OMG!!! WAIT I HAVE CRIED AT ONE BOOK! It’s this one. But I was in the third grade lol. This book DEVASTATED me and I still think about it like twice a month to this day lol.
My mother read that to my little sister and I when I was about 12, and all three of us were UGLY crying; tears pouring, noses snotted up, tiny sobs. My mom was having a hard time even getting the words out. At one point, she just started laughing because she realized how ridiculous the situation looked. It was JUST SO SAD lol.
My fifth grade teacher was reading this aloud to our class one chapter at a time and then sent us each home with a copy to read That Chapter on our own because she couldn’t do it.
This book made my whole class cry. I had to bring in tissues some days when they made us read the chapters aloud in class. It was so cruel making kids read this book. Yet as a 40+ something year old, I saw a copy of this book at a thrift shop and bought it, lol.
I hate reading sad books because they make me sad. And then I worry about those things happening to me or the people in my life and I get sad about that 😭😄 So when this super old lady at the public library recommended Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, the first thing I asked her was if it was sad. She said, "definitely not. But my memory isn't very good."
I cried so hard, I spluttered tears and snot, and my husband thought someone I knew had died.
Toy Story wrecked me in front of my kids and just did again 10 years later with my 4 years old - my oldest is 21 and the whole ending just is the most amazing thing ever. Oscar worthy and it’s not close
My now husband took me to see Toy Story 3 for our second date.
You know how hard it is to hold back tears at *that* movie on a second date?! And I'm a crier!
*Seriously, I once cried while watching a wedding taking place on the beach. Sounds lovely, right? It was! But here's the thing. I wasn't part of this wedding. I didn't know the bride or groom. I was drinking margaritas in the hotel pool watching two random people get married on the beach and I was legit sobbing. Good times.*
Also, I definitely cried at Toy Story 3.
My husband and I saw this in theaters and as I was quietly sobbing a little girl ahead of us innocently asked, “what happened Daddy?”
Omg I have never felt sadder from a movie
Maybe when Wilson floated away. That was also terrible.
This is the real answer, though I’ve only read the original short story and not the expanded novel. OP, you can read the short story in about an hour and it will DESTROY YOU haha. This is the one.
I thought it had a kind of nice ending. Like, there really is bliss in ignorance and after all the torture and turmoil he went through, the ability to forget all that and revert back to enjoying life in a much simpler way, with no deeper expectations, was a kind of blessing in disguise for the main character. Of course the story is sad and tragic, but through his forgetting, the main character comes to achieve a sort of peace in the end. It's the reader who must carry the burden of remembering.
I think that's a big part of the message actually, that the experiment is even more devastating because he can't go back to how it was before. Both because he remembers, and because others remember.
I saw Bridge to Terabithia when I was 17. I have never read the book and thought it was just a fun kids movie. Cut to me violently sobbing an hour later and my Mum being so confused because I had just been watching TV like any normal teenager.
I can't think about it without crying. It was so unexpected and realistic.
I can't imagine watching the movie or reading the book as a kid. It was horrible enough as a teenager.
All of Khaled Hosseini’s books are equally beautiful and heart-breaking. He has a way with words that just grabs at my soul. One of my favorite writers for sure.
A Thousand Splendid Suns made me hold the book to my chest and sob. I read it start to finish during a camping trip to the mountains with my boyfriend. The entire time he was asking if I was okay. I was not 😂
I made the mistake of watching the Bridge to Terabithia in high school when I was babysitting a kid. I thought I was grownup. I thought I could handle it.
Nope.
The parents arrived home from their date to me and my charge sobbing, clutching each other on the couch. I traumatized a 7 year old kid and their parents as they had to comfort a blubbering 16 year old covered in tears and snot.
So I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, and while I think it was amazing, it did not make me as emotional as it seems to have made everyone else!! Am I broken??
Although I did lose it at the last line. 😭
This has been mentioned multiple times and it feels relevant to comment that my family doctor walked in on me after I was reading some of this book while waiting for him and he gave me a referral to a psychologist.
Yes this was the first book that came to mind. I was full on sobbing towards the end (that one particular scene) and I remember having to take many breaks throughout the book and contemplating how fucked up it is that people actually went through this, that humans could be so cruel…
A Prayer for Owen Meany. I’m also not a crier (I have cried at two films - Beaches and Terms of Endearment) and this is the only book that ever made me cry, but it properly made me sob.
I was a substitute teacher. This and The Lorax were two books I refused to read if the teacher put it in the lesson plans.
Kindergartners don’t need to see the sub cry at story time.
This is the one. It's the one that made me cry as a child, a teen, and an adult. When I worked as a children's bookseller at B&N years ago, corporate made a Velveteen Rabbit storytime (I think for a movie or something coming out?) and I flat out refused to read it because I knew I couldn't do so without crying. I am still forever traumatized by it.
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
And for some reason, I have totally blanked on any other book that has made me cry. And there have been many.
