My thoughts on... Poetic Justice

I like seeing poetic justice.

It's something that sits there deep inside me, and when it doesn't happen, it's like a devastating blow to the stomach. When a bad person does something horrible, my first instinct is "make them pay." I know on the surface that probably sounds very bad in itself, but please allow me to explain.

In a couple books I read recently, there were things that happened to the protagonist that made my heart hurt. These things (rape and bullying) left the characters broken in one way or another. And even though it's a book and these characters aren't real (please don't throw any books at me for saying that), I know deep down that these things did happen in real life to someone.

That hurts my heart even more.

In both of these books, the protagonist has to struggle not only with what happened, but also with justice not being served. The rapist and bullies go free to do whatever they please, never paying for their crimes. While the protagonist manages to get through this and eventually learns to live with it, my heart? It still hurts.

This is a sad fact of life, though. These things happen and there are often times where the guilty party gets out without a scrape.

There's a part of me that wishes and hopes that justice will happen for these characters, but the reality is that it most likely won't. It breaks the heart, yes, but it's true. While I find no justice upsetting, I applaud the authors who are willing to write these stories, giving a voice to the person out there facing the same thing. Even though life may be hard, knowing there is someone else out there like you, who understands and can persevere, makes all the difference in the world.

So thank you, authors, for not always giving us what we want to hear, for being brave enough to tell the hard stories, for being willing to be honest, and for showing us that we are not alone.