Q [3] Should we read books that make us uncomfortable?

This is a post I've been wanting to write for awhile, but I wasn't entirely sure how to approach my question. There are a lot of different ways for books to make us uncomfortable, and it varies from person to person, but should we still read those books?

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma is about a brother and sister that fall in love. It is a beautiful, heartbreaking story that left me crying in a corner for at least half an hour. I also threw the book against a wall and my husband thought something awful had happened to me. This book wrecked me. Do I agree with the content? No. I don't think siblings should fall in love with each other, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. The setting for this story, their circumstances... gah, you'd just have to read it to fully understand what I'm trying to say.

There are a lot of people screaming about how they'd never read something about incest, yet they love Game of Thrones. Aren't two of the main characters sleeping together and popping out babies even though they're brother and sister? Why is one different from the other?

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young (read my review here) contains a lot of animal sacrifices, which really bothered me. I don't like animal cruelty, and I've also been a vegan for over six years. Does that make this a bad book? No. I loved this book and the story. It was unique and brilliant, but those instances made me uncomfortable. I cringed and wished they weren't included in the story, but I can see how they were relevant to the time period the author was trying to convey. It was part of their culture.

King by T.M. Frazier was a book that made me sick to my stomach, and one that I refused to continue reading. The main character rapes a girl and then lets his friend take her away to be raped again (for more detailed information you can see my review here), and that completely ruined the book for me. It wasn't something I could read about and move on from, because I feel like that behavior should be condemned in every capacity. However, this is a book beloved by many. Are there certain topics that are okay to read about even if they make us a little uneasy? Where is the line? What makes it a yes or a no?

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was amazing (read my review here), but I wanted to include it because of a few of the comments I've seen regarding this book. A lot of people don't want to read this because they feel as though it's demonizing white people. "Reverse racism" is a term I've heard more than once in relation to this book. I felt like Angie Thomas told a story that needed to be heard. Black Lives Matter and people are not getting the recognition they deserve. Should you read this if the topic of racism makes you uncomfortable? What about it's relevance to today's society?

Here So Far Away by Hadley Dyer (read my review here) is another book I really enjoyed, but received a lot of conflicting comments over. There is a relationship within the story that has a pretty big age difference. This fact alone is keeping a lot of people from even trying the book, and they have no idea what the circumstances are surrounding the two people involved. I thought Hadley Dyer handled a delicate situation incredibly well and created something lovey and thought-provoking. What would you do if you found yourself in their situation? What if you were a parent? Is there anything that would make this okay?

There are a lot of things that can happen within a book that will make people avoid it like the plague. What topics do you stay away from? Why? Do you think we should read books that make us uncomfortable if they provide a different perspective? Books that we wouldn't normally read might be the most enlightening. I've learned a lot from books that put me in situations I would never find myself in. They make me think. They make me question what I know. They make me want to learn and grow and find out more about myself and the world we live in.

Do you think that we should read books that unsettle us in some way? What are your thoughts?

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Narrated by Bahni Turpin

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. 

“Daddy claims the Hogwarts houses are really gangs. They have their own colors, their own hideouts, and they are always riding for each other, like gangs. Harry, Ron, and Hermione never snitch on one another, just like gangbangers. Death Eaters even have matching tattoos. And look at Voldemort. They’re scared to say his name. Really, that “He Who Must Not Be Named” stuff is like giving him a street name. That’s some gangbanging shit right there.”

Impactful. I think this one word encompasses my feelings about the entire book. Angie Thomas has created characters that I will think about for a long, long time.

I'm not going to pretend like I know or understand what Starr went through. There's no way for me to know, because I haven't lived that. I haven't experienced that prejudice and hatred. It was eye-opening to read a book from Starr's perspective. She sees the world so differently, and she's forced to live by a separate set of rules based on the color of her skin. 

My parents raised me to see color when I looked at another person. Once I was old enough to make decisions for myself, we started to clash on a lot of things, but race seemed to be a big one. I wasn't allowed to play with other kids at school if they didn't look like me, and as a kid that's so fucking confusing. My parents actually instructed my teachers to inform them if they saw me interacting with classmates that "looked different," which my teachers obediently did.

If I asked my parents to read this book, I doubt they would. It makes me sad. They're filled with so much hatred and they don't even know why. It's just "the way things are," and that's not okay. It's a shit excuse to exercise hate.

The Hate U Give shows how an entire community, a family, and a girl live in a world full of that hate and indifference. They have different rules to get them through the day, especially if they're pulled over by a police officer. It shouldn't be that way. It's wrong. I don't know why so many people still cannot grasp that concept.

Starr is a strong, brilliant, lovely character. I enjoyed watching her live her life. Yes, she struggled, but she also grew as a person. She fought with friends, learned to understand community, found comfort in her family, and tried to get by in life. No one should have to eat dinner with gunfire going off in the background, or look out their window to see tanks driving down the road.

I think this book needs to be read by everyone (the narrator was wonderful if you enjoy audiobooks). I could talk about the incredible family dynamics (loved Starr's family!), the amazing secondary characters, or the significance of the protests and riots. There is so much being said in this book, and I have too many feelings to adequately express them all.

Angie Thomas is an amazing author that wrote something powerful and beautiful. It's a story that will have a lasting impact on this world, and I hope a lot of people take Starr's story to heart and try to be more understanding and uplifting.

Other quotes I liked:

“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.”

“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”

“Trust me, my school has hoes too. Hoedom is universal.”