For the better or for the worst, which book actually affected you. I’ll start, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Such an amazing book, well written and suprised me.
[SPOILERS]
The blurb on the back stated that each Lisbon sister k1lled themselves one by one. What I was expecting was throughout every 3 or so chapters, a Lisbon sister would kill themselves. But actually, 85% of the book, was only 1 Lisbon sister dead and the other 4 alive until the end when they all k1lled themselves. If I was told that the large majority of the book was just about the Lisbon girls life through the eyes of teenage boys and then eventually in the end they all k1ll themselves, I would probably be less interested in the book. But this book was hard to put down, it was so well written with amazing vocabulary and it spent the right amount of time explaining things (instead of using 12 pages to describe a staircase or only 3 sentences to describe a plot etc). It kept me interested and also with it being on a slightly alarming topic (suicide), it gave the book an eerie feeling which filled me with a strange comfort.
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Don’t think this a widely known book but seraphina more specifically the second one. shadow scale by Rachel hartman
Spoiler?
finished reading it in my math class last year, when she killed off my favourite character with no warning, and I couldn’t react because I didn’t want to seem weird
Into The Wild
The Catcher in the Rye. It was part of our Man In Conflict class and my 16-year-old mind just took Holden on as a long-lost brother. 56 now and I keep a copy in my backpack.
This book absolutely. I have read it so many times. The movie is amazing as well.
I can’t remember the exact title, but when I was roughly 9 years old, I read a biography of Annie Oakley and afterwards I was WRECKED. I remember running to my mom, sobbing my eyes out and her telling me that sometimes that happens with really good books.
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese was definitely a very emotionally powerful book. A general fiction book that deals with complicated family relationships and consequences of Canadian colonialism on families. The main character, Franklin, is a teenager living with an adoptive father. He gets news that his estranged biological father is dying and wants to see him one last time. Highly recommend it.
Andy Weir’s The Martian and Project Hail Mary make me feel like I can build a rocket with a box of scraps. Something about the process of
Problem -> Plan -> Execution -> Repeatplot structure he uses just turns on all the lights in my brain.Manicpixiedreamgirl by Tom Leveen.
Read this in highschool and it really taught me not to idolize people and put them on pedestals. Basically a “what you think of a person might not be who they are” type feeling. Stuck with me since.
Lots of books have never left me, but these books made me feel very, very strongly at different times in my life:
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
Anne Frank’s Diaries, Anne Frank
The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
A Child of God, Cormack Mc Carthy
Roots, Alex Haley
The Miserables, Victor Hugo
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
Hans Christian Andersens Fairytales are also generally horrendously sad. Especially The Little Matchstick Girl.
Maybe not the type of stuff that normally gets discussed in this sub, but the Mushoku Tensei light novels had a profound impact on me when I read them. Obviously the main character is an extreme example, but any young male who finds themselves isolated and unhappy with the state of their lives can find some relation to Rudy and the feelings he has internally. Seeing him go from essentially a self serving and bitter loner to someone who genuinely cares for those around him and works to better himself not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the people he loves really resonated with me and pushed me to let go of the past and work towards a brighter future and to appreciate the people that matter in my life.
Hiroshima, by John Hersey. Humanity.
Chapter 108, ‘Memories’ in Rhythm of War makes me tear up every time I read it. Sometimes I just read that chapter randomly to make sure I still have feelings because I’ve found I’ve become more cynical as I’ve aged.
The Kite Runner
Me Before You
Lily and the octopus. I cried like a little baby.
Book 4 of the stormlight archive near the end cause I don’t want to spoil anything but it’s very emotionally cathartic.