GROWING UP, I was a pretty strong kid. To get a tear out of me, I’d have to be at the receiving end of a fairly sharp shove off a playground swing. Bambi? Didn’t bat at an eye at it to be honest, nor did I so much as whimper at any somber bedtime stories.
Now, it takes a lot for me to not cry, whatever I’m doing, especially when it comes to good book.
Most recently, I had to take regular breaks while reading Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ – sometimes to catch my breath, but more often than not, to cry. Sob.
It got me thinking about the very first book I shed a tear reading. I struggled to wrack my brains – ‘The Fault In Our Stars’, perhaps? – but luckily, DailyEdge.ie readers came through with their own personal tear-jerkers …
‘Good Wives’ by Louisa May Alcott.”
The sequel to ‘Little Women’, and not the children’s version, as initially said. Oops.
‘Me Before You’ has me and my mum in bits!”
There were a coupe of votes for this – you might know it from the movie starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin (though readers were less complimentary of this retelling.)
Can’t see the video? Click here.
‘Perks of Being A Wallflower’ truly destroyed teenage me.”
“We accept the emotionally destructive books we think we deserve.”
‘Notes To Self’ by Emilie Pine. Read it this year and it’s the first book to make me cry.”
‘My Sister Jodie’ by Jacqueline Wilson.”
Is Jacqueline Wilson contractually obliged to only write heartbreaking books? This is a must read if you have a sister.
I cry at the drop of a hat but ‘Flowers for Algernon’ is next level crytastic.”
Submitted by our very own Fifi.
‘One Day’ by David Nicholls. Blubbered like a baby.”
The movie of this, starring Anne Hathaway, was panned by critics, so it might be worth sussing out the paperback version of this tale.
ALL of the deaths in Harry Potter! Dobby, Hedwig, Sirius, Dumbledore, Snape, etc etc.”
Yeah, for a book that’s supposed to be about magic, it got pretty dark there towards the end.
‘My Sister’s Keeper’ … Bawled my eyes out at the end.”
This also received multiple nominations, unsurprisingly.
“So embarrassing by ‘Twilight: New Moon’ broke my 13 year-old heart.”
Edward Cullen did strange, strange things to us.
‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ when I was like 13 – still makes me cry now though, 13 years on.”
‘Goodnight Mister Tom’, read it primary school.”
Again, is the curriculum supposed to be so emotionally ravaging?
‘The Book Thief’, sobbed.”
‘Chinese Cinderella’ by Adeline Yen Mah.”
‘The Colour Purple’.”
The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartlin.”
‘A Girl Called Blue’. *crying emojis*”
‘Vicky Angel’. *laughing emoji*
‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’.”
Let’s not even go there.
‘Second Chance Summer’, it’s a YA book, made me blub like a baby when I was like 14/15.”
“I don’t know why but Flat Stanley.”
Pretty devastating story, TBH.
‘The Outsiders’, back in the day. Bawled.”
‘Tuesday’s With Morrie’.
I think it was caled ‘Pillars of Fire by Michael Mullen, was set during WWII.”
‘Where Rainbows End’.”
Cecelia’s due to drop another sob-fest this autumn with a sequel to ‘P.S I Love You’, entitled ‘Postscript’.
