A review by kariann_reading_journey
The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

5.0

“By shutting out the real world we can live peacefully in ours. We know that a world without pain is a wold without feeling…But a world without feeling is a world without pain.”

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The Minds of Billy Milligan was a fascinating read for me. It’s an interesting dive into what the human mind is capable of and how it can protect itself after enduring unspeakable torment. I couldn’t imagine having another distinct personality let alone having 24 personalities. I also can’t imaging how terrifying it would be to have huge gaps in memory and knowledge from not knowing what occurred when another personality took the spotlight. If that wasn’t enough to wrap your head around, the personalities were able to come up with a system for determining who should be in the spotlight in any given scenario as well as criteria for being labeled as an undesirable meaning you would no longer be able to be in the spotlight. Keyes does an admirable job walking readers through Billy Milligan’s life and his personalities. The narration was also fantastic. The narrator did an excellent job of differentiating between personalities, so you could easily follow along with the story and what was occuring. Simply put, just read the book. I don’t think you can fully absorb or appreciate everything that went into compiling this information without reading it.