How to Make Your Reader Cry: Anatomy of a Death Scene

Spoiler warning: Major spoilers for Plain Kate in this entry.

I recently fell in love with Plain Kate by Erin Bow. Every sentence is beautiful, and the story is impossible to forget.

Plain Kate is also a very, very sad book. A major character dies at the end, and Bow pulls no punches. I cried when I read it. And being a sucker for punishment, I reread the ending the next day and cried again. Then I started thinking.  People die in my books as well. Why don't my beta readers cry? So, being the cold, analytical psychologist that I am, I went through Plain Kate’s death scene line by line to tease out the elements that tugged at my heartstrings.



For those who haven’t read it, here’s a condensed version of the scene. Plain Kate, the main character, has a talking cat named Taggle. In the climactic scene, it becomes clear that the only way to stop a great evil is for Taggle to die.

“You can survive it,” said Taggle. “And that is all I want. You do not need me. You can find your own place, with your strength alone. . . Katerina, Star of my Heart. Be brave. Lift your knife.”


. . . . And Taggle, who was beautiful, who’d never misjudged a jump in his life, leapt toward her with his forelegs outflung. He landed clean on the blade. There was a sound like someone biting into an apple. . . .


“Taggle,”whispered Kate. His heartbeat slowed under her hand.


“More . . .” His voice was only a breath.


“More than a cat.”


“And I do not regret it.” His eyes clouded. “Could you . . . This itchy bit. . . 


She scratched his favorite place, where the fur swirled above the hard nub of his jawbone. The heat from the fire lifted tears from one side of her face.


[Taggle dies, and Kate escapes the city with her friends. They run into a man named Behjet.]


Behjet tottered to his feet. [His shaving knife] fell and sank its point in the wet earth with a sound that made Kate wince. . . .


“Linay is dead,” Katie said. “And those people in front of the gate, and the ones in the square. And Stivo, and Ciri, and my father, and--” she could not speak Taggle's name. “My – my heart is dead. . . .”


[Kate pushes past him and takes Taggle's body inside.]


[Taggle's] beautiful for was matted with blood. He would hate that. She got out one of the horse brushes. She brushed until the bristles were thick as if with rust, and his fur was perfect. . .


She sat beside him, numb, forever.


She had never been the sort for ghosts, though she had seen too much of them. But she would have cut off her carving hand to glimpse one now. It wasn't there. There should at least be a ghost. But there was no ghost. Only Behjet . . . . 


“Plain Kate,” [Behjet] said. . . . 


“Just Kate.”


“What?”


“Kate.” She was as plain as she had ever been. And over that she was burn scarred and half bald. But Taggle had thought she was beautiful. “My name is Katerina Svetlana. Kate.”

I'm not sure how much of the emotion comes through in the snippit, but believe me, the scene really packs a punch.  And without further ado, here’s my list of death scene elements that make your reader cry.


1. Emphasize the good qualities of the dying character.

Taggle tells Kate. “You can survive it . . . And that is all I want. You do not need me.” The narrative then continues. “And Taggle, who was beautiful, who’d never misjudged a jump in his life. . ” For the reader, it's gut wrenching to be reminded of just how selfless and special Taggle is as he leaps to his death.

2. Draw a connection to a previous tragedy.

When Plain Kate's father died in the beginning of the book, his last words were “Katerina, Star of my Heart.” And this is what Taggle calls Kate in this scene as well.

3. Remind the reader about the character's journey -- how he's grown. 

Taggle starts the book as a regular cat, but a spell gave him the ability to talk. Over the course of the book, he becomes less catlike (self-centered and proud), and learns about love and self-sacrifice. At a few points in the book, Kate tells Taggle that he has become “More than a cat.” And this sentence is echoed as Taggle lays dying.

4. Emphasize close relationships.

Remember my post on how to convey closeness between two characters? One technique was to have them complete each other's sentences. And that's what Kate and Taggle do with the “More than a cat” line.

5. Remind the reader of good times.

Some of the book's comic relief involved Taggle's insistence on being scratched. And here, as he dies, he  requests this one last time.

