Welcome to the Moonlight Library’s 30 Day Book Challenge!
This meme intends to generate discussion, so please feel free to add a comment.
This particular challenge is taken from the 30 Day Challenge Archive on Tumblr.

Day 06 – A Book That Makes You Sad

Two years ago I read a book that made me cry somewhere in the middle (I don’t remember the trigger) and then at the end I put it down and wept. That book was:

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

The basic premise is Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls – that’s what I tell everyone, anyway. It’s about a teen queen bee bitch popular girl/bully called Samantha Kingston, and her posse, and what happens on a very fateful Friday Valentine’s Day (called Cupid Day in the book) when they attend a party and are confronted by a girl they mercilessly bullied for years. Samantha dies in a car crash and relives the same day over and over until she can redeem herself.

I’m not sure what it is about the book that made me weep uncontrollably at the end, to the point where I sought refuge in my husband’s arms as he looked on, bewildered a book could affect me so powerfully. It’s not the first book to make me cry and it certainly wasn’t the last. I didn’t admire Samantha and I found parts of the book a bit condescending – but that was Sam’s narration. I think it’s a beautiful story and I loved how even though Sam was changing as a person, everyone around her was staying the same and often confused at her changes. Sam couldn’t save the world, but she could save a life.

I read the book again a few months ago and although once again it did make me terribly sad (in a beautiful, bittersweet way), I didn’t cry. I think I was overwhelmed the first time, and although I enjoyed it just as much reading it a second time around, now I was prepared and I could handle it.

Here are some foreign covers:

As you can see, there are a lot of pictures of girls lying down.

What book makes you sad?

What is it about that book that makes you sad?

Subscribe to Blog via Email