𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪

"𝓗𝓮𝓻 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓪 𝓶𝓲𝓻𝓻𝓸𝓻 – 𝓻𝓮𝓯𝓵𝓮𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯 𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴 𝓪𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓲𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓸𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓪𝓷 𝓾𝓰𝓵𝔂 𝓼𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽."

T/W: Mental illness, Violence, Abuse, Self-harm, Substance Abuse, Infidelity, Sexual Abuse, Death

This was a hard read particularly because I already know the plot from a narration of a youtuber. I needed to see everything with fresh and unbiased eyes since I really liked the story from the storytelling skills of Stephanie Soo (by the way, check her mukbang channel: Stephanie Soo, and her vlog hannel: Missmangobutt; she's a sunshine).

First of all, Theo was an unrealiable narrator. He is a psychotherapist but you can see that he could be very obsessive and biased, which will make you doubt his words. He works like a detective instead of a psychotherapist in the story. In the course of the story, you'll find yourself thinking of what was real and what was not.

Second, the story is slow-paced. As a whole, it has three parts: Theo's professional life and his private life, and Alicia's diary entries. So if you want to read this, you need to have patience.

Third, Alicia's diary entries didn't help in making you understand the plot because I would often doubt her words. She has the tendency of being paranoid and obsessive.

Lastly, the beauty of this book is that it will slam you hard if you aren't paying much attention. You will get used to its slow pacing that it will surprise you of the plot. One might say that it is anticlimactic but if you think of it, the plot was already unraveling at the very beginning of the book and Theo did a great job of being an unreliable narrator.

If you are like me who is fascinated with the works of the brain and how it would affect your whole being, you will enjoy this book. This was supposed to be a 3 or 3.5 rate just because I loved Soo's narration more but a 4⭐ considering the fact that I'm reading this with fresh eyes.