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Books that make you cry

91 replies

Scimitarsandstars · 20/06/2025 12:46

I just finished Earth and Heaven by Sue Gee. I first tried to read it about 12 years ago but gave up as I was finding it too upsetting.

I picked it up again a few days ago as I love her writing and this book is so beautifully written. Once again, I was in floods of tears , although this time, I have finished it. I don't remember another book that has made me cry so much. I don't regret reading it though. It is so thoughtful and moving, and so evocative about the post WW1 period (although I am slightly doubtful about the ending).

So I am wondering, has anyone else read a book recently that's made you sob? And did it put you off reading it?

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Booksaresick · 10/07/2025 22:49

I cried last week reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

maslinpan · 10/07/2025 21:21

Just finished Bee Wilson's book The Heart shaped Tin. She talks very movingly about losing her mum to dementia, and that really set me off.

Latenightreader · 10/07/2025 21:18

Alan Bennett's A Cream Cracker under the Settee. We read it in GCSE English and I was an absolute mess, fully on snotty sobbing in the middle of the lesson.

Liondoesntsleepatnight · 10/07/2025 19:32

The Lovely Bones and The Road.

bringonyourwreckingball · 10/07/2025 19:11

Matthew’s death in Anne of Green Gables gets me every single time

GingerLiberalFeminist · 10/07/2025 19:00

A Thousand Splendid Suns cripples me. I tried to reread it recently and had to quit. Beautifully written.

The Grapes of Wrath cuts me up, pretty much any Steinbeck is hard going but this one is like pop up pirate for emotional distress. Again they're all beautifully written.

Many classics distress me actually. Lord of the Flies, Tess, A Room with a View. And weirdly Bridget Jones edge of reason but I was pregnant and very emotional 😂

PosiePerkinPootleFlump · 10/07/2025 18:43

I remember reading Testament of Youth as a sixth former and just being in bits.

I agree on Hamnet and also other Maggie O’Farrell.

Fairyvocals · 10/07/2025 18:23

Me too, @elQuintoConyo . I can’t think of a book that upset me more as an adult.

elQuintoConyo · 10/07/2025 17:36

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Ripped my heart out of my arse.

WaitedBlankey · 10/07/2025 13:51

A Monster Calls had me in such snotty tears I could barely breath.
Charlotte's Web - even as an adult, knowing what was coming, I still can't read this aloud without tears.

Ithaca by Claire North - Clytemnestra facing her end with such dignity and love for her son... I was not expecting that to move me to tears but it did.

Basically anyone being brave for their friends or loved ones. I can't handle bravery and self sacrifice. It undoes me. Sydney Carlton in A Tale Of Two Cities used to have me in bits when I was in my Dickens phase.

Username65 · 10/07/2025 13:31

Dappy777 · 20/06/2025 22:53

Dickens kills me - the scene in David Copperfield, where he sees his mother for the last time, or that bit in Bleak House where Joe cleans the grave of a drug addict who was kind to him, because that’s all he can do (I’m welling up as I type). And don’t get me started on Joe in Great Expectations. He is all that is good in the human race. As for A Christmas Carol, I can’t even watch the flippin muppet version because I cry like a child.

I also find Thomas Hardy quite upsetting. The helplessness of Tess is awful, especially that scene where she cuts her hair in the hope that men will leave her alone.

Oh, and that scene in Brideshead Revisited where Cordelia describes the likely death of Sebastian. It’s so beautifully done that it brings tears to my eyes.

Totally agree with the Dickens examples - and would add to them the end of A Tale of Two Cities. Just devastating.

The death of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch - I can still see the illustration in the book of the children weeping over his body.

Blackcountryexile · 07/07/2025 22:04

Someone else who was in tears reading Hamnet and Burial Rites.

Sea Defences by Hilary Taylor
Moon Road by Sarah Leipoiger . Both of these books are written from the perspective of mothers whose children die in accidents.

SlightlyJaded · 04/07/2025 13:38

OK - so i've just finished All the Colours of the Dark which I started last week (based on this thread). I REALLY enjoyed it. I didn't cry but I can see how you would. Great book - thanks for suggesting it.

MuddlerInLaw · 04/07/2025 13:18

I have a favourite bench in Oxford Botanic Garden, so at this time of year I often feel Will and Lyra hovering somewhere close to me …

Rallentanda · 04/07/2025 13:02

The Green Ship, Quentin Blake
The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
A book by Primo Levi called The Drowned and the Saved: it's essays on common questions he got about the experience of being in Auschwitz, the working of it etc. I have no idea why I subjected myself to it but it had me in bits.

CrushingOnRubies · 04/07/2025 12:51

Life on a kitchen door. Not sure of the author. And it’s about a mum and DD who communicate through post its on the kitchen door. It’s a very short book but perfect for when you just need a good sob and need to let it all out.

notatinydancer · 04/07/2025 10:14

Private Peacful

thepariscrimefiles · 04/07/2025 10:00

'The Hand That First Held Mine' by Maggie O'Farrell.

Deathraystare · 02/07/2025 20:24

Only really cry over animals. So The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford - also a film.

I cannot describe it to people without welling up. Basically three animals two dogs and a cat are somehow left behind when a family move and this is their journey to finding their people. At the very end one dog and the cat turns up (I am welling up now!!) and the boy is thinking the old dog didn't make it. Oh god I am really crying now!!). I remember trying to tell my sister in law about it and it took me 5 goes and in the end she begged e to stop as I was crying so much!

CatChant · 27/06/2025 18:14

Dorothy Dunnett’s Pawn in Frankincense.

Imonlysaying · 27/06/2025 17:50

Another vote for The Kite Runner. Sublime 🥹

Tcateh · 27/06/2025 17:16

The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden

raspberryberet7 · 27/06/2025 15:07

SlightlyJaded · 25/06/2025 19:20

Have started All the Colours of the Dark today (on the back of this thread). Tissues close by....

Best book I’ve ever read tbh

raspberryberet7 · 27/06/2025 15:06

Just finished Betty I was sobbing

Uricon2 · 26/06/2025 11:19

Billy Prior witnessing Wilfred Owen's death at the end of Pat Barker's The Ghost Road. I knew it was going to happen but sobbed my eyes out in a (fortunately empty) train carriage.