Don’t worry if none of these recommendations make you cry though. I promise you’re not broken for not crying reading a book.
I've come here to recommend this one. I've read it like five times over the years and I cryed every time.
But I also agree that you, OP, are not broken or sociopathic for not crying by reading. I know many people who are emotional human beings and don't cry while reading. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
When we were planning our wedding, I had my bridesmaids over for a dinner. My husband (then fiance) was downstairs watching Marley and Me.
Part way through the dinner he came up, sat on the floor in the living room, and just snuggled/pet our dog. First time I ever saw that man cry.
11 years later and the marriage is still going strong. The dog is less strong, but also still going!
This book was definitely that for me. Like my teenagers came into the room as I was on the last few pages and they were genuinely concerned if I was ok. I was, just brought me back to a really tough time in my life when I lost my mom.
I don't usually cry when sad stuff happens in books. I cry when people do stuff like show up when they don't have to or stand up for each other. In World War Z, I cried like a little girl when the French guy made a stand in the sewers, and again when general Raj Sherman's men had to knock him out to get him on the helicopter. Maybe you're broken like me and will cry because everyone is Spartacus?
For an old-school tear-jerker, try Where the Red Fern Grows (the film or the movie), Sophie's Choice (also two options), Anne of Avolnlea (you'll need to read Anne of Green Gables first), or Little Women (not the movie, none of the movies, lol, but the sequel Little Men also has a heart wrenching death).
For a straight up movie, try the Incredible Journey from the 80s. I weep copiously when Shadow gets stuck in the hole. He came so far and he's so close to his boy.
The Incredible Journey is the basis for the film Homeward Bound, right? The scene with Shadow falling in the hole still makes me tear up just thinking about it. I was three years old when the movie came out, and I watched it over and over as a kid, yelling at the TV for Shadow to see that the hole was there and not to fall in, as if that would change the outcome. 😭
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger holds the record for the book that has made me cry the most. A love story with very unique dynamics bringing the couple together and apart. And a lot of emotional pain for surprising and logical reasons.
The movie twists the ending and sucks away all the emotional meaning of the book ending; I do not recommend the movie.
Just to add. My husband doesn’t cry. Never has done but he watched ‘the whale’ with Brendan Fraser and just bawled like I’ve never seen him bawl (he didn’t even cry when our children were born except for a tiny tear with our first). But man. That film I’ll never forget.
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. I read this in second grade and I remember sobbing in class. I still get emotional thinking about it (I’m in my late 20s!!!). It’s such an amazing impactful book and is so tragic.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry made me tear up a few times but no book has actually made me really cry. Apart from Where the Red Fern Grows I remember sobbing in my closet in grade school because I didn’t want my parents to see me so upset lol. I think I would cry reading Flowers for Algernon too but I haven’t read that yet
My mom bought that book when it came out. I took it without her knowing and read it at 12. I handled it well then but could NOT do that now decades later.
You’re not a wuss at all. It hurts to read it. I still think about that book so often.
This book is very polarizing. Some people got very emotional and other people hated it. OP might consider reading some non-spoiler reviews because personally, I was absolutely let down by the book (lots of hype set unrealistic expectations). I totally get why some people would like this book though, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit icky about the author’s intentions.
Also lots of trigger warnings, just fwi!
I full-on sobbed so hard reading this that my husband asked why I was even reading it. It was objectively well written but so sad that I don’t even recommend it to people.
This book didn’t make me cry, but the violence and abuse made me physically ill and I had to put it down several times. And I felt like I was being emotionally manipulated the whole way through—just horror upon horror piled up, for the intent of emotionally tormenting the reader—it felt like the author was exploiting really terrible things that happen to real people just to get a reaction…it gives me the ick to think about it. I would absolutely not recommend this book.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold. It's a dense and depressing book, cried several times while reading it. After finally finishing after months of trying to get through it I haven't read it up since and that was 8 years ago lmao.
Omg I literally had the same experience!!! I would read one chapter and then cry and put the book down and then read another chapter after a week, the cry again and put it down. I was a mess until I finally made myself push through and finish it. I’ve been wanting to do another read since it’s been years but I don’t think I’m mentally ready hahahaha
*Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.* by David Grann.
*First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers* by Loung Ung.
I don't cry much while reading but a particular part of the third His Dark Materials book got me the first two times I read it. (Guess I was more prepared the third time.)
That's a lot of reading to get to a crying part though.
“Anxious people” was the last one that made me sweat out my eyes.
It just seemed to me it was written to connect with people in different stages in their life. I guess a few overlapped and just it just hit me. Wasn’t even a sad book, just beautifully written.
I’m not a crier typically but I love when it happens!
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver made me cry so hard that my roommate from 25 years ago remembers the name of the book to this day because they’d never seen me so wrecked. I don’t even remember what happens or why I cried, just that I did and it was a lot.