6. Show how the survivors are traumatized by the loss. 

 When Behjet’s shaving knife hits the ground, Kate winces at the sound because it reminds her of Taggle landing on her knife. She also has trouble saying Taggle's name.

7. Rituals of putting the dead to rest. 

Kate brushes Taggle's fur and prepares him for burial.

8. Show how much the other characters miss the deceased.

Kate is an extraordinarily talented woodcarver who depends on her knife for her livelihood. So it's no small thing when she says that she would cut off her carving hand to glimpse a ghost of Taggle.

9. Have the dying character leave a legacy.

Plain Kate was called by that nickname her entire life. But because of Taggle's sacrifice, she realizes that she deserves a better name.

So readers, tell me. What book made you cry, and why?

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65 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, you are like the first person I know who has also read 'Plain Kate'. I LOVE this book.

    Confession: I didn't cry when Taggle died, but a couple tears did squeeze out when he lost his voice...

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    1. Good analogy thanks for the info!! Very helpful!!!

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    2. Here here! I full heartedly agree with this man, he knows what's good.

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  2. I love all these. Great ways to show the emotional impact rather than finding seven different ways to talk about sadness and grief twisting around in the character's stomach or something. I'd also add another one from your BFF closeness list: characters make plans for the future. The prospect of having all that cut off is really impacting for me, and also helps to avoid telegraphing that a character is doomed, I think.

    I don't often cry in death scenes when I'm reading, I think because so many characters are marked for it by the narrative, but I have to admit, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is one that did actually. It wasn't Cedric dying, but the moment when his spirit asks Harry to take his body back to his father. It even manages to get me in the movie. Geez... can I seriously not think of any bigger deaths I cried at? I guess not. Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak made me cry, for satisfaction at the end, and Therese Walsh's The Last Will of Moira Leahy had a beautiful, emotionally purging climax that sucked me right in with the characters.

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    1. That's a good idea about the cut off plans.

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  3. The last book? Marley & Me. I'm sure everybody knew it was coming, certainly by the time that chapter begins, and yet it still 'got' me.

    As far as how to make it work - my money's on #5. Remind the reader of the good times, or give them a punch of scene-appropriate comic relief. When I read [watch movie, etc] I can be pretty good at holding back the waterworks until, for some reason, there's a clever reason to laugh. Adding a well-timed jab of comic relief to the tension of a death scene can be like popping a cork on a bottle of shaken champagne.

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  4. I’ve never cried reading a book. It’s not simply because I’m male and we don’t do stuff like that because I’ve cried watching films but I guess I don’t engage with literature that way. I have written stuff that has brought people to tears, a poem and a novel that I know of personally. The novel involves a death scene. A man finally gets to know the truth about himself then goes to bed and dies. The death is not especially heralded or expected and that was the whole point that by the time he made sense out of his life he had no life left to do anything with the information. The same scene made another reader actually angry. “How dare you…” she said to me. She was outraged on my character’s behalf. That was when I knew I had a book worth finishing – she was the first reader of the first draft of my first novel – because if I could get under someone’s skin like that I was obviously doing something right.

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  5. This was very informative. So much that I might print this out on a page and stick it to my wall (if I can find a working printer...).

    I think another important thing is to stretch out the scene a bit. Not just kill off the character in one sentence.

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  6. This is a fabulous break-down. You really show how a scene can be written to invoke fiercely-felt emotions.

    The last death scene that made me cry? Rue's death in The Hunger Games. I've read the book twice and bawled both times.

    And yes, Suzanne Collins uses many of the techniques you lay out here... including the decoration of her body (Rue's not the author's) with flowers, and the legacy of the song she taught the Mockingjays. I'm going to go and read it again and apply this break-down more thoroughly to see how many other boxes are ticked.

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    1. I cried so hard when I read that! Strangely, all the books that I've cried while reading were written by Suzan Collins

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    2. Oh my gosh yes! I cried so hard when I read that, and I was at the library so kind of embarrassing.

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    3. Mockingjay definitely made me cry a couple tears. But why FINNICK AND PRIM!!! I still haven't gotten over them yet...

