I literally can't stop thinking about how Pacat depicts the effects of trauma through subtext, limited pov, and unreliable narrators. Hell even the narrative structure itself. Nobody's doing it like them. So many characters have traumatic backstories, but we usually find out about it through exposition or vulnerable confessions. What's missing is the actual behaviours people develop as a response to trauma and how it skews their perspective of events in the plot. More often than not, people don't even recognize the trauma and instead internalize/externalize it.Ā
Some might downright deny and suppress it, as we can infer from Will's loving defense for his mom, and lack of disclosure around events pertaining to his past or present feelings. Or Damen's struggle to see his brother as anything but loving despite logical evidence. Then there's Laurent, of course, who picked up so many defenses in order to survive his circumstances. His whole personality is trying to regain control, but at the core he also holds extreme shame and self-blame for his abuse. Their trauma isn't there as a interesting plot point, it shapes them and their actions entirely.Ā AND the audience has to piece that together themselves. Like what the fuck
