maiakobabe 's review for:

The Third Person by Emma Grove

4.0

challenging dark hopeful informative

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Don't be intimidated by this book's page count- I read the entire thing in one evening. The simple yet expressive art, the well-paced dialogue and emotional journey of the lead character drew me in. Grove writes of her experience seeking therapy to advance her gender transition, only to uncover a Dissociative Identity Disorder and a deep well of unprocessed childhood trauma. The majority of the story takes place in a therapist's office, in which a questionable medical professional out of his depth tries to sort through the truth of Grove's three distinct alters. Misunderstandings and deliberate concealments on the part of both the therapist and the patient lead them to distrust each other, accuse each other of lying, and at various points storm out of therapy sessions on each other. Yet, these sessions continued for over six months and did begin to chip away at some of the blocked memories Grove was hiding from herself. I left this narrative with a much better understanding of how Dissociative Identity Disorder manifests and the struggle it is to live with. I have so much empathy for the author, and I'm extremely glad she was able to heal to the point where writing this book was possible. I had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy and writing a blurb for this book!