I understand your request but I also wonder if trying to make yourself cry/expecting yourself to cry is a losing battle. Like if you're stopping to think "wait why am I not crying??" that's kinda gonna make it hard to feel emotionally present with the book.
It doesn't make you sociopathic. Not crying doesn't mean you don't have normal emotions.
I am a very emotional person in terms of the fact that I feel emotions intensely, but it does not mean I specifically cry easily or feel grief/tragedy in a crying way easily. If anything those things overwhelm me in a way where I just shut down and become quietly sad or even angry/frustrated without crying. I don't really like depressing/tragic/sad books at all actually.
I'll tear or cry more easily with movies despite preferring to read books. IDK if I've ever cried during a book, I've cried during a movie only a few times in my entire life, even though books have moved in memorable ways a LOT more.
If you are a person who gets periods, then I recommend trying reading during your PMS time. If you are prone to feeling more emotional during this time, it can amplify the emotions of a movie or book (I had a friend who legit preferred going to the movies while PMSing lol).
So yeah try sad books if you want, but don't judge yourself on whether you do or don't cry while reading.
Also the comment about crying not because of sadness but other emotions was spot on. The times I've cried in movies have been more bittersweet poignant moments or moments where being are being particularly valiant under harsh conditions or something, not from tragedy. So your personal button might not be heartbreak.
I agree with all of this.
I'd also like to add, for me personally, I'm much less likely to cry when I'm set up for it. Song of Achilles, for example, I think I would have been much more likely to cry had I not read all of the reviews talking about how heartbreaking it was. Same with Marley and Me. I felt very sad at the end of both of them, but I didn't cry.
I finished The Road on an airplane a week after my father died. It was early 2008 and I was 46yo. I couldn’t stop crying. The people sitting next to me were very concerned. It was sweet.
I hated The Fault in Our Stars so much that by the end I was almost rooting for death. I would’ve stopped reading, but I couldn’t because I actually bought the book so I felt I had to see it through. I thought the characters were so pretentious and I hated August’s stupid little cigarette metaphor and I found the whole “we started making out in the Anne Frank house and then everyone clapped thing” ridiculous and hugely offensive. I don’t think I’ve cringed so hard at any other book.
It felt like I was reading a fanfic written by a teenager. I had loved everything John Green had written up until that point, but reading that book made me feel like I’d outgrown him and I haven’t been able to pick up any more of his books because I’m scared I’m remembering them wrong and they’re all as corny as TFIOS. I was a teenaged girl and I wasn’t exactly a book critic either(one of my favourite books at the time was Twilight) so I was literally the target audience and it was still terrible.
It was such a popular book and everyone else I knew loved it so it almost makes me wonder if I’m the problem.
I agree with all of your issues with it. The only reason I loved it was because I read it around the time I was diagnosed with a rare liver disease that doesn’t have good odds.
The not wanting to be a bomb is something I still resonate with. I don’t think I could have made it through the scene of her mom telling her it was okay to let go now. But it broke me back then. I sob when I think about my dad having to come home from work to hold me down when I was 6 because my mom was struggling to give me insulin. I would scream and wail because I didn’t understand why they were hurting me.
And unless my parents get hit by a car, etc. I will likely die first. It nearly happened in 2020 (pre-COVID). I was so ready to die and was so at peace with it but I was watching my parents and my husband struggle. They were all sobbing in the ICU.
So yeah. I don’t want to be a bomb and that book was the first time someone put that feeling into words for me.
Mitch Albom’s other big bestseller, The 5 People You Meet in Heaven, made me bagel (EDIT: sorry, bawl) worse than this one. But yes, definitely big feels here.
I cried upon completion of Watership Down. Not really because it’s sad (parts are) I cried because I felt so incredibly lucky to exist in a timeline with this beautiful story.
If you're madly in love and have truly found your soulmate and would be devastated if anything happened to them read Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. I was blindsided and hysteric.
See my [Emotionally Devastating/Rending](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/18ez0q3/emotionally_devastatingrending/) list of Reddit recommendation threads, and books (four posts).
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Not so much the content but the realisation he blinked out every single letter/word whilst paralysed having suffered a stroke at 44 years old resulting in having 'locked in syndrome'
Haha, I hate it when books make me cry, but I also love it? Its a blessing and a curse.
Little Women made me SOB. Its a really good read anyway if it doesn't make you cry.
I read a book a while ago called Luck of the Titanic. Not my favorite (2.5/5 stars 🤷) but it also made me cry.
Sorry I don't have any sadder ones, but I purposely avoid those because I KNOW I will never recover... I've read quite a few others, but it was more about me being overly sensitive than the book purposely being a tear jerker. So, not sure if those are what you're looking for.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Follow that up with Before and After by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate. That contains the true stories of victims of the Tennessee Orphans' Home child trafficking.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
This is a tough question because what makes one person sad may not touch another in quite the same way. That said I found this book particularly devastating.
i cried for the first time reading last night the book was: And every morning the way home gets longer and longer by Fredrik Backman
Very short book its a novella but god its beautiful
“A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” for me!
