If you’re looking for books that are guaranteed to break your heart and make you shed plenty of tears- look no further. Forget about the sad part, these are all incredible novels that book lovers should read. No, there’s no The Fault In Our Stars or My Sister’s Keeper on this list. These will be arranged in level of sadness.
Books that will pull on your heart strings:
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
This book won’t make you cry but your heart will break. Eleanor is a redhead who is a little bit on the chubby side. Park is an Asian teen who is fairly popular but revels in the fact he doesn’t belong. The romance is so real because it doesn’t happen right away and the obstacles that keep them apart are different from anything you’ve ever read.
Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
June Elbus is a 14 year old girl who finds her world turned upside down when she learns her Uncle Finn is dying of AIDS. June lives in New York in the 1980’s, a time when no one knew anything about the disease and assumed it was highly contagious. Another secret about June is that she is in love with this gay Uncle and is startled when his boyfriend reaches out to her. June and Toby soon bond over how much they loved Finn and too lonely souls take comfort in each other. This book is extremely different but it’s not gross, it tells a coming of age story many people never considered. Please read this, you won’t regret it.
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
This is the first book I ever fell in love with. I read it in the third grade and my passion for reading became amplified by the new perspective this book gave me. Yes, it’s technically a children’s book but it makes you feel things the majority of adult books don’t touch on.
Books that will destroy your heart:
Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
This book has so much hype and that makes you not to read it but it’s so much better than you think. After I read it, I just felt blank after reading it. Every aspect of it catches you off guard even if you already heard about the ending. It’s a book entirely withy the read.
Wintergirls by Lauire Halse Anderson
Her book Speak is more popular but this one especially grasped my attention. It’s heartbreaking how the narrator has to survive despite the grief that she feels. The book is realistic because everything is gradual and everything leads back to the issue that holds her back.
Room by Emma Donahue
This book is narrated by a five year old who only knows the life he lives in a small room with his mother. The reality is that he and his mother are being held captive but seeing it through the eyes of the child gives us a refreshing perspective of innocence while dealing with this heavy topic.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult
The narrators jump around quite a bit but once everything settles down, the characters must come to terms with what happens next. This book deals with school shooting which is clearly a heartbreaking subject. Where it’s true sadness comes from is seeing through the eyes of Lacy, the shooters Mom who was a midwife. She must deal with the scrutiny the small town places on her.
Prepare for tears
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
This book is narrated by a dog named Enzo who has a vast knowledge of all things racing due to his race car driver owner. The way Enzo phrasing the events that happen in his long life are hilarious and also sad. The love Enzo and Denny share is an accurate depiction of the relationship between a dog and his owner.
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
It’s better not to know anything about the plot before you read this so I’m a little antsy to even write this. However, it’s one of those books that needs to be shared. I hardly ever cry at books and I truthfully balled over this one.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner is obviously the most popular of his books but this one is one that I could read over and over again and still get the same feeling that I had the first time I read it. It shows the horrors women in Afghanistan were forced to endure over a span of thirty years. The storytelling is beautiful and the history is engaging. I couldn’t put this book down and read it in a day even though it’s rather lengthy.
Rachel's Rambles 