ETA: I’ve removed “Recent Comments” from the sidebar to avoid spoilers due to this topic. PLEASE make sure you follow the instructions on how to comment below—thank you!!
I asked this question a few days ago on Twitter, but I’ve been thinking about it more. Since today is Memorial Day in the US, a day of barbecue, the unofficial start of summer, and a day of remembering those who died in military service. According to the wikipedia entry, Memorial Day’s history begins in the Civil War: “Begun as a ritual of remembrance and reconciliation after the civil war, by the early 20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as ordinary people visited the graves of their deceased relatives, whether they had served in the military or not.”
(Can I say, as an aside, “Happy” Memorial Day seems to be the most ludicrous thing to say to someone? Have a great funeral! Merry Yom Kippur! Festive Good Friday! Anyway.)
Because today is all about remembering people, I wanted to ask you a question, and I’ve been struggling with ways to do this, since the answers you provide may be incredibly spoiler-y for other readers.
Which characters from books that you’ve read do you still mourn? Whose deaths in fiction do you still think about?
Here’s how I’d like to politely request you format your answer. At the top of your comment, please put the book or series your comment is about, with or without the author name, and then hit the return key a bunch of time to drop your answer down. That way, if someone doesn’t want to read about that series or book, they can skip to the next one – or avoid the comment thread all together.
My answer is below the fold.
JR Ward, Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
One character I think about still, years later, is Wellsie from JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I probably should have known she wouldn’t survive the series because she was so strong a female (heh) but her kindness to John Matthew and her innate goodness left a profound impression on me when I read the series. I still remember the scene where she made rice with ginger in it for John Matthew, whose stomach was upset constantly, and my out-loud cry of “NO” when I read what happened to her.
What about you? Which deceased fictional characters do you still mourn?
Connie Willis
Blackout/All Clear
A number of people die in these time travel novels set in WWII England. War stories are often big on carnage, but Willis’s character-focused writing makes each death excruciatingly personal. Mike’s death is particularly terrible because he is such a major character and his death is so complicated and sacrificial.
Oh, yeah, and it”s Oonah, not Una in the Crawford books. Thanks, Darlene.
Also Tolkein—you know who they are.
I need to stop thinking about this. Normally I’m all about the HEA—preferably with a great deal of broad humor—in my recreational reading, and I hate cheesy sentimental tear-jerkers worse than standing in line without a book, yet I can’t regret any of the tears shed over the books I’ve mentioned.
Where the Red Fern Grows
Old Dan and Little Ann where the first characters I thought of when I read the title. Also in the very end as the family is leaving the farm the boy sees a cat in the house. I feel bad for that left behind kitty.
Rilla of Ingleside By L.M. Montgomery
Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrian (sp?)
City of Bones (Ashes?) by Cassandra Clare
Dance with the Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Walter! omg I bawled when he died I loved him so much and it was so unfair! I hate when characters die in The Great War. Which brings me to:
Michael. Not only is this incredibly sad, but the way the author sets it up is heart wrenching. a few chapters into the book you start to wonder where Michael is and why he isn’t taking part in the story. Then Peter suggests they play war and all of the chidren become silent. “No. Let’s not. Michaal wouldn’t like it.” and you realize what happened to sweet little Michael. and I cry and cry even when the book is over.
Simon. Though he doesn’t really die (becomes a vampire) his best friend still thinks he did, and when she does learn his fate, her request that they “please bury him in a Jewish cemetery” is so sad and sweet and touching. cried in the hallway of Uni.
Cherise Gautier. not necessarily because I loved her, but because of how much her son did. When a 22 yearm old guy who is usually seen as tough and scrappy, walks into his home to see his mother is murdered and starts to call out “Mommy come back!” how can you not cry?
also, It’s not a book but the death in the movie My Girl is so sad that I can’t describe the film to friends without crying. it’s tragic and bittersweet.
