Sad Books That Will Make You Cry Your Eyes Out

The debut novel of Scottish writer Douglas Stuart took inspiration from his own childhood in 1980s Glasgow. The young Hugh Bain, nicknamed Shuggie, lives in a notorious part of the city where Thatcherism has wrecked the community and the drug epidemic has killed many. His mother Agnes is his hero but she's also struggling to keep her head above water between her philandering husband and her dependency on alcohol. Left alone, Shuggie tries to find out who he really is in a world that has robbed his kind of all hope. This epic portrayal of working-class Scotland won Stuart the Booker Prize.

Amy Tan's multi-generational story of a quartet of Chinese women and their lives across time and place is a beloved tale of identity and motherhood that has made generations of readers cry.

In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. Their daughters, born and raised in America, are initially unaware of what their mothers endured to ensure they had futures, but as they share their mutual fears and concerns, they soon discover that they have more in common than they ever believed. 

There’s a reason everyone on BookTok who reads A Little Life ends up sobbing hysterically and encouraging everyone else to experience the tearjerker doorstop for themselves.

Hanya Yanagihara’s sophomore novel is brutal, controversial, and all-consuming in its portrayal of the scourge of trauma. Four male friends live and work in New York City, but soon, the attention falls upon Jude, the most mysterious of the quartet and the one whose life has been mired by endless pain. What happens when your life is nothing but agony and it never gets better? Yanagihara dives head-first into that idea with intense and overwhelming detail. It’s no wonder all of the internet was left in tears. 

If you were a young adult in the 2010s (or not), then the chances are solid that you read The Fault in Our Stars and shed more than a few tears.

John Green's magnum opus was a bona fide publishing phenomenon and it's not hard to see why. This tale of terminally ill teenagers in love managed to avoid clichés about sick kids and the fear of death but never downplayed the seriousness of their plight. Irreverent, often funny, and brutally honest, it’s a book that knows the power of being alive and why we fight for it even though death is the only inevitability. 

Kristin Hannah has become one of the most read novelists of the past decade, beloved by book clubs across the nation. The Women was, according to Publishers Weekly, the number one bestselling novel of 2024, and it's not hard to see why.

In 1965, America is a country in flux as the Vietnam War kicks off. Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a nursing student, decides to follow her brother across the planet to join the Army Nurse Corps. The world of war is hell, and every day is a battle of life, death, and hatred as Frankie tries to help the countless injured soldiers who come her way. The Women tells the story of the women who put themselves on the frontlines to help their country and paid the ultimate price.

You may be familiar with the Oscar-winning movie starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger, but the novel that started it all will make you cry just as hard as the adaptation.

Larry McMurtry’s tale of familial love and strife focuses on Aurora Greenway, a widow who adores her only daughter, Emma, but her overprotective ways leave Emma eager to make her own way in the world. Their relationship is one of fierce devotion but one not always rooted in trust. They fight and make up, and through it all, their bond is put through the wringer.