Although books are a fantastic way to escape from the real world, sometimes the literary universe *devastates* us...
While I've read my fair share of heartbreaking tales, I asked you to tell me about the book that shattered you emotionally. Here are some of the best responses:
1. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
2. A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
5. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
6. Shake Hands with the Devil by Roméo Dallaire
7. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
9. The Someday Suitcase by Corey Ann Haydu
10. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
11. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
12. Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
13. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
14. Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
15. In Memoriam by Alice Winn
16. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
17. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
18. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
19. Recursion by Blake Crouch
20. Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
21. Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
22. When Christ and his Saints Slept by Sharon Penman
23. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
24. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
25. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
26. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
27. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
28. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
29. The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
30. If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin
31. The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork
32. A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
33. The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown
34. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd
35. Night by Elie Wiesel
H/T to the BuzzFeed community for having this discussion!
Note: All submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Do you have anything else to add? Let me know in the comments below.
Additional thumbnail credits: Fox
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