I was going to get the book, A Little Life, after a lot of people recommended it to me. My favorite genre of books are dark fiction and non-fiction books that go into the psychological plagues trauma brings upon a persons mind. I read them too to examine how an author dissects a traumatic event or events and brings the characters into those situations and how the characters progress. What always shocks me is seeing how other people react to these books. I suffered severe childhood trauma in various different ways. So reading these books is sometimes comforting, sometimes I read them with the intent to relate to a character, in the thoughts of the character towards an event that others might not have thought one would even experience. But watching some peoples reactions to books like A Little Life, and becoming nauseous or being in disbelief, I find it shocking. What are the experiences of people who read books who did not read it with intent to relate to the character. Why did you pick the book up? Im interested to see the other side of the coin. Does the emotional experiences of the characters resonate with you? Do you see any parallels within your our own life and the characters?
I had a really stable life, no trauma and I personally don’t have any issues reading about traumatic things. I can’t do gory things but that’s basically it.
On that note I’m not a cryer or somebody who gets overly emotional; I am emptional but more drawn to anger than to sadness or shock or fear so I think that helps me when I read or watch traumatic books or movies.
I have a friend however who can’t do anything like that; she had a stable upbringing but a lot of medical issues in her teens and lots of surgeries, so I think for her if she hears something about SA or anh bodily trauma ita a strong no go for her, she’s truly horrified and it will ruin her day.