What's the saddest book you've read?

[seravance]

Originally Posted by RaineDrop

Omg me too. In the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer the episode where Joyce (her mom) dies is called The Body, and I've never once watched it all the way through. I can't. I usually skip the one following as well because I bawl the whole time.

Oh my God, I bawled my eyes out. My boyfriend called me right when I was watching it and I was so distraught he thought I was telling him someone I knew died because I couldn't stop crying.

I don't usually cry over books but I read one when I was maybe thirteen called A Mango Shaped Spaced that made me cry pretty hard.

[Writing.Geek.]

Originally Posted by Night Wanderer

A couple years ago I teared up at one part in The Outsiders. Other than that, I really can't think of any. A Walk To Remember nearly bored me to tears if that counts Though it's possible I'm just emotionally dead. :P

When I read The Outsiders I bawled at the end. It was so sad. I become very emotional when I read books, I'm not sure why. If I laugh or cry in a book that usually marks it as 'good' or not. I like to be 'right there' with the characters.

[JustStoryteller]

Paco's Story by Larry Heineman
There is truth here.

[Uath]

All Creatures Great and Small had some really sad parts. People can die all day, but when the faithful dog gets it, I'm crying like a baby.

[Echo75]

I cry every time I read the part in Mary Renault's The Bull From the Sea where Hippolyta dies. And it's my favourite book so I must have read it more than 100 times (first read it at 11).

I also cried at the end of the Amber Spyglass, the last in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. Other than that, I cry over poetry a lot (sometimes my own when it doesn't work out, but mostly others).

Reddy, I have to warn you that I don't rate The Lovely Bones. It started with a good idea and has moments of rare lucidity, but the author hadn't thought through the ending, which was very very disappointing for me and has the protag acting rather out of character, ghost or not.

[A.Zerro]

Third Transmission by Jack Heath. It's the third book in a series and... well I balled my eyes out. I couldn't control myself v.v *ashamed*

[AdamMMA]

Originally Posted by Firefly

The Lovely Bones. I can't bring myself to watch the movie of it yet, because the book is my favorite.

I saw the movie of this earlier and thought it was good. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it to someone who has read the book because (a) I've not done so as yet & (b) Members of the cast admitted in interviews the book was about three times as long comparatively. In any case, am about to buy the book.

As for the saddest I've ever read nothing is outstanding having just scanned content of my bookshelf, although Alex Garland's The Beach was quite thought-provoking...

[litchickuk]

The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffennegger. Cried at the book so no wonder I cant bring myself to watch the movie!

[TheRunoff]

The Brothers Karamazov, by far - the end, the child who dies, Ilyusha, his father's reaction. The saddest thing I've ever read.

[Secret]

Originally Posted by litchickuk

The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffennegger. Cried at the book so no wonder I cant bring myself to watch the movie!

That movie is sad. It's good, but...
I just saw it earlier this week, Sunday night, and I will never watch it again.

I don't really find books sad. The saddest book I read was Harry Potter Book 6 when Dumbledore died.

[Shikkui]

Originally Posted by Writing.Geek.

When I read The Outsiders I bawled at the end. It was so sad. I become very emotional when I read books, I'm not sure why. If I laugh or cry in a book that usually marks it as 'good' or not. I like to be 'right there' with the characters.

oh yeah... when we read it in English class... I nearly cried... when I got home, I re-read it and cried... TT^TT

[PersonaNonGrata]

Most of my Summer reading this year was just... Depressing. The Old Man and the Sea, The Catcher in the Rye, and Of Mice and Men. All of them were sad in many ways, and just pretty damn depressing...

Crying is for girls.

[Writing.Geek.]

Well then, some guys must be girls in disguise.

[Tekakwitha]

Originally Posted by HoiLei

Bridge to Terabithia. I don't think I could read it again.

Yes, this too is the saddest story I have ever read, but I would read it again.
It's supposed to be a children's novel, teen age, but I read this as an adult. It is really a good book for any age, award winner too. Dont recall which one though.

[Writing.Geek.]

I've never read Bridge to Terabithia.

I have however, just finished The Time Traveler's Wife. It's a cross between bittersweet, and very sad. It's a very close tie between A Walk To Remember and The Time Traveler's Wife now for which one is the saddest. Both were tear jerkers for me (I get very tied to characters when I read), and I love both of them equally, in different ways.

[iambum]

That would have to be "Sam's letters to Jennifer" by James Patterson. It so sad that I can't read it over again. But I highly recommend this to everyone.

[rebeccarpierce]

I cried reading Marley and Me. There's just something about losing one's dog that makes me lose my cool faster than anything else! I refuse to watch the movie. I don't think I can handle it.

As far as movies go, I think "Somewhere in Time" is the biggest tear-jerker. So much so, I am avoiding the book it's based off of: Bid Time Return.

[LurkingDarkness]

Hmmm....

I never really read a sad book. Closest I have read was Pet Semetary =p.

It wasn't really sad, but it was tragic and I had sympathy for the characters.

Don't think that counts lol, but that is the saddest book I have read.

LurkingDarkness

[sparta98]

Eli Wiesel's NIGHT... It didn't make me cry (no book/movie ever has) but it made me feel sick to my stomach for hours after reading it. Same with Anne Frank's Diary.

[Heroshade]

Originally Posted by Reddy Dean

The Dark Tower books altogether were very sad, but I think the ending of the final book is the saddest thing I've read in a book.

Agreed. The ending to the... forth one I think, whichever one was the prequel, was extremely sad as well. Night was the saddest non-fiction book I've ever read.

[TaylorVann]

Two saddest books i think I have read are 1984 and "a scanner darkly". At the end of 1984 when I read

"Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

I thought I was going to be sick... And in a scanner darkly when he became a burnt out shell of a man i felt the same way. I can face any hardship pain or humiliation as long as I am myself at the core . But the thought of losing my passion and my mind terrifies me. The living death that these characters had to face is the worst fate I could imagine

Maybe not an original answer, but Sebastian Faulks' Bird Song did it for me.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy made me feel for the depravity of human action when desperation takes over. I would say that I felt sad, pathetic, disgusted, and a myriad of other emotions. Strong book if you ever get the chance.

[phineasfreak]

'Hiroshima Joe' by Martin Booth, about a British officer who gets captured at the fall of Hong Kong and gets interned in a POW camp near Hiroshima.

I could go further with this but i wont at the risk of ruining an excellent book for anyone who chooses to read it - I will however warn you it is pretty unflinching in all senses, I read it when I was quite a bit younger and found it deeply affecting, the central protagonist is definitely an antihero but you'd have to be flint hearted not to sympathise with him.

This is not an easy read by any means and I put it in this thread for a reason, I'd be interested if anyone else has read it and what they thought.

[Secret]

My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson. The beginning was very sad, and the entire situation was just painful. So much betrayal, but it's times like that when you learn who to count on and just how strong friendships are.

[Dragon King]

I'm not what you'd call emotional at all, but there are a few books - Scarecrow by Matthew Reilly was one, because he killed off a favourite long-running character and the other was the Boy in the Striped pyjamas that get me pretty sad.

[SophiVengeance]

my Sister's keeper was a pretty sad book.

[SKDNY]

I agree Sophi. As are most of Jodi's books.

[elainefelicity]

I read Rachel Vincent's Shifter series. I don't want to spoil but suffice it to say 'Prey' was the only book to ever succeed in making me cry!! That book is 3rd on my all time list of favourite books!