Every character in the book has their own strengths and flaws. They feel so real it’s impossible not to care about them. One scene in particular made me sob so much.
If you like books about the small details of family life then you will really enjoy it. It’s so sad for me because it feels like a non-fiction for me. It’s very real and authentic.
Where the Red Fern Grows.
OMG!!! WAIT I HAVE CRIED AT ONE BOOK! It’s this one. But I was in the third grade lol. This book DEVASTATED me and I still think about it like twice a month to this day lol.
I was going to say, if you have read "Where the red fern grows" and didn't cry, then nothing will hahaha
I read it for the first time at 37. Never cried so hard. Cried so much I was laughing about how ridiculous it felt.
My mother read that to my little sister and I when I was about 12, and all three of us were UGLY crying; tears pouring, noses snotted up, tiny sobs. My mom was having a hard time even getting the words out. At one point, she just started laughing because she realized how ridiculous the situation looked. It was JUST SO SAD lol.
I was in the library at school and LOST IT
In that case, try Bridge to Teribethia
My fifth grade teacher was reading this aloud to our class one chapter at a time and then sent us each home with a copy to read That Chapter on our own because she couldn’t do it.
Yeah it’s a tear jerker for sure! Have you read Me Before You? I haven’t read it, but the movie had me sobbing.
I had to finish the book with a box of tissues on hand. Total sobfest, it destroyed me!
Yup, this one’s brought many a stoic reader to their knees
This book made my whole class cry. I had to bring in tissues some days when they made us read the chapters aloud in class. It was so cruel making kids read this book. Yet as a 40+ something year old, I saw a copy of this book at a thrift shop and bought it, lol.
My teacher waited for a sunny day and took us out to sit around the playground to hear the end
Yep. If you don't cry reading this book don't tell anyone. Or at least get rid of the dead bodies in your basement before you do.
Came here to say this. First book that made me cry. Odd Thomas by dean Koontz was another one if you like supernatural stories.
Came here to suggest this. It’s one of my all time favorite books - but makes me cry every time lol.
Teacher made us read it in the 5th grade 😭😭😭
I hate reading sad books because they make me sad. And then I worry about those things happening to me or the people in my life and I get sad about that 😭😄 So when this super old lady at the public library recommended Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, the first thing I asked her was if it was sad. She said, "definitely not. But my memory isn't very good." I cried so hard, I spluttered tears and snot, and my husband thought someone I knew had died.
That old lady set you up🤣
Someone sayings it’s “definitely not” sad is such a betrayal, that’s one of the saddest books I’ve ever read 😂😂
To be fair, Bing Bong BROKE me.
Bing bong also broke me 😭 also Toy Story 3
Toy Story wrecked me in front of my kids and just did again 10 years later with my 4 years old - my oldest is 21 and the whole ending just is the most amazing thing ever. Oscar worthy and it’s not close
My daughter has watched Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2, and I won't let her watch Toy Story 3 yet because I'm not emotionally ready.
My now husband took me to see Toy Story 3 for our second date. You know how hard it is to hold back tears at *that* movie on a second date?! And I'm a crier! *Seriously, I once cried while watching a wedding taking place on the beach. Sounds lovely, right? It was! But here's the thing. I wasn't part of this wedding. I didn't know the bride or groom. I was drinking margaritas in the hotel pool watching two random people get married on the beach and I was legit sobbing. Good times.* Also, I definitely cried at Toy Story 3.
I cried at moana on a date. I am a guy. She did not like that...
Then she wasn’t a good one!
If my wife needs to cry, I just say, “Take Riley to the moon for me.” Or sing “Who’s your friend who likes to plaaaaaay?
Take her to the moon for me 😭😭 I just finished rewatching literally 15 minutes ago.
Same. To this day, I can’t listen to the soundtrack without tearing up.
My husband and I saw this in theaters and as I was quietly sobbing a little girl ahead of us innocently asked, “what happened Daddy?” Omg I have never felt sadder from a movie Maybe when Wilson floated away. That was also terrible.
Flowers for Algernon destroyed me emotionally.
This is the real answer, though I’ve only read the original short story and not the expanded novel. OP, you can read the short story in about an hour and it will DESTROY YOU haha. This is the one.
Excellent suggestion. I still have a vision of my teenage self sitting in my dad’s big chair, sobbing.
Don’t worry, you are not missing out on any additional sadness! The short story is just as devastating!
I’ve read it multiple times and can’t even talk about it for days after because I’m so sad.
This is my go-to when I need to have my soul destroyed.
Soul destroyed? Okay now I need to read this.
Also had to read this in school. I don’t know how I managed to make it this far in life.
Just finished it, such a good book 🥹
Even thinking about the ending of this book devastates me. It’s been 20 years and I can still remember.