Dana Stabenow / Kate Shugak Series
There have been many characters in fiction that I mourn, including many listed above, but I could always see how a reason for their death, or at least it wasn’t terribly unexpected. Books about war, periods in history where life expectancy was low, etc and I could understand why the author chose to kill off a beloved character, often for the development of the lead. Because life happens, and bad things happen in life. But when Dana Stabenow decided to kill off Kate Shugak’s lover Jack Morgan, I almost threw my e-reader across the room. Where was the omniscient Mutt who had alerted Kate to danger so many times before? How did the bad guys sneak up on our two heroes? It was so out of character for the series to leave so much unexplained, but – ok I thought, bad things happen in life. But then I picked up the next book and all of the sudden it became so clear to me. The author wanted to change romantic partners for Kate and with a lot of revisionist writing, changing several aspects of Sgt Jim Chopin’s previously established character, I guess this was the only way she could figure out how to do it. I read this series in a couple of weeks, and I must say the new relationship continued to leave a bad taste in my mouth with every book. With many series that I come late to, I often either buy the series or certainly buy the new releases when they come out. Not with this series.
Agree with Bujold, and Connie Willis (ohh, DOOMSDAY BOOK, one big sobfest, and anyone who can get through “The Last of the Winnebagos” without going through a whole box of tissues has no soul) but the one that always hits me the hardest is Madeleine L’Engle’s WIND IN THE DOOR.
Proginoskes. (“O cherubim!”) Gadzooks, I’m just typing his name and I’m already choking up…
There’s only one character I miss. From the Harry Potter series – Professor Severus Snape. Do I really need a reason?
Paul, the soldier in All Quiet on the Western Front. Does anyone read that book anymore?
The main character in “Blonde Faith”, the last book of the Easy Rawlins detective mystery series by Walter Mosley. It happens so suddenly, and randomly that I was totally blindsided. I was upset for days. I still haven’t been able to start reading his new detective series; don’t want to get attached!
And Gus in Lonesome Dove.
Heralds of Valdemar series, by Mercedes Lackey
Vanyel. Oh my God. This was the first Mercedes Lackey series I’d read so I didn’t know about the stories of him from earlier books. I kept the faith to the end that he’d find a way to survive. I cried myself sick.
Tylendel. Only slightly less traumatizing than Vanyel, but more horrible in a way because of the way he died.
Elfquest, by Richard & Wendy Pini
Don’t know how many people have read this, because it’s a comic book but…
One-Eye. He’s an elf, and his tribe gets attacked. He’s killed and his lifemate, in her grief, cuts off her hair, a long silver braid that reaches nearly to her feet, and drapes it across his body before the rescuers who’ve come a moment to late for him drag her away. He’s left lying in the snow. Again, I cried til I was sick.
Ahlison: That was one of the most heartwrenching deaths I’ve read, and I can’t believe I forgot about it! I cried off and on for DAYS after finishing Hunter’s Moon.
Then I read Midnight Come Again and … well, that was the end of the series for me. The entire book seemed like a slap-dash attempt to figure out what the heck to do with Kate now.
Where the Red Fern Grows
It was so sad…I never really read books about animals again for fear they would be killed off.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of Where the Red Fern Grows. I was just a young ‘un when I read that. I cried for a long long time at that one.
well, since anime has been mentioned already…
cowboy bebop
i still cry every time i see spike die….:( and it doesn’t help matters any that a close friend of mine that looks JUST like him passed away a few years back as well….
the hollows by kim harrison
totally agree with everybody about that one…..
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Finnick’s death gets me every time. The poor guy was forced into prostitution, in love with a crazy girl, and was just getting to experience some happiness. And then he gets his throat ripped out. I think I literally shrieked when he died. And then we found out his wife was pregnant. I mean, couldn’t Collins have let him have a happy ending?? 🙁
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
I know that Gandalf ended up coming back, but I was heartbroken when he fell in Moria. At the time, he was the greatest character I had ever encountered (heck, he probably is still the best character), and I became completely attached. I cried for hours.
Dark Tower Series – Stephen King
I know this isn’t romance, but I cried BUCKETS when Jake and Eddie died in the Dark Tower series. I was about 8 months pregnant and called my husband at work, sobbing inconsolably. He actually CAME HOME because I was so incoherent, only to be dumbfounded that I was crying over fictional characters! I told him, “I know they’re fictional, but I’ve known them for 20 years!”. So sad.
I also agree with the Mercedes Lackey comments, except the one that makes me cry is Kris in Arrow’s Fall.
Completely agree with Hapax 🙂
Re Bujold – Aral’s death was always a given it was only a matter of when but so beautifully handled. Don’t forget the epilogue of ‘Shards of Honour’ which is not about the Cordelia and Aral but the impact of war as bodies are recovered from the detritus of a war fought in space and a mother searches for her lost daughter. Also there is the murdered child in ‘Mountains of Mourning’. But as others above have said it is the tragedy and redemption of SGT Bothari’s life and death that lingers in the heart.
