[John Travolta]

I like to read literature that makes me sad. I don't know why but if a book gets that deep that it can seriously touch my emotions that deep, so as to make me depressed or sad or cry even, then it's the only way that I know for a fact that it's a good book.

I actually don't think a book has made me cry since I was like 13 and Dumbledore died. And that book fucking sucked. Any suggestions?

[Oofie]

The very end of Catch22 is horribly depressing.

[abbey]

I read this book called A Child Called It a couple years ago. I forget who the author is.

It's about a child who was horribly abused by his mother and survived. If you want a sad book, read that one.

It's really short though. Less than 200 pages for sure. I finished it in about 3 hours.

[timbot]

No book has ever made me cry, but The Grapes of Wrath nearly made me cry several times. There were also a couple of point in The Jungle where I felt pretty sad. That's all I'm coming up with right now.

[hollywood_maggot]

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Despite being possibly the greatest trilogy of books ever written, I cried several times throughout the series. Yet to see the movie, but Im terrified it'll be shit. But then, no movie made from a book could be good enough to do HDM justice.

[XxMoonlightxX]

I never read any sad books to be exact... teh saddest one i ever read was "among the hidden"

[BurgerKueen]

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. I was in tears for the last three chapters. I think what made it effective was that it doesn't follow a linear plot, you learn bits and pieces in every chapter and in the last three chapters everything comes together and it's really depressing.

It's basically the story of twins that are separated at 7 and don't see each other again until they're 31, their discovery and confrontation with the reasons that separated them.

[Triple J]

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
It's like this 666 (coincidence?) paged book that's entirely in poem form. It's pretty much the story of 3 kids who attempted suicide and all failed and they go to a rehab-type pace and meet and sadness ensues.

[Homemaster]

i cried reading phillip pullman's "THe shadow in the North"

:( but that's it

[BlackHood]

Originally Posted by abbey

I read this book called A Child Called It a couple years ago. I forget who the author is.

It's about a child who was horribly abused by his mother and survived. If you want a sad book, read that one.

It's really short though. Less than 200 pages for sure. I finished it in about 3 hours.

This is only a really sad book because its a true story. In fact, many people didn't believe it was true (some still don't) because of how bad some of the stuff is.

[MSB]

Of Mice and Men. I don't think I even need to explain why, seeing as most of you have probably read it in high school English class. My whole class was so upset.

[Far]

The ending of Where the Red Fern Grows made me tear up but I suppose that's because I like animals so much, dogs especially.

[Barista]

1984, horribly depressing. Made me numb for days imagining it coming true.

[History]

Originally Posted by hollywood_maggot

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Despite being possibly the greatest trilogy of books ever written, I cried several times throughout the series. Yet to see the movie, but Im terrified it'll be shit. But then, no movie made from a book could be good enough to do HDM justice.

I cried so hard at the end of this series it was ridiculous. I felt like my heart was breaking.

The Dark Tower made me cry in parts too, but it doesnt seem like your cup o tea, JT. Wicked by Gregory Maguire also has its parts, I definately sobbed reading that one in a couple different places, but I haven't read it in ages so I'm not sure if I should reccomend it or not.

[Riddlebox]

How has no one mentioned 'Night" by Elie Wiesel? Jesus Christ thats a sad book.

[Chocoholic]

Originally Posted by MSB

Of Mice and Men. I don't think I even need to explain why, seeing as most of you have probably read it in high school English class. My whole class was so upset.

I concur. Mainly because it was so lifelike.

Other than that, there really isn't anything. I have a heart made of stone. Touching books just make me laugh. Like Tuesdays with Morrie.

[MSB]

Originally Posted by Riddlebox

How has no one mentioned 'Night" by Elie Wiesel? Jesus Christ thats a sad book.

I read it in high school, and it was incredibly sad. The part that really got me was when his father gave him the knife and the spoon, because he was unsure of whether he would see him again.

[KtotheT]

The Old Man and The Sea is the saddest book I have ever read because it points out that life is pointless so well.

[Q.X]

I had this book it was more for a freshmen reading level, Making the Run, it wasn't complete and utter shit like I thought, and possibly one of the only books that actually made me cry.

[Scrotemeal]

A book (and its sequel-ish) which really depressed me was Bloodtide and Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess (I'm pretty sure).

It was amazingly depressing, and it really involved me in the story, and got me really hoping for a happy ending, and for something to go right for once. Which it didn't. Which just made them both even more sad.

[MissRAWR]

Originally Posted by MSB

Of Mice and Men. I don't think I even need to explain why, seeing as most of you have probably read it in high school English class. My whole class was so upset.

I was bawlin at that book. Same as you, everyone in my class was so sad. Lenny was awesome.

That stupid chick should've stopped freaking out when Lenny told her to. Then all the shit with Lenny wouldn't have happened. All cuz he likes fluffy things...

[xkittenxsocksx]

Dostoevsky gets pretty dark at times, probably not enough to make you whimper but meh.

Originally Posted by MSB

Of Mice and Men. I don't think I even need to explain why, seeing as most of you have probably read it in high school English class. My whole class was so upset.

A retard gets a better life? The book is about hope and the segregation of blacks. What's not to love...

