The Fading of Kimberly

by Kit Crumpton

Kimberly, a beautiful narcissist, commits a murder of passion and ends up in an insane asylum. Her father agrees with the doctor's recommendation for her cure. Riley Nacht is a criminal psychopath whose heinous crimes lands him in the same institution. When Kimberly was a child, she had watched one of Riley's murders. Eddie Fisk, a hospital assistant working in the asylum, knows both patients and is drawn into their circumstances to his own demise. This historical novel is set in the early twentieth century at Elgin State Mental Hospital. The director and hospital doctors struggle in providing care for those they believe can be cured amongst those who are forever dependent upon the hospital's care.

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2018

Reviews

[Bookaholic__Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been a huge fan of books that center around taboo subjects. Even now, mental illness is often a touchy and sensitive subject for many. Unfortunately the social stigma and discrimination against those who suffer from mental illness is ever present. Society has created a certain stereotypical image of what it means to be someone who suffers from Mental illness. A picture is often painted of people who harm themselves and others. The truth however is that mental illness is common and not all mentally ill have a predisposition to violence.

In The Fading of Kimberly we take a glance into the darker side of mental illness. The Fading of Kimberly focuses around two individuals with two forms of mental illness. Kimberly is a stunning narcissist who commits a murder of passion that will alter her privileged life drastically. Riley is a psychopath who preys on young females. Their paths will cross twice and both times there are dire consequences.

The Fading of Kimberly is a deep and yet quick read. I personally found it to be well researched and well written. As I read I was transported into the 1920s-1930s and was given an accurate view of what it meant to be not just a woman of those times but a mentally ill woman. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Kit in the future.



I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you again Booktasters for including my review.

[Patrick Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an e copy of this book for my honest review. I love a free book as much as anyone, but I have kept this compensation from affecting my review below.

This is a fast paced short novel perfect for reading when traveling via airports, or in these crazy days of social distancing, if you are retired it is a good way to get through an afternoon at home. I enjoyed the book which ultimately brings together three diverse people into one mental health facility in the early 1940s. One is a narcissist Kimberly, the beautiful title character, Riley the psychopath reminiscent of the zodiac killer, and Eddie a worker at the hospital with darkness inside of his own. Without giving away too much, their stay at the mental facility does not go so well.

There are elements of the book I really enjoyed. The first is whether narcissists are born that way or made so by life. The first chapter in the book features a conversation between Soul and Universe.
Soul wants to be the center of attention and lack nothing for material things. Universe, wiser, seeks to dissuade Soul, but in the end reluctantly agrees to what Soul wants. Soul is incarnate in Kimberly who has beauty, cunning and everything her father and other men can offer her except love. Would the presence of a mother have changed her script? Who affection for her father have made her life turn out differently? Judgment is left to the reader.

Another element is the relationship between Eddie and Riley. In his work environment, would the darkness in his being been released anyway or is Riley needed as a catalyst. Riley draws Eddie into Greek mythology and its netherworld with the mental health facility indeed becoming their own Hades.

Finally, the story throws light on the many brutal procedures used in treating mental patients in that era. A meeting of the doctors is telling. Casually in a group meeting the doctors cavalierly order lobotomies for two of the woman patients. The sad story of Rosemary Kennedy came to mind. The author notes at the end of the book the gender bias in these procedures in the 1930s and 1940s and the book certainly demonstrates this and realistically captures the attitude of doctors. There are other lurid details on the goings on in these hospitals. It is good to be reminded of them less they be repeated.

As I said, it is a fast read, but it does give you a lot to chew on. Well written, the story moves rapidly toward its conclusion. All in all a good way to spend a rainy afternoon.

[Divya Mahajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you @BookTasters for this book which I received from the author. This book deals different types of mental illnesses and their experimental treatment in the 1920s to 1940s. It deals with a difficult topic that was taboo in those times and illness in the family often hidden and never questioned the supposedly expert doctors decisions mostly experimental an expression "let's see what are the results" after a procedure is done. It was a time when shock therapy, cold water treatment and other cruel methods and also lobotomy were often used to treat persons who did to conform to social norms of normalcy at those times; especially women. No one dared question or get clarifications over the results.
This is a book that is little disturbing and an honest account . but as a story it fails at times to hold interest but still it is a must read book.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description for this book intrigued me, but it failed to do the story justice.

This is not just a book about a mental institution in the 1920s-1930s. It does, of course, accurately portray how mental illnesses were discussed and treated during that time. We, as the reader, get an understanding of how treatment methods were all just experimental. Groups of men sat around discussing various options, such as lobotomy, and then meeting up later to compare notes. Their conversations about having to deal with under-funding and overpopulation were real. There was a small light shown on how abuse of patients often went unnoticed.

I can easily see this book being picked up by many interested in mental health and it being hailed as a great example of the old ways. But, for me, this book was so much more.

