Bibliofreakblog

Sounds Like Crazy by Shana Mahaffey

I really enjoyed this book.  Falling somewhere in the space between literary fiction and chick lit, it had the direction of the one genre and the emotion of the other.

Holly has five people living in her head.  Each came to her during her teen years, and now, in her early 30’s she’s putting them to use.  

Or, they’re putting her to use.

Ruffles is a morbidly obese woman who lives in the upper left hand corner of her cranium, causing her head to have a permanent tilt.  She’s smart and funny and constantly eating Ruffles chips.

The Silent One is a meditative older man.  He sits at his alter and prays most of the time.  He’s only ever spoken once.

The Boy wears read Converse shoes, but Holly can’t see his face.

Sarge is the protector.  An ex-army officer, he drives a ‘57 Chevy and bears a scar along his neck.

Most people with DID (dissociative identity disorder) have one personality that manges the rest of them.  That’s Betty Jane, the Southern Diva, who demands Holly use nothing but Charmin toilet paper wherever she is, meaning Holly keeps a roll in her purse.  But that’s the least of what Holly makes her do.

I think that Mahaffey did a fantastic job of dropping in a enough clues throughout the book to let us guess where these characters came from, and what purpose they served for Holly, even if she didn’t know herself.  Some were easier to figure out than others, some can be guessed earlier on than others, but overall, it was sort of like the reader gets to be Holly’s shrink, in on the unorthodox treatment plan her analyst comes up with: Make a deal with the devil, and let Betty Jane come out and shine as a voice-over artist.

Yo FTC!  I received a copy of this book thanks to TLC Book Tours.  For more information, check out TLC’s Sounds Like Crazy page.

 
Buy Sounds Like Crazy on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
Fight Club by Chuck Pahlaniuk
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis 
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr
The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality by Joan Frances Casey
When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase
Switching Time: A Doctor’s Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities by Richard Baer
Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Yellow Wallpaper And Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Other works by Shana Mahaffey:

none.