Getting Involved

[dios4vida]

I just finished reading a book that, albeit fabulous and the latest in one of my all-time favorite series, left me blubbering and sobbing like I'd lost my best friend. This isn't the first time I've left tear stains on a book's pages, nor was it even my most empassioned reaction (I confess that I did throw a book across the room, but only once).

How many other readers have experienced this? Have you ever been so attached to a character that when something tragic happens to them you find yourself struggling to separate the book's emotions from your own?

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to wipe the tears off my of keyboard and get some cookies.

[stephmcgee]

Several times. The end of Harry Potter 6 and most of book 7 come to mind.

Though the most powerful and the one that sticks with me most was reading book #2 in the long-running (and I do mean long-running) Saddle Club series. There came a point in the book where I knew what was coming (and I was little, mind you, like 10) and just couldn't control my emotions. I was balling. (And this on a long plane ride.)

It's the first time I'd ever encountered an animal having to be put down in a book (shocking, I know) and because it was a horse, and through no fault of his own, just pure accident, it was even worse.

It took me a long time to separate the characters' emotions from my own because I felt the same way. Same with the Harry Potter books. Sometimes, even just thinking about those emotionally impactful scenes in books gets me all worked up again and feeling those emotions all over again.

[Down the well]

Have you ever been so attached to a character that when something tragic happens to them you find yourself struggling to separate the book's emotions from your own?

Somewhat. I remember finishing In The Woods by Tana French and feeling completely bewildered. The two main characters have a falling out that never gets resolved fully, and that unsettled conflict threw me into kind of a funk for a few days after I finished reading. I suppose it's because I've had similar relationships in my own life that ended without "closure" that made it gnaw at me so much. But, yeah, I can get emotionally sucked into a book -- if the writer is good. :)



BTW, French wrote a second book to follow the first, and still the issue never got resolved. Drove me crazy. Of course, I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and she's the kind of writer who refuses to give me one.

[Heather B]

I do all the time! Whenever I read a book that's one of the things I'm looking for. It just sucks for my boyfriend, if I'm reading a part where the MC is angry or upset; if he disturbs me - I let him have it!

[Mira]

Oh, absolutely! I just read a book where the protagonist supposedly gets killed. It's very believable; I really thought they died. I was so upset, I almost stopped reading the book right there and then. I was going to ban that author's books forever and ever, and maybe even write a letter of protest.

Fortunately, it all worked out in the end, but I was SOOOO upset.

The opposite is true, of course. Sometimes I read something wonderful, and I'm in a good mood for hours. :)