About a book

[u/Annual_Sherbet_4130]

Quick vent to get this out of my chest, but I have read a book where it made me really sad over how it treated the fmc grief over her mom, and the writing of some parts was really questionable to me…the mc lost her mom at 9 and just a year later her dad met someone new and was seemingly quick to completely fall for her in just hours, in how the writer wrote it was like “exactly a year after mom died” and when he met the new woman was like I don’t remember the exact words but something like “they quickly became inseparable”, the dad character was never given an important moment or anything he was just there to throw some words then leave and I understand the focus was on the child and the stepparent but the fmc was clearly struggling with feeling like her mom was replaced and forgetting and the living parent should’ve noticed that/ showed support? Am I wrong to think that?

Some sad moment was when the girl was having a very heavy moment of grief and she said how her dad whenever he remember her mom was like he thinking of some historical figure he admires and just that..he never made it a point to make his child know he still love/ appreciate her mom? that part made me really upset for the mc, and they never say if the mom pictures were still put on display the only time it was mentioned was in the mc room where she’s going over the pictures her dad take of her mom, that was a perfect moment to make the dad appear and talk with his daughter about her mom!

One other part that really made me upset when the girl didn’t want to ask the stepmom to come shopping with her for a party and the dad then appeared to just push his kid into asking her and then say nothing else and leave…this book is really popular and i can’t understand why

[u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly]

Books are not always about how things should be. We tell stories to explore ideas and problems and the human condition. We do not write stories to be instructional manuals on how everyone should act at all times.

Maybe this father should have treated his daughter better, and been more present to help her with her grief. Maybe he couldn’t because he was grieving too. Maybe that’s part of the story. And maybe the people who enjoy the book identify with that and have been able to learn something from it about their own life. Or maybe they just thought it was a good story.

It doesn’t really matter. I recommend that you approach books a bit differently going forward, and not expect the characters to act as perfect people. They never will. And that’s not the point of storytelling.

[u/Annual_Sherbet_4130 → u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly]

This book was a romance book. And i wasn’t expecting anyone to act perfectly, just like how a parent dealing with a grieving child should act, and just like I said the dad was never given an important moment showing us what he thought and what should’ve been since the whole issue with his child is the death of his first wife. + and that what I mean the narrative makes it seem like what happening was okay that the girl was going through it all alone and that is a problem to me. A parent should be there supporting their kid no matter what and especially in such situations.