Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Made You Weep

Meme from The Broke and the Bookish.

Janet

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Do I need to explain why? No, I think not. I’m curious, though, about what exactly in that book hits other people the hardest; everyone I’ve talked to names a different scene *cough* or death *cough* that brought them to tears. What was it for you?
2. Firewing and Darkwing by Ken Oppel. The reasoning behind Firewing is obvious, I think: the conclusion is bittersweet and beautiful. For Darkwing, what got me was that although Dusk and Sylph find homes and happiness, they’re not together in the way they were growing up and on their adventures. Siblings parting is one of the saddest things in the world.
3. Families parting, actually, which is why I’m going to throw in a scene from a tv show: the episode in Legend of Korra when Korra comes back from the spirit world. She meets (old) Zuko and offhandedly mentions that she spoke to his uncle. Zuko starts. “You met my uncle?” It’s a sweet moment, but it made me tear up because you can just tell that Zuko has missed Uncle Iroh since the day he died. Zuko is an old man; he has missed his uncle for what is likely most of his life, and suddenly he hears that Iroh is in the spirit world and the new avatar has had tea with him. Which Zuko has probably wished he could do one more time, for years. Anyway. Family.
4. Anything by Elizabeth Wein – although I almost got through Black Dove White Raven. Or, to give a more general description, any book with an extraordinary character who is pushed beyond his or her limits, transformed or triumphant or otherwise heart-breakingly illuminated despite or in the midst of their pain.

Nafiza

I don’t usually cry when reading. Maybe because I avoid books that’ll make me cry. I’m the kind of person who empathizes too easily and oftentimes I get too deep into books and characters that I carry over the sad feelings into real life and reading or watching something sad will make me miserable for weeks. Anyway, here are three books that did make me weep:

1. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
   I don’t know the tragedy, when it occurs, gutters me. I mean, I know that it’s coming. Hey, death’s the narrator and you know that people are going to die. It’s stated explicitly that there is no hope. And yet. Yet when it does happen I was left blinking back tears. Gah.
2. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
   This one made me cry on the bus. It was terrible cuz I hate crying in public but this is so exquisitely written that only a stone would remain untouched by the words in the book.
3. Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers
   Yep. I wept. Because pain.

Yash

1. Brown Girl Dreaming: Read it three times. And yeah. Every. Damn. Time. (In public too.)
2. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur: Apparently, poetry makes me cry? (Gonna review this one soon!)
3. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: Surprisingly, it’s Ari who makes me cry, despite his terse lines, and not Dante. (Dante mostly makes me go,”Awww.”)
4. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adichie: I read this while I was sick. It was an ugly scene. (Gonna post about this one too!)
5. The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers: I … can’t even … *gross blubbering*