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The internet recently came to the defense of a man who snapped at his girlfriend for taking out her book frustrations on him. In Reddit's r/AmITheA**hole forum, the post made its way up the discussion board with 8.1k votes (97 percent upvoted) and a top comment with nearly 15,000 upvotes. U/Active_Blacksmith_97 expressed his regret over his reaction, but wondered if he was in the wrong.
The man explained that his girlfriend enjoys reading and, in the midst of her favorite book, she complains or expresses her love for the characters.
"It was never a problem but about 3 months ago," he said. "She started to read a lot of romance novels."
According to the GoodReads Choice Awards 2021, the top 3 best romance novels were People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry, The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, and Casey McQuinston's One Last Stop.
U/Active_Blacksmith_97 said the incidents occur a couple times a week. If his girlfriend was mad at one of the characters, she would take her anger out on him.
"The next day she will sheepishly tell me that she had been mad about something that happened in the book," he said.
He continued adding that she's complained he wasn't as romantic as one of the characters in her book, so he'd offer to try harder, but that didn't suffice.
"Having to figure if it is a real issue or just her being angry about a book is hard and she gets even more annoyed if I ask her if it is about the book," he confessed.
Then, the day came when U/Active_Blacksmith_97 had enough.
"I had a horrible day at work and I was pretty crushed and exhausted," he said. "I greeted her and she ignored me and I asked her if she was actually mad at me or if she was sulking about a book."
He said he ordered food to make things easier, but his girlfriend deemed him "lazy," which triggered an argument.
"I snapped that maybe one of her imaginary boyfriend could cook for her because I was too tired to do it. She refused to eat the food I delivered and she went to bed hungry," he admitted.
After the incident happen, he felt bad and wished he handled the situation differently. The internet was quick to comment, siding with him.
"That's super unhealthy of her. She's basically living vicariously through the characters in the book and making it your responsibility to navigate handling her mood swings over it," u/TheLadyDoore said.
U/Throwaway_fml_T_T wrote, "I also think she may need some help with counseling, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy is serious and how she is treating OP isn't normal."
About the writer
Ashley Gale is a Newsweek reporter based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her focus is reporting on trends. She has covered trends, ... Read more