A review by sarahweyand
Sociopath by Patric Gagne

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

First off, what an interesting book to be narrated by the author. Despite what you may think, Patric is a very engaging narrator and infuses her story with a lot of humor and tone I really enjoyed.

I want to try and keep this review brief because I know I could get really into it if I tried. I see some reviewers repeating a couple of points in the comments and I think they're interesting and want to address them in my own review.

1. Patric has no credentials and the Ph.D. she has is from an unaccredited university/degree mill/somewhere unreliable. Her dissertation can't be found anywhere online.

This is obviously questionable and leads me to doubt some of her academic expertise, but I don't think this takes away from the themes of her story. At its essence, the message of this memoir is to spread awareness of sociopathy/antisocial personality disorder and help destigmatize it. While it would have been really nice to have some more credible sources from an academic and research perspective, it doesn't negate Patric's lived experiences and the fact that her purpose in writing this memoir is a good one.

2. Patric is a sociopath and therefore must be lying/embellishing most of her story. She even said at the start of the book that some conversations were reconstructed and not exact.

I do think it's important to read this book with a grain of salt when it's been written by a self-admitted chronic liar. However, most memoirs are like this. People don't remember the minutiae of every conversation they've ever had with the expectation they might write a memoir someday and need to recall it. This was actually my exact problem with THE GLASS CASTLE, an incredibly well-received memoir that doesn't make this disclaimer but I found to be more egregious in this aspect of storytelling than SOCIOPATH.

I think this story is fascinating and well-told, so I'm willing to give Patric some trust and credit in what she's trying to do. It's not a perfect book by any means, but I couldn't put it down.
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