Musing – PLOT ARC
I am extremely disturbed!!
I read a book which I thought to be a young adult fastasy with elves and unicorns and magic, and beasts in the forest where 2 siblings were to go on a quest.
Before the journey, the brother fell, hit his head and lost his memories including the meaning of relationships and their significance.
For a few pages in the middle of the book, the story took an incestuous turn with the brother forcing himself on his sister, the plot arc was justified by reason of loss of memory.
This book should have had a TRIGGER Warning. I am not the right audience for such a fantasy. The brother lost memory and found sister attractive theme is not for me. Too icky. Now I can’t concentrate as my mind was too disturbed.
Are such books the norm? Would you read such a book? What do you do when such a plot arc hits you?
I have a blinding headache post reading this book!!
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Regardless of the reasoning behind including such scenes in a story, I can guarantee you I’d stop reading…and never read anything by that author again. They’ve lost my trust and I’d never feel comfortable again opening one of their books.
This happened to me four years ago with an author I ADORED, and I’ve never looked back.
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Oh… I am not planning to ever read this author… The ickiness was too much
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I would just stop reading a book that isn’t right for me. Too many other books out there to read and so little time!
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I did the same, but I couldn’t believe such a plot arc would exist.. 🤷♀️
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Oh no definitely not! It’s too disturbing to think it that way. I didn’t read game of thrones because of this reason. I might be wrong, but as long as I can remember it has something like this in the beginning. If there is such arc it should be mentioned in trigger warning as I would not like to be surprised with this weird brother-sister relationship.
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I have a mighty headache post reading it. I thought it was middle grade book from the blurb and reviews. So shocked…
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That is NOT the kind of thing that should come out of nowhere!
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I was shocked by this scene of a brother trying to rape his sister because he had forgotten who she was. It had nothing to do with their quest and adventure
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Ug. Just…ug.
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With no trigger given by the author on the mail, I was so shocked. I read the reviews, people saying the prose is lyrical…. I mean whaaaaaaaattttt 😲
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I sometimes read books that have disturbing elements, but I need to know what I’m getting into, and those events should make sense in the overall context of the book.
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I have read thrillers and other dark psychological books with this theme but not a fantasy. So I was shocked
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I would stop reading if I come across something like this in a book Brother forcing himself on his sister, wth!?🙄
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Yeah… I thought it was middle grade story with unicorn and quest and adventure. And then this scene of brother trying to rape his sister because he didn’t know the meaning of the word sister. Gawd…
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Ugh! This sets a very bad example. 😐
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My head is bursting…it had unicorns in it… I thought children’s book 🙈😲😂 no child should read it ever
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I agree.
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Ugh! I’d love to know what book this is Shalini. Regardless, while I tend to try to read books through, especially if they’re review books, there have been times where I haven’t because they disturbed me too much.
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It was Silver fire by Freya Pickard.. It was unicorn quest this siblings go on and suddenly wham the brothers finds sister’s body attractive and tries to rape her since he didn’t know what sister meant… But he remembered what sex was.. Imagine that
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I looked this up on Amazon and compared your review with some of the others. I’ve had something similar happen to me, where I find something disturbing or offensive and no one else seems to take issue with it. I’m personally with you on this Shalini. Even if this wasn’t a middle grade book, it should have a trigger warning.
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Kim, it didn’t need the scene at all. There were so many other things happening in the book. This weird sex scene was not inherent to the plot and I realized the author stopped the book abruptly… All these are just marketing tactics… What a waste of reader’s money
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😡
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Not good at all I’m not surprised you stopped! Hope your headache goes quickly xx
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It is still there, the shock was too much for me
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😢
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Wrong on so many levels. I don’t want to read about rape regardless of the target. The incestuous aspect just triples the “I don’t want to read this book” response. Hope you can mentally leave this behind.
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I agree… This was about finding unicorns and magic… And wham I am hit by this scene 🙈
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Unfortunately, many publishers seem to mislabel a book. I have found that happens quite a bit especially in the historical fiction genre. When a book bothers you so much, it’s time to drop it and say something to the publishers I think.
Onto a lovely story for you, Shalini! 🌸
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It was an author request and I wondered why she didn’t inform me about the incestuous scene… I wouldn’t have even accepted the story
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Oh yuck. Should have come with a warning.
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You got it!!! Gin the book was about finding unicorns and right in the middle was this scene
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Sadly, “the brother trying to force himself on his sister” have kind of become a recurrent motif. But if the plot tries to justify it by trying to convince me that the brother lost his memory, then sorry, but I am calling it off 😑. We already have enough of disturbing tropes, I don’t need to read another one!
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Very bad – there should definitely have been some sort of warning.
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I agree Cathy… I initially thought it was a middle grade children’s book…
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Ewww!
