Do You like book The Girls He Adored (2002)?
This was an intriguing book that gave readers a chance to climb into the head of a psychotic serial killer who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities). At first it was difficult to keep all of the different personalities straight. But as the book unfolds, each personality takes on distinctive characteristics and mannerisms, making it much easier to tell them apart. The descriptions of the personalities felt very realistic and was very creepy; Nasaw did an excellent job of explaining the function of each personality, in terms of the whole psyche, and of helping readers understand the roots of this disorder in savage childhood physical and sexual abuse. The Girls He Adored is definitely a page-turner, full of suspense and drama. My criticism concerns the female psychiatrist called in to evaluate the suspect. It just didn't jive that someone with her level of expertise and knowledge of DID could be so naive and make so many rookie mistakes. I also wish Nasaw would have included an acknowledgement page, citing the experts he used and the research he did to make the psychiatric aspects realistic. It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but I mostly liked reading it.
—Jill Manske
This is a 4 star story, but it gets only 2 from me because the audio version is abridged, which I only learned that after listening to the whole damn thing. I had borrowed the audiobook from the library and nowhere in the description does it say it was an abridged version. Nor does it announce that in the opening credits. Instead, they wait until the closing credits to tell the listener that. Which pisses me off to no end. If you want to abridge a book for audio purposes, that's your prerogative (though I think it's stupid). But you should at least warn people of that so they know going in. If I'd known in the first place the audio version was abridged, I'd have just read the book myself.
—Stina
Years ago I read the Dean Koontz book, Intensity. It was freakin’ terrifying. I generally find Koontz to be a pretty reliable writer- delivering fast-paced and exciting suspense, sometimes with a dash of the supernatural. (Of late I find him a little wordy, but never mind that.)I was hoping Nasaw’s book would offer me the same thrill ride as Intensity, you know- one of those page-turners that you carry with you everywhere and can’t put down. The Girls He Adored is well-written (as these sorts of books often aren’t) and the potential for some serious suspense exists and the three main characters, Irene Cogan (psychiatrist), E.L. Pender (FBI) and Ulysses “Max” Maxwell (total nutjob) are all interesting. But something is missing from this book.Max has multiple personality disorder. He’s a violent killer who targets women with strawberry blonde hair. Pender has been on his trail for ten years, but it’s a difficult trail to follow because no one knows Max’s real name, plus he’s super intelligent. Then, by fluke, he gets caught and Dr. Cogan is assigned to see whether he is fit to stand trail. But Max is cunning and he escapes. And kidnaps Irene…and you can see where this is going.If you’re interested in multiple personality disorder, you might find all the pycho-babble interesting. For me, when I read this sort of book- I want to feel my heart race. I want to be afraid for the characters. And I wasn’t.
—Christie
