Traumaland by Josh Silver
Welcome to Traumaland. You are now Jack. Your story will start in 3… 2… 1…
Eli has been in a near-fatal accident, which has left him with no memory and no emotions. According to his therapist, he suffers from an Overwhelming Emptiness.
Desperate to feel something again, Eli winds up at TraumaLand, an underground club where crowds of emotionally numb party-goers seek a new thrill. Through hyper-real virtual reality simulations, they can experience nightmarish events happening to other people.
But when Eli immerses himself in Jack’s story, he starts to suspect there may be a darker – more dangerous – truth to the club.
Traumaland isn’t really my type of book, but I still found it interesting as in that I’ve never read a book anything like it or like the concept. The book demonstrates how impactful and strong lies can be if they’ve been lied to their entire life. It kind of makes me think about if I were to step into someone’s shoes and experience their traumatic experiences in like a virtual reality as if you are the person. I wasn’t really a big fan of the main character always explaining his feeling every time he said something but I did like that the book was written in 1st person, it really helped me understand the feelings of the main character, Eli.