The Definitive Ranking of Fictional Deaths

Disclaimers: (1) I have yet to read all books in America, so forgive me if I exclude some particularly momentous final words. (2) This will (obviously) have spoilers, so you have been warned! 

10. Tom Robinson, To Kill A Mockingbird

I'm gonna be honest, I did slightly forget that Tom died at all before compiling this list (I'm a fake fan, please don't take me to jail!). Which is why it's at #10, but honestly Scout's weird combination of grief and loss without knowing Tom at all is what makes this such an impactful death. And, to me, the fact that after all Atticus did, Tom still wound up dead is such a powerful statement about racism in America. 

9. Rue, The Hunger Games

Rue's death in both the movie and the book was sob-in-your-closet emotional. The Hunger Games series is pretty difficult to get through, especially when you step back from all the action scenes and revolution cries and really think about the dystopia Collins describes -- it's chilling. Rue's death was Katniss's (and her audience's) first exposure to the true cruelty of this world. 

8. Sirius Black, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Sirius Black is hardly sad because of Sirius himself -- I was always eternally annoyed by Black's moody, teenager-angst behaviour throughout the fifth book (and yes, I know that he had been through a lot but I have no patience for self-pitying adults) -- but because of what Harry lost. When I was younger, I always thought that Cedric's death was more heart-breaking and gut-wrenching because of the way his father cried for him upon seeing the body, but now that I'm a little bit older, seeing Harry and Lupin's reaction to Sirius's death tears me apart. And Harry being fully convinced that Sirius was there behind the curtain? C'mon. 

7. Finnick Odair, Mockingjay

I've read Mockingjay several times and I cannot, for the life of me, remember half the deaths that happened in that book. It was so fast-moving that people died every other page, and Katniss and Peeta looked back, made a few guttural cries, and moved on. But Finnick Odair. He should not have been allowed to die. That was not fair, Collins. You already took Mags, what more do you need!?

6. Rebecca, Rebecca

I was talking to my mother about this before writing this blogpost, and we both thought that Rebecca's death in Rebecca had to make this list, despite not being sad or upsetting at all. Her death is just so impactful for the rest of the story, and I can appreciate how much of the novel is, and always will be, about her and her alone. Even though she's been dead for months before the novel even begins. It's just brilliant.

5. Jay Gatsby, The Great Gatsby

This one wins for shock value. The image of Gatsby floating in his pool of champagne will never not send me on a hate-rant about consumerism and capitalism in America. And F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the greatest prose-writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading. 

4. Lennie, Of Mice and Men

OF MICE AND MEN IS SUCH AN UNDERRATED CLASSIC. I'm sick of the slander. This entire book is wholly brilliant, and Lennie's death was the perfect combination of shock and grief and lack of time to grieve. The day this book has zero diehard fans will be the day I've died. The foreshadowing and writing and brevity and wit of Steinbeck never ceases to amaze me. 

3. Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

My favorite part of Dumbledore's death is seeing how everyone is heartbroken in a different way, for a different reason. There's almost no time to actually grieve him, given that the Dark Mark is still hanging over Hogwarts when he falls like a rag doll, but the scene in the hospital ward with the Weasleys and what's left of the Order is one of the grimest and realest moments throughout all seven novels. 

2. Poet, Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea had no right to make me cry the way it did. Who asked Ruta Sepetys to craft such a hauntingly beautiful arc with characters I love so incredibly much? The fact that the way he died (I'm not going to spoil this one because this is the one book on this list most people might not have read) made me love him that much more is the most unfair thing of all. His death just felt so... futile. He was so close to surviving. 

1. Sydney Carton, A Tale of Two Cities

When we were reading this book in the eighth grade, my friends would ridicule me daily for being in love with Sydney Carton. And I'm sick of it so this is my Sydney Carton fan club, and I will not be entertaining anyone who disagrees. His closing line -- "it is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better end to which I go than I have ever known" -- is magical. And say what you want about Sydney (I still remember my eighth grade English teacher saying she pities him), but he is the very definition of a tragic hero, and Dickens executes it beau-ti-fully.