No smiles for Roddy Doyle's novel

Maybe I was the downer of the group, but I found this book to be so emotionally wrenching that the night I finished it, I had nightmares. The ending, which is what the book is somewhat lauded for, was horrifying to me. As we discussed the book, I could see that others were able to distance themselves; after all, it is fiction. I'm sorry, poverty, emotional and physical abuse by Catholic priests in an all-boys school, and the utter destruction of the protagonist's life - I found it worse than reading a horror story. I've never had any of these experiences, but it made it no easier.