Connie Willis’ DOOMSDAY BOOK is all about loss and how death is faced – the children and then Father Roche at the end….
Also agree with the comment about Hector in the Iliad made above. There is a fantastic poem by an Irish poet Valentin Iremonger about Hector’s last night with his wife Andromache before the fight with Achilles; both of them knowing he won’t survive.
‘Hector’
Talking to her, he knew it was the end,
The last time he’d speed her into sleep with kisses:
Achilles had it in for him and was fighting mad.
The roads of his longing she again wandered,
A girl desirable as midsummer’s day.
He was a marked man and he knew it,
Being no match for Achilles whom the gods were backing.
Sadly he spoke to her for hours, his heart
Snapping like sticks, she on his shoulder crying.
Yet, sorry only that the meaning eluded him.
He slept well all night, having caressed
Andromache like a flower, though in a dream he saw
A body lying on the sands, huddled and bleeding,
Near the feet a sword in bits and by the head
An upturned, dented helmet.
Mark Brian from Margaret Craven’s “I Heard the Old Call My Name”
This book is so beautifully understated, yet the life of the inhabitants of the small village in the Canadian Pacific Northwest at the center of the novel comes vividly to life. I’ve read the book several times, and even though you know how it will end from the start, the journey draws you in and I sob buckets each time—a lovely, lovely book.
Perhaps it was because my spam word was ill85 and my thoughts were on old age and death, I mis-stated the title of the book: it’s “I Heard the
Owl
Call My Name”.
I can’t believe I forgot about Connie Willis and All Clear.
Pam, Mike’s death is the one I have cried over most recently. I thought I had accepted the fact that he probably dies, but part of me must have been hoping, because I cried myself to sleep after finishing the book.
Harry Potter
I think J K Rowling overdoes the deaths in the last book. I found those in the earlier books moving, but I think Dobby was the only one I cried over in Deathly Hallows. I don’t think it was necessary to kill off half the dispensible members of the cast just to show how serious the battle was and how amazing it was they won. The death of Remus and Tonks was unnecessary (though of course Remus is now with Sirius, his one true love). Joss Whedon does the same thing, though admittedly a little better.
Sidney Carton in a “Tale of Two Cities” and Snipe (I think) in “Nicholas Nickleby”. No can create a more tragic death than Charles Dickens. Those two death scenes always make me cry.
OOPS! It was Smike in Nicholas Nickleby.
Princep’s Fury by Jim Butcher, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and Bleach by Tite Kubo.
I was apparently one of the two fans who really, really like Gaius Sextus. He may have been manipulative, secretive, dishonest and callously able to sentence to death hundreds of innocents in the name of the greater good, but he was also an incredibly lonely, intensely isolated man; the reader only learns about his emotional turmoil and how deeply he mourns his family in small flashes. He kept the country together in face of increasingly insurmountable odds, and died fighting. The lines announcing his death—during which he is turning the capital city into a volcano in order to take all the enemy forces with him—always make me tear up a little: “So died Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, his pyre lighting the Realm for fifty miles in every direction.”
Also, when Suzanne Collins killed Finnik off, I remember being very, very angry. I understand why she did it, but his death, like most of the characters’ deaths in the last fourth of Mockingjay, felt gratuitous and unnecessary. I remember the passage during which he was finally reunited with Annie, and I don’t know if any romance novel I’ve ever read has ever given me such a wonderful depiction of desperate, overpowering love. Bogg’s death, too, hit me hard, especially because it came at a rare moment of levity.
Finally, Bleach. Excuse me, will forever be mourning Ulquiorra, even though he was a prototypical hipster (except, you know, dead) and had excellent sexual tension with everybody.
@Jen G
I’d completely forgotten about Sally Lockhart!!
I loved how Pullman left the reader to grieve and concentrated on Sally as she got her life back together afterwards. Ah Pullman is a genius!
Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series
When she killed off HELEN when she was pregnant! I was pregnant at the time and MAN did that piss me off. Okay, these are mysteries, but YOU do not kill off the main character’s pregnant spouse when the readers have gone through AGONY getting them together through god knows how many books. Seriously. I have not read her since. That totally ruined her for me.
I know there are others, and even in romance, but I can’t think of them and THIS one always stands out.
