I tried guys, I tried again. I wanted to like this book, I read the first page a few months ago and got annoyed at how he judged the person he was writing to's worth based on who they had sex with and put it back in disgust. But then I watched the film and really enjoyed it, felt I had misjudged it and decided to give it another go. So I did. But to no avail.
I just want to put the record straight that I do not think this is a bad book, I don't think it's a bad story. It is just not a book for me. I have a problem with unreliable narrators in books as a general rule, I don't like them, they stress me out. Sometimes I can cope, in murder mystery novels it can add to the plot, but in books not about mystery it makes me anxious and this book was no different.
I was doing fine and thinking maybe I could cope until we reach a scene *TRIGGER WARNING* in which the narrator describes a rape he witnessed in great detail to someone else, not realising what he had witnessed. And at this point I closed the book. I couldn't deal with reading something like that in somebody's voice. I have enough trouble reading accounts of sexual assault without being trapped in somebody's head. It makes me feel sick and shaky and everything is just far too triggering.
And knowing what was to come in the book (having seen the film) I decided for my own mental health not to read it.
So I understand why a lot of people really like this book, I just couldn't cope with the subject matter and the writing style together. So I won't be trying to read it again. But that doesn't mean I think it's bad.
Just so you know.
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