Books that gave you the feels

[Glongpre]

I have been reading on various forums, that the Mistborn series was really good. I put it on my list of books to read but didn't get around to it. Recently, I was feeling pretty bored and thought, hey, maybe I will pick up the first book and see how it is!

Well god damn, it was good. I must have read those ~670 pages in under a week. I don't think I have read a character with that good and realistic of an arc. Also, the main characters, Kelsier and Vin, just felt like real people. And Sanderson was just so good at writing emotion.


The biggest surprise for me though was actually feeling emotional during one particular event.

Spoiler: spoilzy mcspoils

I had grown so attached to Kelsier and Vin, and they had such a fantastic relationship, that when Kelsier was killed and the aftermath...Oh lord, I felt a feel that I didn't ever think I could feel from a book. Just sadness, like I had lost a friend. And Kelsier's note to Vin, so touching.

Well, off to Chapters to get the 2nd and 3rd.

Share your stories of feels received from books!

Practice safe reading.

(And I just found out you can add colours! What a lovely day.)
(Annoying or fun to look at?)
(Bright colors are definitely not fun)

 

[Barbas]

Never though this'd be a sentence I'd type out on a public forum, but those are some sad cycloptic worms.

OT: I remember feeling immensely saddened by the end of The Deptford Histories: The Oaken Throne. It started off as a fairly cute little book about woodland creatures fighting each other, but became so much more engaging. Gods, it's a pretty good piece of writing that makes me root for love.

A lot of Discworld books gave me the feels, but I'll always remember the ending of Small Gods.

Have you ever read Thud! and gotten to the part where...

Spoiler

...he doesn't make it in time?

 

[TakerFoxx]

The Dresden Files do this a lot, especially the end of Changes.

 

[Barbas]

No, not yet, I kinda reached burnout with the series, hopefully I'll continue reading next semester.

That is probably for the best; he gets progressively better and the Ankh Morpork books are some of his best work. Your eyes will be pissing tears at the quality.

 

[Zhukov]

Most books by one Richard Flanagan.

I don't know how well known he is outside of Australia, although just about every book he's written has won a pile of prizes and he recently got the Booker prize, so I imagine some folks have heard of him.

Anyway, his work is near unparalleled in the "feels" department. And I don't say that shit lightly. I've read almost all of his books and every single one had its share of emotional gut punches.

 

[Hagi]

If you don't mind books that tend to have really dark parts ( rape, torture, suicide etc. ) as well as explicit sex between a female human and male monster/alien/whatever then I can recommend R. Lee Smith.

Her works are seriously fucked up yet strangely beautiful. You'll be going through just about all the feels yet she usually manages to end with a satisfying feeling of things being okay ( considering all the things that happened rather than dismissing them ).

If you're interested I'd start with her later works, her early works aren't bad but not nearly as good.

 

[Fox12]

Harry Potter was a big one. I grew up with the characters, and seeing them slaughtered like that really hit home. GoT has nothing on that. Weirdly enough, the part that stood out the most was when Malfoy, Crab, and Goyle get attacked, and one of them dies.

The end of Lord of the Flies got to me too. A plane crashes on an island with a lot of young boys on it. Eventually they go Ferrell, and form two tribes. In the end the main characters are outnumbered. One of them is half blind, because he's lost his glasses. The main character helps him up, and together they hobble over to the other camp to try and reason with them. It's a really powerful scene, watching this broken band of children try and do what's right, even though they know they can't win.

I'll cheat a bit and say Berserk. The ending of the book left me truly devastated. It's the only thing I hesitate to Re-read, even though it's amazing. When I was done I put the book down, and I was quiet. Then I went for a long walk and watched the sun go down.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

High Society by Ben Elton, he usually writes scathing satire and keeps a humourous tone throughout whilst remaining generally easy reading. But there were some dark, serious moments in that book that catch you off-guard. In fact the book altogether is a lot darker than his usual work.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett.

There's a lot of characters, so you don't necessarily get attached to all of them, but all of them are living through tumultuous periods of human history and witness awful spectacles of human misery happening around them that they are powerless to prevent. Particular ones involving main characters that stuck with me:

Spoiler: 1910 to 1945

Grigori is aghast at the age of some of the prostitutes hopefully offering themselves to him just walking down the street in Tsarist Russia, some of them only a few years ahead of his own daughter. Who is EIGHT.
A hospital for crippled or deformed children in Nazi Germany is secretly a mass incinerator. Carla von Braun's son went there before she found out what it really was, only finding out because the receptionist there became too guilty to stay silent. Carla tells a priest about it, that priest speaks out vehemently against it in his sermons... and then less than a week later he is imprisoned and electrocuted to death by the Gestapo.
Carla's daughter Maud has been seriously studying and applying herself for years to become a doctor. She is turned down because of her father's political alignment. The one in charge tells her, to her face, that she should go home and find a man, because her only purpose is to produce more children for the Fuher. His exact words.
The brown shirt rally in Britain attempting to purge a neighbourhood of Jewish people. It turns into a street battle between thousands of people on both sides resulting in multiple deaths that the police are specifically ordered not to interfere with.

