Meaning of 一段階ショック


I'm not quite sure how to understand what is being said in bold below. The
first part is him thinking that he could forgive her a little since she is
more beautiful than the ugly girls that have hated him. He then says however,
it might actually be ....

> 頭のどこかで「今まで俺を嫌ってきたブス子さんたちより、そこそこ美人な分少し許せる」と思っていたのだが、 **逆に一段階ショックかもしれない**

Unfortunately 一段階ショック doesn't seem to be a common phrase when googling it, but
the hits suggest that it is to do with the "first step/stage" of something.
Most of examples I saw on google were describing the first stage of "pet loss"
as shock.

Would anyone be able to help me understand what he means?




Believe or not, this is a comparative expression.

> 逆に一段階ショックかもしれない  
>  _It's actually one notch more shocking/hurting_

Japanese does not have a piece of grammar that corresponds to the comparative,
but it does have several constructions to do its jobs. ショック is a na-adjective
in Japanese that means mostly the same as in English: "to be (emotionally)
shocked", and the [numeral] + [counter] + [adjective] pattern implicitly
conveys the meaning "[numeral] more [adjective]".

> 一回り大きい _one size bigger_  
>  二つ年上（だ） _two years older_ ([a related
> post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/28141/7810))  
>  三人少ない _three fewer people_ (= outnumbered by three)

In many cases, you'll see a noun phrase with ～より (meaning "than") somewhere
before the expression, which should make it easier to understand. However, you
will also see it alone if that element is left out.

**Bonus** : I think 許せる in this passage is better understood as "acceptable"
rather than "forgivable".




Believe or not, this is a comparative expression.

> 逆に一段階ショックかもしれない  
>  _It's actually one notch more shocking/hurting_

Japanese does not have a piece of grammar that corresponds to the comparative,
but it does have several constructions to do its jobs. ショック is a na-adjective
in Japanese that means mostly the same as in English: "to be (emotionally)
shocked", and the [numeral] + [counter] + [adjective] pattern implicitly
conveys the meaning "[numeral] more [adjective]".

> 一回り大きい _one size bigger_  
>  二つ年上（だ） _two years older_ ([a related
> post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/28141/7810))  
>  三人少ない _three fewer people_ (= outnumbered by three)

In many cases, you'll see a noun phrase with ～より (meaning "than") somewhere
before the expression, which should make it easier to understand. However, you
will also see it alone if that element is left out.

**Bonus** : I think 許せる in this passage is better understood as "acceptable"
rather than "forgivable".

