For those who have read it: This book elicits strong reactions both for and against. I am in the camp who love the book. I listened to it back to back. The against crowd most common;y refers to it as “trauma porn”. This makes me wonder: is the hate / love of this book related to your trauma level and / or your level of healing from trauma? I’ve never seen a more accurate description of PTSD ever written.
by WTFdidUcallMe
3 Comments
In my case, yes. When I read it I was far along (not necessarily fully healed) in my journey and very self aware/analytical. I hated it and couldn’t finish it because it felt like something I would’ve enjoyed years prior; it reminded me a lot of the cathartic hurt/comfort fanfictions I read as a teenager which I now think of as gross romanticization and a big pity party.
Well I’m someone who neither loves nor hates the book. It’s well written for what it is, but it’s mawkishly sentimental and the protag falls victim to several unbelievably tragic circumstances. That turned me toward thinking it’s tragedy porn. One of the major plot points is straight out of a Saw movie, which lessens it’s emotional impact for me.
I like tragedy, I also get counseling for PTSD, and I found much of Jude’s story entirely unbelievable. My experience with that level of constant recurring trauma is that it’s too disruptive to also allow Jude to excel in academics and have such a brilliant legal career. It’s like the author wanted the trauma to only disrupt Jude’s emotional relationships and not the other parts of his life. This surely happens with some people, but I see trauma fucking up the whole person more often.
I also felt triggered for lack of better words by what I felt was romanticization of trauma and PTSD, especially with the romantic development in the last quarter of the book. It starts to border on fetishization of PTSD, and that’s quite problematic.
I have not experienced trauma my self, and I am one of the haters.
I find the story unbelievable and somehow ridiculous. I did not like the characters at all and kept feeling annoyd with Jude.
I don’t get the authors fascination with gays and why there is a lack of likeable women in the story.