Daily writing prompt

Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why?

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Within a month or two of having my first baby I picked up the book A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. I think I saw him on Oprah perhaps? That book hit me hard. It’s about a boy in California who is severely abused and neglected by his mother and she doesn’t even call him by name, refers to him as “It”.

Right after that book, still figuring out how to care for a newborn baby and get all other responsibilities taken care of in our newly purchased first home and doing it all on my own while my husband worked (I don’t know what I was thinking), I picked up another book about child abuse.

Where Children Run, by Karen Emilson. This one took place right here in Manitoba. A horrible story about twin brothers who were abused (well the whole family was abused) by their evil step-dad. And then I read the sequel to it.

It’s not that I completely regret reading those books, it was just the timing. My hormones were in some kind of funk, naturally, because I’d just had my first baby, so the sadness hit times ten.

Nowadays, I won’t even read those kind of books. Part of me thinks why on earth would anyone want to read something so tragic and awful. Especially pertaining to kids.

Although I completely understand why those victims chose to tell their story and I’m happy they did. In my instance, I carried those stories in my brain and held them far too close, if that makes sense. It felt really raw.