Title: Altered (Justin Wright Suspense Series Book 1)
Author: Rob Kaufman
Publisher: Independently published
Pages: 286
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (Actually 2½)
Justin Wright, a counselling psychiatrist, has a new patient, Frank Devlin, whose behaviour ranges from timid to cheeky, sometimes within minutes. Even his clothing appears cobbled together by a mix of personality types. Frank suffers from anxiety attacks and frequently loses time. He needs help.
Justin is concerned, particularly when one of Frank’s alters threatens to harm anyone who gets in his way.
Meanwhile, Justin’s relationship with his older son, Dylan, is tense. Wife Mandy doesn’t know how to restore peace between her husband and son. Justin is also concerned about Kyle, Dylan’s roommate and best friend, who blames himself for the abduction of Michael.
The book is written in the past tense in the 3rd person limited PoV of several characters.
The sections that included Frank and his alters were the most interesting. I’m no expert but the bits relating to the psychology of dissociative disorder felt natural and believable. The author was clearly in his element while talking about the alters or during Justin’s sessions. Most of the other interactions appeared awkward.
Justin and his family, in comparison, were uninteresting. Even the dialogue was stilted, unnatural, and fake. Here’s an example:
Describing a dream, Mandy tells Justin about something upsetting she saw behind her son. A normal question would be, what did you see, but Justin asks, “And what’s so bad about that?”
The story needed the services of a good editor. There were some typos and issues.
As far as I could tell, Frank was the host, and there were three alters, but twice, I found characters speaking of the wrong number. Once, a character counts Frank among the alters, when he is very much a real person. Justin finds evidence of him in the obituary of the newspaper.
Getting Justin’s wife to describe his physical appearance to him on the phone was a tacky move. We could have done without the description. Also Justin repeatedly telling Mandy that she was beautiful was annoying.
Nathan referring to Justin as Dr Wrong was rather childish, in an alter that prided himself on being strong and mature.
While in Mandy’s third person PoV, we learn about a tragic event that took place in the past, when (Justin was eighteen years old, Michael only eight.) Michael is supposed to be their son. How could Justin have been eighteen when Michael was eight? Nor was it Dylan the author was referring to. Considering that Michael was eight about seven years before the present day, it couldn’t have been Dylan who was eighteen then, given that he is at university in the present day.
In Chapter 8, Justin is reading a news story relating to the unnatural death of a man. In the photo accompanying the news story, Justin can see the ear of someone standing on the dead man’s left side. He also sees other people’s arms around the dead man’s shoulders. We are told, “Justin figured the pic must’ve been taken at a party.” And yet two sentences previously, Justin surmises that the photo was taken posthumously.
The extended scene featuring Kyle and his parents was unnecessary. He wasn’t that significant a character, and his presence didn’t affect later events all that much. The author should not have devoted so much space to Kyle’s feelings, particularly when the Wright family was reeling under the weight of a tragedy.
There were some issues that didn’t sit right with the plot. Justin not bothering to meet Alex, Dylan’s roommate, given Mandy’s misgivings, particularly when he was so attuned to her. Also, Justin seemed remarkably calm after a particular plot event took place in his office.
The trauma faced by Frank is very disturbing and may act as a trigger for those who have experienced severe physical, mental and sexual abuse as children.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, paving the way for Book 2.
(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)
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