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?
Charlotte’s Web
E.B. White
It’s not a romance, but I cried buckets when Charlotte died.
I get annoyed when the hero of a romance gets killed off between books or in the sequel. Sometimes it seems like the author is cheating, especially if the new love interest is a secondary character from the earlier book, who, as a rule, tends to be a whole lot more interesting than the hero. It’s like the author realised half-way through the earlier book that she prefers this guy, but it’s too late to do anything about it.
I second this one wholeheartedly!
I am SOO with Francesca about Charlotte’s Web! I STILL cry when I think about that dang spider dying. I think that was maybe the first book I read where a significant character dies, and it’s so important…when those babies show up and give Wilbur something new to love, it just makes my heart sing.
And as for The Black Dagger Brotherhood:
I really DON’T want Wellsie to be reincarnated. That would be such a cop-out, unless it’s one of those John Matthew/Darius things where noone really knows it’s Wellsie. Tohr totally needs to fight his way to the other side of his grief and find a way to re-bond with someone new!
So many great entries and mine is one that was mentioned earlier (by Sycorax, I think):
Burrich from The Tawny Man trilogy (the Farseers) by Robin Hobb
MANY MANY characters from George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series
When Burrich is charged with raising the five or six year old Fitz, he does so without a complaint. He just gets on with it. But imagine an unmarried stablemaster, a rough and tumble guy, being in charge of a royal bastard who until then had no idea of his father, Prince Chivalry. Burrich does so much for Fitz and they both come to love each other. So when Burrich thinks that Fitz has been dead all these many years and finally finds out that he’s not, it was heartwrenching. During the siege of the Forged Ones and after the revelation that Fitz is the one who needs his help along with the rest of the Six Duchies, Burrich finally accepts a part of him that he’d repressed, his being one of the Witted folk. He ends up literally, slaying the dragon but dies from his own wounds. So, Fitz’s reunion with the man who loved and raised him and has now also saved him, is brief and terribly bittersweet. I cried and had to put the book down for a couple of hours.
When Martin kills Ned Stark, I knew that none of the beloved characters were safe. I braced myself when the direwolves were sacrificed and then Khal Drogo dies and Syrio and Lady Catelyn and Robb Stark and the list goes on and on. If they’re not dying then terrible things happen to them. Though I love Martin’s writing, I read with a detachment that I didn’t have going into the first book after I learned that no beloved character survives if the author deems it necessary and logical for them to die.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
I’m still mourning the death of Rue. She was so endearing, and she and Katniss had a true bond.
I almost cried at reading the review for Sisterhood Everlasting
(the new Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants book that is coming out in June). One of the “sisters” dies and they tell us who in the review on BN. Knowing who is going to die already tore me up, just wait till I actually read the book.
And totally ditto on Bridge to Terabithia.
Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneggar
I really grieved for Henry – I read this for my book club and felt I was in mourning going to the meeting.
I agree with so many of these!! And to add something new:
Maryjanice Davidson’s Undead series:
Garreth & Antonia in book 9. I get it, a series must progress, but, oh… SOB! And the end of book 10 – just WRONG!!! If she doesn’t redeem herself next month, I’m trashing this series! No, really, I swear!!
Meljean Brook’s Guardian series:
And it’s off the page, hell it happened a century before the book takes place, but Colin in “Demon Moon” recounting the story of Anthony & Emily’s deaths. And then later in the book when he says to her “Let’s see what comes next” OMG!!
Okay, I just realized how strict I am with my HEA for books… I don’t allow anything to interfere. It’s like movies where they kill the dog. I will turn it off—it is not allowed to happen in my world. But following with the mentions of anime—Trigun.
