These are scenes that are so well-written that you feel you are actually experiencing what’s going on. When you reread the book, you look forward to getting to that part.
I have several, but I’ll start with two, both in books by Diana Gabaldon.
In Dragonfly in Amber, the scene where Claire leaves Jamie. I have read the series several times and that scene always leaves me grabbing the tissues and wiping my eyes, because I cannot see the words through my tears.
Then, in Voyager, the reunion of Claire and Jamie. I get all goose-pimply when I get to that part, because Gabaldon has written the tension and the passion and the shyness so well that you feel all the emotions of Jamie and Claire as they meet again after twenty years.
In the very beginning of Bester’s The Stars My destination, Gully Foyle’s desperate thrashing journey through the wrecked spaceship to find more oxygen gives me the asphyxiation willies.
And in The Hound of the Baskervilles, when Watson throws down his cigarette, takes his gun in hand, and enters the hut on the moor, expecting to find a desperate criminal inside…
The scene in Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun where Severian is captured by the two-headed god/tyrant Typhon blew me away the first tim I read it, as did his final encounter with the giant Baldanders.
One of my all-time favorite novels is The Pope of Greenwich Village. Great book that I always recommend.
I’m about to type some major spoilers w/o a spoiler box so read no further if you don’t want to know what happens.
One of the main characters, Paulie has the dream of owning a race horse. He gets involved with a robbery, which gets him in -big- trouble with the mob but eventually, he gets the horse.
My favorite scene is the horse race. Paulie convinces his cousin and fellow-thief Charlie to bet all of what’s left of his money on the horse- as did he.
The big race is set. Of course, it’s going to come down to the wire and then…
You know what, if you want to know what happens I will lend you the book.
And forget about the movie version. The film is a piece of crap that got nothing -especially this scene- right.
I have another one…this one a Stephen King book.
Gerald’s Game…there is a scene where Jessie is trying to get a glass of water. She finally gets her hand turned around in the handcuff, she can see the beads of water dripping down the glass, and she pulls the glass toward her…
only to realize, that due to being handcuffed, the glass won’t reach her mouth.