[IED]

Originally Posted by Barista

1984, horribly depressing. Made me numb for days imagining it coming true.

yup

USER WAS PUT IN TIMEOUT FOR THIS POST.
Reason: QFT post.

[RessXalcor]

Earenst Hemmingways' A Fearwell to arms

it made me cry for what happened in the ending

[Otsokarhu]

Originally Posted by Aoife

The very end of Catch22 is horribly depressing.

Aoife, why exactly is the end of catch 22 very depressing? I haven't read it in a while, but I don't recall that I would've felt horribly depressed or saddened because of its end. Yossarian lives in the end, continues his goal to live forever or die trying. I haven't looked back at it now and don't know exactly how it ends, but I just can't remember feeling depressed. And I've read it many times, written papers about it.

If you want depressing and sad, check out Raymond Carver's short stories. Nobody captures better the static depression of the ordinary man than Carver, to me no author has touched me like he has.

[Zoria]

Originally Posted by Riddlebox

How has no one mentioned 'Night" by Elie Wiesel? Jesus Christ thats a sad book.

I was going to recommend that one! It is horribly depressing. It's a shorter book to, so you can cry sooner. I think the worst part of the book is when everyone at the camp had to all watch a child... well I won't give it away, but it was awful. This is good timing considering it's depressing comic week.

[Pie_Dee]

Okay, there's obviously something wrong with me because I read Night, Of Mice and Men, 1984, the His Dark Materials Series and all of Dave Pelzer's books and didn't cry in any, although I thoroughly enjoyed all of them and was depressed by them. However, Of Mice and Men wasn't as sad as people are making it out to be considering Lenny was happy when he died, and it was rather sweet of George to do what he did, instead of letting Lenny die at the hands of Curley or some other character insensitive to Lenny. It was tender.

The only book I vividly remember wanting to cry while reading was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, but I can think of a lot of other books as well that were beautiful to read.

How about:
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker,
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey,
The Thorn Birds by Collen McCullough,
Sacred Country by Rose Tremain,
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka or
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro?

All of these are great reads, and you may have already read some of them.

Be forewarned that Never Let Me Go isn't for someone with little patience. The style doesn't appeal to everyone and a lot of people stop before the story unfolds fully, but if this type of thing works for you, then it just makes the story fuller and it is an incredibly touching book and is one of my favourite books.

[Koots Klone]

Teusdays With Morrie By Mitch ________, it is the only book i have ever cried over.

[Jallen]

Originally Posted by Pie_Dee

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey,

I had forgotten about this, but it almost did make me cry. It quite pissed me off.

[Mr.Tea]

Although it may be rather long, "All the King's Men" is sad in a way thats not to obvious in its appeal, but rather dark and moody. I loved it for all it had, because it was so depressing at times yet so riveting. In my opinion, even if it isn't the saddest of books to read, it still is just amazing.

[koots]

Tuesdays With Morrie- I just finished reading that last week. I was so close to tears, I reminded me of my grandmothers death so at the end the description of Morrie was heartbreaking.

'Night' by Elie Weisel- also just finished reading this book recently. It's hard to believe that that actually happened. The symbolism is incredible in this novel. The pipel part was exctremely sad.

Black Beauty- Never to sure why this makes me cry but it does.

[Failurasarus]

Closing Time is way more depressing than Catch-22. Seeing (or reading, or whatever) the characters as old dying people was even sadder than I thought.

[Shmuh]

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare!

[Pachycephelosaurus]

Lots of Kafka's stuff is really depressing. For an example everyone has read, "The Metamorphosis." Gregor lived an awful life...

[Brooke4585]

But the irony is, Gregor's goals were attained by the end of the story. He worked so hard at the beginning to make his family's life better. Go back and read the last few paragraphs. Ridiculous.

I liked The Giver in junior high school, and The Time Traveler's Wife is a bit chick lit, but good. Zorba the Greek is interesting. The Kite Runner makes me cringe, and is also very good.
It's a movie, but El Labrinto del Fauno (Pan's Labrynth) and Children of Men have a similar gut-sinking effect.

[The Fetus]

William S. Burroughs' first novel Junky is VERY depressing. It's not depressing in a sense that someone dies or leaves and you think "Man, that really sucks, I liked that guy..." but in a sense that you're like "Woah, there are people in big cities that are really living this type of lifestyle." It's a strange and well-written book. It's about a closeted homosexual with a bad drug addiction.

[Vin]

King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet... in fact, most of Shakespeare's plays from comedy to tagedy.... end with (almost) the whole cast being dead.

Shakespeare rules!

[GrapefruitMovin]

I guess I don't read many sad/depressing books most of them are science fiction books mainly but one book that I did find truly depressing was Where the Red Fern Grows that book was the saddest book i have read.

[Brooke4585]

I am remiss for forgetting Mark Twain. At the beginning, he was a brilliant comedian, but near the end of his life, his son, wife, and favorite daughter died in rapid succession. His writing at that time makes me feel like I'm going to be sick, and question why life even exists. It's that good...bad...good. Something.

[TheClimber]

So, no Bell Jar? I mean, it didn't make me cry, but it was so deeply depressing and dark. Just the last line of that book can make you shiver.

Also, toward the end of the shining, when Jack dies. That sucked.