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Original poster

Most heartbreaking lines from a book ever...

409 replies

iamdivergent · 17/10/2017 10:36

Mine has to be this one...

Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.

I cried so hard the three times I've read the book (I haven't put the name of the book in case of spoilers) - what lines got to you?

OP posts:
Grapeeatingweirdo · 17/10/2017 12:30

Jojo Moyes "The girl you left behind" when you realise that they found each other and ran away! The only book I have ever cried at.

Armi · 17/10/2017 12:27

I’m crying so much I can’t do the bloody ironing!

BlaWearie · 17/10/2017 12:23

Isabelle yours is heartbreaking because it's true. I wasn't really expecting anything quite so sad. How can people be so awful to each other?

TrickOrRuddyTreat · 17/10/2017 12:18

It's not a particular line but there is a section in John Grisham's 'The Confession' where the mother of an executed young man washes his body and dresses him and it's so heart-wrenching I have never been able to forget it.

BertrandRussell · 17/10/2017 12:16

Read the thread now. Whitehorses- you beat me to it and have a better memory.......!

BertrandRussell · 17/10/2017 12:12

"And on the breast where she took her first breath, XXXX quietly drew her last. With no more farewell than a loving look and a little sigh"

capercaillie · 17/10/2017 12:10

His Dark Materials is full of them. The last chapter of the Amber Spyglass particularly...

ElsaMars · 17/10/2017 12:10

Oh my goodness. Bawling here. I don't remember a particular quote but reading the end of My Sisters Keeper broke me. I was sat on a beach, sobbing.

Original poster
iamdivergent · 17/10/2017 12:09

Mars The Book Thief destroyed me.

"Rudi!"

Sad
OP posts:
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 17/10/2017 12:08

When I saw the thread title I thought of that book/quote OP.

I was listening to the audiobook in the gym, and I knew that but was coming so I was steeling myself to absolutely.not.cry in the gym. Of course I did though...

TieGrr · 17/10/2017 12:06

Dame - Mog the Forgetful Cat Sad

IsabelleSE19 · 17/10/2017 12:05

treaclesoda There's probably an earlier bit which is the bit you were thinking of, as they already have their heads shaved in the bit I quoted.

Found it:

'Then it was the children's turn. André shuffled up along the queue, frightened of what his mother would say if she saw him with a shaved head. He remembered the feeling of her hand as she stroked his skull, allowing the soft, dark hair to trickle out over the webbing of her fingers. Would she recognise him shorn?'

Need to get a grip of myself before I collect my DD from preschool or they're going to think there's been a death in the family!

Straycatblue · 17/10/2017 12:02

From Watership Down

"My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today."

MarsBarsAreShrinking · 17/10/2017 12:01

I can't remember any of the exact lines but the ending of The Book Thief made me hysterical with sadness. I sobbed for ages after finishing it, absolutely devastating.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 17/10/2017 11:56

Mog died??? The witch in the children's books? NooooooooSad

peoplearepeople · 17/10/2017 11:56

A more recent one for me was the line "You made me shiny" from Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. I found the whole book quite emotional for many reasons which is quite unlike me.

DoraChance · 17/10/2017 11:51

OMG yes I had trouble getting through Goodbye Mog. This is mine though, from Anne of Green Gables:

She could see Matthew’s face smiling at her as he had smiled when they parted at the gate that last evening - she could hear his voice saying, ‘My girl - my girl that I’m proud of.’ Then the tears came and Anne wept her heart out.

Gets me every time, and I don’t often cry at books.

Original poster
iamdivergent · 17/10/2017 11:47

I'm crying at these too! Argh...why do we do it to ourselves...

OP posts:
treaclesoda · 17/10/2017 11:46

That's exactly the bit I was thinking of, I had just remembered it incorrectly.

Original poster
iamdivergent · 17/10/2017 11:45

Crunchy yes, L.S.

Blackadder there's something in my eye...I'm on my third (and last) and dh frequently says I'm a big softy with him.

Tie I remember crying at that part in HP too

Woman so sad!

Kraggle I told dd2 that there wasn't a farewell not book! Couldn't bear to read it

OP posts:
treaclesoda · 17/10/2017 11:45

Sorry, didn't realise that Charlotte Gray had already been referenced. No wonder I'm wailing at this thread. It chokes me.

notsteve · 17/10/2017 11:41

The Little Prince has thousands, I can't get through it without crying.
' "My little friend, you have been scared..." He has been scared, for sure! But he laughs sweetly: "I will be much more scared tonight..." '

' "When you look at the sky at night, because I will live in one of the stars, because I will laugh in one of them, then it will be for you as if all the stars are laughing. You, you will have stars which know to laugh!" '

' "Tonight... you know... don't come."
"I will not leave you."
"I will have an air of sadness. I will have a little air of death. It's like this. Don't come to see it, it's not worth it..."
"I will not leave you."
"I'm telling you. It is also because of the snake. He must not bite you. Snakes are wicked. They can bite for pleasure..."
"I will not leave you."
But something reassured him. "It's true that they don't have enough venom to cause a second death..." '

treaclesoda · 17/10/2017 11:41

I can't quote the exact line but there is a bit in the book Charlotte Gray, where a little boy is being sent to the gas chamber, although he doesn't know it, and he is worried about his mother being angry that he let the people shave his head, because she wouldn't like what it looks like. I howled reading it. In fact, I'm crying again just thinking about it. It sounds quite similar to some of those quoted here.

MephistophelesApprentice · 17/10/2017 11:41

Ok, didn't need to be reminded of Mog, now crying in toilets at work.

AlistairSim · 17/10/2017 11:37

I've read that book, Grandma and it traumatised me and made me feel like life is sometimes so hopeless.