in being sick of these books

[upsylazy]

AIBU to be getting a tad sick of the plethora of tales of tragic abusive childhoods or am I being callous? the last time I went to WHSmith,there was an entire section dedicated to "tragic life stories" Iknow all these people have been through hell but it feels though there's a rather unhealthy competitivess over who can caim "the worst childhood ever"Iknow nobody forces anyone to read them but AIBU to think that avid readers of this genre are a bit odd?

YANBU I think it odd too. Perhaps writing about it helps some but I cant personally bring myself to read them.

yes teh misery genre has been much discussed on here.

i was going to write my own entitled 'you only loved me on tuesdays' with a grainy picture of a small child beside a brick wall on the front.

YANBU

Oh god, I am glad someone else is sick of these. My mum and sister love them but I think they are a load of shite.

Ever since 'A child called it' came out there have been a plethora of these books. One small smack in someones childhood is turned into 400 pages of crap.

There are two worth reading.

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
Touched By Evil - Michele Knight

Both excellent books, and really show up the majority of the rest of the genre for the shite that it is.

The popularity of the misery genre worries me. Either there are a lot of people who also had awful childhoods, and are looking for answers (possibly in the wrong place imo) or there are a lot of misery vampires out there. Perhaps a bit of both.

YANBU After reading child called it etc, I was given a couple of others to read and admit I read them and thoughtI dont think that was as bad as my childhood. cant stand them now, as others have said david peltzers account of his childhood was horrific and everything else since has not been nearly as bad. I guess they saw how much money was made from thos first ones and thought hey I can make a quick buck from a poor me book. Annoys the crap out of me actually to see the vast quantity of them now available.

YANBU it's misery porn and the rise of it is distinctly distasteful as much for the poor sods who feel the need to churn it out and the starnge taste of the misery voyeurs who want to read it.

A lot of it has been questionned by some of the particioants in the "memoirs" esp now people can see how much of a quick buck can be made.

I agree Angelas Ashes good, written well without self pity and a sense of humour, in a class of its own in this genre.

i did actually read a couple ages ago, "sickened" which was about the child of a munchausens by proxy mother, pretty grim and anothe one about a woman with mental health and personality problems who had intensive psychotherapy and suddenly started remembering things. Not saying this doesn't happen but the flavour of it was imo.

Read Angela's Ashes and I think it is brilliant.

I can't read any other books in that genre. I find reading fiction too gritty at times and I don't really want to put myself through tales of abuse that are real.

God, I HATE those books about grotty childhoods. I don't know why people would want to read them? I hate how there are shelves full of them in the supermarket and I feel I have to steer my daughter past them before she can read the titles and think they might be interesting - she is about to turn 6 and I think that she might be attracted to these as there is often pictures of pretty little girls on the covers.

Vile, exploitative shyte. Not that this will stop me writing "Made to Eat Bread & Butter Before Cake".

I think they are awful.So depressing
The one I DO like (and I'm not sure they atre quite the same genre), are the Tory Hayden ones.She is a teacher who works with special needs children, and her books are mainly about her work with severely abused children.

Mine would be called "never allowed to go to british seaside holiday resorts" as my Mum was a total snob and thought they were too common. Had to go to lakes and mountains instead, traumaised for life by that one

brassband, Should she be writing about them, does she have permission? I would have thought she wouldn't have been able to because of child protection issues.

I hate them with a passion.

I read Angela's Ashes which I think is a proper book.

Child called it. It was ok but I didnt like the others he did.

I read the Cathy Glass ones because she is a foster carer and I have fostered/adopted.

I dont blame people for writing them and I hope they get something out of it.

I dont shy away from child abuse issues so its not like I dont want to know. I am not even sure why I hate these books so much.

I really hate the cover art. Always beautiful, clean, blemish free children in pastel colours.

No scabby, unattractive chavvy looking kids then? No obese children? No painfully skinny kids? Infact very few are anything but blonde and wearing charmingly retro tea dresses.

The worrying thing I find about this whole genre is the fact that some of them are actually fiction. As if bad childhoods are not bad enough, someone has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with some dire misery to keep other people entertained. I don't know who is worse, the authors or the audience?

I agree chegirl I work in CAMHS and have come across many horrific real life cases so i'm not shy of it either.

It all seems a bit explitative tbh for the ones that are true, the validity of several has been questioned though and i'm not surprised.

It's emotional exhibitionsim at its worst.

I don't know whether it's the same genre but "Proxac Nation" arghhhhh! OMG that woman is a spoilt, over indulged, narcissistic irritant. I feel that her book trivialises real depression, i can't stand her!

The last cover I saw which really made me feel ill was called "Please Daddy, no!"

Some of them are so descriptive and detailed in the language used I honestly wonder that they got into the wrong hands.

Awful genre, I am not blind to the fact that abuse exists and should be in the open but, there is something quite sinister about it all...

But you only have to glance at some of the "in the news" threads on here to see why there's a market for it...

"No, Daddy, no! Don't make me do my sums," that's mine.

Still bitter

X posts, Mrs Pixie.
It is quite creepy.
However, there's no shortage of abuse survivors - if it helps good for them.. Anbd financial help is not to be sneezed at, either.