I had forgotten the novella The Long Walk by Stephen King. Not a romance, but I cried buckets throughout the story.
Oh, and that other Larry McMurtry book, Terms of Endearment. You know who dies. What a sobfest. And the characters who die at the end of “The Last of the Mohicans” movie, I’m not sure if the book is the same because I haven’t read it.
Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett
Nightrunner series, Lynn Flewelling
Harry Potter series, JK Rowling
Lymond Chronicles –
Oonagh O’Dwyer’s death and Francis’ discovery of her body was like a gut-punch to me. I still can’t read that scene, thirty years later.
Khaireddin had me all but in tears, and I simply do not cry at books. Ever. But that one –
Marthe – It’s not even so much Marthe’s death, but Phillipa’s grief when she thinks it’s Francis, and then Jerott’s anguish as Francis and Phillipa are reunited. Wrenchingly beautiful.
Nightrunner
The deaths of the staff at the Cockerel in Stalking Darkness were so horrifying I used to skip over that chapter. Seriously. And Nysander’s at the end of the book is noble and heartbreaking.
But the big one for me is Alec in Shadows Return, even if he’s revived. His self-sacrifice, his ghost’s appearance to Thero, the reaction of the other characters, Seregil’s grief – I really came close to screaming. I still have to steel myself to reread it even though I know everything works out in the end.
Harry Potter
Remus, Tonks, and Fred were so *pointless*, and the mere idea that Tonks would leave her three week old baby to fight infuriates me. Yes, she loved Remus, but for God’s sake, Rowling had two children while she wrote those books. She knows better, or should.
Severus Snape, though…that poor man never had a day’s happiness in his life. I knew it was coming and it was still awful.
Is this sort of an anti-TBR list?
Two mystery series
Margaret Maron’s Sigrid Haraldson series
Peter Lovesey’s Inspector Diamond series
where the main characters’ significant others are snuffed.
This thread is killing me; I hate being reminded of how many of these things I’ve read over the years.
Tolkien, Lord of the Rings trilogy
Theoden, King of Rohan. Even if it’s the death he’d have wanted to have, and even though he was older, I’m still sad that he (along with many other characters) never sees the Fourth Age.
(became66—well, he did make it to that age….)
Interesting site and good information
Years, LaVyrle Spencer
Okay here’s where I know I am old, because LaVyrle is one of my most beloved authors of any genre, ever. And she has not written a book since 1997. And though I have a soft spot for Morning Glory, Years is my favorite book from her. Her descriptions of the Dakota Prairies and way of life just prior to WWI are so evocative. It’s a May/December romance, but treated realistically. Linnea is indeed a naive 18 year old, but she finds herself incredibly strong. Teddy is an embittered 35 horrified to find himself attracted to a child more suited for his son than himself.
And then there is John. Teddy’s big, slow, sweet older brother. A man of very few words, a lifelong bachelor, who keeps a kitten at his house and tend a thick stand of morning glories to wrap his porch. John, who plays Santa each year. John, who when an unexpected blizzard hits, unquestionably gives his own life to save Teddy. I have read this book dozens of times, and each time I fall in love with John, and each time I sob when he dies.
Aurora Teagarden by Charlaine Harris
Boy was I made when she killed Martin. She then reintroduced
Robin, an old boy friend, as the love interest. Just couldn’t
get over the loss myself.
Lots of mentions of Bujold, and
while I have Issues with how she handled Aral’s death (CryoBurn was only half a book, IMHO—Bujold’s oft-mentioned “what’s the worst thing that can happen to this character” is not supposed to happen at the end), and while I have a friend who refused to read the rest of the series after I made the mistake of starting her with The Warrior’s Apprentice because Lois killed off Bothari, there are two other deaths in that series that I still mourn:
Ensign Murka, the “boy genius” in Labyrinth who talks his way out of being rendered down for spare parts on Jackson’s Whole, then dies heroically in The Borders of Infinity.
And Sergeant Taura, who is, hands down, my favorite minor character in the series. I mean, we all knew she was going to die young (damn those genetic engineers), and her death happened offstage, but oh, I came to a screeching halt when Miles and Roic talked about it in CryoBurn. And cried.
My whatchamacallit is “death68.” Please. Four is more than enough, thanks.
I went ahead and registered after months of looking, just so I could comment on this thread.
