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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:
Original poster
iamdivergent · 25/10/2017 10:51

Clawdry I believe it's No Matter What

OP posts:
Clawdy · 25/10/2017 10:12

Which book is the starlight quote from?

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 24/10/2017 22:26

Love, like starlight, never dies

abbsisspartacus · 23/10/2017 22:08

The worst children's book about death is the mog one traumatised me I wouldn't let the kids have it

ditzychick34 · 23/10/2017 21:19

Does anyone remember badger's parting gift? It's a children's book about death, I cry just picturing the front cover!

DeriArms · 22/10/2017 22:13

The last two lines from Patrick Shaw-Stewart's poem 'Achilles in the Trenches'.
^Stand in the trench, Achilles,
Flame-capped, and shout for me^.
Always makes me cry, I think it's the terrible loneliness of the soldier knowing he is going to his death

Bettercallsaul1 · 22/10/2017 16:12

And his songs are better too. Wink

Jeanvaljean27 · 22/10/2017 11:19

Yes, Hugo's les miserables outdoes the Russians in terms of its misery. Particularly in the first half of the book.

SeaEagleFeather · 22/10/2017 11:08

or indeed, in Les Miserables =)

Jeanvaljean27 · 22/10/2017 10:35

Plenty of them in classic novels by Victorian doom-merchants like Thomas Hardy and George Eliot. Pick any of a number of examples from bleak novels like Jude the Obscure, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, etc.

Or you could venture towards 19th century Russian works by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky or Gogol. They're full of unremitting, unrelenting misery.

CountDuckulaTheSqueaky · 22/10/2017 10:29

Oh gosh, I've just realised what the quote in the OP is from... poor Hester. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

BonnieBlueButler · 22/10/2017 10:26

Lennie said, "I thought you was mad at me, George."

"No," said George. "No, Lennie, I ain't mad. I never been mad, and I ain' now. That's a thing I want ya to know."

This is the moment in 'Of Mice and Men' when I crack. Not good when reading it aloud to a class!

Original poster
iamdivergent · 22/10/2017 08:47

Omg ditsy why didn't I call any of mine that! There is a local shop that i walk past most days and thry have this wooden rabbit statue in the window and everytime insee it i think of Hester.

OP posts:
ditzychick34 · 22/10/2017 08:22

Sobbing just reading your op, I love Hester. I want to call next D that but DH says no 😁

Believeitornot · 22/10/2017 07:51

Oh another one, for anyone who’s ever read the Fitz books by Robin Hobb.

I recently discovered the third trilogy and was so excited.

Anyway, no spoilers but I was 😢😢😢😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

faithinthesound · 22/10/2017 06:37

“Mister Tom, I want you.”

I’m getting choked up just typing it.

The other line was the happy tears line from this book, but this for me is the sobbing in misery line.

Original poster
iamdivergent · 22/10/2017 06:27

abbs D's mother? I vaguely remember that I think.

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abbsisspartacus · 22/10/2017 03:00

Nation by Terry pratchett, shopoholic

BertrandRussell · 21/10/2017 22:11

"There are parties- but I'm not invited to them"

LoveDeathPrizes · 21/10/2017 22:09

No other book has ever made my blood run cold quite like Striped Pyjamas.

LoveDeathPrizes · 21/10/2017 22:08

@shopaholic yeah I should've stuck with it. It was the phrasing that annoyed me.

"You've probably guess by now, that X was a chimpanzee."

What the hell? Rip the rug from under me by dismantling the most compelling thread of the book and then make me feel like a dick for not anticipating it!

Believeitornot · 21/10/2017 21:23

There’s a bit in Goodnight Mr Tom where they find the boy with his baby sister after he was sent back home.

That really haunted me and I dare not read the book again.

Another book - a Prayer for Owen Meany. Awesome book.

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 21/10/2017 21:16

Oh Cathy do not leave me where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life. I cannot live without my soul.

shopaholic85 · 21/10/2017 21:15

She lifted the small cold body from his lonely coffin kissed his face and tucked him in beside their mother. The crying stopped

Where is this from?

shopaholic85 · 21/10/2017 21:13

iamdivergent and LoveDeathPrizes, I wasn't too sure about it either, but there was just something about the end that really moved me and still does.