Top Ten Books That Made Me Cry

Today, the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish have asked us to list the Top Ten books that made me cry.

I am feeling so sad just looking at this list

Here are the top ten books that were beautifully written and which made my heart break at the same time.

1. The saddest book I read last year and one of my all-time sobfest stories is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s the story of a small boy trying to cope with his father’s death in the 9/11 bombing attacks on the World Trade Center.
2. Coming a close second was A Storm of Swords by George R.R.Martin. Because, well, incredibly sad things happen in it. But also, it’s just the way it’s written. I went back earlier this year to reread sections of the book, and it was almost physically painful. However, the foreshadowing is brilliant, the atmosphere and moodiness leading up to the events that happen is brilliant. The tragedy is almost Shakespearian in style.
3. Which brings me to Macbeth, which is one of my all-time favorite tragedies by Shakespeare. It’s brilliant, over the top, and dramatically tragic, and oh, I love a good foreshadowing. This is one of my all-time favorite sad stories.
4. All the Harry Potter books by J.K.Rowling where someone died – I didn’t mind Sirius death too much, but Cedric’s death in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore’s in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Snape’s in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows killed me.
5. Atonement by Ian McEwan is so so sad. Till the end it looks like there is a happy ending in sight, only to have the rug pulled suddenly to devastating effect in the last few pages. Again, a sad but masterfully written last couple of chapters.


Sad true, but also some of my favorites

6. Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro was another subtly written sad book. Every emotion is muffled and toned down but still there was a devastating impact on me. I couldn’t stop thinking about this book for a long, long time.
7. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini was also incredibly sad, but also uplifting. It’s not a complete tragedy in the sense that one person’s sacrifice enables two others to go and live happy lives, but it is still a very, very touching story.
8. Nineteen Minutes is the one and only Jodi Picoult book I have read. It’s a topical book about events that lead up to a school shooting from the eyes of the shooter, his friends, and those who tormented him. Haunting, and very, very sad. It was a bit too sad for me though because after that I haven’t read any Picoult books.
9. An oldie but a goodie sad story is Love Story by Erich Segal. I read it as a teenager and bawled. I doubt I will find it as engrossing or tragic now, but it is still a very sad book.
10. On similar lines, I read A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway as a teen too, and cried over the sad end to the soldier’s love story.

Do you enjoy reading sad books? Which ones are your favorites?

I am not a big fan especially when I think the author is deliberately trying to manipulate my emotions, or if I feel the sadness is inserted for some kind of dramatic effect. However, I didn’t get that cynical feeling I usually get with sad books in the list I just created.

Which books did you read which was written to make you sad but didn’t?