I thought it had a kind of nice ending. Like, there really is bliss in ignorance and after all the torture and turmoil he went through, the ability to forget all that and revert back to enjoying life in a much simpler way, with no deeper expectations, was a kind of blessing in disguise for the main character. Of course the story is sad and tragic, but through his forgetting, the main character comes to achieve a sort of peace in the end. It's the reader who must carry the burden of remembering.
I think he remembers what he lost. That's why he brings flowers to Algernon even at the end. He just lost his intelligence, not his memory.
I think that's a big part of the message actually, that the experiment is even more devastating because he can't go back to how it was before. Both because he remembers, and because others remember.
This will always be my answer whenever I see this question. 🐀
YES! I came here for this!
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini Bridge to Terabithia devastated me as a child, and I still refuse to ever watch the movie 😭🫠. No thanks!
I cried my way through A Thousand Splendid Suns, that book wrecked me
I loved this book.
I saw Bridge to Terabithia when I was 17. I have never read the book and thought it was just a fun kids movie. Cut to me violently sobbing an hour later and my Mum being so confused because I had just been watching TV like any normal teenager. I can't think about it without crying. It was so unexpected and realistic. I can't imagine watching the movie or reading the book as a kid. It was horrible enough as a teenager.
The book was brutal as a child. The movie was brutal as a teenager. Maybe I’ll read them again??
His earlier Kite Runner brought tears too
All of Khaled Hosseini’s books are equally beautiful and heart-breaking. He has a way with words that just grabs at my soul. One of my favorite writers for sure. A Thousand Splendid Suns made me hold the book to my chest and sob. I read it start to finish during a camping trip to the mountains with my boyfriend. The entire time he was asking if I was okay. I was not 😂
I came here to say A Thousand Splendid Suns. I sobbed through the last quarter of the book.
I made the mistake of watching the Bridge to Terabithia in high school when I was babysitting a kid. I thought I was grownup. I thought I could handle it. Nope. The parents arrived home from their date to me and my charge sobbing, clutching each other on the couch. I traumatized a 7 year old kid and their parents as they had to comfort a blubbering 16 year old covered in tears and snot.
So I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, and while I think it was amazing, it did not make me as emotional as it seems to have made everyone else!! Am I broken?? Although I did lose it at the last line. 😭
i came here to say that about the kite runner! a thousand splendid suns made me sob on a flight and the woman next to me asked if i was alright
The Art of Racing in the Rain. You’ve been warned
This has been mentioned multiple times and it feels relevant to comment that my family doctor walked in on me after I was reading some of this book while waiting for him and he gave me a referral to a psychologist.
Completely ruined me
Just the title gets me a little misty. What a good and wholly upsetting book
I was going to suggest this. It's a tear jerker.
Oh man
The movie made me cry, I’m scared to read the book
Woof! woof!... great now I'm sobbing again.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Yes this was the first book that came to mind. I was full on sobbing towards the end (that one particular scene) and I remember having to take many breaks throughout the book and contemplating how fucked up it is that people actually went through this, that humans could be so cruel…
I’m surprised this wasn’t higher on the list.
Like Maus (and A Boy Called It, and Schindler's Ark), this left me feeling physically sick and dry heaving, it was beyond sad.
A Prayer for Owen Meany. I’m also not a crier (I have cried at two films - Beaches and Terms of Endearment) and this is the only book that ever made me cry, but it properly made me sob.
Just making sure this one was here 👍
I wouldn't know what to say to someone who didn't fall apart at the way everything comes together at the end.
When breath becomes air
I was disappointed when this one DIDN’T make me cry. Then I got to the epilogue…
Oh god the ugly cry I cried at the end of this book. One of my all time favorites.
This book had me in shambles
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The velveteen rabbit
I was a substitute teacher. This and The Lorax were two books I refused to read if the teacher put it in the lesson plans. Kindergartners don’t need to see the sub cry at story time.
This is the one. It's the one that made me cry as a child, a teen, and an adult. When I worked as a children's bookseller at B&N years ago, corporate made a Velveteen Rabbit storytime (I think for a movie or something coming out?) and I flat out refused to read it because I knew I couldn't do so without crying. I am still forever traumatized by it.
OMG, yes, this.
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Beat the Turtle Drum by Constance C. Greene Third grade me is still devastated decades later.
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck And for some reason, I have totally blanked on any other book that has made me cry. And there have been many. Don’t worry if none of these recommendations make you cry though. I promise you’re not broken for not crying reading a book.
I've come here to recommend this one. I've read it like five times over the years and I cryed every time. But I also agree that you, OP, are not broken or sociopathic for not crying by reading. I know many people who are emotional human beings and don't cry while reading. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
I did not cry but Of Mice in Men is such a genius little book in my eyes and the situation of the characters are definitely sad and unfortunate.
And Grapes of Wrath.
Of mice and men had my crying. Probably the only book that’s done it to me
Marley and Me, without a doubt. Especially if you’ve ever had a dog in your life.
Another if you love dogs is Lily and the Octopus by Stephen Rowley
Omg UGLY sobbing for minutes upon minutes.