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    4. Oh god... Finick and Rue were the main sources of my despair along with Leo from the Heroes of Olympus...

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  7. What a great post! Love this...

    I personally only ever cry when I finish WRITiNG a book, not reading one, but hey! The closest I came was (believe it or not) one of the Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz. *shrugs*

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    1. Hi could you tell me which odd Thomas novel it was? Do you remember the name of the series coz I was searching all day.If you remember thanks.

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  8. Don't worry, the emotions come through in that snippet. When someone good must die to prevent evil seems the hardest death to write.

    I struggled with a scene in my sci-fi trilogy (no, I'm not here to plug it) when my protagonist kills an innocent young woman because she will grow up to become the evil empress. She had no idea what experiences in the coming years would change her in that direction.

    I'm a guy and I'm the author, yet I still got choked up while trying to portray her sweetness and his guilty feelings as he killed her. Trying to change history is always tough. Back to Lit Fic, I guess.

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  9. I have a friend who refuses to read any books where animals die; I have to admit, they get me too. But when it's not done for shock value (like the stereotypical show-how-evil-this-character-is-by-having-him-torture-animals) I think it is a valuable part of the human experience. Like you said, it's part of the character's journey and learning about loving.

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  10. I once had a dream where my cat talked. I want to read this book now, even knowing the cat dies. Thanks again for great writing tips. I just bought your book!

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  11. I'm coming into this cold, having not read the book, so I feel it is fair to say that you've missed something. I don't think the actions at death, or even after death are anywhere near as important as the events prior. That is, a death in a novel, or anywhere, is only powerful if you've come to care about the character and or their journey. An untimely death, or an unfair/unjust death will always resonate when the character is loved by the reader. The trick is getting them to love the character, with their actions in life - all of the impact "energy" originates there.

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  12. Really good comments. It seems that the common denominator is that the death must cause specific, irreparable, concrete change in the lives of characters in areas have been developed over the course of the book. So the grief has to be
    'earned.' As Hayley mentioned, merely showing a character writhing in grief isn't moving at all.

    A scene in Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost, as novel set in war-torn Sri Lanka made me cry: A young, abused girl has been rescued by an elderly outcast and taken to live in a forest refuge; as I was wondering what she would do when the old man dies, Ondaatje immediately tells you: of the simple things she will do for his body, and how then she will simply walk into the forest and keep on walking....

    Interestingly, I heard Ondaatje read twice in about 6 months, and each time this was the passage he read from.

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  13. 1000.monkey - I also cried when Taggle lost his voice. That was just one long, tear filled section.

    Hayley – Great point about the future plans. I wish I could think of some examples of that. I'm sure there are.

    Joe – I like the champagne metaphor :-) it's really true, somehow the juxtaposition of good and bad emotions packs a big punch.

    Jim – I remember reading on Dean Wesley Smith blog that if your critique group disagrees sharply and starts arguing about it, then you know you've hit gold.

    Jake – yeah, I think that's true about stretching out the scene. I tend to err on the short side too, because I'm afraid of getting melodramatic. It's hard to find the balance.

    Jo -- I didn't cry when Rue died, but you know what got me, was when Katniss and Buttercup cried together at the end of Mockingjay. That made me tear up.

    saffinadesforges - I've never cried when writing fiction. Although I've cried when writing some personal essays. Maybe that means I'm not feeling the fiction enough.

    Stephen – I can definitely feel the emotion in the scenario you described. And I haven't read anything!

    Angelica - I went through this phase where for a short time I kept on reading all these books with animal sidekick died at the end. It was very depressing. I guess everybody uses it as a metaphor for growing up, but it's so sad!

    Elle - definitely read it. It's really good, as long as you're prepared for sad things to happen.

    jesse - Yeah, it's definitely about what's happened before. It's no coincidence that a majority of the elements listed in the article involve reminding the reader somehow of events, relationships, and bonds that have developed over the course of the book. Although, I've seen a few fairly effective death scenes that occur in the first chapter. The scene where Kate's father dies, for one, and also the prologue of Pillars of the Earth has a death that really tugged at my heartstrings. I wonder how they did that.

