Top Ten Tuesday #35: Books That Make Me Cry

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Books That Make Me Sob Like a Little Child

Just leave me alone to wallow in my misery, okay? I'm an emotional person, and I can cry reading almost any book, listening to any song, watching any tv show or movie or commercial about the military or puppies, or when I think about something mildly upsetting. I should have been an actress. My ability to tear up on command is quite impressive. These books are the worst of the worst, or perhaps, the best of the best. When I need to emotionally vomit, these books always get me. These books cleanse the soul.

The Contemporaries

1. Winger by Andrew Smith. I cried myself to sleep upon finishing Winger, and Andrew Smith took great joy in hearing it. His response to me when I tweeted never fails to make me laugh and cry simultaneously. I'm honestly weepy RIGHT NOW just thinking about the TWEET. Not even the book itself, just the tweet. The book, well, that's an entirely different story. So good. So incredibly good. But did Andrew have to make me fall so hard, only to rip away the element I fell for? Apparently he did. Brilliant bastard.

2. Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz. Looking at this cover, you probably think it's some sort of flimsy, shallow summer romance all about a girl getting some. You would be wrong. This cover does this book such a disservice, I think. It's a cool cover, but it's all wrong for this book. It's not the book I just described at all. It's so deep and covers a lot of emotion. Then, you think you've finally gained control of yourself, only to be ripped open and thrown into the ocean for the salt to burn your traumatized feelings. Major ouch.

The Paranormals

 

3. Elegy by Tara Hudson. This book. I mean, really. I knew. I just knew this was the ending. Every time I racked my brain wondering how Tara would conclude Amelia and Josh's (but mostly Amelia's) story, this was the only feasable ending. And DAMNIT I WAS RIGHT. I didn't want to be. But I was. And it hurt me like my heart was raked over a hundred rusty razor blades.

4. Goddess by Josephine Angelini. I felt sucker punched by this. I really did. So much going on, so many beloved characters. I'm surprised Josie took so much care when she had the ability to just lay waste to everything just to watch it burn, but I was incredibly surprised by her restraint. Still, that didn't make it hurt any less when things got real. In fact, it hurt more because I knew she cared about the story, the characters. It would hurt less if things went badly because then I could say she did a bad job, and this ending wasn't real. This is turning out to be a terribly back-handed compliment, and I don't mean it to be. I think it's like the difference between blowing up an entire town vs just targeting a select few houses with all your favorite people in it. Brilliantly done for maximum feels.

5. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead. Goddess was a sucker punch, but I honestly never saw the end of Shadow Kiss coming. I was taken completely by surprise, and I wept. After reading this, I thought I'd never be happy again, let alone Rose. I had no idea where the series would go because for three books, Richelle leads us to this wonderful, happy, amazing pinnacle of awesome, and then BAM. She takes it all away in an instant. It's a testament to her phenomenal writing and the trust I had in her that I didn't put that book down and never pick up another. It's the most horrible, destructively beautiful ending, and it led to some incredible scenes in the later books and a great overarching series plot. I just didn't know it.

The Sci-Fi/Fantasies

6. Shades of Earth by Beth Revis. Oof. Right in the feels. So many intense moments. There's the one with the ship where that thing happens, and I was like, "NOOOOO!" and then there was the other one with the other spaceship where that thing happens, and I was like, "NOOOOO!" and then there was the other other one with the other other spaceship where that thing happens, and I was like, *sobs inconsolably* and I probably threw this book because my heart hurt so badly.

7. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner. I just...I can't, guys. I can't. I read it and broke down. A month later, I listened to the audiobook, and listening to narrator Johnathan McClain lose it made me break down all over again, even though I was expecting it!

8. The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa. This is my favorite meeting-an-author story so I apologize (sorry but not sorry kind of apology) if you've heard it once or twice or fifty times. I had just finished Eternity Cure when I met Julie. I told her she wrecked me with this book. Her response: "I hope you cry more reading The Forever Song than you did with this one!" When I saw her at YAK Fest, she reiterated these hopes, but she softened the blow by saying she cried AND her editor cried. Wait, softened? Somehow, I am not comforted...

The In-a-Class-by-Themselves

 

9. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. This series is literally about kids dying. If you didn't cry once, either you are broken or you are amazing. I can't figure out which.

10. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. From Goblet of Fire on, I was one melty mess of a puddle. It's like JKR figured out who my favorite characters were...and then killed them all. Except for Neville. I guess she knew Matthew Lewis was going to grow up to be a hottie and that we'd need him to take away our feels.

Other excellent books for the destruction of my tear ducts:

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (just the first one). Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (obviously). My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (also obviously). Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins (I'm in denial over this one). Prodigy by Marie Lu. Chemical Garden trilogy by Lauren DeStefano. Newsoul trilogy by Jodi Meadows. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare. If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Just One Day by Gayle Forman. Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi. The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. Hallowed by Cynthia Hand.