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Ditto… My reaction… Caused a migraine
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Bleh, that is all kinds of wrong. I sorry you had that experience, and I certainly hope that is NOT becoming the norm.
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I hope so too. DJ.. I checked the ending of the book. It ended abruptly and then there is book 2 to be followed. I realized it was some kind of marketing..
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Ewww! And it’s YA? Yeah perhaps not the target demographic
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It was search for unicorns.. So I thought middle grade… Happily trying to understand the story when the brother started noticing the sister’s body followed by attempt to rape. He had lost his memory so didn’t understand relationship but understood rape and sex…. I was shocked. It triggered… Got a massive headache. I am okay now.. Took me 6 hours to get rid of it
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Wow! No words lol
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Eww, that is disturbing. I’m sorry you had to discover that about the book after you were already reading it. The author should have told you beforehand.
I recently read a romance that had no warning about what was inside. Here I am, reading along, and all of sudden I found out the heroine is a minor and the hero is in his thirties and he’s basically raping this young woman. I understand that in some countries that is acceptable, but here in America it is illegal for adult men to engage in sexual relations with children under the age of eighteen. It kind of churned my stomach, so I couldn’t finish reading after that. I think it should have had a warning so readers were aware of the taboo inside. I don’t get why people put things like that in books. Are they just trying to shock readers? All it does is turn me off and make me not want to read anymore of that author’s books.
I hope your next book is much better! 🙂 🙂
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Leslie, in every country it is illegal. It is astonishing how some try to palm it off as romance. Call it what it is so that readers are not affected. I have gone through some bad things as a child so this scene triggered it all. I had a massive headache for 8 hours till my mind settled down. This was an author request. Shouldnt she have told me what her book is all about. If you see the reviews, they Call her prose poetry. I call it bullshit
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Well, I know of a really good way to clear that crap from your mind, my dear. Read a Matthew Reilly book. 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Oooh you know what I want to do to him 🤫😉😂
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Wow…that seems just totally wrong…UGH. To answer your question: No I would not read such a book. I would probably throw it right out the window: and I live twelve floors up. So that book will take quite a fall. Sorry to hear that this was such a bad book 😢
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I don’t know what kind of a plot would make such a scene inherent… I suffered from a headache post reading it. Waste of my 7 hours
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I really AM sorry to hear that 😔😢 I hope you are okay baby😘 Hopefully your next book will bring a smile to you again ❤️
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I am better now. Luckily doing nothing helped. And of course writing this post was cathartic.
Since there is a baby in your comment
WHO IS YOUR IDEAL WOMAN? *hint:me, even if it is not*
My blog, my rules
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I’m glad to hear you are better. When I read the review I just had to check, as I know how much things like this can effect you 😘 So had to make sure you were okay 😊
Lol….who says it isn’t you…..🤔🤔😘😊😊
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Yayyy…. For the sake of my ego. I will consider it is me
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😘😘❤️❤️😍😍
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Oh yuck!
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Exactly… I thought the same 🤦🏻♀️
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😮😲 This is definitely a story not meant for the masses. I’d probably put that down and this post would end up being my review. That should definitely come with a warning!!!
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Hehehe parts of this post was the review. I couldn’t believe the scene and I thought this to be a children’s book with unicorn and quests 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
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That’s absolutely disgusting! Not only is it not appropriate for the target group (well, any age really) and it should at least have had a trigger warning, but I personally would stop reading straight away and never touch the book (or anything else by the same author) ever again. There is simply no excuse whatsoever for incorporating that kind of scene in a plot.
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Exactly… The brother forgot relationship but remembered sex? Selective amnesia, much? It was terrible to read the scene of him pouncing on her
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It would already have been horrible for him to do that to any girl (wouldn’t want to read about that either), but him being his sister is even more disgusting…
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True that
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Oh wow, I’m with you! That is just too much!
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The author just told me that incest is very important to the plot arc in the rest of the book. I moved the entire mail to spam. As such kind of logic scares me
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Yeah that is not of interest to me at all. Glad you dumped it.
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I wouldn’t want to read about that either. I hope you are already reading something else you love, Shalini!
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I read something yesterday. But today went back to my thriller. They felt like a comfortable place even when characters are awful
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I agree… I was so disturbed by it.. The author’s email told me it was important to the whole plot. I put her mail in spam. I can’t read such plot lines
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Ugh. I would have stopped reading this for sure. That’s so frustrating when there aren’t trigger warnings. 🤬 So sorry this happened to you, my love ❤❤
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Oh that day was terrible. The author said the plot was needed in the story line. My silence was the answer
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Good for you. I would not have responded either. Yikes.
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Absolutely not 🙄🙄😓😓
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I agree 🙈🙈
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Oh goodness YES it should have had a trigger warning 😦
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I agree… It was so shocking… Author justified it as essential to the plot…
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