Less depressing, but the later Harry Potter books can destroy you if the previous books have gotten you attached to anyone. I cried for Remus Lupin even before David Thewlis played him.

 

[happyninja42]

A lot of Discworld books gave me the feels, but I'll always remember the ending of Small Gods.

Agreed about Discworld, though for me, the feels came from a couple scenes in Feet of Clay.

Spoiler: Spoiler McSpoilpants

When Dorful burst into the room, even without his Chem in his head, and was able to defeat the Golem King, and then "died", after talking about words of the heart. And then, how he emerged from the kiln, this glowing, magma infused avatar of earth and determination. It was very atavistic to me. Hit a really deep core of badassery.

The Stormlight Archive books by Sanderson had many many feels moments for me. The climactic moment in book 1, when a particular thing happens at a particular bridge, was quite the bit of awesometacularness. If you've read the book, you know what scene I'm talking about.

Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher, has a particular series of events in it that was totally awesome. This isn't spoilers because it's the basic summary of the plot on the back of the book. Tavi ends up having to lead the troops he was assigned to, by fact of all of the higher ranking officers being dead. And the amount of awesomeness that happens as he MacGyvers his way out of problem after problem, and how the soldiers react to it, was just badass.

One particular scene from Small Favor, by Jim Butcher. It's a very small bit, that's split over 2 different sections of the book, but it always tugs at my heart.

Spoiler: Spoiler McSpoilface

When Ivy has been kidnapped, and they are getting ready to rescue her, and Harry suddenly remembers that Ivy automatically knows everything that has been written down. (Including all fan fiction, poor girl). So he writes a note to her "Ivy, We're coming. I'm alive, Kincaid is ok, don't listen to them. We're coming for you...HOLD ON!" And then, many chapters later, and an epic battle against the literal forces of hell later, he rescues her. They wake her up for the first time from her ordeal, she clings to Harry, and says very softly. "...I got your letter....thank you." Fucking love that. So damn emotional to me. Given what she was dealing with at the time, to have that message pop into her head through all the sussurus of the written word, at the exact moment she needed it. Just awesome.

No, not yet, I kinda reached burnout with the series, hopefully I'll continue reading next semester.

That is probably for the best; he gets progressively better and the Ankh Morpork books are some of his best work. Your eyes will be pissing tears at the quality.

I concur. Thud! is an awesome book, as are most of the later books in the series before his death.

 

[gigastar]

Chalking up more for Brandon Sanderson with Firefight, in which...

Spoiler

Megan overcomes her fear of fire and risks her life to save David.

And later on, the Professor succumbing to the behavioural changes of using Epic abilities after using said abilities to contain something comparable to a nuclear bomb.

And in Words of Radiance...

Spoiler

Kaladin coming to terms with what he did to Syl by breaking his oath.

Szeth struggling to cope with all the slaughter he was ordered to commit. And the breakdown he has after he finds out that his exile from Shinovar was unjust.

And Shallan finally accepting the truth of what she did to her mother.

And in Shadows of Self...

Spoiler

Bleeder turning out to be Lessie, and the effect it has on Wax after she dies again.

And in The Seal of the Worm by Adrian Tchaikovsky...

Spoiler

In the anti-magic zone of the Centipedes domain beneath the earth, Che manages to gather enough power to send one person back to the surface. She chooses to send Maure, who never had any stake in the greater scope of events and was only following Che due to the kind of master/servant relationships that tend to form between magicians of different calibers.

 

[Glongpre]

Never though this'd be a sentence I'd type out on a public forum, but those are some sad cycloptic worms.

That's Mr. Krabs, with some ms paint work done I would guess. Haha.

Mistborn just caught me off guard because I have never really felt attached to a character in a book before. It seems more distant to me than watching a movie, where you see them, and are watching their life.
Most books with a character I like, if they die, I am just surprised and say aw shit, I liked him, or awww he just got mucked, he was badass, etc.

I have been wondering if I should pick up the Stormlight Archive as well, but one series at a time! I will probably do so down the road.

Still waiting for god damn Winds of Winter, and the third Name of the Wind book.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Currently on Dust of Dreams in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It's had many feels moments throughout so I'll just pick some of the biggest ones:

Spoiler: Deadhouse Gates Spoilers

The end of the Chain of Dogs. To come within sight of their final goal only to be so utterly betrayed and have the entire army slaughtered was one of the biggest gut-punches I've ever experienced in fiction. We spend the entire book with these soldiers, getting to know and admire many of them and then they're just snuffed out in a terrible way.

