I am about to read a book that I’ve been told is one of the most beautiful, heart-wrenching stories ever written: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
Summary from Goodreads: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs… for now.Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
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I’ve been told by many to have several box of tissues next to me when I read this book. I have to admit I’m hesitant to read something I know is going to make me cry. Why put myself through that? The last book I read that made me sob was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius’ death really did a number on me.
“But it’s such a great story! You have to read it,” they tell me about Green’s novel. Okay, okay. I’m not one to turn down a great story, so I guess I’ll head out to the store today and pick up a couple of boxes of tissues. Geez, the things we do for the love of a good book.
What was the last book you read that made you cry? Did you go into it knowing it was a tear-jerker?
Related articles
- book review: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (annaonthepage.wordpress.com)
- The Fault in Our Stars: A Beautiful Masterpiece of YA Fiction (readingenvogue.wordpress.com)
- The Fault in Our Stars – A Review (singularspectrum.wordpress.com)
YA Chit Chat 
Warhorse
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I’ve been wanting to read this!
Sirius made me weep hysterically as well, and I walked around school for the next few days in a daze. Another thing that never fails to get the waterworks started is Lion King. My watch-count is probably over twenty, and it still gets me every time.
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I try to avoid chick-lit and chick-flicks due to getting too emotionally involved, but even the most unsuspecting things can have me in tears, I cried at the Hunger Games books, Dark Life and Frankie recently and suspect i am going to cry again soon when I read Insurgent!!
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I’ve heard several people say they cried when they read Insurgent. Gads. It’s next on my reading list. I need to get stock in Puffs.
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The only book that has ever made me cry is Catch-22 (the second last chapter, though it’s only after having read everything up to that point – the emotion is pent up until it bursts). But I have heard this book is sad, I am curious about it!
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The last book that I can remember making my cry was PS I Love You by Cecilia Ahern, but ANYTHING to do with animals has me crying buckets. I REFUSE to read or watch War Horse *gulp* lol
Xx
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I loved War Horse. I thought I was going to be a blithering idiot but the waterworks weren’t too bad. Not that I didn’t cry…I just thought it would be much, much worse.
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I’m not reading it I tell you! Lol 😉
Xx
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I cry at just about everything, so this probably isn’t a fair question! Lol! 😉
I bawled during the last Harry Potter book and I absolutely lost it while reading Ron Currie, Jr’s “Everything Matters.” You can still see the tear stains on the last few pages of the book.
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Oh this is a very good question for me today, I shall need to think about it. I’ve been reading alright, but nothing that moved me to tears – at least not a book. Last was Flight of the Doves I think … but that was a children’s book (Oh my!) And then I think I’ve been reading so many history books they sometimes move me to tears, but not exactly cry over a storyline. You’ve inspired me to get back to reading books that might make me cry 😉 Thanks!
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Watership Down. Killed me. I usually try to avoid stuff that makes me cry though. I read for fun. Crying is not fun.
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OMGosh, yes. I cried terribly when I read Watership Down. I was in my early teens, maybe 13, 14, when I read it. Definitely a tear-jerker.
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Yep it’s one of the few books that made me cry!
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The last short story that made me cry was, HEARTACHE by Anton Chekhov, translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky, copyright 1947 by the Viking Press, Inc.
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If a book makes me cry, something very special has happened. While I am prone to waterworks at the simplest — an often time most banal — things in real life, for whatever reason, to produce tears requires an awful lot of an author. It could just be lack of music. I find that it is usually the music that is responsible for the visceral reaction.
Back in my days of devouring Danielle Steel novels, I would have to say — and whether this be operative of my age or not — I cried at some point in nearly every single one of them. She is great as what she does.
Happy Sunday to you!
~ Cara
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I’m such a woos so many books make me cry. I cry when I’m happy or when the story is sad. You should have seen me at my daughter’s wedding! Anyway, I read Thirteen Reasons Why, knowing the subject matter alone would definitely make me cry, but it had been highly recommended to me by a close friend. I read it. I cried. Sometimes I couldn’t even see the page through my tears but it was well worth the read. 🙂
BTW, I would like to interview you for the next installment of my Sunday Interviews, if you wouldn’t mind. Leave me a comment on my blog, if you’re willing, and I will give you my contact info. 🙂
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I haven’t read Thirteen Reasons. I’ll have to check it out. Oh, and I’d love to participate in your Sunday interviews. How fun!
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I have this in hardback and plan to read it on the beach this month. Warn me if I need to take tissues. I read Before I Fall and blubbered at the end.
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I will. 🙂
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A beautiful description or ending can bring a tear to my eye, but it’s the film version of ‘West Side Story’ that always has me sobbing my heart out. No matter how many times I see it…
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Unfortunately, a story of any kind is yet to make me cry.
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Wow! The first book that ever made me cry was The Miracle of the Bells by Russell Janney. The book was published in 1946 and there I was, 1974, crying over something written 28 years earlier. The movie was eventually made into a movie. I think it had Frank Sinatra in it, and while good, it wasn’t as good as the book.
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I just read books because they interest me. If they make me cry, that usually means they’ve affected me on an emotional level which (imo) is a huge talent that not all authors possess. I cried a lot when I read Sisterhood Everlasting by Anne Brashares (sp?) and I cried this morning whilst reading The Selection. A lot depends on what mood you’re in at the time of reading. Get me in a hormonal mood, and chances are I’ll blart over the funny stuff, too. 🙂
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I don’t read books or watch movies that make me cry. At least not intentionally. Guess I’m too much of a wimp. 🙂
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