I still can’t believe Wolfwood died. And then I read the manga because when I heard it had some differences especially with the ending, I was POSITIVE that would be one… I understand why it happened, but he really needed a HEA with Milly. I loved Vash and Meryl, but I watched for Wolfwood and Milly. I’m tearing up now. :’-(
Beth in Little Women
Diarmuid in the Fionavar Tapestries
Pwll in the Fionavar Tapstries [at least the first time]
Foamfollower in Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Findhorn the unicorn in Elidor
The Nightingale [Hans Christian Anderson ]
Although he doesn’t exactly die, Atlendor from The Weirdstone of Brisingamen & Moon of Gomrath
The Yearling [buckets of hankies required ]
Sally Lockhart Series by Phillip Pullman
Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson
And, to throw in a movie one: Joss Whedon’s Serenity
Lockhart: I know multiple people have mentioned this one, but it hit me hard. I have to admit, I refused to read the next book after Fred died. It pissed me off that I had invested so much in the relationship of those two characters just to have him get killed as soon as it come to fruition.
Mistborn: HUGE SPOILER if you haven’t read:
At the very end when Vin and Elend die really got to me. I liked to think that after all of their work and dedication they’d get their HEA but that’s not the way the world works :(. I still have a ridiculous love for the world building in this series though!
Serenity: Okay, I admit that i am a ridiculous fangirl, but I was devastated when Wash died. I walked out of the theater telling my roommate that there was no way he (Whedon) could possibly have killed Wash.
market66- I went to market to buy 66 new books.
Cryoburn
I’m nthing this one, because I seriously wept for like 30 minutes after the book was over, and I messaged my friend wailing WHY WHYYYYY (she was the one who’d sent me Cryoburn). I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard reading about a character’s death, and I haven’t been able to re-read the book yet because I know it’s going to tear me apart.
Harry Potter
Dobby. All the other deaths break my heart, don’t get me wrong, but what Luna says always destroys me, because she’s so honest and to the point: “Thank you so much, Dobby, for rescuing me from that cellar. It’s so unfair that you had to die, when you were so good and so brave. I’ll always remember what you did for us. I hope you’re happy now.”
Dobby is so innocent and selfless (aside from wanting a little paying, though I think he just spends that money on Harry) that it’s just gutwrenching to me. Fred pulls in at a close second.
The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
I BAWLED MY EYES OUT. I shoulda known it was coming, because Sparks always kills off a main character in his books, but it was the way that he did it. Singer is a Great Dane who’s been helping a woman deal with her husband’s death, and when a crazed man/stalker is trying to kill her, after being poisoned with so much poison that the vet claims he should have been unable to move (“rat poison, enough to kill six dog within minutes…it was a miracle he was able to move at all, let alone fight with a grown man”), he attacks the man trying to kill her and is then shot twice, giving police enough time to arrive and save the day. It was one of the most selfless and heroic deaths I’ve ever read, regardless of whether Singer was a dog or not. I was practically inconsolable when I read he died.
I find it interesting especially as so many people mourn the deathes I do.
@ Karin
In 10th grade we read All Quiet on the Western Front, and yes it broke my heart.
@ Ellid
Rowling had three chilldren when she wrote Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Tonks wanted to be with her husband and create a better world for her son.
Kindred in Death
OMG I am so happy that book made the list. I felt so bad for both Carleen and Deena. Its the only JD Robb I have ever read. The plot was so over-the-top and not very believable.Everyone seemed to spend the whole book running saying “We’ll get the damn bastard who did this.” And then at the end someone gets married and it ends with “sometimes life can be perfect.” YUck! after the brutal murders of two young women who had their lives ahead of them. Spare me!
@Tia Sain – regarding the Black Jewels Series
@Melanie – regarding the Mistborn series
Regarding the Black Jewels series, I completely agree with Tia Sain. Jeanelle’s death didn’t really have much of an impact, but when Saetan died? Sob city. My husband thought I was going crazy, because I generally _never_ cry over books.
Regarding the Mistborn series: I was more surprised than heartbroken when Vin and Elend died! I really thought they would make it against all odds, and I felt kind of “empty” after finishing the books. But somehow, I was much sadder when Kelsier died, even though I could see it coming miles away.
Harry Potter
I freakin’ cry my eyes out whenever Dobby and Hedwig die. I think I have a thing for non-human characters, because I am equally traumatized by Old Yeller and Marley’s deaths.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Jo, the street sweeper. Okay, it’s not a genre book, but I work in a library and there is a large homeless population. When I see the population getting told not to loiter (even if I agree with the policy), I can’t help but think of poor Jo, told to move along and him plaintively asking the cop where he’s supposed to move along to. I just think of this poor, unwanted boy tossed out by society and dying alone and my heart breaks. He’s not even that important of a character.
