# What was the first novel you ever read that left you emotionally exhausted? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034 "2011-04-28T15:01:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/21 "2011-04-28T18:45:16Z")
I’m easy. I had a strong emotional response to the _Animorphs_ series, fer crying out loud. Primarily, though, I’d always viewed reading as being a form of light entertainment. I did it constantly, and with almost everything, though I was always a bit detached about it. I really enjoyed Louise Lawrence’s books, but. . .they were sci-fi, so I was still detached. Then I read Elie Wiesel’s _Dawn_ during the summer between 9th and 10th grade. That got me, and it exhausted me, which, given its short length, is nothing short of amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/22 "2011-04-28T18:49:04Z")
Whether it was the very first, the one I can think of that drained me was _The Exorcist_ which scared the shit out of me. And though not a novel, I had even more of an emotional draining from _Helter Skelter_. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/23 "2011-04-28T19:08:58Z")
_The Cat in the Hat_ I was so anxious that those kids were going to get a whipping when their mom got home that my hands were shaking. The feeling of relief when the Cat cleaned up on the way out just sapped all the rest of my emotional energy. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/24 "2011-04-28T19:09:01Z")
The first one? _Charlotte’s Web_! ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/25 "2011-04-28T19:35:40Z")
A Child Called It. I was in tears. On an airplane. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/26 "2011-04-28T19:42:47Z")
**The Grapes Of Wrath**. I read it when I was sixteen and when I finished it I wanted to run out and join the Communist Party. (I didn’t.) ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/27 "2011-04-28T19:54:03Z")
Possibly The Robe (even though it didn’t turn me into a Christian). I also remember falling in love with Austin family when I was mid-teen. The most recent example is Walter Mosley’s last Easy Rawlins book. Mosley’s going to be in town soon for the Festival of Books. I’m thinking of going, just to see if I can get close enough to puch him in the nose. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/28 "2011-04-28T20:03:33Z")
Probably _I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings_ which I read when I was in 9th grade (ca. 1980-81). I went to a small town publich high school but surprisingly there was no outcry when our English teacher put it on the list of books for a report (it’s been challenged a lot in its history). Coming from YA books in English class it was really odd to read something that contained not just sex but child rape. Anyway, even though I was a white boy and the heroine was a black girl I “knew” a lot of the characters and the terrain (different region but similar landscape) and I remember really getting emotionally invested in it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/29 "2011-04-28T20:13:07Z")
_The World According to Garp_ was the first book I ever read as an adult that made me weep openly. Nowadays, I’m a big sappy mess on a regular basis, but back when I was a jaded, cynical twenty-four year old ( :rolleyes: ) that was a huge and weird deal for me. ---
**Author:** ![Feyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/fbc32d/32.png) [@Feyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feyrat)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/30 "2011-04-28T20:32:57Z")
I can’t remember which I read first, Stranger in a Strange Land, or The Handmaid’s Tale, but both of them left me feeling completely wrung-out and as if my brain had been inhabiting someone else’s body for a time. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/31 "2011-04-28T20:48:32Z")
Probably the first novel that left me drained was one of John Steinbeck’s, back when I was in high school. For some reason, English teachers thought that John Steinbeck was an appropriate author to require moody adolescents to read. They didn’t leave me feeling happy, though. The first novel that I can specifically remember is, I believe, _Dogsbody_ by Diana Wynne Jones, although again I didn’t feel happy about the ending, just a bit hopeful. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/32 "2011-04-28T20:54:05Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _The World According to Garp_ was the first book I ever read as an adult that made me weep openly. Nowadays, I’m a big sappy mess on a regular basis, but back when I was a jaded, cynical twenty-four year old ( :rolleyes: ) that was a huge and weird deal for me. Me too. I remember when I got to the part about Walt dying I literally had to put the book down and walk away from it for a while. And by “a while” I mean days. I remember being so bewildered that I was having to process emotions like that because of something I’d read in a freaking _made-up story_. The power of prose, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/33 "2011-04-28T21:30:59Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > The first one? _Charlotte’s Web_! Possibly this, but my first thought was _Where the Red Fern Grows_, which I read all in one Saturday when I was about 7. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/34 "2011-04-28T21:37:26Z")
_1984_. It was required reading for a philosophy class in my freshman year of college – which was 1984 (well, OK, the class was in January 1985, but why split hairs?) The class was during the 3-week interim session after Christmas break, when hardly anyone is on campus. I read that book over the course of a day or two in a mostly empty dorm. Blew my little mind. Between that and Plato’s _Republic_, the other required reading for the class, I barely had any neurons left come February. So much for my brain to chew on . . . ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/35 "2011-04-28T22:09:16Z")
- A Dog Called Kitty\* I can’t remember how old I was, but it was the first story I had ever read that did not end “happily ever after”. ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Doe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/53a042/32.png) [@Jane\_Doe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Doe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/36 "2011-04-28T23:14:51Z")
_The Yearling_ Cried for hours after finishing this book at age 10. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/37 "2011-04-28T23:17:01Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > _Ender’s Game_ That’s what I came here to say. I was in college at the time, and this book was required reading for a Science Fiction elective class I was taking my freshman year. Even though I didn’t need to read the book for a few weeks, I decided to open it up and read the beginning, and I ended up becoming so engrossed in the story I couldn’t put it down until I finished it the next day. I might add that I’m not much of a reader, and if I do read a book, it’s usually for a couple pages at a time before my mind wanders. _Ender’s Game_ was actually the first time I read an entire novel on my own without being required to do so (at least not at that particular time). ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/38 "2011-04-28T23:22:27Z")
One of the first really positive emotional reads I remember was Watership Down - must have been around 7 or 8? I remember getting totally wrapped up in those bunnies, and the bit at the end was just perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/39 "2011-04-29T00:26:41Z")
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, actually: I guess I should spoiler box a Harry Potter spoiler: And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him; but now that was over. He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon forever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one, that the shelter of a parent’s arms meant that nothing could hurt him. **There was no waking from this nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all in his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died, and he was more alone than he had ever been.** Really got to me. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034/40 "2011-04-29T01:33:48Z")
Any book about animals affects me, really, but back when I was a horse-loving young girl, I read “Black Beauty” and cried and cried and cried. I can’t bear reading anything involving cruelty to animals. I can’t bear it…“The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” by Sharyn McCrumb had a scene in it that, when I was a new mother, so devastated me I cried hysterically non-stop for 10 minutes…On the ‘up’ side, “Gone With The Wind” was like finishing up a huge meal at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and over the years I’ve gone back many times for a little bit of this, a bit more of that… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-novel-you-ever-read-that-left-you-emotionally-exhausted/580034.md?page=3)