We all have those books that make us go from happily opening the cover to start a fresh new book to...




We've all been there. It's horrible. You look up from the book, you can't see because everything's a blur. Tears are streaming down your face and you reach for that empty box of tissues and realize that there's none left. You're laying on a bed of used tissues. You all know exactly what we're talking about. This week, we've decided to pick our top 10 books that made us sad and share them with you lot.

So get ready. Go buy a box of Kleenex, snuggle up, get yourself a tub of ice cream and prepare to have your heart broken.





So here we go. Books that have pages that are stained from our tears. We've managed to knock it down to ten books that made us cry the most and we have the say, the top ones probably made us cry even the second or third time. 

Natalie's Top 10




Of course this one was going to be in the list. How can you read this and not cry? It's not only the conclusion to such an amazing and epic adventure, growing up with these fantastic characters and bonding so close to them, but there's so much death. The battle at the end of the book is certainly something that'll shed tears when people meet their demise or the emotions, J.K's great writing really moves us all and even if the deaths didn't upset some people, surely the ending of the series alone is enough to give any Potterhead a tear or two. Farewell Harry! 

2. Slammed/Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover





Well, what can I say. This book series was a roller coaster of emotions. Death, near death and love that's forbidden. You can't read this book and not feel sad at all. I love these characters so much and I felt so bad for them for the littlest things because I was so close to them. You should definitely read this series, it's my favourite series by one of my favourite authors, Colleen Hoover, and you won't be disappointed. Make sure you have some tissues ready though!

3. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins 


This option is self-explanatory really. I may be cheating by putting 'series' but they're all as sad as each other. I guess if I had to pick one, I'd say Mockingjay. This series is basically about death so you'll end up growing attached to a character and have to say farewell. If you're favourite survived then congratulations! So much hatred, anger, fighting, death and betrayal, you'll definitely  be saddened by this tear-jerker series. And I have to say, Mockingjay (book three) is probably the saddest with a few very important and well-loved characters being in danger or even dying. You were warned.

4. Hopeless by Colleen Hoover


Yep. Another Colleen Hoover book. She really has a way with words that really connects to the readers. Anyway, if you haven't read this one....why not? It's fantastic! The story is incredibly moving that'll have you sobbing before you know it. Sky's past and what she has to deal with as well as the moments with Dean Holder swoon will be so touching that you'll be blubbering into a tissue. A must read.

5. Connected by Kim Karr



Now, a lot of people had written on GoodReads that they didn't cry and this one because they'd guessed what was going to happen. I hadn't. I try not to do that, I want to enjoy the book and be in the moment with the characters. So when the beginning of the story was playing out, a character dies and I was heartbroken. I was ugly crying because how Kim Karr wrote the emotions and what Dahlia was feeling was so touching that I couldn't not cry. So for that reason, and the amount of sobbing I was actually doing, this is my number 5.

6. One Day by David Nicholls


If you've read this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That bit at the end...I was so damn shocked and upset. I was reading this when I was on a road trip through America and I was trying so hard not to cry in front of the people around me. Although I didn't like how it was written, that one part, I was still gutted. The story all the way through is a fantastic story, and there are many emotions that had me upset but that one part. I was distraught. Thanks David for breaking my heart.

7. Present Perfect by Alison G. Bailey


I can't put into words how hard I tried to not cry on the subway when I was reading this. My goodness! A terrible thing happens to this girl and how she pulls herself through it is so inspiring. I don't want to spoil it because I had no idea that was going to happen to her but it did. I was gutted. The love story was amazing as well and at the end there's a beautiful letter that had me in tears. Amazing writing, Alison G Bailey!

8. The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher


This book series is a roller coaster of emotions. If you didn't cry or even get sad at this, I don't even know if we read the same thing. Tarryn Fisher has an amazing way with words and you really sympathize and connect with these characters. It's one of those book series that has you worried whether this'll have a HEA because it doesn't seem like it with all that's going on. Please give this one a go, it's an amazing series.

9. The Edge Of Never by J.A Redmerski


You all know this one. The one with the cute love story found on a greyhound bus sigh. Their story is adorable and they go through this great journey only to have some emotional moments at the end which'll have you crying. Well, I cried anyway! The line that said  'in a coma and they don't think they'll wake up' is enough to have you sobbing your little heart out. (I changed the line slightly so I won't spoil too much). So prepare yourself if you're going to pick this one up!

10. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen


These characters have had a lot of crap happen to them. I felt so bad, and how they had to get through it was so difficult. They all had each other but it was so hard for them to get over the past events and get one another to open up about what happened. Tragic. There's also a big cliffhanger at the end, someone's life is hanging on by a thread, hence why it's in this list. 



Lexie's Top 10
1. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein



This is quite possibly the first book I've ever owned. And to this day I consider it the saddest book I've ever read. There's no contest. It's the circle of life within a story. It's a beautiful and heartbreaking metaphor in the shape of a tree. And it made me sob my heart out just remembering it now. And while it left me with a lot, even as a child, I'd think twice before handing it to my child before they're emotionally mature enough to handle it. At the age 5 when I was taught to read and grasped its meaning for the first time, I was nowhere near emotionally prepared for it. (And it's debatable whether I am today.)

2. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart



For reasons you will discover if you pick up the book. It's all I'm willing to say on the matter.




... Otherwise known as "the book where darkness prevails". The first in the latter part of the Harry Potter series, "The Order of the Phoenix" makes a clear distinction between the children-oriented part of Harry Potter and the part which features death, bigotry, eugenics, war and torture in spades. There was a sense of foreboding all throughout this book. There was Umbridge in this book. But it was the ending in particular that broke my heart into a million pieces. That was my favorite character, Rowling!

4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher



Don't let anyone convince you that this isn't a tragic story just because the narrator is already dead at the start of it. There has never been a more tragic suicide-in-retrospect story that I have read. Nor has there been a contemporary novel with stronger messages regarding the emotional and physical bullying, slut-shaming, the high school "social hierarchy" and everything in-between.

5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald



Many consider classics to be sad by default. And though "The Great Gatsby" is one of the two classics to make this list, I will say this much for it: it is not a depressing read by any means. "The Great Gatsby" is a stunning portrayal of New York during the Flapper era, the extravagance of the upper class prior to the great depression, the roaring parties and the great idealistic desolation in the Jazz Age. And it was precisely this desolation amid the glamour and the riches, and its ultimate prevalence, that made me mourn the characters of the book, and which secured it a place on this list.

6. Slammed by Colleen Hoover



This was a proverbial river of tears for me. Colleen Hoover has become renown for tackling serious, heartbreaking issues in her books. She's portrayed abuse, she's written about disabilities and loss. But never has any of her books impacted me as deeply as "Slammed" has. This is a personal hang-up, though. The issue that Ms. Hoover tackles in this story is miles out of my comfort zone. And I hadn't expected it at all, going into the book.

7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins



I know what you're thinking: but "Catching Fire" is the best book of the three! And I agree. Heartily so. I can't exactly give a rational reason why this particular one was the one to make me cry, rather than the abundant tragedy that takes place in the final book or the shocking introduction to the world of the Hunger Games in the first one. It was the psychological damage done to the characters more than anything else. And it was the realization of just how much more damage is about to be done to them. I didn't see that Quarter Quell coming in quite such a fashion. I didn't see it coming at all.

8. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor



Laini Taylor - the only author who can make you mourn a character twice - once when they die, and once 200 pages later. (And the second time it's way worse than the first.) The author of convoluted plots which seem too intricate to ever fully unravel. And yet unravel they did, in the best of ways, in this conclusion to her "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" trilogy. It's not a sad read, really. It was just that one character in particular that did me in.

9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë



This story begins many years after the fact and unravels in retrospect. At this point in the future, many years after the fact, it's more than apparent that whatever story Heathcliff and a few others are about to tell has a downright tragic outcome. This is no spoiler. It wasn't so much one thing in particular as a totality of grief and tragedy that made "Wuthering Heights" one of those books that I'll always classify as those which made me sad and wouldn't leave my head, even days after finishing it. 

10. Taking Chances by Molly McAdams



The ironic thing is, I really disliked this one. It's very rare that I outright dislike everything about a book, but with "Taking Chances", that was the case. The saving grace, and the thing that kept me reading, was one particular character. This character felt more tangible, more substantial, there was plenty of room for development and I felt that they were being set up for a great arc.
They weren't, though. They weren't being set up for anything at all. And I don't know if I was more sad for the character or for myself, for being a hopeless optimist and believing great things were in store for them.




What are some of the books that made you sad? Can you make your own list of heartbreaking stories that stuck with you? Do you (dis)agree with any of our own? Would you like to add to our lists? Share your thoughts and impressions in the comments below, or visit our Twitter / Facebook page and discuss this week's Top 10 Monday with us!