Don't think this a widely known book but seraphina more specifically the second one. shadow scale by Rachel hartman
Spoiler?
finished reading it in my math class last year, when she killed off my favourite character with no warning, and I couldn't react because I didn't want to seem weird
Into The Wild
The Catcher in the Rye. It was part of our Man In Conflict class and my 16-year-old mind just took Holden on as a long-lost brother. 56 now and I keep a copy in my backpack.
Book 4 of the stormlight archive near the end cause I don't want to spoil anything but it's very emotionally cathartic.
I love this thread - keep 'em coming. So many gems discovered that I would never have found out by myself.
Still Alice - Lisa Genova hit hard. It left me just sitting with my thoughts & staring at nothing when I finished and it left me feeling so sad for days after
edit:wording
1984 - George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
I had to read it about 10 times because I was 'translating' it into Newspeak, and the ending was just so sad, every single time....
I recently finished Jodi Piccoult's Mad Honey. I didn't cry but I couldn't put it down, and it lived rent free in my mind for weeks afterwards. It's one of the only books I've read and walked away from feeling like it was a truly important book. It changed my perspective on so very many things. A subject that I accepted but never really felt comfortable with now makes so much more sense, and I see things in a new light.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Replay by Ken Grimwood. I read it every few years and every single time it changes my perspective on my view of my personal timeline.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Such a beautiful friendship between Owen and Johnny, and Owen is such a unique, compelling and tragic character completely realized. Add in a memorable supporting cast like Johnny's mother and grandmother, and you have an unforgettable story.
Slaughterhouse 5 resonated with me on a "someone else gets it" level, especially with things falling out of order and happening all at once, the passively resigned motto of "so it goes", the avoiding the point for as long as possible until you can't anymore.
The vimes disc world series is a comfort go-to, though I don't know that was the intended emotion.
The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The vocabulary was hard to follow at times, but you're right there with the characters in every emotional beat. It also captured the "dragon rider" concept in a way that most high fantasy just fails to do for me.
This book absolutely. I have read it so many times. The movie is amazing as well.
I can't remember the exact title, but when I was roughly 9 years old, I read a biography of Annie Oakley and afterwards I was WRECKED. I remember running to my mom, sobbing my eyes out and her telling me that sometimes that happens with really good books.
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese was definitely a very emotionally powerful book. A general fiction book that deals with complicated family relationships and consequences of Canadian colonialism on families. The main character, Franklin, is a teenager living with an adoptive father. He gets news that his estranged biological father is dying and wants to see him one last time. Highly recommend it.
Andy Weir's The Martian and Project Hail Mary make me feel like I can build a rocket with a box of scraps. Something about the process of Problem -> Plan -> Execution -> Repeat
plot structure he uses just turns on all the lights in my brain.
Manicpixiedreamgirl by Tom Leveen.
Read this in highschool and it really taught me not to idolize people and put them on pedestals. Basically a "what you think of a person might not be who they are" type feeling. Stuck with me since.
Lots of books have never left me, but these books made me feel very, very strongly at different times in my life:
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
Anne Frank's Diaries, Anne Frank
The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
A Child of God, Cormack Mc Carthy
Roots, Alex Haley
The Miserables, Victor Hugo
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
Hans Christian Andersens Fairytales are also generally horrendously sad. Especially The Little Matchstick Girl.
Maybe not the type of stuff that normally gets discussed in this sub, but the Mushoku Tensei light novels had a profound impact on me when I read them. Obviously the main character is an extreme example, but any young male who finds themselves isolated and unhappy with the state of their lives can find some relation to Rudy and the feelings he has internally. Seeing him go from essentially a self serving and bitter loner to someone who genuinely cares for those around him and works to better himself not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the people he loves really resonated with me and pushed me to let go of the past and work towards a brighter future and to appreciate the people that matter in my life.
Hiroshima, by John Hersey. Humanity.
Chapter 108, 'Memories' in Rhythm of War makes me tear up every time I read it. Sometimes I just read that chapter randomly to make sure I still have feelings because I've found I've become more cynical as I've aged.
The Kite Runner
Me Before You
Lily and the octopus. I cried like a little baby.
Requiem for a Dream
I had to put this one down several times in order to get through it.
A Monster Calls; my mother died of a sickness, when I was very young. I still can't read the book without crying.
Came here to say this. It's amazing and completely heartbreaking. Loved it!
Such a simple book but 'the little prince'
YES I'd respond with the same. I remember reading it when I was younger and then rereading it as I got older and it just flows and fits no matter how old you are.
“Little Universes” I’m still not over how this book made me feel and I don’t think I ever will be 🥲
Omg that's such a hidden gem! It's one of my favorites and I plan to reread it soon
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Seconding All the Light We Cannot See
The epilogue of Crime and Punishment was likely some of the most uplifting and hopeful literature after have sat the previous through 600 pages. Something in the idea of redemption that is conveyed is beautiful.
Gone with the wind… this novel made me feel every emotion. I put the book down so many times due to anxiety or fear or anger. There were also happy, exciting, and funny parts
This is a book that I have to visit every couple of years. I read it first in my early twenties and I remember sobbing at the end, for Mel, for Scarlet, for love lost and a life of selfish choices.
Every time I visit with new eyes and life experience and I see things a bit different. I don't cry anymore, but I always feel sad to never find out if there would ever be a happy ending.
Inevitably, I will walk around saying "damn Yankees" for a couple of weeks afterwards and I get weird looks.
The Alchemist
The God of Small Things
Yes to God of Small Things! Especially the last chapter 🫠
and I oop