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?
Emotionally devastating books are my jam. I think it’s because I’m a total empath and have also been through a lot of trauma. I want to relate to emotions so when a book is sad but beautiful I feel it in a very real way. I guess I have a lot of trouble knowing how to feel my own emotions so doing it through someone else’s - characters in books or tv shows give me a vehicle to feel things such as grief or sadness or anger. I have also done a lot of work on myself so it’s not like I’m using these books as some kind of unhealthy way of processing. I loved A little Life, and although it was very trauma heavy, it takes place in this beautiful backdrop of friendship and love in New York, there’s so much more to the book than trauma.