Pretty predictable and yet I'd still read the second one. ( )

Really difficult to comment on the plot without spoilers. ( )

I actually mostly enjoyed reading this, so I was inclined to give it 3 stars, but it is very flawed and that made me feel that it needed to be marked down. First of all, there are issues with the writing. The tense is not consistent. That's inexcusable. Luckily it wasn't a frequent issue as far as I noticed, so it didn't get too distracting. Also, I don't think it works to have a single chapter at the end from a different point of view. Either establish multiple points of view from the beginning, or figure out a way to end your book with only your main narrator. The author reused several phrases like "my dress parted" to a distracting extent. It's not a bad way to phrase it but it's strange enough that it's not something that should be used more than once. Most of the dialogue was actually good, but occasionally I found myself thinking "people don't talk like that."

I thought some depictions of the mental health system as well as Naomi's issues were quite unrealistic. She didn't seem, from my admittedly superficial knowledge of the subject, to have DID. Her delusions seemed closer to schizophrenia, though hallucinations in schizophrenia are generally only auditory. I imagine that her doctors would at least have come to this conclusion...but the subject of her being undiagnosable was strange to me. I was also somewhat bothered that her mental illness was directly traceable to a trauma. That is a common theory behind DID so it would be okay, except that her case is so different from DID. Even if Lana is an alter, there is clearly something besides DID going on when a patient hallucinates her father (or a fictional version of him) and her boyfriend in the room with her, and creates an entire alternate personality for *another person*. Sounds kind of like a brain tumor....

Literary representations of mentally ill women are of particular interest to me (as a scholar and as a casual reader) and I certainly noticed some cliches in this one. The patient who doesn't trust the mental healthcare system and thinks no one really wants to help her. An unfortunately true stereotype, but one that wasn't represented in a particularly new or interesting way in this novel. Even if it's something that is very real, there are only so many times you can present it in the exact same way before it becomes tired (this applies to pretty much anything). But of course, these patients change their tune when they meet the doctor who is just *so different* from all the other doctors. It is a pretty typical formula.

Anyway despite only including the negatives in my review, I didn't hate the book. It was engrossing. I finished it in one sitting. They weren't the roundest characters I've ever read, but I felt something for them. And I enjoyed the "twist". I didn't begin to guess it until almost 90% through the book, and I didn't have the whole thing until even later (I figured out first that Lachlan=Max and then that Naomi=Lana only just before it was revealed). Unlike many books with twists, this didn't feel cheap or tacked on. It worked well.

I probably wouldn't recommend this book, but I don't regret reading it. ( )

An amazing read- I thought I had it figured out about half way through and I was wrong. Fast read that keeps you wanting more until you are finished! Highly recommend as a 2014 must read. ( )

Serviceable but highly predictable erotic thriller. ( )