I have just stopped reading The Other Hand, by Chris Cleave

[FfreckleFface]

Warning: spoiler.

Bloke bought me this last week, and I am intrigued by the premise, BUT have just had to stop reading in tears because I was so troubled by the image of a four year old boy jumping into his father's grave shouting, 'I want mine Daddy!'.

Now I am not given to this sort of sappy emotional reaction, and this is the first time I have ever given up a book because it upset me. The last time I cried like that while reading was Marley & Me, and I saw it through to the end.

My question is, has anyone read the entire novel? I want to continue, but is it worth my persevering, and does it get worse? I can cope with most horror, but this touched me, probably because of the 'mine Daddy' bit.

It is well worth it, but it's not for when you are feeling fragile, tis true.

well, that's not the most emotional part of the book, not for me anyway so I would stop now

Hmm. I'm ok if it's 'grown up' trauma, if you know what I mean. It gets worse than little boys leaping into graves? Jesus.

I'm going to bite the bullet and take it to bed now. Will report back when I'm done.

I loved that book, yes there are some pretty hideous parts in it, but mostly relating to LittleBee.

I've read it - actually I'm sorry I ploughed through to the end because I didn't think it lived up to the blurb on the cover! However, I am just recovering from posting a long, bitter rant in AIBU so I may well have mud-tinted glasses on at the moment, and others on here think you should continue, so ... good luck! (The grave bit is the most gut-wrenching, but some of the Nigerian stuff is very brutal).

I found it gripping and read it very quickly. It definitely gets a lot worse than the graveyard scene, and wasn't easy to read, but I did feel it lived up to the blurb.

Ultimately a life affirming book.

I hated this book and wouldn't have read it had I known what it was about. The characters were 2 dimensional a bit of a caricature and I found that child's speech so irritating.

There have been other threads on it. so I know I'm in a minority

Oh I entirely agree about the characters and the speech. I thought it was an intentional device though, because the author wanted to contrast this with the narrative.

Oh Elvis - I hated it too. I thought it was poorly written, sensationalist and above all, cynical. A dreadful book.

Haven't read this and not sure I want to now as I love Cleave's column in the Guardian-it's hilarious!!

I have just ditched it too, again because of the characters. It did have me in tears a couple of times, so there is something there that I found real and very moving. But too many times I found myself thinking, "She just wouldn't do that", or "He just wouldn't say that".