    Helen - good point about grief being earned. There have definitely been some deaths where I just got mad at the author because it seems so pointless or random.

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  14. Phenomenal post. Thanks so much for sharing this.
    Two books I remember bawling in (though I've cried in many others)
    -Little Women when Amy die
    -The Book Thief

    Great post!
    -Ellie

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  15. Liv,
    Perhaps it called back moments of your own past, or played to your fears?

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  16. I am a man and cry when ever I watch a war film and see men die G siddall

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    1. G Siddall? I have two cousins that are both technically "G Siddalls"

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  17. In Percy Jackson Mark of Athena. Him and Anabeth have to let go and fall into tartus (basically worse than hell) and the things that made me cry were this:
    "Together?"
    "Together."

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    1. I read it too. I cried so hard after I read those two words.

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    2. Yeah that part... They're my OTP

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  18. I love this article and now I want to read the book.

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  19. The death of Lee Scoresby in The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials, is really sad :(
    Also, I am suprised that no one has mentioned borimirs death thin Lord of The Rings

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  20. Excellent advice. I'm writing a dying scene in my WIP and your list is extremely helpful!

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  21. I cry at books ALL the time. I must be a huge baby. Animal deaths get me the most for some reason. Did anyone else sob when Sam has to die in I Am Legend? I was a royal mess and had to leave the theater to spare the other viewers. I also ugly-cried at both the book and movie of Les Miserables... such perfectly descriptive and sad writing just gets me right in the dark, dank places...

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  22. I cry at books ALL the time. I must be a huge baby. Animal deaths get me the most for some reason. Did anyone else sob when Sam has to die in I Am Legend? I was a royal mess and had to leave the theater to spare the other viewers. I also ugly-cried at both the book and movie of Les Miserables... such perfectly descriptive and sad writing just gets me right in the dark, dank places...

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  23. For me, it was Rue's death in The Hunger Games, Tick's death in Gregor the Overlander, Kelsier's death in the first Mistborn book and Vin and Elend's death in the last Mistborn book. I also came pretty close to crying when Dollface in the first Night Angel trilogy book got her face cut up, even though she didn't die. Really, if Brandon Sanderson or Suzanne Collins wrote it, I cried at some point.

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  24. A few techniques I've used that seem to really get to people is to shock them. Like create a suspicion earlier in the book that someone's going to die, but do it in a way that makes them believe one of the more minor, less important characters will die and then slap them in the face by having the main character or a close second bite it.

    Also if you're writing an action story that involves violence, you can make it unexpected. Have everything going according to plan and then BAM all of a sudden "Reko's" brother gets brutally destroyed. I had someone test reading my book and when they get to that point they actually throw the pages down yelling "WTF was that?! You killed him? He can't really be dead!"

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  25. A few techniques I've used that seem to really get to people is to shock them. Like create a suspicion earlier in the book that someone's going to die, but do it in a way that makes them believe one of the more minor, less important characters will die and then slap them in the face by having the main character or a close second bite it.

    Also if you're writing an action story that involves violence, you can make it unexpected. Have everything going according to plan and then BAM all of a sudden "Reko's" brother gets brutally destroyed. I had someone test reading my book and when they get to that point they actually throw the pages down yelling "WTF was that?! You killed him? He can't really be dead!"

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  26. in The Book Thief when Leisel's foster parents, best friend and neighbours die from a bomb but she lives cause she was reading in her basement...tear tear. Also in the movie Bridge To Terabethia, WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DIE LOOKING FOR HIM!?!?!? tear tear.

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  27. Same as Behshta Sadaat. I also cried a river when Snape died. And Sirius... and Dumbeldore... and Robby. Let's just say I cried a lot in the Harry Potter series. Oh and when Tonks and Remus died!

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  28. JEEZ I'M CRYING FROM THESE TINY SNIPPETS AW MAN OH JEEZ
    Good article. Way to DESTROY ME and then teach me how to destroy others. I have a major character death in book 2 of my series and I really need it to matter. A lot. Thanks for this!

