sad books?*



			
				kerpoe said:
			
		

> It is a war book, it is brilliant and everyone at the end of it cries!
> 
> IT is called......All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Remarque



All Quiet on the Western Front made my break down, that one and also Fallen Angels.


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## Delight (Jan 28, 2005)

It seems strange that you would start with that, instead of starting from a point of characterization or even a situational viewpoint. 

You are writing *expressly* to make your reader cry? Why bother?


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## Ruiner999 (Feb 3, 2005)

Some of the situations depicted in books are just so overwhelming that they are just hard to read without showing some form of emotional release.  All Quiet on the Western is a great book, but it wasn't as devastating as some of the stuff in The Catcher in the Rye, or A Farewell To Arms.  Just my two cents, so feel free to disagree.


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## Drzava (Feb 3, 2005)

Aeryn said:
			
		

> Night by Elie Wiesel
> 
> That is the saddest book I have ever read.  Well, that and Where The Red Fern Grows. =]



A child's account of the Holocaust in which millions were brutally murdered or........some hillbilly's dogs die on him.




 :lol:


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## kerpoe (Feb 16, 2005)

*Re: re:sad books?*



			
				Zatoichi said:
			
		

> kerpoe said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Fallen Angels...definately a good one


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## kerpoe (Feb 16, 2005)

I don't know why, but for some reason "Animal Farm" by George Orwell made me cry.


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## sakarisheart (Jun 15, 2005)

Lurlene McDaniel books and a book called "Best Friends Forever" I'll try to find more


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## sakarisheart (Jun 16, 2005)

ooops the book is called "Sort of Forever" not "Best Friends Forever"


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## FantasyWriterAndLover (Jun 16, 2005)

I know, I'm a wimp, but I gotta say "The Sight"

The ending was so sad....I was mad (about it)


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## EmuJenkins (Jun 18, 2005)

Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance... definately worth reading.


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## Saponification (Jun 19, 2005)

_First They Killed My Father_ by Loung Ung. Story of a girl who survived the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

_The Da Vinci Code_ by Dan Brown. It will make you cry for the state of the lit. world.

Parts of _Hey Nostradamus!_, Douglas Coupland.


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## Hodge (Jun 19, 2005)

_Where the Red Fern Grows_ made me cry (I'm a guy). _Night_ didn't though, and I actually thought the way Wiesel wrote about it made it seem less nasty than it actually was. Of course, I read the former when I was in 4th grade and the latter when I was in 10th, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Umm, _The Running Man_ was really sad near the end, but that's just me...


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## EmuJenkins (Jun 19, 2005)

Good point, Saponification, Hey Nostradamus is a perfect book. The ending is so wonderfully written, when Reg is talking about tacking up his letter to his son all through the woods. That is the only book other than A Fine Balance that brought a tear to my eye.


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## marl (Jun 19, 2005)

*Sad book*

One of the saddest books I can think of is, "The Man With The Golden Arm,"  by Nelson Algren.  One the surface it's almost comical but as the book unfolds the sadness of the characters lifes bocomes more and more until it's all I saw of their lifes.  It's sad, depressing, bleak.  I did feel for the characters. It is also the winner of the first Booker Prize and is an interesting look into late 1940's Chicago and it's hustlers, pimps, gamblers and other down and outters in the wake on WW2.


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## Saraneth (Feb 19, 2006)

Love reviving these old threads. =P

The saddest book I've read in a while was _Feed_ by M. T. Anderson. The last few chapters had me bawling. _33 snowfish_, by Adam Rapp is just entirely sad, the entire way through.


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## Stewart (Feb 19, 2006)

Since it has not been mentioned yet: John Irving's _A Prayer For Owen Meany_.


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## kalibantre (Feb 19, 2006)

Of Mice and Men has me bawling like a child with a freshly skinned knee.

I'm sure there are others but I can't recall them right now.I will have a ponder.


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## Lorlie (Feb 20, 2006)

Alice Sebold, the 'Lovely Bones'. I cried big huge gulpy, snotty tears.


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## Mike C (Feb 24, 2006)

Delight said:
			
		

> It seems strange that you would start with that, instead of starting from a point of characterization or even a situational viewpoint.
> 
> You are writing *expressly* to make your reader cry? Why bother?



I agree. If you  write with the express intention of making people cry, you will fail. If you write characters that people identify with and care about, the rest will follow.

Also you can't just write a story to make people cry. There have to be ups as well as downs, or people won't care.


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## Mike C (Feb 24, 2006)

kalibantre said:
			
		

> Of Mice and Men has me bawling like a child with a freshly skinned knee.



Ooh, that's a good one. Possibly for me the ultimate is Neville Shute's 'On the Beach', possibly the saddest book ever written.


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## beautifulempress (Feb 24, 2006)

_A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks. It was a lot better than the movie that's for sure_


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## pride.in.introspection (Feb 26, 2006)

_King of Cats_ by Blake Fraina - violent and tragic 
_Dream Boy_ by Jim Grimsley - surreal and tragic


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## salvothasock (Feb 26, 2006)

one flew over the cuckoos nest, 
i dont know, jus did


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## snowcrash87 (Mar 2, 2006)

sad books I can think of: Kite Runner (By Khaled Houssini) or Across the Wire (by Luis Alberto Urrea)...there are many more....


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## pride.in.introspection (Mar 5, 2006)

snowcrash87 said:
			
		

> sad books I can think of: Kite Runner (By Khaled Houssini) or Across the Wire (by Luis Alberto Urrea)...there are many more....


 
I love Kite Runner! I've heard there's a movie based on the novel coming out.


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## Stewart (Mar 5, 2006)

snowcrash87 said:
			
		

> sad books I can think of: Kite Runner (By Khaled Houssini)


You really thought it was a sad book? It made me happy, thinking back, that I'd managed to get through it. My review is here.



> I've heard there's a movie based on the novel coming out.


Yes, there is.


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## nereyda_333 (Mar 5, 2006)

The Outsiders. It made me cry a lot at the end... But I´m trying to stay gold anyway.


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## Stewart (Mar 5, 2006)

nereyda_333 said:
			
		

> The Outsiders.



Do you mean _The Outsider_ by Albert Camus? If not, who wrote _The Outsiders_?


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## nereyda_333 (Mar 5, 2006)

Connor Wolf said:
			
		

> Do you mean _The Outsider_ by Albert Camus? If not, who wrote _The Outsiders_?


 
No, I meant "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. Sorry


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## ButteredKazoo (Apr 1, 2006)

Both _Requiem for a Dream_ and _Last Exit to Brooklyn_ will make you more than just cry.

But, it all really depends on who you are.

Also, _Slaughterhouse-Five_ is pretty sad, but you may not cry.

About your intentions: My suggestion is that you write from your heart, and make the reader cry because it is meaningful to you that it affects them and changes them. If you write without personal feeling, your work will turn out rather desiccate.


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## simon woodhouse (Apr 1, 2006)

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.

It didn't make me cry, but it did make me feel very glum. I read it one Christmas when I was living on my own and could hardly afford to run the heating in my house. When it got really cold during the day I used to go to bed and read this book.


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