Author’s Note: I’m supposed to be writing my epically long Book Suggestions Post, so nobody tell Bekah that I wrote this instead. Thanks!
You know those books. The ones that you couldn’t even finish because your tears were so thick that the letters ran together. The ones that sit on your shelf and taunt you with all the emotions they once evoked … begging you to relive all the pain. The ones that hurt you SO much you begged your friends to read them too, so at least you wouldn’t be alone. I hate these books. I love theses books. I feel like every Taylor Swift album ever wasn’t about boys, it was about these books.
ARE WE OUT OF THE WOODS YET?
The sadist books. That’s what this list is. The books that ruined me. When I think about books that decimated my tear ducts and my heart, I think of these mother-truckers.
Where Is Your Pain on this Scale?
Pain Level 1: Wonder
If you ever need a healthy dose of empathy (and you do, jerks, you really do), this is the book that provides it. Auggie is a 5th grader going to public school for the very first time; his severe facial deformity has kept him home in his younger years. Auggie is funny, smart, sympathetic and kind, and he just wants to be treated like a normal kid. And guess what? He doesn’t always get his wish. Recommended for all ages … especially jerks. It’s heart-warming, and the tears are sweet.
Pain Level 2: Quintana of Charyn
The third installment of Melina Marchetta’s PERFECT fantasy series, the Lumatere Chronicles, will leave you in tears very simply because … it’s over. (There will also be tears for Phaedra and Trevanion and The Little King and Isaboe’s son, and that moment when Froi stumbles over the river with his hands on his head and OMG THIS BOOK). No other book series leaves you wanting more, and at the same time fully satisfies you, the way this one does. Marchetta is Queen. The tears taste of envy at her ridiculous talent.
Pain Level 3: Tell The Wolves I’m Home
Somtimes a young, shockingly honest narrator will leave you the most shattered. June learns a whole heck of a lot about family, relationships, love and herself in this 80s novel. It’s a family drama set against backdrop of what no one understood about AIDS when it was new. The tears are thanks to a letter signed by a man named Finn.
Pain Level 4: Voyager
This pain level is a mess of confusion as it’s thanks to throwing the book against the wall and then hugging it for days. Between Jamie and Claire’s reunion, revelations about horrible second marriages and just a ton of epic shizz going down, this book ruined me for the several weeks it took me to read it. I hated so much of what happened and I loved so much as well. Out of all the Outlander series, this one packs the biggest emotional punch. The tears taste like turtle soup.
Pain Level 5: The Bridge to Terabithia
This book has the honor of the being the first book I can remember ever ruining me. I was such an innocent before Jess and Leslie. An entire day of 4th grade was ruined because I finished it during morning snack time and was inconsolable all the way through afternoon music class. I remember not believing what I was reading, and how unsettled I felt to think a book was punking me. It wasn’t. These tears taste like revelations.
Pain Level 6: Clockwork Princess
This book is the last in one of my favorite Young Adult series, The Infernal Devices, and it has the most perfectly poignant epilogues of any book series, ever. Life and death and marriage and family and new beginnings. The tears are a cathartic blend of sadness and mirth.
Pain Level 7: Tatiana and Alexander
G–DAMMIT. THIS BOOK. Here we have a pregnant, teenage immigrant widow who believes that her Russian lover is still alive somewhere in war-torn Europe while she struggles alone through her pregnancy, delivery and OH! living in America alone. And that’s just chapter one. How about we then careen headlong through every emotion there is? We good? These tears taste like old potatoes.
Pain Level 8: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Just take an orphan, give him a surrogate grandfather that beriddles him and bequiles him, help him come to some painful realizations about his past and his future and then kill him without giving him any real answers. While most of the Harry Potter novels leave you hopeful, this one leaves you heartbroken. Tears brought to you by witchcraft.
Pain Level 9: Jellicoe Road
Because if anyone deserves two spots on this list, it’s Melina Marchetta. This book defies description other than to say … no one comes away unscathed emotionally. Taylor Markham’s tragic and triumphant story will wrench your heart out. These tears are thanks to the 3:47 to Yass.
Pain Level 10: The Book Thief
Because you don’t even know from tears. You will soar and weep and despair and rejoice with Leisel and Max and Papa and Rudy. This book brings you to heights and lows and back again. I finished it on a Mother’s Day, in the car on the way home from church. It was an unhappy afternoon. Tears that mark up your book and make it something new.
Pain Level 11: Me Before You
We’ve talked about JoJo Moyes many times before and it’s mostly because this novel exists to obliterate you. It will just simply totally and completely wreck your entire existence. Puffy eyes for weeks. These tears taste like Harry Styles.
Pain Level TOO LEGIT TO QUIT: Forbidden
All other books bow down to the Grand Empress of Ripping Your Heart Out. Nothing else even compares to the pain that will stick to you after reading Lochan and Maya’s story. Out of all these books, this is the only one I know for sure I will never pick up again. It’s too much. It hurts too bad. IT IS SO WORTH THE READ. These tears are taboo.
What books made it onto your list RUINT list?
