Day 21: What is the most disturbing book you've ever read?
It was many years ago that I began this book. I cannot remember which friend lent it to me, but I was old enough that my parents did not think a "children's book" on World War II was a bad thing for me to read. As awful as it is, everyone needs to know that history. Jacob's Rescue is about a Jewish boy, Jacob, living with a Polish family in Poland during World War II. I never finished it. While it was quite the well-written story, it was simply too well-told for the younger me. At one point in the book, the oldest son of the family with which Jacob is staying darts outside and is promptly shot by a Nazi hiding on the roof. When the author describes, through young Jacob's eyes, the father gathering the blood-soaked dead body of his son in his arms and weeping inconsolably, I almost threw up (and, as a matter of fact, did a short time later). The only other time I have been so disturbed was several years later, reading another WWII historical fiction about the concentration camps. Words cannot describe what a dark, evil history that is...
Day 22: What is a book you once loved, but don't anymore (and why)?
I am trying to think of books over which I went crazy, only to discover once I had calmed down that they weren't quite as amazing as I had previously thought. I suppose the first several books of the Thoroughbred series could apply here...
Up through about book 7ish, I still like these books, in general. When I was younger, I positively devoured them, loving the story of a girl with her horse, racing the Triple Crown, etc. Reading back over them a few years later, I discovered all sorts of things in the books which I hadn't even noticed before. Some attitudes were suddenly more defiant, there were more flirtatious, boyfriend-girlfriend relationships (mostly as you progressed into the later series) - and I had not even noticed them! That said, I still have the first 7 tucked away in my childhood-books-box; while they were not as good as I had thought the first time through, they are, still, the story of a girl amongst horses, and I like them. :)
What about you? What disturbing books should I avoid? Is there a book that you were crazy about, only to discover later you didn't care for it so much?
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