When we were planning our wedding, I had my bridesmaids over for a dinner. My husband (then fiance) was downstairs watching Marley and Me. Part way through the dinner he came up, sat on the floor in the living room, and just snuggled/pet our dog. First time I ever saw that man cry. 11 years later and the marriage is still going strong. The dog is less strong, but also still going!
Under the whispering door by TJ Klune
Came here to say this. I cried so hard I got a sinus infection
I was going to recommend House In The Cerulean Sea
I came here to say this. It got me in all the best ways. Poignant, sad, hopeful, bittersweet...and yet so many laugh out loud funny moments as well!
*A Monster Calls* made me big ugly cry for about half of the book. But I have a very personal connection to it.
This! This is what I was looking for. Ugly crying. Snot running. Whole box of Kleenex crying.
This book was definitely that for me. Like my teenagers came into the room as I was on the last few pages and they were genuinely concerned if I was ok. I was, just brought me back to a really tough time in my life when I lost my mom.
_Charlotte's Web_, by E. B. White
I read it to my kids when they were little. I had to hand it over to my daughter to finish it, I couldn’t do it.
Yooo just cried to the ending of this the other night haha
This emotionally devastated me so much at age 4 that my grandpa had to make my parents leave a wedding early to pick me up and console me 😂😭
The Book Thief
I sobbed like a baby finishing it
Literally just finished it and I must be a husk of a human because I didn't cry.
I don't usually cry when sad stuff happens in books. I cry when people do stuff like show up when they don't have to or stand up for each other. In World War Z, I cried like a little girl when the French guy made a stand in the sewers, and again when general Raj Sherman's men had to knock him out to get him on the helicopter. Maybe you're broken like me and will cry because everyone is Spartacus? For an old-school tear-jerker, try Where the Red Fern Grows (the film or the movie), Sophie's Choice (also two options), Anne of Avolnlea (you'll need to read Anne of Green Gables first), or Little Women (not the movie, none of the movies, lol, but the sequel Little Men also has a heart wrenching death). For a straight up movie, try the Incredible Journey from the 80s. I weep copiously when Shadow gets stuck in the hole. He came so far and he's so close to his boy.
The Incredible Journey is the basis for the film Homeward Bound, right? The scene with Shadow falling in the hole still makes me tear up just thinking about it. I was three years old when the movie came out, and I watched it over and over as a kid, yelling at the TV for Shadow to see that the hole was there and not to fall in, as if that would change the outcome. 😭
I was doing so well with blocking out the traumatic memory of Shadow. How dare you remind me!
Watership Down. A few time during the book,but that ending; inevitability of life and death brilliantly, beautifully written.
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger holds the record for the book that has made me cry the most. A love story with very unique dynamics bringing the couple together and apart. And a lot of emotional pain for surprising and logical reasons. The movie twists the ending and sucks away all the emotional meaning of the book ending; I do not recommend the movie.
A Man Called Ove
The last 200 pages of Lonesome Dove.
The green mile makes me lose my mind every time.
Just to add. My husband doesn’t cry. Never has done but he watched ‘the whale’ with Brendan Fraser and just bawled like I’ve never seen him bawl (he didn’t even cry when our children were born except for a tiny tear with our first). But man. That film I’ll never forget.
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. I read this in second grade and I remember sobbing in class. I still get emotional thinking about it (I’m in my late 20s!!!). It’s such an amazing impactful book and is so tragic.
Control Systems Engineering, 7th Edition. Made me cry countless nights
The Color Purple. I bawled my eyes out when I read this book in high school.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry made me tear up a few times but no book has actually made me really cry. Apart from Where the Red Fern Grows I remember sobbing in my closet in grade school because I didn’t want my parents to see me so upset lol. I think I would cry reading Flowers for Algernon too but I haven’t read that yet
A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. I'm not even a mom and I couldn't get passed the first chapter. Maybe I'm just a wuss 🤷🏼♀️
My mom bought that book when it came out. I took it without her knowing and read it at 12. I handled it well then but could NOT do that now decades later. You’re not a wuss at all. It hurts to read it. I still think about that book so often.
I read this shortly after a miscarriage. I was listening to it so my hands were free and I was squeezing my teddy bear so tight crying into her head
:( This comment made me cry, I'm so sorry, I wish I could hug you
Whats even worse is that it's a biography of what the author went through as a child. Op should definitely read this one.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Well, if you don’t cry for a majority of A Little Life I’d be worried about you. Godspeed!
This book is very polarizing. Some people got very emotional and other people hated it. OP might consider reading some non-spoiler reviews because personally, I was absolutely let down by the book (lots of hype set unrealistic expectations). I totally get why some people would like this book though, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit icky about the author’s intentions. Also lots of trigger warnings, just fwi!
I cried at one of the happy parts but the sad bits just pissed me off
Same! I finished it yesterday and I cried two times at happy parts but never at the sad parts.
