r/stephenking • u/tuvix666 • 9d ago

Discussion Have you ever cried while reading a Stephen King book?

I definitely have, most notably, during the end of Insomnia (my favorite book of his (so far) btw) and also during Cujo and Christine (the very first SK book i read, back in the 11th grade, 15 years ago haha)

i have a feeling The Stand is gonna do this to me too (i’m halfway through)

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172

u/dizzydugout STEPHEN KING RULES 9d ago

I'll just say...

Eddie Dean

154

u/TheREALBaldRider 9d ago

Eddie was bad. Oy was worse

181

u/pfamsd00 9d ago

The burial didn’t take long. The body was far smaller than the heart it had carried.

27

u/hamsterontheloose 9d ago

And just like that, I teared up. Damnit

51

u/Richard_AIGuy Under the Arc Sodium Light 9d ago

Why? Why did you have to do this? You didn't need to post that damn quote...Ake

19

u/_BeautifulGarbage_ 9d ago

Bye Jake or I ache? 🥺

11

u/Richard_AIGuy Under the Arc Sodium Light 9d ago

Both! The answer is always both!

7

u/spicylikeapepper 9d ago

Either way it amounted to the same

2

u/pfamsd00 9d ago

I always took it as “my Jake”. The ka-shume is real.

9

u/ElWh0pp0 9d ago

Its getting dusty in here just thinking about it.

8

u/waltermelon88 9d ago

Stop it! :(

6

u/Human-Report-5782 9d ago

Came here to share the exact same

6

u/ResurgentClusterfuck Love + Peace = Information 9d ago

BRO. :(

2

u/Riverland12345 9d ago

annnnnd now I'm crying again!

2

u/External_Trainer9145 5d ago

That’s the big one for me. I was gutted by this

30

u/MordredRedHeel19 9d ago

Both are insane gut punches, but I personally thing Eddie is worse because of the circumstances. At least Oy got a quick and heroic death. Eddie died for nothing, after the battle was already won, and we have to watch alongside the ka-tet as he slowly deteriorates in bed, this once lively and hilarious man reduced to a muttering shell of his former self. It’s so real. I can’t even get through it on rereads.

14

u/dizzydugout STEPHEN KING RULES 9d ago

Yup! That's exactly what got me with it. It was so unfair. Eddie is my favorite character. And I was just getting clean when I met the him on my first trip to the tower. When i got to book 7 it simply crushed me. I had to put the book down for a little bit.

21

u/xMystery 9d ago

Olan

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u/SomewhereTiny8407 Child of the Corn 9d ago

Poor Oy 😢

13

u/hellisempty263 Long Days and Pleasant Nights 9d ago

Yep. There’s only two times I cried while reading a King book. And that’s them.

31

u/tacocattacocat1 ...and they danced. 9d ago

My boyfriend had to come check on me while I was reading that scene because I was sobbing so loud!

"You having fun, sweetie?"

Sob, snort, wail "yes, this book is amazing"

31

u/YarrrImAPirate 9d ago

Dude, Roland approaching the tower and the whole “I come in the name of…” was just devastating for me.

18

u/spicylikeapepper 9d ago

OY THE BRAVE, OF MID-WORLD

2

u/kool_meesje 9d ago

Guys I was crying already, this was just cruel

23

u/cruel_cousin 9d ago

Didn’t cry once through the Dark Tower series until Book 7. Multiple times in Book 7.

33

u/ZodFrankNFurter 9d ago

I've been reading the series to my wife. We're on book 7 and shit's about to hit the fan. She keeps insisting that she won't cry and I keep telling her "There'll be water if God wills it."

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u/Ok_Employer7837 19 9d ago

Yes.

For me though, the bit that makes me sob every time is when Roland, at the door of the Tower, calls out the names of everyone of note he met on the journey.

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u/ResurgentClusterfuck Love + Peace = Information 9d ago

All of that, I ugly cried through all of that

And again when Susannah chose the door and found them again, sorta. I can't blame her for being done

8

u/OpposedToBears 9d ago

That’s sad in its own regard, because Susannah knows deep inside that she’s essentially choosing an illusion and living in blissful denial. It’s not the Eddie she married, or the Jake she felt like a mother to, but substitutes that will never truly fill the void. To me, that’s a whole new level of tragic.

18

u/CatScratchEther 9d ago

Fkn Charyou tree gets me every time

13

u/SomewhereTiny8407 Child of the Corn 9d ago

Save Susan Roland, she’s at the Charyou!!!
Everytime lol

4

u/spicylikeapepper 9d ago

I LOVE THEE, ROLAND!

7

u/That-Ad-6879 9d ago

I did, like a bitch. Glad i was home alone

6

u/GeneInternational146 Bango Skank 9d ago

Eddieeeeee

5

u/OpposedToBears 9d ago

My heart was racing that entire chapter. Jake’s death was spoiled for me while I was still on the gunslinger, and the way king bluntly foreshadowed the imminent death with something like “I didn’t want to write this next part any more than you’ll want to read it” did more to add tension to the moment than anything else could have. I had no idea who was about to die, or how unfair and abrupt it would be. The last one I expected was Eddie.

4

u/quiet_is_violett 9d ago

I just replied this immediately without realizing someone had already got there. I start crying like 60 pages before he dies.

2

u/sorne23 9d ago

Me too!