Movie thread got me thinking what are some books that hit you hard when you read through the scene? Will try to keep vague for future readers.

For me top ones I can think of

HP 7 walking into the forest scene with the resurrection stone

End of night angel trilogy by weeks

Reckoners ending where alternate Dad shows up.

Some moments of Dresden Ghost Story and Blood Rites the scene with Thomas with the big reveal.

When I read Flags Of Our Fathers (long before the movie was made) I had no idea that Ira Hayes had hitchhiked from Arizona to Weslaco to tell Harlon Block's parents that their son was actually in the famous photo.
I had to put the book down and weep for a good 5 minutes as I read that.
Even though it's now been proven that Bradley and Gagnon were not in the Rosenthal photo, I still consider that among the top 5 books I've ever read.
I can't imagine how devastated Bradley's son must be after the recent revelations prices his father wasn't in the photo.

Wizard and Glass when Roland realizes he effed up and Susan is going to be burned alive (uh, spoilers?)

The Passage, where the FBI guy realizes he's going to have to leave Amy all alone

The end of the Giving Tree

The first page of I, Robot when you realize Will Smith has turned a masterpiece into a pile of horsesh*t

Funeral scene in Hollow Kingdom

Ending of The Time It Never Rain

Many moments in Memories of Ice.

Great thread

Snake's mother at the end of Fields of Fire waiting for Snake's posthumous Medal of Honor that will never come. Oof.

There's a sequence in one of the early Master and Commander books where Stephen's been captured and tortured by French intelligence agents, and Jack is about to execute a plan to rescue him. Knowing there's a good chance of failure, he has to write to his wife about how this might be his last letter to her.

Lan Mandragoran facing down Demandred as Rand speaks with the Dark One in WoT

Quote:

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"I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.

"I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both.

"I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this placethen fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurementand I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

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Chase McGuire said:

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Lan Mandragoran facing down Demandred as Rand speaks with the Dark One in WoT

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Egwene sacrificing herself absolutely killed me.

But Billy burying Little Nan destroyed me.

AGCP3 said:

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Where the Red Fern Grows

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My first thought as well. I read it in six grade. I'm pretty sure I balled at the end.

The part where Emma passes in Terms of Endearment was difficult.

AGCP3 said:

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Where the Red Fern Grows

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Damn this was tough

In the Jack Ryan series Executive Orders is pretty average compared to most of the others, but the attack on the daycare gets me. Similarly, in Rainbow Six, the incident at the theme park that causes the sniper to shoot low on purpose.

I guess intense scenes with kids involved are tough for me.

Good ones, the Rainbow Six one makes my blood boil

Thunder18 said:

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Good ones, the Rainbow Six one makes my blood boil

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Yeah it's a mixed combo. Anger, sick-feeling-in-stomach, sadness, then followed by "**** yeah"....

Gone Baby Gone. The movie had a big scene where Genarro gave Kenzie an ultimatum. In the book Kenzie simply tells his friend "I broke her heart" as she moves out of the house.

Legend of Bagger Vance. The part where Junuh finally sees the field and Bagger tells him hes been with him all along. The movie didn't do that scene justice. The book put it so powerfully I had to put it down for a few moments .

Don't judge me... I lost my sh*t when Einstein got distemper in Watchers by Dean Koontz. Sobbed like a baby when I thought he was going to die.

The one that really got me was, strangely enough, from SK's 'Pet Cemetary'. The part where the little boy (Gage) is running across the front yard towards the street and the dad sees a truck coming and knows he's going to be hit so he takes off running and reaching for the back of the kid's jacket.

King proceeds to write that he grabbed him in the nick of time, and for the next page and a half quickly goes through the kid's entire life - sports, relationships, eventual career.

Then you turn the page and the next sentence says, "but none of that happened". Goes onto say that dad's fingers "lightly grazed" the back of Gage's jacket before Gage went into the street and was struck & killed by the passing truck.

Just the build-up & tension of the moment the way King wrote it out, then one huge relief scenario followed by a gut punch.

This was obviously back when King could still write good.

Roland opening the door in the last book of the Dark Tower series.

Stive said:

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In the Jack Ryan series Executive Orders is pretty average compared to most of the others, but the attack on the daycare gets me. Similarly, in Rainbow Six, the incident at the theme park that causes the sniper to shoot low on purpose.

I guess intense scenes with kids involved are tough for me.

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I'm reading all the Clancy books for the first time (well listening to them), actually just passed that scene in Rainbow Six. Weird coincidence. It was horrifying. The whole book is that way though, especially the enviro-Nazi doctors views towards their patients.

Sophie's Choice.

U know the scene. Brutal

I read the novel "The Outsiders" in junior high before I ever saw the movie and when I first learned of Johnny's fate, I was shocked and sad.

Chase McGuire said:

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Lan Mandragoran facing down Demandred as Rand speaks with the Dark One in WoT

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That's a good one, but for emotional impact, my favorite scene in the series is probably "The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai'don!"

Oh...my eyes...my eyes...I have about 300 pages left in last WOT book.

That's what the spoiler tags are for. Hope you like the ending!

Fear is an emotion and SK's Salem's Lot had plenty of those moments when you read it in bed at night.

The part of the Three Body Problem trilogy where the solar system is turned two dimensional was one of the most beautiful things I've ever read.

Another one that got me for some reason was in Black Crouch's "Dark Matter" when he knows that the other versions of him are just like him... I can't really think of a better way to word it, but that hit me.