JD Robb, Portrait in Death (I think that’s the title)
When Crack’s little sister gets snuffed and he’s taken to identify her and Eve is afraid he’s going to go ballistic, and he just sits down on the floor and cries… that gets me every time. Crack needs a nice girlfriend!
Agree with both LM Montgomery deaths of Matthew and Walter. Also, when Anne loses her firstborn in “Anne’s House of Dreams,” it always makes me cry.
Oh, yes, Arhys’s death in Paladin of Souls – but Cazaril’s sort-of-death in The Curse of Chalion was also amazing.
The ending of Jo Graham’s Hand of Isis, even though I knew what was coming. Anyone else felt like strangling Octavian?
Promises in Death (I think) and Kindred in Death by JD Robb
Amyrilis from Promises in Death-
I love the medical examiner so much. He’s crazy, quirky and awesome. I was so sad that he’d finally found a girl and then she was killed.
Deena from Kindred in Death-
Even though her death was the big murder of the book, what that poor girl went through- thinking she’d found the love of her life and then he tortures, rapes and murders her. I was in physical pain reading the witness accounts of how sweet he was to her and knowing it was all a game.
@ ChristyS – Oh – how I can relate! The first time I read HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean I was home alone during summer vacation. My mother came home and found me with tears streaming down my face and was quite concerned as I am not one who generally cries easily. She understood completely when I told her what I was reading. If you are not familiar with this book, it was his first and described, in heart breaking detail, an Arctic convoy of WW2 – not at all like his later books à la Guns of Navarone, etc. Less fantastical tales of derring do, and more the quiet desperation of men pushed beyond their limits. A fitting novel for Memorial Day.
I remembered one more:
Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman
When they lost their firstborn. I literally cried buckets.
Also, the ending of Margaret Craven’s I Heard the Owl Call My Name. Genius.
Harry Potter
I agree with all the other stated scenes, but Harry’s (brief) death where he walks into the forest with his loved one devastates me everytime. I sob from Dobby’s death until Beatrix gets her a$$ kicked every single time.
My Sister’s Keeper
OMG Anna. I fell in love with her quirky thoughts and her tormented family, and the ending absolutely crushed me.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Denny’s wife (can’t remember her name) and Enzo. God when I finished Denny’s goodbye to Enzo I blubbered through an entire box of tissues.
The Tairen series by C. L. Wilson
When the King dies (can’t remember his name right now either) after Annoura’s betrayal was sad, but I cried for a LONG time after Adrial (and his mate’s) death. For like 3 books I kept hoping that his mate’s mortal marriage would be annulled and the family would let them be together…when she killed them off I was kinda pissed because it seemed so senseless (unless she makes them reborn for a future book to get them together).
At Swim Two Boys – Jamie O-Neill
I’ve read this twice now, and even though I knew that Doyler died, I cried my heart out – even more the second time.
The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
I read the ending of this on a train, not knowing what was coming. I was actually sobbing, there were people staring (it was a train in the city, so they stared but didn’t actually say anything in case I was a nutter). I just couldn’t believe it. I’ve never finished a George Eliot book in public again, and I’ve found that a good rule to follow!
Posession – A S Byatt
One of my favourite books of all time. Even the happy ending of the modern romance between Maud and Roland couldn’t make up for the heart-wrenching pain when you found out that Ash and Christabel hadn’t made it when her coffin was dug up.
Sevenwaters Series by Juliet Marillier
When Sorcha dies in the second book, it’s not too terrible, until you realize that this is Sorcha, the girl you fell in love with and suffered with in the first book, not just the mother of the new heroine… and then it’s absolutely devastating. I love the way Marillier carries on the story of the family through several generations during the series, I just hated losing Sorcha. =(
Am I the only person in the world who thought JK Rowling would give Snape a happy ending??? I mean, he had the worst life ever! His entire life he had no one to help him fight his battles (I do not count Dumbledore’s defence on charges of being a Death Eater, because Dumbledore used Snape) and then he goes and does the most dangerous job of all with absolutely no thanks or support. I cried for hours after his death and had to force myself to finish the book – which started the whole thing again! Really, Tonks and Remus? And Fred! I kind of thought if any Weasley would die it would be Percy – the tragedy of only just returning to fight with his family, and all that.
Maybe I’m just really idealistic, or naive…But of all her characters that deserved that ridiculously sappy and nonsensical epilogue, it was Severus Snape.