Dispatches from the couch: a neuroscientist and her therapist conspire to reboot her brain, by Stacey Hettes

 

Dispatches from the couch is about the author’s three-year odyssey in therapy to address her issues resulting from sexual abuse when she was aged 4-9. Although she’s been in therapy many times before, she finds herself needing additional work after being triggered at a work meeting where a colleague is disparaging women coming forward during the #MeToo movement, and she outs herself as also being the victim of abuse. That sends her into a tailspin that is only resolved after years of therapy, which she recounts for us in this narrative. This is a highly readable and engaging book that shows how difficult it is for some survivors of abuse to not blame themselves for their victimhood, even though they were children when the crimes took place. I was happy to see the author come through the therapy with a better sense of herself and understanding that she wasn't to blame. I would have liked to find out what happened to her abuser, a family friend and religious leader who may have abused as many as 50 others, including his own daughter. 

We were liars, by E. Lockhart

 

I didn't care much for this book the second time around (I read it before back in 2014). The main character, Cady, is a member of a wealthy family that summers every year on a private island near Martha's Vineyard. Two summers ago she suffered from an accident that left her with amnesia and crippling migraines. When she finally returns to the island at the age of 17, she is still being protected by her relatives who don't want to talk about what happened, hoping that her memories will return by themselves. In the meantime she spends most of her time either with her cousins and their friend Gat (who Cady is in love with) or lying in bed with a migraine. Mysteries abound, such as why her grandfather completely rebuilt his home without keeping anything from the past, why one of her aunts roams the island at night, and why did none of her cousins or Gat respond to her emails and texts of the past two years? The twist at the end is completely unexpected and a little too sudden. The high level of melodrama is perhaps typical of YA fiction, but something that I'm not fond of. Cady repeatedly reports on her emotional reactions to dramatic events by describing herself being shot and bleeding out, or something similar. For example, when her father leaves Cady's mom to be with another woman: "Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest...Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound, then from my eyes, my ears, my mouth...Mummy snapped. She said to get hold of myself." That device got really old after a while. In the end, this wasn't a very satisfying book.

Murder in the dollhouse: the Jennifer Dulos story, by Rich Cohen

Murder in the dollhouse is a true crime non-fiction book about the disappearance of a wealthy socialite from Connecticut. Jennifer Dulos grew up worshipping her own father and dreaming that she would meet the right man and have a marriage as happy as her parents had. She dallied through her twenties, then in her mid-thirties she married Fotis Dulos, a Greek-American whom she had known slightly when she was a Brown University. He was a handsome and athletic man, but Jennifer married him only one month after his divorce to his first wife was finalized, and less than a year after she met him. Jennifer’s father financed Fotis’s career in real estate, and he had a running debt to Jennifer’s parents which caused marital tension. Fotis was obsessively interested in their five kids’ waterskiing (the sport that Fotis excelled in) and forced them to spend days at the lake skiing. Eventually Fotis began an affair with another woman, and Jennifer filed for divorce. During the contentious divorce proceedings, which lasted two years, the couple fought incessantly, with the kids as pawns in the middle. In 2019, Jennifer disappeared after dropping her kids at school, and Fotis quickly became the main suspect. Significant audiovisual evidence was collected and analyzed, along with physical evidence from Jennifer’s home that left little doubt as to his guilt. His new girlfriend was also clearly complicit. Fotis was charged with murder; he was able to secure bail but when it was on the verge of being revoked, he committed suicide. In the end, his girlfriend was sentenced to 14 years in jail for her role, one of his lawyers also served time for his role in covering up the crime, their kids are in the custody of their grandmother, and Jennifer’s body has never been found. I think this was a well-written account of what transpired and it serves as a cautionary tale on many levels
 

A pattern of blood, by Rosemary Rowe

 

This is the second in a series of mysteries set in 2nd century Britain. Libertus is a formerly enslaved man who works as a mosaic artist. His patron, Marcus, asks him to travel to Corinium with him to investigate the stabbing of one of his friends. While the original attack was unsuccessful, before Libertus and Marcus have a chance to speak to the victim, he's attacked again, this time fatally. Marcus and Libertus stay on and investigate the murder, uncovering several people with both motive and opportunity. While the plot of the first book was overly complex and difficult to follow, this book is much better written with the twists and turns more easily understood. I really enjoyed this book and will go on to read more.