Sometimes it's unexpected and there's a plot twist that takes us on a monumental rollercoaster of emotions and we end up ugly sobbing, with a blotchy face and red puffy eyes and we will stay on that limbo of emotions for a few days, digesting what we read, the way we feel. If you're looking for a book to drive you to tears, not in a bad way like pull-on-your-own-hair sort of mad tears, this might as well be the list for you.
In Five Years
Rebecca Sterle
Right in the feels. This book is all over the place when it comes to playing with emotions. If you are not tearing up at some point from the middle of this book on we strongly suggest you reevaluate your life choices, you might be a bit cold hearted but we can't all be emotional people, can we?
This book drives us through disease, loss, life changing moments and maybe even a bit of time travelling?
Lover Letters to the Dead
Ava Dellaira
This is that sort of coming-of-age kind of book that will actually make a grown person cry. When you write to the death and this is the basic premise of the plot, you know you'll be crying at some point. This is a wonderful story not just about writing to the deceased ones but mostly because it takes her on the path of the main characters finding herself, making peace with her past and most of all discovering the love of someone she has lost through the letters she writes.
All the Bright Places
by Jennifer Niven
This is one intense ride, let me tell you just that. Approaching the matter of mental illness this book drives us through a plot with characters we can all somehow relate to. Being a misfit is a reality many of us lived through at some point in our lives, not fitting in, wanting out, somehow, anyway. This book hits right at the core of some of the darkest and most overwhelming emotions and therefore had to be part of this list.
A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman
May the universe help me for I still cry just thinking about this one. How can such an easy read, such simple, mundane story hit so hard? I think the fact that is relatable, simple, so very much like real life makes us put thing in a very different perspective. This is the sort of book that makes us look into someone else's life, someone that could be our neighbour, someone who doesn't talk much, doesn't seem exactly friendly and makes us see that even the hardest, iciest looking hearts and faces may many times hide a deep pain, sorrow and longing for someone or something.
I usually opt out from stories with older aged characters but i may need to rethink this policy after reading this book.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling
This was quite possibly the very first monumental cry induced by a book that many people, including our book members, went through in their teenage/chilldhood years. I remember crying so loud that my mother came running just to hear me sobbing and mumbling about a character's death. I think she pretty much diagnosed me as "mentally unstable" at that point but over fifteen years later i'll still cry my heart out to some parts of this book.
Normal People
by Sally Rooney
After the past couple of months there may be little to tell about this one. Recently adapted into a tv show this one is a tearjerker both in it's literature and cinematic form. A romance that is more real than what we would probably seek for in a comfort book. The kind of plot that takes us through a myriad of emotions, from happiness to extreme sadness. We are invited into the lives of two people that grow together, go together, love together but to whom life happens and life, my dear friends, is usually a tear inducing b*tch on its own.
Swear on This Life
by Renee Carlino
This book will induce an hangover on you, the sort of book hangover that lasts for a good while! Imagine finding your own life in the pages of a book, your pains, your stories, the little things you left in your memory and in your past down on paper for everyone to read. Do you sit still or do you fight to know more? Exactly! This is how it starts and from there on between past and present, between love and confrontation. The raw parts of a time that left you bare told by someone you loved and wanted to forget. A second chance in life, in love, in clearing out what happened. You know how it is, it's very real, extremely complex and it has so many layers.
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