Everyone needs a good cry once in awhile. Personally, I cry approximately every 7 hours, as if on a schedule. Dropped my food…cry. Oversleep by five minutes… cry. Watch that commercial with the Sarah McLachlan song and the sad dogs…definitely cry. But for those of you with a bit more emotional self-control, the following books are heart-wrenching enough to touch even your cold souls.
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Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The novel begins with the striking sentence, “Lydia is dead,” and what follows is horrifying, introspective, beautiful, and most certainly tear-worthy. Or, if you’re me, all-out-sobbing-worthy. The novel chronicles a Chinese-American family whose daily life is shattered when their straight-A, perfect daughter Lydia is found drowned in a lake by their family home. As the family breaks down and struggles for answers, their past and the choices that led them to this tragic event are reflected upon. Following the family trying to glue the pieces of their shattered lives back together and coming to understandings of love and regret is touching. Everything I Never Told You is amazing and for such a darkly themed novel, it is so full of light.
2. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Quirky, simple, and so full of life, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a wonderful novel. Told from the perspective of an unusually-thoughtful dog Enzo, whose biggest dream is to be a person, this novel is funny, warm, and thought-provoking, asking what it means to be human. Enzo is a narrator that loves his family, loves learning from the television, and loves joining his racecar-driving owner on the track. Don’t let this funny setting fool you though. The Art of Racing in the Rain is as heart-wrenching as it is uplifting, as Enzo follows the story of his family through cancer, loss, and powerful struggles to remain together. One of my favorite quotes from the novel: “To live everyday as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live… To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to.”
3. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Beautiful; that’s the word I would use to describe Flowers for Algernon. At the start of the novel, Charlie, a young adult with mental-disabilities, agrees to be the first human trial for an innovative, unprecedented brain surgery that attempts to improve his IQ. Previously, the experiment had only been tested and proved to work on a white mouse named Algernon. Not only is Charlier’s procedure successful, but the results far surpass what was expected. As Charlie grows more intelligent by the day, he is able to reflect on who he was and what he may become. But when Algernon’s health takes a sudden drop and begins to deteriorate, all scientific evidence points to the same things happening to Charlie. This novel truly questions what it means to be happy and how knowledge can be both an amazing and unbelievably damaging thing. If you’re not crying by the end of this novel, I’m not sure what else could do it for you.
Feel free to comment your favorite cry-worthy books!