@RachelT I did not include this because his death was almost a relief, The whole process of his dying was so wrenching that I sobbed and sobbed as he suffered.
Nimitz Class by Patrick Robinson
Seriously, the entire USS Thomas Jefferson?
I listened to this book before 9/11, and I can still remember just sitting there saying, “Did he just do that? 6000 people?”
I understand that that one act sets in motion the entire plot, but at the time, I didn’t have an understanding of how such an act of terrorism would change our world.
The Time Traveller’s Wife made me cry too. That was such an amazing book and the movie was so bad!
Probably the book series I have cried the most while reading is The Alien Chronicles by Deborah Chester. I loved those books but there were a lot of really sad moments and deaths and I was reading them at a very difficult time so they really affected me.
Another book I definitely mourned though was The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst. This is one of my favorite if not my favorite books. You know Lexy dies at the beginning of the book but the whole book is really an exploration of her death.
Oh, my. This one is difficult. I foolishly started reading the comments before adding my own and kept getting this *pangs* of memory: Oh, yes, I have read that, also, and wept.
The Vorkosigan Series by Lois McMaster Bujold
Others have written about The Great Man’s Death, so I will only add that the phrase “I’m sorry, Ensign Dubauer” crushes me every time.
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
Arhys’ final ride: “Your Father awaits you at table…”
The Masterharper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
There are a few series that I no longer read. They are mostly because of the books “jumping the shark.” This is the only one where I refuse to pick up the books because I don’t want a world without one particular character.
I adored Robinton since I was 7 years old. I named my TEDDY BEAR after him!!
ElfQuest by Wendy and Richard Pini
“…silversoft highthing try make wrapstuff?”
Vaya, while she lived, never saw her chieftess mother weep.
Lord Voll.
Little Patch.
Skot.
A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry
This was the first book I read where a character died. As I have an elder sister who was my “Molly”… it shook me to the core.
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
I thought, til the end, that Father Roche at least would survive. Agnes’ death didn’t affect me—I was numb by the time her death occurred—but Rosalind’s devastated me. And the moment at the end, when Mr. Dunworthy realises that Aunt Mary is still alive, back in time in Egypt, as a 20-year-old girl.
Song of Ice and Fire Series by George RR Martin
I refuse to read past the end of book one. I refuse to get invested in characters, only to have the author off them at the end of the book. And besides, I figured out who Jon Snow was by the middle of the book. bah.
In Harry Potter fandom: hit87 has a special resonance (any SugarQuillers/Subbers out there?)
Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
I think I stopped breathing for a moment when Ned Stark died, but the one that rocked me the hardest for some reason was Robb. The whole scene was so horrible that i put the book down for about a week. I had to go back for more though, only George RR Martin could keep me coming back after that.
So, late to the game, but to agree with @Noozie: Bleach by Tite Kubo
Gin’s death is just too much for me. I want him back, I want him with Rangiku, and I want him happy. Damn you, Aizen. Out of all the characters in the series, he’s my absolute favorite. From the moment we meet him in the Soul Society arc, you just know he’s going to be an interesting guy. Also, I loved how he found Ichigo kind of creepy. Sigh, here’s hoping he’ll be back.
Jumping on the Guy Gavriel Kay bandwagon. The man knows how to kill off characters in ways that get me each and every time I read the book, not just the first time. I literally cry on cue every timeI reread The Lions of Al-Rassan, and I found myself in the rather unenviable position of crying on the Metro at a certain scene in the final book of The Fionavar Tapestry.
George R.R. Martin and Suzanne Collins are excellent too, and, oh, goodness, Dorothy Dunnett. I will never quite forgive her for Pawn in Frankincense
<
. Brilliantly awful.
I must admit to having cried buckets the first time I read Gone With the Wind and got to Bonnie and the horse. I had to reread it multiple times to convince myself of what had happened and it turned me into a complete wreck.
