Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Broke My Heart
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!
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First of all, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, my loves!! I hope you all have V-Days that are filled with love and chocolates and warm-fuzzies, etc., etc. You deserve them! *big hugs* xoxo
Now, onto the list! I think maybe this list is more like “the top ten books that MOSTLY broke my heart and then put it back together again MAYBE/HOPEFULLY.” When I think of my heart being broken I either think of unhappy endings, which are so hard for me, or people dying, which is always sad and heartbreaking and usually leads to/is an unhappy ending. But that doesn’t mean that heartbreaking books aren’t also some of the best books I’ve read, and the books that stay with me the longest after I’m done reading them, because oftentimes, that’s EXACTLY what they are. So, here we go. Note for spoilerphobes: There will probably be a couple of series books on here, so keep an eye out if you don’t fancy being spoiled!
If I Stay: If I Stay, #1, by Gayle Forman. This book gave me the ugly sobs. Between that scene with Mia and her grandfather, witnessing Adam’s obvious distress and sadness over Mia’s life hanging by a thread, and TEDDY, my heart was shattered to teeny, tiny bits. (Seriously. TEDDY. He wore footie pajamas. I…just…can’t.)
The Iron Queen: The Iron Fey, #3, by Julie Kagawa. Ash and Meghan are one of my favorite couples because their relationship is not easy or simple. There’s so much at stake with them being together, and it all comes to a head in book three of Julie Kagawa’s STELLAR Iron Fey series. The ending of this book gave me ALL THE FEELINGS.
The Probability of Miracles, by Wendy Wunder. *Sigh* This book was so beautiful and amazing and, yes, heartbreaking. But it was one of those books that slowly broke my heart, then slowly fixed it up again. This one HURT SO GOOD.
The Hunger Games: The Hunger Games, #1, by Suzanne Collins. It was a toss-up between this book and MOCKINGJAY, but I decided to go with the first book because the heartbreak was so SHOCKING. As in, I wasn’t expecting terrible things to happen, and by the time MOCKINGJAY came around, I figured the sads were lurking. But this whole series…man.
A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire, #3, by George R.R. Martin. If I’m being honest, there’s a heartbreaking something or other or two in each of these books, but THIS one…whew. Two words: Red. Wedding. I will discuss no further. Because I can’t even.
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. So, THIS BOOK. I’m pretty certain that, for the LONGEST time, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE was Amy’s All-Time Ugly Sob Champion of the World. No lie. It cracked my heart little by little until the end came and all the cracks splintered out of control my heart exploded. Naturally, I LOVED IT.
Dragonfly in Amber: Outlander, #2, by Diana Gabaldon. Guys, I LOVE the Outlander series. It’s one of my favorites. Drama, history, scandal, sexytimes, tremendous characters. It’s sprawling and epic. LOVE epic stuff! But there are arcs within the series, and the first one (IMO the best one so far) comes to a head in DRAGONFLY IN AMBER. IT IS MADE OF SADS.
Delirium: Delirium, #1, by Lauren Oliver. The ending of this one is horrible. It was shocking and devastating and it made me so sad. I’m super nervous to read PANDEMONIUM, the second book in this series, when it comes out in two weeks. But the end of DELIRIUM is heartbreaking for sure. *sniff sniff*
The Summer I Turned Pretty: Summer, #1, by Jenny Han. This whole series is so emo and broody and AMAZING, and definitely falls into the “these books broke my heart and then taped the pieces back together again” category. I could have put any one of the three books on this list, but I went with the first one because it has the added sad of a sick mom, Susannah. Seriously though, these books hurt so good.
A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. HOLY CRAP. It’s possible that this book took over the Amy’s All-Time Ugly Sob Champion of the World title from THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE. My already-abused heart (I was reading lots of sad books at the time) was crushed for Conor. CRUSHED. I’m giving him hugs in my mind RIGHT NOW, that’s how much he broke me and made me love him. This is one of the best sad books EVER IN THE WORLD.
