Let me explain what I mean.
I remember reading Stephen King books when I was younger. More than once, I would come to the end of a chapter, in which two characters would be innocently parting ways and he would drop a line like, "…if they only knew they would never see each other again."
It's that specific kind of gut-punch feeling.
I just had the same thing happen with a Neal Stephenson book. I turned the page, read the very first line, and had to physically put the book down and say, "Holy F."
I'm looking for more books that have these moments, a reveal so shocking or a line so profound that you literally have to stop reading for a second to process it.
What books have done this to you? And please, try not to use any spoilers!
by Editcadet
13 Comments
The Odyssey: “And tell me this, for I must be absolutely sure. This place I’ve reached, is it truly Ithaca?”
I’ve had a long long life in my short 30 years, and this moment cracked me open. To finally arrive, after a long journey… I had to put the book down for a moment and reel it in.
The note in 1984
Charlotte’s Web. I’m a grown-ass human but ugly-sobbed re-reading part of it this past weekend due to pertinent personal events.
“She never moved again.”
*Use of Weapons* by Iain M Banks features the single most fucking gut-punching sentence (and page) of anything I have ever read. Recontextualizes the entire novel in the most brutal way possible. Literally yelled, “what the *fuck*” aloud while reading it. Iykyk.
*Gnomon* by Nick Harkaway also had a “the air has been sucked out of my lungs” moment at the end of the book where you *realize* what you have been reading.
Multiple times in every book Cormac McCarthy wrote, I stop and stare at wall for a minute or two
Franzen, The Corrections. Lots of staggeringly funny lines, many about the sexual desire of a failed professor who pines for his student.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy:
“He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke.”
On page 3! It took my breath away, and I knew I was in for one hell of a ride.
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter: “I’m sorry,” >!Paul!< said. Then he drew back his fist and punched her in the face”.
“To the stars who listen, and the dreams that are answered”
I’m big on stars and the moon and space in general. I’m also a huge wish upon a star kind of Disney fan. So, when I read this I stopped so hard and a tear came down slowly. I also have several shooting stars I’m hoping make my one wish come true one day.
I looked at his grave and, with tears in my eyes, I voiced these words: “You were worth it, old friend, and a thousand times over.” Where the Red Fern Grows. I was 8, I think. And it wrecked me. It was just the first book to do it.
Gene Wolfe does this excellently, the two I’ve read (Book of the New Sun and Peace) both just recontextualize themselves more than once and just shock you with it.
I’ve had lots of books that have lines that have made me go oh and pause. But one absolutely rocked me and I wasn’t expecting it. It was from a romance novel, Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone. It was on the first page of the first chapter too.
“But the thing about losing the person you love the most on earth is—somehow—you still have to do mundane things like tie your shoes and make enough money to continue to exist in this punishing world.”
This year has been pretty rough so that line just got me. And it hurt a lot. Made it through the book though. Nothing else got me like that one.
Another one that got me but in a made me think kind of way was from So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole:
“Being forced to learn the language of your oppressors is an oppression of the mind. They rewrite your history when you’re too young to know what you’re giving away, and before you know it, it’s too late to reclaim what you’ve lost,”
Stephen King: in a short story named Laurie: There was a part that described some very mundane activities, before something horrible occurred, and then he said “There was no premonition that God was cocking his 45.” That has stuck with me over time.