Books that break your heart

[Moominfan]

Colson whitehead under ground railroad. He brought out another book knickel boys and I just can't bring myself to read it.

Room- I started it and just knew I'd be thoroughly depressed by this book so shelved it.

I thought the lovely bones was a big pile of wank. Not emotional at all.

I do have a heart of stone though.

The only book I have ever cried at was Intimacy by Hamid Kureishi

The outsiders 😭

I am terrible for sobbing over books but The Lovely Bones just didn't do it for me at all!

Philip Gould's Before I Die. Heartbreaking and difficult to read the end chapters, but also beautifully written.

Another one for My Sister's Keeper. Also the Flowers in the Attic books (except the 3rd).

I made the mistake of reading road whilst heavily pregnant. Ugly cried on the bus when he gave his son a can of coke

The war horse

The Book Theif.

It's also the only book where the movie is exactly how I'd imagined it. Usually the movies of books are a let down to me and never as good as the experience of reading it.

@Asterisktheknackered that was what I was going to post. So achingly sad and beautiful. I get get rid of the book but I can't bring myself to reading it again.

Can I try that last sentence again? I can't get rid of the book, but I can't bring myself to read it again.

Beth dying on Little Women always causes ugly sobbing...

Agree with My sister's keeper, and any of Torey Hayden's books.

Will add
PS I love you, Cecilia Ahern
Do they hear you when you cry, Fausiya Kasindja (spelling could be wrong)
Hope in a Ballet Shoe, Elaine and Michaela DePrince
No Greater Love, Danielle Steele. I couldn't put this one down when I first read it aged 12ish. I almost got run over walking to school because I was reading it

The Wisdom Of Sally Red Shoes, too.

On Chesil beach...totally sobbed

I cried at Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
And the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry

My Sister's Keeper for me too.

I thought Splendid Suns and Kite Runner were dreadfully badly written. It felt like the writer had gone "now what do we need for a best seller about Afghanistan? Bit of maiming and violence against women? Sorted!"

Time Traveller's Wife irritated the bejaysus out of me.

I cried at Angela's Ashes.

Also a different PS I love you- a teenage love story where he dies.

Love Story itself. "then I did what I had never done before in his presence, let alone his arms; I cried"

Water ship Down - when Hazel leaves his body and goes with the black rabbit.

I came on here to say Goodnight Mr Tom, glad I'm not the only one who cries every time! I cry at the film too.....

Before I Say Goodbye by Ruth Picardie. Read it when pregnant with DS1 nearly 20 years ago and it haunted me for weeks. Still does.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguru. Full on ugly crying.

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford - I didn't weep, but it just fills me with a sort of yearning wistful sadness every time

Anne of Green Gables.
I must have read it over 100 times, I start to well up before I even read the bit that makes me cry, and then I ugly cry every time!

And One Day, was just so unexpected, was listening to it on audio, out for a walk, and my god I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.

YY to War Horse and A Monster Calls.

I read the lovely bones and couldn't connect with the character at all, no tears shed there.

Never Let Me Go was another I remember sobbing over, and that bit from His Dark Materials (Hester and Lee).

Yes I agree with A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner. Also My Sister’s Keeper and Lovely Bones. Can’t agree with the Hardy books, I detested every single one of his books!

Another good one is Recipe for a Perfect Marriage (can’t remember the author, Kate someone?)

Life on the refrigerator door by Alice Kuipers

Basically a teen dd and a single mum leave notes on the fridge door. Before during and after the mums battle with cancer.

It's my go to book when the need to cry as been building for a while. The ending gets me everytime

The Unwomanly Face Of War by Svetlana Alexeivich. It's an unusual book in that it tells the stories of Russian women during WW2. Many of the stories are harrowing.

It's a very hard read, and if you don't cry you have a heart of stone.

War and Peace. I can read it up till the bit when Princess Lisa dies in childbirth, then I have to put it away.
To me, who almost died giving birth 50 years ago, it brings me to the horrors of it all. It must be the most dreadful description of death in childbirth ever written, and would not recommend it to anyone who is pregnant, especially for the first time.