I posted my review of Forbidden the other day and this post is stemming off that. Please note that this post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma, do not read any further if you do not want the end of Forbidden to be ruined for you.
You have been warned...
I said that by the end of Forbidden I was a mess. I was...a crying, depressed, needed to be held and rocked to sleep mess.
Why? Not because Lochie and Maya fell in love with each other, not because they had a stupid mother, not even because of the incest. Nothing contraversial about the book actually affected me. It was the second last chapter...when they got caught.
Even that didn't affect me.
It was the detail with which Lochies arrest was described.
That affected me the most throughout this whole book...why? because it forced me to remember my own past.
It forced me to relive the day in which I watched someone extremely close to me get arrested for something I was willing to swear in court that they were innocent for. As Kit ran down the street after him it forced me to remember the fight I put up as I attempted to go after the police.
For the rest of the story I was a mess. Him dying didn't bother me, her nearly killing herself kind of bothered me...because I felt it was a waste.
I knew that was going to happen, I knew they were going to get caught...It was inevitable. I knew it was going to be sad, I will be honest and say that I didn't know it was going to affect me like it did...but I knew it was coming.
So I ask...
Why do we read books that make us sad? Why do we read books that make us question what we believe, bawl our eyes out or make us so angry that we are tempted to throw the book across the room?
If reading relaxes you, helps you get away from your daily life, makes you happy with all the wonder it holds, takes you on a journey to a new and magical place...why do we read books that make us sad?
Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of reading? Doesn't it defeat the purpose of doing something that makes us happy...if we need a box of tissues next to us because the story is so heartbreakingly powerful that we are going to end up snot faced and red eyed.
About halfway through Forbidden, I knew I should stop, I knew I should have just put it down and walked away because I knew it wasn't going to end pretty.
And yet I didn't.
Why?
I know I won't stop reading sad books...I don't know why, but I won't. It is why I deliberately keep a stack of "extra happy" books on hand. After Forbidden I have read two "happy" books one that was so funny I nearly wet myself laughing. I am still not over Forbidden, I still need that hug, and I am going to need a few more happy books before I go anywhere near another sad book.
5 comments:
My reply was getting to long, so I've put it in a post:
http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2010/08/re-when-books-make-you-sad.html
=P
i think its because it kind of makes your problems seem so...trivial. like, "well, i have a mountain of debt, but this guy just got arrested for incest."
at least, thats me.
Forbidden hugely affected me also, it made me feel like why is the world so arrogant and unfair! i don't know why you know, i really don't, i know we read to get away from it all that but then again Ive always been gravitated towards my tearjerkers, sometimes you just need a lesson and most of all a good cry.
No idea why we read books that make us sad. Maybe sorrow is in some way cathartic?
I still don't think I'm completely over reading Forbidden & I sometimes wonder why I put myself through reading books like that but I don't think I'll ever stop reading sad books. I think they can be a good way of putting your own problems into perspective. I'm also one of those people who likes to watch sad films and have a good cry so it's probably the same with books for me :o)
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