Le Souffre-douleur

Omg! My heart!
Wow! An absolutely tear jerker!
No one can read this and not help but have a heart for this story. It may be 1/6 books in a series, but this is so impactful! This would break even the hardest of heart!!!

This was a brutal read.I picked this up years ago, after finding it on my mother's bookshelf. I was only around eleven at the time, and my mother snatched it away from me, telling me I could read any of the other 'adult books' on the shelf but this one. She put it away in her bedside table and me, being the little brat that never did what I was told, began to sneakily read it. I was totally taken aback by this book. Even as mature as I was at eleven, I had no idea such things like this happened in the world, which was strange, given my childhood. Dave's story has been one that has stuck with me for so, so long, and it still haunts me now, three years after reading it for the last time. Every time I read this, I am struck with so many feelings. Deep sorrow. Pure anger. Utter disbelief. It's hard to believe a parent could treat their child like Dave's mother spent years treating him. I am angry. I am so angry every single time. How could she even do something like the horrendous things she does to him? How could anyone treat a human being, let alone their own child, like they are nothing more than scum on the bottom of their shoe? I have cried so many times in this book. Reading and rereading this. I have shed so many tears. The pain in Pelzer's writing is real. It reads quite disconnected, and I don't blame him, and I wouldn't expect a massive amount of serious emotion when recalling what has more than likely seriously traumatised him for life. But even with the disconnected writing, you can still feel the childlike confusion, the pain and the hurt. The anger at how he was treated. I think it was the way this was written that really sticks with me.First of all, it takes an enormous amount of courage to write a book like this, let alone to consider publishing it, and then to go through the long process of getting it published, doing tours, having to answer questions that are probably some of the hardest questions to answer in his life. This isn't even considering the backlash of the non believers, telling him he's made it all up for a good book and some attention. (That is completely ridiculous. The feeling in this book is real. I have no doubt in my mind that this was Pelzer's childhood.)This book is just. Horrendous because of it's contents. The way his abuser treated him for so long utterly disgusts me and my heart bleeds for him, it truly does. Having your childhood completely snatched away really changes someone, and luckily for Pelzer, it changed him for the better (as seen in the third book in the series, [b:A Man Named Dave|73864|A Man Named Dave (Dave Pelzer #3)|Dave Pelzer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440803504s/73864.jpg|969470].) This book is one of those you wish you had never read, but want to read over and over. This is a definite book so many people should read. People need to understand such horrific things like this happen, and it could be happening in a family you know. This truly stuck with me, and reading it so young really changed me. I became a lot more aware and a lot more mature. I understood a lot more. It changed me for the better as well.I give this book five stars, for the way it changed me, the feeling behind the writing, and the massive amounts of courage Pelzer had to go through to write and publish this book, and his series. I have so much respect for this man.