Just finished reading "Before You Judge Me........"

[Tess66]

"....Try Hard To Love Me" by Subina Giuletti

I don't know if this book has been discussed in the past as I'm a newer member. I tried to do a search using the author's name but couldn't find anything.

I started it knowing it was written as "fiction", and as when I read anything about Michael Jackson, I took it all with a grain of salt and a skeptical eye.

Has anyone read it? It's a very trippy book to be sure. A bit hard to follow at times, perhaps because it was translated from German to English? Not sure, but once I got into it, it became easier to see where the author was going.

I have to say, it really captured me and I stayed up most of the night to finish. I smiled, I cried, it made me mad, it made me think, it made my jaw drop, it made my heart ache.

I found it fascinating, although I don't know how MJ fans would feel about certain parts that are, well, difficult to read. Again, keeping in mind it is written as fiction.

Has anyone read it? Thoughts? Respectful feedback? Please don't "throw things at me" for reading a fictional MJ book (many non fiction MJ books out there should be labeled as fiction for the most part).

This book just shook me up a bit, and wanted to know how others felt.

Thank you.

 

[SarahJ]

Never heard of it. I take most things written about him with a skeptical eye so good on you for that. Some people are so well schooled in MJ that they can write something and convince people that there truth behind it. Something like that I'd just take as fiction and leave it at that. And your right about the non-fiction.

What shook you up about it and which parts did you find difficult?

 

[Tess66]

Never heard of it. I take most things written about him with a skeptical eye so good on you for that. Some people are so well schooled in MJ that they can write something and convince people that there truth behind it. Something like that I'd just take as fiction and leave it at that. And your right about the non-fiction.

What shook you up about it and which parts did you find difficult?

I don't want to be a "spoiler", in case anyone is going to read it, but I'll touch on a few things.

The time frame in the book covers what appears to represent approximately the year or two leading up to TII and his death, although the protagonist, the person who is telling the story, isn't there when he passes, she has already returned home.

Of course, we all know about the controversial time approaching TII, and the possible stressful effects it had on Michael. That is portrayed in the book, the toll of pressures being placed on him by the "sharks circling".

His physical and emotional pain, how some tried to help the right way, but others, not so much. Doctors putting Band-Aids over bullet holes so to speak.

There is a background of conspiracy, people who are never seen, but have power and want to basically destroy him, they manipulate anything and anyone they can to try to achieve this.

The portrayal of Michael's sadness, his fears, his anger and pain (emotional and physical), really got me. The way Michael was treated IRL by the press and even people he thought were his friends is no secret, but how it's shown in the book, the toll it took on him, just made me sick, it made my heart hurt.

Michael's desire to just be a regular person, to not be in the spotlight anymore, to disappear as the famous Michael Jackson is also discussed, somewhat in the background, much like conspiracy to destroy him is.

Like I said, it's trippy. A merging of three plots, that jump around a bit. It reminded me a lot of Daz's Fan Fiction story TTTO (which I loved).

There is one part I will give away. It's a scene where Michael goes back to Neverland, at night, to sit in his Giving Tree. He basically has to sneak onto his own past home's property. For some reason, I could picture him doing this. That part really stung me, his Neverland, his dream, turned into a reminder of what sick and hurtful people tried to do to him. That got me, it kinda hit me like never before, how much had been taken away from him.

Again, this book is fiction, but it did bring out more emotions in me than I thought it would.