Spoiler: Memories of Ice Spoilers

Kallor's betrayal of the alliance against he Pannion Seer. Okay, you could see is betrayal coming from a mile away in his POV sections, but to have him cut down one of my favourite characters (Whiskeyjack) was brutal. Also, Itkovian taking on the burden of the T'lan Imass was incredible.

Spoiler: House of Chains Spoilers

The end when the Adjunct Tavore cuts down her own sister, Felesin, without even knowing it. It's made all the worse knowing that a lot of what Felesin did was started off by Tavore's actions at the beginning of Deadhouse Gates. Tavore did for her what she thought was best, but it ended up going far worse than she realizes.

Spoiler: Midnight Tides Spoilers

This book was huge on feels moments and as a result, is probably my favourite book (along with Reaper's Gale actually) in the series. I'll just list off some of the major ones:
-Rhulad Sengar's transformation throughout the book
-Several heated discussions between brother's Fear and Trull Sengar
-Rhulad demanding Fear's wife for himself
-Tehol Beddict almost dying and seeing Bugg's rage and then relief to have him alive
-Brys Beddict's death
-Hull Beddict's entire character
-Trull trying to do the honourable thing in the end when the reader knows exactly what will come of it
-Basically, the entire transformation of the Tiste Edur people.

Spoiler: Bonehunters Spoilers

The betrayals and Malaz city. After seeing everything the Bonehunters had gone through in this book, to have their empire basically abandon them was awful. At least this army's betrayal wasn't meat with the deaths of many beloved characters since Tavore had anticipated something like this.

Spoiler: Reaper's Gale Spoilers

Similar to Midnight Tides, this one has a lot:
-Toc being killed and having his face cut off moments before his friends arrive to save him.
-Trull being cut down while lamenting over Rhulad's corpse. Trull was probably my favourite character in the whole series so this stung the most.
-Udinaas actually getting a fairly happy ending and getting to spend time with his son.
-Fear's death. He basically reenacts the very thing that caused the schism between the Edur and Andii only this time, he's swiftly killed. He believed he was doing the right thing, but as we shortly discovered, his last act was incredibly pointless and would have been detrimental to an entire realm. It's made all the worse knowing that he was one of the most honourable characters in the entire series and his final act is betrayal.
-Beak's sacrifice to save the marines.
-Happy feels came in the form of the ending with Tehol and Bugg. Tehol meeting the Adjunct in his bloodied blanket was much needed comic relief after the insanity that had just occured.

Spoiler: Toll the Hounds Spoilers

Anomander Rake's sacrifice to bring Mother Dark back to his people. Not only do we lose an amazing character, but the gift that he gave his people is incredible. It wasn't until this book that I began to understand the Tiste Andii mindset of losing their god. Any chapter involving them seemed to have a pervasive bleakness. Hopefully this will start to be alleviated now that Mother Dark has embraced her children once again. To be honest, the entire climax of this book is one feels moment after another, but this stuck out the most. Also, the Deaths of Mallet and Bluepearl earlier in the book hit me pretty hard too.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Oh lots. Lots of books have their powerhouse feels moments.

If I had to pick a "feelsiest" book, without specifying what kind of feels one is looking for, "A Fine Balance" was like being pinned down and punched in the heart over and over again. I'm half convinced that book triggered an episode of depression.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Sad feels? I can only really think of one example; The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry.

The whole book had a melancholic feel for it. It had good times, bad times, but the end goal was never out of sight. I don't think it was a specific thing that made me choke up, not even the ending itself, but the closer the book got to finishing at one point I got this strange mix of sad-happy feelings for what Harold was going through. God I love that book...

The Dresden Files do this a lot, especially the end of Changes.

The latest book, Skin Game, got me notably close to that. Even more so than that thing in Changes. Mostly because it's a real looking-back-at-roads-traveled type deal, showing Harry's character development, the situation they're in now. And then

Spoiler

he finally dares to get close to Maggie and ho god my heart.

 

[FuzzyRaccoon]

Oddly enough the feels have only recently been happening with Fanfiction lately. Prolly because of all the shoehorning romance issues I have with a lot of authors.

Still. I don't know about feelings exactly, but L.E. Modesitt Jr's Gravity Dreams has always stuck with me.

Spoiler: Especially...

The way that Tyndel was forced to confront a culture so much more powerful than anything he'd ever known and then when they meet a being as powerful as a God how he was the only one that really understood and how they all kept acting like the filthy savage was stupid and didn't get the gravity of the event. It made me so ANGRY.

And more Sanderson love! So far I've liked all his works. I thought Warbreaker was really good. Again everyone felt really real.

Spoiler: And...

Susebron's whole thing genuinely made me feel sad more than any big even. He was just so cheated and it was messed up.

Tons more really, but I can't think of them right now. Gotta come back to read some of these though.