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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Tragedy - Books That Will Make You Cry - Get Your Book Out and BYOTissues

Johann Goethe - The Sorrows of Young Werther

So beautifully written is the description of the young passionate artist Werther who falls head over heels for Charlotte, a young country girl who cares for her younger siblings following her mothers death. He falls in love with her, despite knowing Charlotte to be an engaged woman. This tragic love story compelled hundreds of young Germans to commit broken heart induced suicide when it was first published. So beware!

Esther Forbes - Johnny Tremain

The first book I truly loved, I'll never forget being nine years old and reading through my tears the tragic tale of Johnny who gets his hand melted to crippled status and attempts to keep on going in life. Set at the time of the American Revolutionary War, this story features historical characters such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere, as well as events like the Boston Tea Party. Epic and educational.

Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Classically tragic, Tess, after suffering trauma and disaster becomes a milkmaid, falls in love with the perfect young man named Angel, only to be eventually ripped from his arms, and come to a tragic demise, at Stonehenge! Honestly, you could read it for the perfect descriptions of pastoral existence and enjoy the word pictures Hardy paints of the rolling hilly landscape, but Tess and Angel are absolutely epic as well.

John Green - The Fault in Our Stars

Young teenage love and cancer. Get out your tissues. I liked both of the main characters the minute I met them. This story is real, the characters are in love and totally lovable, and you will cry and cry and cry, as if you'd lost your own.

Markus Zusak - The Book Thief

Told from the perspective of death, this tale set in Nazi Germany describes an adopted girl whose passionate love of books motivates and drives her existence. There is also a young blond boy obsessed with being an Olympic running athlete, a mother who curses like a sailor, an accordion player, and a Jew in hiding. Unavoidably miserable, and thoroughly triumphant, Zusak has created a must read.

E. Lockhart - We Were Liars

At first open I assumed this was a book about snooty rich kids, living on their summer island. So, ready to be bored with the complaints of the second generation of upper class rich white people, I was blown away and devastated to find that it's so much more than that. Cadence Sinclair, a teenage girl with mental ghosts struggles with some suppressed trauma, and fights to thrive in her unhealthy living environment. She seems strikingly real! I laughed and cried with her and seriously just wanted to give her a hug by the end of the novel.

My To Read Tragedy List
M. L. Stedman - The Light Between Oceans
Rainbow Rowell - Eleanor and Park
S. E. Hinton - The Outsiders
Jodi Picoult - My Sister's Keeper


Do you have a favorite tear-jerking tragedy?

Leave me a comment so I can add it to my list!

1 comment:

  1. Did you ever read Flowers for Algernon? 👍🏻 and 😢

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