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  29. I think the books that made me cry the most are the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant. There are some beautifully painful deaths in there that just broke me, and they have inspired me to strive to have the same impact in my writing.

    Definitely going to read Plain Kate now though!

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  30. Sheesh, I haven't even heard of this book, and this excerpt alone made me tear up. Gah. Nice article! Thank you!

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  31. The Book Thief made me cry for half an hour. Heart-wrenching. When she finds the accordion...I just lost it. I won't say anything more because I want people to read it and weep with me.
    Fred Weasley's death made me cry because it was so unexpected and sudden. Even in your wildest dreams, you never expect the twins to be separated. And then it happens - Fred just dies. It's so sudden that you have to read it twice to believe it. I like that suddenness sometimes, but I feel like it doesn't work with main characters because we crave the closure of some kind of dying words, some tender moment with another character.

    I also wept when Theoden died in Lord of the Rings. His line "I go to the halls of my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now be ashamed" really got me. I think that falls under your 3rd point - reminding the reader of the character's journey. And when Eowyn says that she's going to save him and he informs her that "[she] already did" shows their closeness, which is also heartbreaking.

    Though this isn't in a book and may seem kinda cheesy, I love Eugene's death in Disney's Tangled. His line "you were my new dream" not only shows how he's changed, but also reminds us of the good times he and Rapunzel have gone through together. And I love Rapunzel's desperation to save him with her magic, even though she probably knows it's not going to work.

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  32. Hey! Just wanted to let you know that I came across this blog post a couple of months back. I didn't want to spoil myself, so I immediately stopped reading and ordered the book. I just finished the book a week back. I must say, I'm glad I came across this post and had the privilege to read the book; it was beautiful indeed.

    But strangely, I felt myself choking not when Taggle (oh, Taggle!) sacrificed himself, but during the transition when he was losing his ability to speak.

    When Kate said, "Taggle?" and the cat replied, she said again, "Nothing," to check if he still had his voice. The whole thing was so sad because it was like watching over someone dying gradually. This part hit me so hard.

    Once again, thanks for the recommendation of the book!

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  33. I cried for a full hour when I finished the Book Thief. I lost it when Liesel found the accordion.

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  34. I cried for a full hour when I finished the Book Thief. I lost it when Liesel found the accordion.

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  35. #page250 "Please, Tommy, please."

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    1. CRAP I THOUGHT I COULD GET THROUGH THESE COMMENTS WITHOUT 250 GAHHH

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    2. WHY WOULD YOU BRING THIS UPON US

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  36. Help me . . . I don't cry when I'm reading, it's serious, help! Especially when there's a death or nostalgic scene in a book (like my friends had said.) How to cry in a book? When Im reading a "sad" part my face's like this -> (-_-)to this->(o_o) I keep blinking my eyes but no tears fell. Also when Im watching movies then there's someone die and my friends's tears started to fell while mine's not. HELP MEEEEEE

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    1. My cousin said "my girl" is a really sad movie. Try that one

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  37. "One True Thing" had me sobbing to the point I just had to set the book down and go with it. You know the mom is dying, but when you realize exactly how--and you see the relief on her face, oh forget it. I refused to watch the movie when it came out because I wasn't sure anyone could show it quite as well as she wrote it.

    Thanks for the writing tips! I've written them down and will use them when it's time to write that scene.

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  38. The only book to ever make me really cry has been The Knife of Never Letting go when his dog Manchee sacrifices himself to save Todd (his master) and the girl. And it really struck a cord because he just calls out Todd's name, and Todd is forced to just ignore it and focus on getting to safety...I'm a sucker for animal companion deaths.