The book tracks the lives of several different people during this era.

Kimberly Witherspoon, the main character, is first portrayed as a soul in heaven picking her new life. She wants a life of beauty and perfection where she is the center of all attention. Her mother dies during childbirth and she's left with a successful businessman as a father, one who has no idea how to raise a daughter. His solution is to throw money at every problem she encounters and he teaches her to bury emotions. She's raised to be the center of attention, envied by those around her, and groomed to be the perfect woman. We easily see how her upbringing turns her into a narcissist. Remembering the opening scene really begs the question of nature vs nurture when trying to understand mental health.

We also follow along from the points of view of several people close to Kimberly. We see her father struggle with his choices concerning her. We see the butler trying to hide his compassion for her. We see into the thoughts of those around her and know exactly what they think of her.

It's not all about Kimberly and her family though. Riley Nacht is an astronomer who works at a watch company, using the stars to help devices keep time. He has a passion for astronomy, astrology, and mythology. He also has a passion for killing young girls and it lands him in the mental hospital. Eddie Fisk is a young man looking to begin a career in psychology. He gets a job at the hospital and is quickly placed in the position of therapist for Riley Nacht. With so many characters, there were a lot of different interests. Crumpton did not shy away from giving each character their own personalities and interests. She did not shy away from researching astronomy and mythology to give more substance to Riley Nacht.

I'm impressed with the amount of research that had to have gone into this book. Kit Crumpton not only did a wonderful job of accurately describing the state of mental institutions during that era, but she had a good amount of knowledge about the time period itself. She described fashion, politics, and local establishments with ease. I especially enjoyed a scene of a school headmistress giving a talk to twelve-year-old girls about reproduction. I can easily see the conversation being told that exact way in the 20s.

Now for the cons... looking at characters from so many points of views was at times confusing. Reading the thoughts of intermittent characters was not necessary. The timeline often jumped around and I had to go back a bit to see if I had missed something. There were a few issues at the end that were unclear or just not put in at the right moment.

Having said that, I hate to take it out on the book because this is something that a good editor should have picked up on. I believe Kit Crumpton weaves a wonderful tale into historical events and she'll be one that I'll be watching.

[Julie Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers: Kit Crumpton's book The Fading of Kimberly works as an interesting look at mental health treatment in the early 20th century. It gives the Reader a strong sense of the world of psychiatric hospitals in which the slightly oddest behavior could have someone share the same hospital as a sadistic killer. A world where psychiatrists are not as fond of treating the mentally ill as they are of shocking them or cutting them open.


Unfortunately The Fading of Kimberly is marred by uneven writing in which character's motivations are unclear and plot threads are left dangling. These glaring flaws keep this from being a perfect book instead it is a good one which needs some tweaking.





Kimberly Weatherspoon is the spoiled pampered only daughter of Warren Weatgerspoon, a wealthy widower. She is a perfect example of someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. She is overly concerned with her appearance and receiving attention from others. Kimberly arranges parties and other events so she can be the center of attention. She also seeks romance from the most handsome and wealthiest men so they can laud praise and bestow gifts to her.





With that narcissism also comes an immaturity suggesting Borderline Personality Disorder. Kimberly has a hard time living with rejection as her fiancé, Edwin, learns the hard way. She catches him in an embrace with her father's secretary, Laverne, and shoots them both dead. The subsequent verdict has her declared guilty but her father's connections manage to have her declared legally insane and she is committed to a sanitarium.





Unfortunately, she is not alone during her time in Elgin State Hospital. Among the other patients is one Riley Nacht, a former astronomer with a connection to Kimberly. When Kimberly attended boarding school, Riley taught a session on star gazing to her class. During a field trip, Riley got a moment alone with Dorothy, one of Kimberly's classmates and murdered the young girl. Like Kimberly he too was declared legally insane and institutionalized.





The book is effective in describing people with mental illness and psychiatric disorders and the treatment towards them which pretty much amounted to little to no treatment at all. One thing the book shows is how difficult it is for people to live with such disorders and how difficult it is for the people around them. Kimberly is extremely self-involved to the point of being irritating to the other characters and the Reader, it is only until later that we learn that she had a childhood with a father who adored her but preferred to throw money and possessions at her rather than commit to any real parenting.





Kimberly grew with a strong sense of entitlement and very little self-control. This is shown prominently during her school years when she bribes classmates with gifts in lieu of friendships and is unable to form real attachments with them. Even after Dorothy is murdered and Kimberly is an eyewitness to the crime, she blocks out the murder and retreats further into herself and her own little world as if avoiding acknowledging the murder itself.





