Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is: Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read (For Whatever Reason)

Well, well. This is quite a hard topic. Mainly because I don’t think a ton of books fall into the same “difficulty category”. For example, there are several books that were hard to read due to content/hitting close to home/feels. And then there are the ones that are just plain hard to read because you aren’t into them. But, I didn’t want my list to be too much of a downer, so I picked books that were hard to read because of topic, atmosphere, or emotions. (Like that narrows it down, right?) 

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry
Well, this dystopian world will make
 you want to curl up in the fetal position
 and call your mom. No warm fuzzies
happening here. And I mean, babies.

I mean, really. If I didn’t find using teenagers for
 spare parts hard to read about, we’d have
more problems, right?

3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This edit from Pinterest pretty much
sums it up, no?  How will we make it 
through the movies?! All the tissues.
4. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
Because of the stress. And the feels.
And wanting your beloveds to be okay.
And because of epicness.

5. Shadows by Ilsa J. Bick
So, some books exist in really shitty worlds.
But this book. Holy crap it is dismal.
Like, no break, just a whole lot of
awfulness. The book wasn’t bad, just depressing

6. Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts
Humanity can be scary sometimes, especially
when faced with the apocalypse.
You don’t even want to see any more awful,
but you must keep reading. (P.S.- I need the third book.)

7. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Well, well. Obviously, my eyeballs almost
fell out from the tears. Then they had to go make
a movie, and throw the adorable Ansel Elgort in
to twist the knife. Well played, Green.
There’s no way this one could do anything
but break your heart.

8. Don’t Touch by Rachel M. Wilson
Because Caddie has problems, and her
problems are way too close to my problems for
comfort. It is hard to read about something that
rings so true. 

9. Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas
Because you had wanted to go to Aruba. 
Because you now hate Aruba.
Because you have no idea what just 
happened to your mind when you 
finished this book. 

10. Creed by Trisha Leaver and Lindsay Currie
Because the villain is the most awful one ever.
Because similar stuff has happened.
Because it never stopped being gut-wrenching.
Because you still couldn’t stop thinking about it
when it was time for bed.


Do tell: Which books were hardest for you to finish, and why? 

Posted September 30, 2014 by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight in Top Ten Tuesday / 22 Comments

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22 responses to “Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read

  1. Brilliant list Shannon. I felt exactly the same way about Dangerous Girls which is one of my favourite books. I’m yet to read The Giver and Unwind, but I do have them on my TBR list!

  2. Oh dear! I recently won The Giver in a giveaway, I suppose I’ll prepare to get my heart broken! This is a great list; Unwind, Ashes and Chaos Walking are all series I want to start, so I suppose I’ll have to get my tissues and my comfort blanket at the ready…

    • You will NEED the tissues for Chaos Walking, no question. And probably for Unwind too. The others are just so… depressing! Not even necessarily tearful, just hard to take in, you know? I hope you enjoy them though, they’re all great books!

  3. Why did those sill teenagers go to Aruba for their holiday? WHYYYY DID THEY DO THAT. *cries desperately because mind was sooo messed with in DG*
    TFIOS was just awesome and mean. Ansel Elgort totally rocked Gus. But. STILL.
    I put Unwind on my list too!! I read it ages ago but gosh it FREAKED ME OUT. I was so disturbed I sobbed to Mime for ages.
    Here’s my TTT!

    • My mom yelled at me for “making” her read Unwind. And then she read the rest of the series, so how is that my fault?!

      And RIGHT!? Those teenagers should have stayed home. And away from each other.

    • Shadows was HARD to read. And long too, like almost 500 pages. I have the last book, but I hear that it is a downer too, so I am kind of putting it off.

      Good call on avoiding miserable books! I seem to gravitate 🙂

  4. Mockingjay really went too deep in depression category. There were scenes that made me stop and reread, thinking that it really doesn’t happened — the parachute bombs. I’m cried on that Buttercup-Katniss scene in the last pages.

    • YES! I seriously was reading, and then did a double take! I reread the scene like, four times before it sunk it. And exactly- the Buttercup scene was way worse than the parachute scene. UGH, feels.

  5. Argh, Monsters of Men. Awesome and soul-wrenching. I really like The Giver, and didn’t find it hard to read at all – however, that may be because I first read it when I was quite young, when all the ‘argh, this society is really messed up’ sort of washes over you. THAT hit me like a brick on my 2nd read-through.

  6. I’m gonna be reading Dangerous Girls, and I’m glad to know that I will be an emotional wreck by the end of it. YAY.

    HAHAHAH Laughing at your All My Friends Are Dead book!!!!!! That’s hilarious! But true for The Hunger Games!

    • You’re like, mad. And then you feel… well, I don’t want to tell you how you feel, because you have to experience it! But it is maddening how the “justice” system works in Aruba!

      And I found it on Pinterest, but SO fitting!

  7. I agree with all of these! (That I’ve read) Yeah, I first thought Don’t Touch was a scifi or a fantasy, but I like books that are about things not in real life, I have OCD already, so no thanks. My hardest to read book was probably Lord of the Flies, because it was for a high school class so I thought I had to read it. Along the same lines as the Giver, just too much sad.

    • Hhahah I don’t blame you. I seriously had to set it down a few times because it was SO spot-on it was almost scary!

      I was the opposite; if I was supposed to read it in high school, I would NOT, no matter how interesting it sounded 😉 (My small personal rebellion, I guess?)

  8. The Fault in Our Stars made my list too, mostly because it was hard to read because I couldn’t see through all the tears! I really want to read The Giver, looks amazing! Need to get on that one. I agree with you about Mockingjay too, the last quarter of that book especially, wow it was intense!

  9. UGH MOCKINGJAY SUCKED SO BADLY. Made me mad, made me cry. JUST WHY, SUZANNE, WHY. Am I going to sound heartless if I said The Fault In Our Stars was a bit of disappointment (high expectations, stop ruining my reading experiences) and didn’t make me ugly cry or break my heart? Like, I really enjoyed it. But I only cried once and it wasn’t even at the saddest part. And ahhhh! I want to read Don’t Touch so freaking badly. I neeeeed that book!

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