Also, not exactly a romance novel, but Edmund of Rutland’s death in Sharon Penman’s Sunne in Splendour gets me every time too.
@bvjl
WHO?? Who is Jon Snow???
(Yes I am still very much attached to the series. Masochistic, I know.)
SPOILERS!
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In terms of narrative structure, Jon Snow’s parentage and story place were obvious to me by the time he was sent to the wall. (Of course, I joined some hardcore Potterphiles during the Three-Year Summer and narrative analysis was OurAntiDrug.)
Jon Snow is the second (or third) head of the dragon because he is the child of Ned’s sister and Rhaegar. He’s the blend of Ice and Fire. Dany is the Prince who was Promised, the reborn Azoi Ahar (or however that’s spelled). They’ll end up a couple before the end of the books. Then either one or the other of them will be murdered because that’s the kind of sh*t Martin pulls and why I find him narratively unsatisfying and unacceptable and betraying.
Yeah, Song of Ice and Fire pissed me off and Martin is permanently banned from my life. I have to put up with death and betrayal and crap like that in real life. I refuse to countenance it in my fiction. 😛
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SPOILERS
@bjvl
PROBABLY SPOILERS
I love the books and all that, but for the love of dragons I do not have it in me to calculate timings, years etc. So thanks for that. If Snow ends up with Daenerys (however shortly, natch), uhm, incestuous much? I was totally grossed out by Jorah Mormont btw. I tried, I promise I tried to wean myself off Ice and Fire, but Martin writes (or reads) with such an ease I find it impossible. And when anyone say, “JK Rowling is cruel to characters!” I scoff.
Cyrano de Bergerac. OMG, I just reread the last act to check a quote and I can hardly see to type.
” I am never away from you. Even now,
I shall not leave you. In another world,
I shall be still that one who loves you, loves you
Beyond measure, beyond—”
again37—Yes, I’ll read it again for the 37th time.
I would have to agree with a few of the In Death deaths
Crack’s sister and his reaction at the morgue gets me everytime.
Amarylis Coltraine because I was so happy that Morris finally got a relationship story.
Kim Harrison – The Hollows Series (Can’t remember which book)
Jenks. Ugh. Hated that he died.
JK Rowling: So many at the end that didn’t really help the story. Plus Dobby, Hedwig and Sirius. Bleh. Really?
Feed by Mira Grant. If you are not messed up by the last words of a certain character*, you have no soul. I am not a crier and I cried at that one.
* okay, there’s more than one death, but if you read it you KNOW who I mean.
Oh. No. I am so embarassed. I was just telling my friend who I posted as “still mourning” and she was shocked. No, not because I let the cat out of the bag, but because I was totally wrong! Ugh.
Sorry if my Jenks from The Hollows sent anyone into frantic searching. Apparently he is still healthy. Don’t know what pixie I was thinking about.
now I’m embarrassed because I misspelled embarrassed in my previous apology.
Sorry! Again!
I agree with Cayenne about Guy Gavriel Kay both with his Tapestry series and Tigana. I stopped reading his work after Tigana. He turned an ending that could have been happy into a tragedy.
Also agreeing with “Where the Red Fern Grows” saw in elementary school. Totally sucked! And Charlotte’s Web – so sad!
And I agree with both anime mentions especially Full Metal Jacket’s. In Fruits Basket what was sad was the misunderstanding that screwed things up for so long.
Not a book, but Serenity the movie by Joss Whedon. Spoliler following:
Killing off Wash was not called for.
Really, really late to the party, but can’t resist adding mine…
Gone with the Wind
Ellen’s death always devastates me, even when I just remember the passage. A little before that is a scene where Scarlett says goodbye to elderly family friend John Wilkes, who is going to fight and does not expect to come back from the front (and he doesn’t)… that teared me up too. The Tarleton twins’ deaths also get me.
I stopped reading the Anita Blake series after Blue Moon, and it sounds like it was a good thing, too. I’m sorry to hear what’s become of Anita, who was my favorite badass chick and who I used to find so inspiring. I do so love me a smart, tough, handy female protagonist. Sigh.