This review contains spoilers
Content Warning: Discussion of Abuse and PTSD Responses
Again, I am rushing here midway through a chapter to give this 5 stars for making me feel things.
This chapter has Keiichi going to pet Satoko’s head: a move that he believes will help somewhat restore his idealized concept of normalcy. Instead, Satoko returns the gesture with a smack and horrified expression. In his confusion, Keiichi reattempts his petting, to which she retorts with a similar, although far more intense response as a means of self defense. She screams in pure agony, desperately flailing her arms in order to protect herself, and squeals out apologies in between heaving sobs. In that moment, she cannot differentiate between friend and abuser, and she is entirely inconsolable. She experiences a full-blown trauma-induced panic attack, and her friends are powerless to help. All they can do is sit in terror as they watch her tirelessly thrash about, wail, and convulse in unimaginable pain.
This chapter does a fantastic job of placing you in Keiichi’s shoes. You and he both feel as though you’ve been robbed of your agency, and that you have no choice but to sit with a hole in your heart as the person you care about cries in pain that you struggle to empathize with. It’s masterfully done, and the author does a scarily great job of capturing what traumatized and abused children behave like.
Again, I am rushing here midway through a chapter to give this 5 stars for making me feel things.
This chapter has Keiichi going to pet Satoko’s head: a move that he believes will help somewhat restore his idealized concept of normalcy. Instead, Satoko returns the gesture with a smack and horrified expression. In his confusion, Keiichi reattempts his petting, to which she retorts with a similar, although far more intense response as a means of self defense. She screams in pure agony, desperately flailing her arms in order to protect herself, and squeals out apologies in between heaving sobs. In that moment, she cannot differentiate between friend and abuser, and she is entirely inconsolable. She experiences a full-blown trauma-induced panic attack, and her friends are powerless to help. All they can do is sit in terror as they watch her tirelessly thrash about, wail, and convulse in unimaginable pain.
This chapter does a fantastic job of placing you in Keiichi’s shoes. You and he both feel as though you’ve been robbed of your agency, and that you have no choice but to sit with a hole in your heart as the person you care about cries in pain that you struggle to empathize with. It’s masterfully done, and the author does a scarily great job of capturing what traumatized and abused children behave like.