Sad Book Sunday: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I remember first reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 3rd grade. I remember listening to the audiotape of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on my 5th grade family road trip to the Grand Canyon. I remember screaming like a baby when a coincidentally timed blackout zapped all power from the house while my friend and I were watching the scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry follows the kidnapped Ron into the Shrieking Shack.


Harry Potter has been part of my childhood. And when the 7th book rolled around, it wasn't just the deaths of precious, beloved characters that made me cry. It was the fact that this series--and even if you hate HP, you can't deny that the boy wizard will be a lasting figure in literature for years to come--was coming to an end. Of course, I cried when Harry realized how many of his friends had died in the battle at Hogwarts. But I also cried at the epilogue (yeah...I have my own opinions about that part of the book) because the saga had ended, and I would no longer relish the one-two year wait for the next midnight release. 


Same thing happened with the movie. I balled my eyes out in the movie theater when I watched the second part of the last movie. 1) The musical score was genius. It had the right amount of poignancy that pulled at each emotion as it should have. 2) I cried because of the nostalgia. 


The Harry Potter series definitely has its tragic moments, but the main reason I'm listing this specific book as a "sad book" is because of the finality it carries for all my precious memories growing up alongside Harry Potter.

Sad Book Sundays (Monday): Feed

Okay, here is my excuse for missing yesterday's Sad Book Sunday: It was my birthday. Hahah, and I spent it at my best friend's house hosting a Vampire Diaries marathon and fooling around with my brand new iPhone 4s. Now, as much as I love posting on this blog of mine, I love my friends more.

So this mini review is a little late, but it's here nonetheless. For any of you that haven't read Feed by Mira Grant, it is a must-read. It's a full-immersion zombie book (and series) that takes you on a rollercoaster ride that will frustrate you, excite you, and, most of all, sadden you all in 500 pages. Here is my review.


The sad parts to this story are sudden and unexpected. But when they arrive, you get the full force of the poignancy. Initially, Grant blinds you into thinking this is just another zombie story. But as you get more involved with the characters, the blind side is revealed to be a cover for the saddest, most realistic zombie stories I've ever read.


I can't actually get into saying what the sad parts are in this story, but please read this book! If you get through the entirety (and I know, it is a little too long), you won't be disappointed. The end is a cliffhanger-esque tragedy all on its own.

Sad Sunday Books: Thirteen Reasons Why

Suicide is a difficult subject to write about. The author can't gloss over the subject nor can he or she dramatize it into a soap opera. Because in reality, suicide is a tragedy that can happen to anyone, anytime. A few weeks ago, our school was rocked by the news of a girl who killed herself. And that girl had been my best friend in middle school. The news was heartbreaking, especially when I found myself reflecting over the distance that had grown between us.


Anyway, the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a story of teen suicide that perfects the art of walking the middle ground between teen angst and hope. The story is a sad tale of Hannah's suicide. She sent tapes out to all the people in her life that contributed in some way to her suicide. My review can be found here.


In general, Asher gives Hannah the most humanity of all the people in his book, even though you only see her through her recordings. And Asher knows, I think, better than anyone how to portray Hannah's spiral into depression. Suicide can happen to the happiest of people. Take Hannah's first story for us: her first kiss. I won't spoil the story, but every flashback into Hannah's life brought a little more sadness to my heart because you do know that once the tapes run out, Hannah's story is done. And it makes you afraid to let yourself feel for her story. Yet, it's impossible not to feel sympathy and sadness for Hannah.


It's an amazing book that makes you think hard about life and consequences. Please read it.

Sad Sunday Books

Sundays are the saddest day of the week for me. The weekend is over, and it's back to work tomorrow. For someone like me who thrives off 14+ hours of sleep (my past life was a bear, I think), weeks mean cranky early morning wake ups and late nights of homework.

So this Sunday, I've brought you a sad, tear jerking book that I've loved.

If I Stay by Gayle Foreman is a heart-wrenching tale of love, grief, and choices. Mia and her family are involved in a car crash. Mia, a rising orchestra star aiming to attend Julliard, is the only survivor. She stays on Earth as a ghost, watching her friends and family struggle to cope with the tragedy. And then Mia has to face the decision: should she choose to pass on when her mother, father, and little brother have all died or should she choose to live even though life will become irrevocably difficult for her.

I read this on my road trip around the East Coast with my mom. She was driving, and I was reading. And honestly, there is this one moment that just made me start tearing up. Mia is in the hospital, and as a ghost, she watches her grandparents stand by her bedside day after day, hoping for their beloved granddaughter to wake up. However, one day, Mia's grandfather sits by Mia's body alone, and he whispers into her ear that it's okay if Mia chose to pass on with the rest of her family. He would understand it if she chose to die because he understood how hard it would be to live without her family. At that point, I started crying. I didn't want my mom to see my tears, so I had to turn in my seat so my back would face her. I'm not really an emotional person, and I definitely don't like crying in front of others.

But yeah, this was a perfect book. I'd recommend it, even for people who don't like sad books. And I'd recommend Where She Went, the sequel told from Mia's boyfriend Adam's POV.