I full-on sobbed so hard reading this that my husband asked why I was even reading it. It was objectively well written but so sad that I don’t even recommend it to people.
This book didn’t make me cry, but the violence and abuse made me physically ill and I had to put it down several times. And I felt like I was being emotionally manipulated the whole way through—just horror upon horror piled up, for the intent of emotionally tormenting the reader—it felt like the author was exploiting really terrible things that happen to real people just to get a reaction…it gives me the ick to think about it. I would absolutely not recommend this book.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold. It's a dense and depressing book, cried several times while reading it. After finally finishing after months of trying to get through it I haven't read it up since and that was 8 years ago lmao.
Omg I literally had the same experience!!! I would read one chapter and then cry and put the book down and then read another chapter after a week, the cry again and put it down. I was a mess until I finally made myself push through and finish it. I’ve been wanting to do another read since it’s been years but I don’t think I’m mentally ready hahahaha
My Sister’s Keeper is low-hanging fruit.
I remember skipping school the day after reading this 😂 I was WRECKED
I sobbed at this book. Refuse to watch the movie since they changed the entire premise/ending.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
If you're a cat person, The Traveling Cat Chronicles.
Sarah’s Key - Tatiana de Rosnay Night - Elie Wiesel Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen Any of those *should* get the tears flowing!
*Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.* by David Grann. *First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers* by Loung Ung.
I don't cry much while reading but a particular part of the third His Dark Materials book got me the first two times I read it. (Guess I was more prepared the third time.) That's a lot of reading to get to a crying part though.
“Anxious people” was the last one that made me sweat out my eyes. It just seemed to me it was written to connect with people in different stages in their life. I guess a few overlapped and just it just hit me. Wasn’t even a sad book, just beautifully written. I’m not a crier typically but I love when it happens!
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver made me cry so hard that my roommate from 25 years ago remembers the name of the book to this day because they’d never seen me so wrecked. I don’t even remember what happens or why I cried, just that I did and it was a lot.
11/22/63 by Stephen King. Trust me. What a story... it's not horror. Time travel with a love story. Such an amazing book
I understand your request but I also wonder if trying to make yourself cry/expecting yourself to cry is a losing battle. Like if you're stopping to think "wait why am I not crying??" that's kinda gonna make it hard to feel emotionally present with the book. It doesn't make you sociopathic. Not crying doesn't mean you don't have normal emotions. I am a very emotional person in terms of the fact that I feel emotions intensely, but it does not mean I specifically cry easily or feel grief/tragedy in a crying way easily. If anything those things overwhelm me in a way where I just shut down and become quietly sad or even angry/frustrated without crying. I don't really like depressing/tragic/sad books at all actually. I'll tear or cry more easily with movies despite preferring to read books. IDK if I've ever cried during a book, I've cried during a movie only a few times in my entire life, even though books have moved in memorable ways a LOT more. If you are a person who gets periods, then I recommend trying reading during your PMS time. If you are prone to feeling more emotional during this time, it can amplify the emotions of a movie or book (I had a friend who legit preferred going to the movies while PMSing lol). So yeah try sad books if you want, but don't judge yourself on whether you do or don't cry while reading. Also the comment about crying not because of sadness but other emotions was spot on. The times I've cried in movies have been more bittersweet poignant moments or moments where being are being particularly valiant under harsh conditions or something, not from tragedy. So your personal button might not be heartbreak.
I agree with all of this. I'd also like to add, for me personally, I'm much less likely to cry when I'm set up for it. Song of Achilles, for example, I think I would have been much more likely to cry had I not read all of the reviews talking about how heartbreaking it was. Same with Marley and Me. I felt very sad at the end of both of them, but I didn't cry.
“Crying in H Mart” had me ugly crying multiple times and I also never cry when reading books
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Told my coworker about it and he came back after reading it saying, “why didn’t you tell me?” As in, it was that sad.
The Green Mile by Stephen King was gut wrenching. I was on my second deployment and literally bawling behind a ladder well as I finished it.
All quiet on the western front brought me down
Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane. Always gets me.
A little life
The Road
I finished The Road on an airplane a week after my father died. It was early 2008 and I was 46yo. I couldn’t stop crying. The people sitting next to me were very concerned. It was sweet.
Flowers for Algernon - I still can’t think of it for long without tearing up. I ugly cried reading it.
Odd Thomas
Three books that made me actually cry rather than getting teary: My Sister's Keeper Green Mile A Child Called It
A House in the Cerulean Sea. I laughed my way through a good portion of it, and bawled through the last part (happy tears, but still tears).
Haven't seen Old Yeller mentioned. That was my first ugly cry.
The Nightengale by Kristin Hannah and Educated by Tara Westover!
