Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.
SEPTEMBER 17: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN A BOOK TRIGGERS YOU? (SUGGESTED BY JILLIAN @ JILLIAN THE BOOKISH BUTTERFLY)
Prompts: Everyone has different reactions to triggers; what is yours? Do you have measures in place to help you avoid books that could potentially trigger you? If you get triggered without previously knowing there would be a trigger, do you still care to finish the book? Does it affect your eventual rating/review? Have you ever read a book knowing that something within it would trigger you?
Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH! An interesting topic today for sure (like every week), and something I must say I don’t experience too too often. It’d be interesting to see what others have to say on this topic as well. Without further ado, let’s begin!
I don’t think I really worry about triggers in general when I’m reading, but I think perhaps the closest thing is general gore and really graphic violence. These usually happen in the murder mysteries or thrillers I read and I’m honestly not a fan of it. Things can definitely be scary and suspenseful without the use of super graphic details – although if that’s your thing, I’m definitely not judging, you do you.
I never know when a book will have graphic details, so I really don’t have any measures in place to help me avoid it. I have definitely read books where I was surprised by what I found, but I pushed through anyway. I tend to still try and finish the book if I can help it, unless the content of the book just wasn’t good. I actually thought the book was pretty good albeit a bit too scarily graphic, so I just went through with it anyway.
At the time of reading I wasn’t a book review blogger so it didn’t really cross my mind whether it would affect a rating or not, but thinking back, since these ratings are a measure of how much I personally enjoyed it, I would definitely have to say that it would have affected my rating for sure. Honestly, maybe I shouldn’t have finished it. Not only was it graphic, but rather it was just a bit too horrific of a story for me. But you live and learn, I guess.
And for the last prompt…nope! I definitely never mean to read anything that might trigger me. I tend to scrutinize synopses and genres to make sure I am generally interested in reading the book, and I am rarely disappointed. That being said, I do enjoy sometimes randomly picking books off shelves and enjoying them that way too. While I do run a risk, it’s often worth it for it the books you never would have discovered otherwise.
Do you all have triggers in books? If you don’t mind me asking, what are they, and how do you deal with them? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!
Down the Rabbit Hole 