Feelings are big—sometimes even enormous—taking up the entire room and consuming our lives. Feelings can have us running on air for days or weighing us down for weeks. They can be heavy and the load is real.
From my experience, how do you tackle big feelings? Well, with big books, of course. I’m not talking about physical size, or length, or word count. I’m talking about books that hit back at our big feelings with big ideas of their own.
Any booklover will tell you that books have feelings of their own—so whether you need a book to lift your spirits or cry on your shoulder—we’ve compiled a list of books with big feelings and big ideas. Here are our choices for books that are bigger than the bookshelf.
Content Warning: Like many big feelings, these books contain mature content and deal with big issues. Be sure to check for content before you read to know if these books are right for you.
For Young Adult Readers
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
I place both these books in the same category because both of these books consumed me. I was completely sucked into their universe, and not just my head, my whole body with all the feelings that come with. Both of these books come with their own set of very heavy and very real emotions, including but not limited to loss, depression, suicide and assault. However, I had a very different experience when reading both of these books.
I have very fond feelings towards We Are Okay. Dealing with loss and feelings of depression, it takes you on a ride down a rather dark tunnel. However—and this is the reason I love this book—it brings you back full circle. It has the potential to be that story that lets you feel all the feelings you didn’t know you needed to feel. We Are Okay takes you down with Marin as she spirals, but then brings you right back up. It gives you the kind of closure that your heart craves. While reading, We Are Okay became this safe space to feel all the big feelings and experience the kind of resolution that we all secretly dream of and wish for from all books.
Thirteen Reasons Why also hits you over the head with its big feelings. But that’s just it, it hits you and it hits you hard. There’s nothing gentle about it and it has no intentions of being so. This book is about suicide and it’s a painful topic with a painful story. You know right from the start that once Hannah finishes telling her story that she is going to commit suicide. It’s an important subject to talk about, but consider your feelings before reading and make sure you can take the hit beforehand.
For More Mature Readers
The Cure for Death by Lightening by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
This book is huge. In fact, it’s what inspired this article. Days after reading this book, I still couldn’t wrap my head around what just happened. When I started reading this story, I had no context or knowledge of what I was walking into. I found myself wrapped up in the world of fifteen-year-old Beth, living in a small, Canadian town during World War II. Far from the war, she feels its effects in the absence of the young people enlisting and rationing of food. However, she is far more caught up in the Indian legends that she hears from the reserve, warning of Coyote, the demon-like creature that possesses men at their weakest and controls their actions.
Beth’s feelings are not all-consuming, but pushed down on the pages as much as they are pushed down within herself as she deals with death, assault, abuse, mystery and legend. This is not a book that is comfortable or cathartic to read. It is, however, a book that is big.