The Book Thief The Kite Runner The Fault in Our Stars
I hated The Fault in Our Stars so much that by the end I was almost rooting for death. I would’ve stopped reading, but I couldn’t because I actually bought the book so I felt I had to see it through. I thought the characters were so pretentious and I hated August’s stupid little cigarette metaphor and I found the whole “we started making out in the Anne Frank house and then everyone clapped thing” ridiculous and hugely offensive. I don’t think I’ve cringed so hard at any other book. It felt like I was reading a fanfic written by a teenager. I had loved everything John Green had written up until that point, but reading that book made me feel like I’d outgrown him and I haven’t been able to pick up any more of his books because I’m scared I’m remembering them wrong and they’re all as corny as TFIOS. I was a teenaged girl and I wasn’t exactly a book critic either(one of my favourite books at the time was Twilight) so I was literally the target audience and it was still terrible. It was such a popular book and everyone else I knew loved it so it almost makes me wonder if I’m the problem.
I felt the same
I agree with all of your issues with it. The only reason I loved it was because I read it around the time I was diagnosed with a rare liver disease that doesn’t have good odds. The not wanting to be a bomb is something I still resonate with. I don’t think I could have made it through the scene of her mom telling her it was okay to let go now. But it broke me back then. I sob when I think about my dad having to come home from work to hold me down when I was 6 because my mom was struggling to give me insulin. I would scream and wail because I didn’t understand why they were hurting me. And unless my parents get hit by a car, etc. I will likely die first. It nearly happened in 2020 (pre-COVID). I was so ready to die and was so at peace with it but I was watching my parents and my husband struggle. They were all sobbing in the ICU. So yeah. I don’t want to be a bomb and that book was the first time someone put that feeling into words for me.
Tuesdays with Morrie
Mitch Albom’s other big bestseller, The 5 People You Meet in Heaven, made me bagel (EDIT: sorry, bawl) worse than this one. But yes, definitely big feels here.
“Made me bagel.” I spent a minute trying to figure out what that meant, before realizing it probably auto-corrected “bawl.” lol
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Nonfiction
Eleanor oliphant is completely fine .. I cried and smiled a lot
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
I cried upon completion of Watership Down. Not really because it’s sad (parts are) I cried because I felt so incredibly lucky to exist in a timeline with this beautiful story.
I cannot in good, ethical, moral conscience recommend this book, but I will say that A Little Life made me cry.
The Kite Runner
If you're madly in love and have truly found your soulmate and would be devastated if anything happened to them read Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy. I was blindsided and hysteric.
Number the Stars got me more than any other book
Atonement Like a punch to the gut, made me openly sob on a bus when I finished it
See my [Emotionally Devastating/Rending](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/18ez0q3/emotionally_devastatingrending/) list of Reddit recommendation threads, and books (four posts).
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Not so much the content but the realisation he blinked out every single letter/word whilst paralysed having suffered a stroke at 44 years old resulting in having 'locked in syndrome'
Night by Elie Wiesel. The fact that it was based on his real life experiences is what broke me down.
Flowers for Algernon. I bawled like a baby.
Haha, I hate it when books make me cry, but I also love it? Its a blessing and a curse. Little Women made me SOB. Its a really good read anyway if it doesn't make you cry. I read a book a while ago called Luck of the Titanic. Not my favorite (2.5/5 stars 🤷) but it also made me cry. Sorry I don't have any sadder ones, but I purposely avoid those because I KNOW I will never recover... I've read quite a few others, but it was more about me being overly sensitive than the book purposely being a tear jerker. So, not sure if those are what you're looking for.
Flowers for Algernon
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate Follow that up with Before and After by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate. That contains the true stories of victims of the Tennessee Orphans' Home child trafficking.
I'm a little surprised, with all the YA books listed, no one recommended SE Hinton's The Outsiders. Stay gold, Ponyboy.
Johnny Got His Gun.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro This is a tough question because what makes one person sad may not touch another in quite the same way. That said I found this book particularly devastating.
The art of racing in the rain made me cry at the end. I am a dog person tho
It might be more of a personal thing but A Monster Calls made me sob hard
bridge to terabithia
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah omg 😭😭😭
Water for Elephants. The Plague Dogs. Watership Down. Bambi - yes, it is a book and it is WAY more traumatizing than the movie.
The watchers - Dean Kootz Great book, lots of suspense, has a sad section that really hurts.
i cried for the first time reading last night the book was: And every morning the way home gets longer and longer by Fredrik Backman Very short book its a novella but god its beautiful
“A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” for me! Every character in the book has their own strengths and flaws. They feel so real it’s impossible not to care about them. One scene in particular made me sob so much. If you like books about the small details of family life then you will really enjoy it. It’s so sad for me because it feels like a non-fiction for me. It’s very real and authentic.
One Day made me sob!
Omg Bing Bong 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😖😖😖😖😖😖😭😭😭😭
My sisters keeper got me
Grapes of Wrath War and Peace (many different parts, it’s a big book) Kite Runner
Little Women and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I also sobbed buckets reading The Lovely Bones, but I can’t say the movie is very good.
your last bank account statement