I fell in love with the premise of this novel. Admittedly, I was nervous about it being compared to The Silent Patient, which I actually wasn't a fan of.
Unfortunately, this book didn't have a lot that I loved. Firstly, it pretty much read like a long creepypasta to me. The plot and the use of an online forum for our main character to tell his story was just a little too on the nose to all the creepypastas I used to read in middle school. This also gave the novel a slight "tell, not show" habit that I couldn't get into. I think that this could be a lot better of a fit for people unfamiliar with creepypastas and who maybe don't have as much experience in the horror genre.
There were also some parts of the psychology I had an issue with:
- Parker, our main character and a PSYCHOLOGIST, mentions that he thinks Joe might have sadistic personality disorder. This is a diagnosis that was taken out of the DSM in the 90s, and this story takes place in the 2000s.
- very stereotypical depiction of schizophrenia
- considers that young Joe might have had antisocial personality disorder when no competent psychologist would give that diagnosis for a child (they'd likely go with conduct disorder)
- wow, was Parker gullible considering he thought Joe might have psychopathic traits
All in all, not bad, but not anything special, either.
Unfortunately, this book didn't have a lot that I loved. Firstly, it pretty much read like a long creepypasta to me. The plot and the use of an online forum for our main character to tell his story was just a little too on the nose to all the creepypastas I used to read in middle school. This also gave the novel a slight "tell, not show" habit that I couldn't get into. I think that this could be a lot better of a fit for people unfamiliar with creepypastas and who maybe don't have as much experience in the horror genre.
There were also some parts of the psychology I had an issue with:
- Parker, our main character and a PSYCHOLOGIST, mentions that he thinks Joe might have sadistic personality disorder. This is a diagnosis that was taken out of the DSM in the 90s, and this story takes place in the 2000s.
- very stereotypical depiction of schizophrenia
- considers that young Joe might have had antisocial personality disorder when no competent psychologist would give that diagnosis for a child (they'd likely go with conduct disorder)
- wow, was Parker gullible considering he thought Joe might have psychopathic traits
All in all, not bad, but not anything special, either.