We all have them. Hot buttons. Subjects we don’t like to discuss, or watch, or read about because they either annoy us, anger us, or disturb us. They are perhaps an author’s worst enemy, because everyone’s hot buttons are different, and try as you might to avoid them, chances are you won’t manage it. And if you do manage to steer clear of them, you may have a novel weak as milksop and just as uninteresting. So, it’s best to simply accept the fact that a small percentage of population will not enjoy your book or books because of their particular hot buttons. It’s impossible to please everyone all the time. 

Hot buttons can be something as innocuous as a dislike of blonde heroes, or a distrust of lawyers. It can be anger inducing because your character breaks some personal code of honor that an individual finds unforgivable, such as accepting a cheating spouse back, or a parent abandoning a child. And it can disturb us to read about a woman’s rape, or the torture of a captured soldier. 

I have discovered that I do not appreciate graphic violence. I can handle most of the terrible things that happen to characters when I am merely told it happened and shown the aftermath rather than being forced to endure reading about it while it occurs. 

However, there is one big exception. I very much dislike hearing the details of sexual violence, be it to a man, woman, or child. I can sympathize with a character who has been, let’s say, raped, and I want the author to make me believe that the character truly suffered this trauma and take me through all of the reactions and ramifications to her physically and psychologically. But, and this is a big but, I do not want to know exactly how the rape proceeded. I do not want to know that the villain put x in slot y and hit her with z. It is too much for me. I can’t easily discard such images and they continue to plague me day and night, and I would rather focus on more positive things. 

I also can’t help but feel that sometimes an author can walk the dangerous line of glorifying the violence by writing about it in such graphic terms. By no means do I think that all authors who include violent scenes in their book do this, and I am well aware that this is simply my personal preference. Some people do appreciate the violence. And some authors portray it very skillfully, using it to add dimension their stories. But there are times when I think the author has gone too far, that they are using it simply for shock value and it really adds nothing to the story. 

I will add as a disclaimer that I am aware that there is a genre of books whose purpose is exactly this, just as Erotica portrays sex outside the bounds of a committed relationship/relationships—romance’s and even erotic romance’s hallmark. I am not talking about these books. I am talking about literature, mysteries, fantasies, what have you, that describe graphic sexual violence. Nothing turns me off than turning the page in an otherwise enjoyable book and stumbling upon a scene that disturbs me. And it is the surest and quickest way to compel me to set down the book, never pick it up again, and avoid the author’s work in the future. Or, at the very least, do some serious research about the author’s other books to see if the same elements of violence are included. 

Once again, I will reiterate, this is my particular hot button, and I am well aware that it is not the same for everyone. I do not have as much trouble with other types of violence. For example, I am quite comfortable with fight scenes and war battles, which coincides rather well with my love of action movies. I can handle medical trauma, and while torture makes me squirm, it does not upset me so much as long as there isn’t an element of sexual aggression to it. I well understand the existence of violence and it’s purpose in fiction. In fact, I use it in my own mysteries, though I shy away from describing any act of murder or extreme violence while it is actually happening, just the aftermath. But I simply cannot stomach violence when it is sexual in nature.

Does reading about any type of violence disturb you or are you able to accept it as the fictional representation it is to further the story? What are your hot buttons?