Totally agree on The Hunger Games! So heartbreakingT.T
Drop by my Top 10?
http://tumblinginbooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/top-10-books-that-broke-my-heart-little.html
I tried commenting on your post, but the internetz wouldn’t let me! 🙁 But your list was great. Vampire Academy KILLS me!
Time Traveler’s Wife almost made my list too. 🙂
My Tuesday Memes post
The Time Traveler’s Wife was seriously a sobfest. I cried SO HARD.
dragonfly in amber is on my list too! i was sobbbbinnng when they were saying good-bye at the standing stones. so heartbreaking.
ARGH!!! Wasn’t that the WORST?!? SO. DEVASTATING.
I guess Time Traveler’s Wife will be on everyone’s list today 🙂
And oh you are so right about the Red Wedding, but maybe my heart broke more with Game of Thrones, Ned’s final scene, you know?
Oh GOT breaks my heart all the time. Ned’s last scene was horrible. I have a tendency to cry when something bad happens to the pets. I can’t handle animal sads!
The Summer I turned Pretty was a great series, I know it really got to me as well. Here’s my Top Ten
Happy Reading!
Cathy @ Addicted to Books
I love that series. Even when it was over and things weren’t so sad, I was still heart broken, you know? Still love it!
Hunger Games and If I stay are definitely heartbreaking books. Great list. I’m going to have to check out the rest of these.
My Teaser Tuesday/Top Ten Tuesday post is here
Happy reading!
~Danica Page
Taking It One Page at a Time
If I Stay was definitely a heart-breaker. I swear, Teddy killed me. I just kept picturing his cutie-patootie curly hair and his footie Halloween costume, and I would lose it.
I almost put If I Stay on my list. And The Time Traveler’s Wife is definitely there. Great list!
My top ten
Both such great books! Thanks for stopping by!! <3
Super list… and by super I mean majorly sad! I just commented on someone else’s list who had listed The Iron Queen. I’m reading The Iron King and seriously dreading heartbreak already now! It’s been funny to see that everyone’s listed Delirium and The Hunger Games and/or Mockingjay. Of course, I guess we all got our hearts broken by the same books, so it makes sense!
Happy Valentine’s Day, my bloggy friend! 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too, my dear!! I’m sorry to make you worried about The Iron Queen. It’s still SO GOOD. And there’s still The Iron Knight so…don’t stress too much! 😉
SPOILERY COMMENT
I went with “Mockingjay” on my list because of Prim. Her death was like the death of Hedwig in “Deathly Hallows,” something so shocking and unnecessary that I couldn’t even cry at first.
I guess I was hoping that because they were YA books, everything would be shiny-happy-perfect at the end. But I was wrong. SO VERY WRONG.
I know. YA will still slay you. I almost put Mockingjay because of Prim, too, but I decided that Hunger Games stunned me a little more.
And Hedwig. Honestly, sometimes it makes me sadder when bad things happen to animals.
I keep seeing A Monster Calls, but I’ve never even heard of it until today!! I think i’m going to have to add it to my list of to-reads, even though I’m trying to restrain.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Do it!! It’s so sad but perfect!
OMG! CONNOR! SOB SOB SOB MESS.
And then If I Stay. Holy frick that whole damn book I was thankful to not be in public.
I know. Conor…that book chewed me up and spit me out. I kind of want to read it again now, lol. #crazyperson
Happy Valentine’s Day!
YES to the following:
If I Stay
The Iron Queen (I’ve never cried that much in a book with faeries in it0
Delirium
The Hunger Games
& A Monster Calls <–really loved that one and you are right!!!
Happy Valentine’s Day to you too! All these books killed me. But I loved them!
Great list! I have GOT to read Monster Calls! Here’s our Top 10
Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day, Amy! Sorry for the late comment. We certainly are both sad by several of the same books! Can’t believe I forgot Probability of Miracles!! And A Monster Calls – so sad. I miss the Summer series and all the angst.
I still haven’t read The Time Traveler’s Wife but it seems like one of the saddest books of all time! And I’m so weird I still haven’t read The Iron Knight, even though The Iron Queen stomped on my heart and I desperately need to find out if everything turned out alright.