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  39. "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness.
    *spoilers, duh*
    The whole book is basically about a yew tree coming to visit him in his dreams everyday (him being a young boy, who's mother is dying of terminal cancer and when she dies he has to go live with his not so nice Grandma) and certain events happen throughout his life where it can be difficult to tell whether it was the tree or whether it was him influenced by these dreams. The yew tree is trying to tell the young boy that he has to let go of his mother, and thats when his mother dies. It's the only book that has ever made me cry

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  40. A few examples of different ways death makes me feel:

    Flowers for Algernon is a good example of how broken hearted you can feel when the main character is experimented on, gains a super high IQ where before he had like an IQ of 50, learns the flaws in the experiment and predicts fairly precisely when his brain will break down and he'll die. That's the first story I can remember balling my eyes out on since reading Old Yeller as a kid. (That's what I get for participating in my high school's summer suggested reading list!) I think that ploy worked very well on me because of the character knowing he is dying and he wasn't responsible for the thing done to him. I'm still scarred to this day from reading this book.

    I almost hurled a Trudi Canavan book 3 of a trilogy across the room when one of the main characters dies at the end of the battle. This one angered me because we were past the point where I thought all the characters who died were gonna die so his death took me by surprise. It also meant that the romance between the two main chars was broken because he dies which is also surprising since usually authors like HEAs if they add romance in. So double surprise. He encourages her to use his energy and she accepts it thinking he would stop before he died but he gives her everything he has because he knows it's the only way to save her. So a selfless sacrifice too. Triple whammy. I'm still angry at this death, so good job.

    In Harry Potter, there are several good deaths and all of them involve the character saying a few last words before dying. Or in Dumbledore's case, when the phoenix left is when I felt gutted since up until then I was thinking 'It's a trick.' That's another ploy - give the reader false hope and then crush it into the ground.

    With Snape's death it wasn't his death that got to me but rather when Harry experiences Snape's memories and we see how much he loved Lily and his grief when she died. This was mostly about unrequited love but also the personal sacrifices Snape made and it still wasn't enough to save his love. Then on top of that Albus tells Snape he will need to kill him when Albus is probably the closest thing to a friend Snape has. I think this was the best death in the series because it employed multiple whammies and the scene in the movie still rips my heart out whenever I watch it. Plus Alan Rickman... sigh...

    I can't think of a book example but in Doctor Who when Rose is separated from the Doctor by an alternate dimension and they will never see each other again that was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever witnessed. Although this isn't death it is worse to me because you will never know what happened to the other person. There is no closure. And definitely no HEA.

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  41. When Newt died in the third Maze Runner book, The Death Cure, I sobbed so badly for so long it got to the point where I had to put the book down and not carry on for a while. He was my favourite character in the series, and he had such a sad story behind him. I've never really cried from a book character's death, other than Fred Weasley, but when he just looked at Thomas and begged to die, Newt's death just broke me...

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  42. Any book where an animal dies has me in tears. People don't tug on my heartstrings, but animal suffering, and deaths, are a sure way to make me not want to get out of my bed for days.

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  43. I think lots of books made me drop a few tears. But I was bawling for hours because of the book 'Dancing in The Dark' by P.R Prendergast. If you truly love your brother or sister, this will hit a nerve, i mean a VERY important nerve.

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  44. I cried so much in the book 'Heartless' by Marissa Meyer. I probably left big fat tear stains on the pages. I hate how-

    *spoiler alert*

    Cath was innocent and kind but because of Jest's death and the king, she turns into the heartless and cold Queen of Hearts and it BREAKS MY HEART EVERYTIME I READ IT.
    Heartless is a perfect title for this book. It is heartless. And then of course while searching for it on the internet, I stumble upon a picture of a black heart that reads; "Even the blackest heart once beat red" and I start sobbing again.

    I love that book. Read it.

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  45. I cried in one book, where a father sacrifices his life so his son and his friend could live. I seriously cried. It was the saddest scene I ever read.

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  46. This post really helped me out. I'm writing a short story for my creative writing class and my teacher always says how our stories make her laugh, and I wanted my story to make her cry. I am editing my story right now as I'm reading your post.

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  47. I cried just reading that, holy cow. I've never even read Plain Kate. I hope to be able to write like that someday.

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  48. HELP!!! I am writing a book where one character sacrifices for his younger twin brother, and there is no death scene, just another book that gives a full explanation of that character’s legacy. How to make them cry in the first AND the second book?

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