Author: Troops for Truddi Chase
Published: 1987
Genre: Memoir
Grade Level: Adult
-Trigger Warning: violent sexual child abuse
-Movie Rating: R
DNF**ed
(This review will be over the first 100 pages)
Blurb (from goodreads):
When Truddi Chase began therapy she was already
building a successful career, a marriage, and a family. But what she was
seeking most were explanations for her extreme anxiety, mood swings, and
periodic blackouts. What finally emerged from the four-year sessions was
terrifying: Truddi Chase’s mind and body were inhabited by the
Troops—ninety-two individual voices that had rescued her from a shattering
childhood of violent, ritualized sexual abuse by her stepfather that began when
she was only two.
For years the Troops created a world where she
could hide from the pain, and be shielded from the truth. It was a world Truddi
Chase didn’t even know existed, until she and her therapist took a journey to
where the nightmare began. Challenging every preconceived notion of the human
mind, When Rabbit Howls is made all the more remarkable in that it was
written by the Troops themselves—Truddi Chase’s story is told by the very
alter-egos who stayed with her, watched over her, and protected her. What they
reveal is a spellbinding descent into a personal hell—and an ultimate,
triumphant deliverance for the woman they became.
Disclaimer: My review of this memoir is not in any
way a reflection upon the author or their life. I am a book reviewer, I review
books… not people.
My Scores:
Writing Style: Awful
Normally, I am trash for these kinds of novels,
but this one is just so confusing. It gave me the impression that it was originally
written in a different language or something. I expected there to be some jerky
transitions because of the diagnosis of DID, but that aside it is still
completely baffling.
First off, it randomly switches POV’s (which isn’t
supposed to happen in an autobiography) between Truddi Chase and the psychiatrist,
Robert A. Phillips, Jr., Ph.D. If the focus had remained on Chase, despite
being from the psychiatrist’s POV, it would have been fine. Just like when Susannah
Cahalan used other testimonials to fill in the missing gaps of her memory in
the amazing memoir Brain on Fire.
However, the psychiatrist often discussed his experiences
as a teacher… and the student’s reactions to the recording of Chase’s therapy...
and how one student in particular also suffered from DID… It just went so far
off topic that I lost interest and lost patience.
Second, Chase needed to call the psychiatrist a
different name to make him more approachable, so she renamed him ‘Stanley.’
That would have been easy to follow except that he still refers to himself as ‘Stanley’
when scenes have nothing to do with Chase. I highly doubt that he thought of himself
as ‘Stanley’ while teaching his college students, or that the students thought
of him as ‘Stanley.’ These scenes have nothing to do with Chase, so it made the
POV switches harder to understand than they already are...
This on top of trying to
comprehend a deeply fragmented mind and memory of Truddi Chase just gave me a
headache.
Characters: Annoying
(I
known they’re real people. I’m referring to them as character’s anyway.)
Truddi Chase was a strange character because
there was no “I” persona. Only “the woman.” She was so fragmented that she
couldn’t tell who her core self was anymore. I wanted the heart and soul of the
book to be the fleshing out of her character, her background, and her recovery.
But between the jerky transitions, the flowery language, and the switching POV’s,
it was hard to gain an understanding of her character at all.
Plot:
No Plot
As previously mentioned, the
plot was all over the place. The book just kept losing focus. I grew so
frustrated that I stopped reading. There was just as much attention given
to the college students as to Truddi Chase’s character and therapy… which I am
not okay with!
Overall:
Confusing
Normally, I am trash for these kinds of novels,
but this one is just so confusing. Between the jerky transitions, the flowery
language, and the switching POV’s, it was hard to gain an understanding of Truddi
Chase at all. The plot was all over the place. The book just kept losing focus…
I grew so frustrated that I just stopped reading after the first 100 pages.
Goodreads Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
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