Kimberly's narcissism makes her a difficult person to live with as her engagement to Edwin shows. Edwin is certainly a fortune hunter that when Warren bribes him with money to leave his little girl and run, Edwin does not have much internal struggle as he goes for the long green and runs. However, Kimberly's demands and constant craves for attention wears on him, as well as her lack of concern about anything that isn't about her.

Kimberly's time in the Elvin State Hospital is the most interesting part as we are shown various treatments like cold bath and shock therapy that harm more than cure.

There are also psychologists who use guess work in diagnosing patients such as giving ones like Riley free reign to see how he works. This proves to be a big problem as one of the orderlies, himself troubled, befriends Riley to the point where he uses his advice to molest female patients in their sleep. One character is given a lobotomy and is heartbreakingly reduced to a shell of their former self.

Crumpton clearly knows a lot about the early years of the mental health profession since she researched it for a non-fiction book, The Fading of Lloyd about her great uncle who died in a psychiatric hospital. But her fiction writing needs work.

The opening in which it is suggested that Kimberly might be the reincarnation of Anne Boleyn is interesting but out of place in a book that doesn't deal with the supernatural in the rest of the book. It is out of place and is more filler than anything else.

While Kimberly's back story helps us understand her, its placement in the middle of the book is a detriment. The Reader is subjected to several chapters of her acting spoiled and irritating so that by the time they learn about why she is the way she is, they may not care. It would be better to tell the story chronologically to give us the girl before the narcissist.

There are some odd things towards the end. The final moments between Riley, his orderly, and Kimberly is anticlimactic and involves circumstances that don't even directly involve them. Some revelations between Warren and his butler are thrown in at the last minute that should have been revealed earlier (and certainly would have spared this Reader from thinking entirely different.)

As a book about mental health, The Fading of Kimberly stands out. As a novel, it kind of fades away

[Monicaloya · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, I have to thank the team of Booktasters, who lent me this book to read it and provide an honest review.
The book was listed in the gender "Psychology", so it caught my interest, and I had no idea about the plot.
It has an odd prologue, which led me to believe that it was on the line of Neale Donald Walsch books; it isn't.
It was very difficult for me to get into the book, because in the second chapter, the author portrays a fancy dinner (I pictured it as Downtown Abby's fancy dinners), and you get introduced to several characters, who are giving opinions and having thoughts of their own. Don't worry, you won't hear another word of most of those characters.
Another thing that biased me "against" the book, is the fact that Kimberly, the main character, behaves 30 or 40 years ahead of her time. Maybe it's just me being prude, but I just didn't buy it. She acts very liberally toward sex, which I find quite unusual being 1939.
Anyways, I had to move on because I had made a deal with Booktasters, so I continued.
Later on, you're introduced to two new characters. I thought it was a tremendous cliché that an albino and a hunchback would eventually end up in the same mental institution as Kimberly.
I think the storyline is weak, I would find myself very engaged at some points, but then I would lose interest again because there wasn't a natural flow in the story or in the characters.
However, the purpose of shocking the reader with details about the old asylum practices, is well served.
The book is thoroughly documented, based on a vast quantity of research, and that is enough to give it a try.

[Debbie Viscosi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Treatment of the mentally ill is an uncomfortable subject. Are people born mentally insane? Is it something that happens as a result of trauma? Is there an effective treatment available? Medical treatment for mental illness in the 1920s was experimental at best. Doctors tried treatments but had few consistent outcomes.

The Fading of Kimberly looks at the life of a wealthy young girl and the treatment she received in a mental facility. Did the lack of parenting cause her to be narcissistic? She lacked a mother and her relationship with her father was distant. She committed a crime of passion and, rather than be incarcerated, is sent to be treated in a mental hospital. She emerges from treatment a shadow of herself. Diminished.

Kit Crumpton draws back the curtain to show the deplorable treatment options available in mental health treatment. Her book is a compassionate yet sobering look at treatment, societal shame and the administration of partially developed treatments. This is a thought provoking book looking at a subject rarely examined or discussed.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, Kimberly is a pampered and spoiled daughter of a wealthy widower. Kimberly is also a textbook case of someone being Narcissistic. She uses her fathers advancement with wealthy to try plan parties and events so she can be the center of attention. When Kimberly catches her Fiance with her fathers secretary she looses it and shoots them both.
Even though she was convicted guilty of the act, her father being the man he is gets her to be declared mentally insane. Thus she goes to the sanitarium.
Now, her time at the sanitarium is really researched and well addressed in what methods and treatments were used during that time period. The shock treatments and the ice baths to name a few were often more harmful than helpful. I love the realness of the treatments and how the sanitarium worked with the patients. However, this novel left a lot of things open ended and added different elements to the story that really did not have a connection to the story itself.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read "The Fading of Lloyd" prior to this, I was intrigued by the story of Kimberly that was touched upon in that book and wanted to know what had happened to her. Imagine my surprise when I found out there was a sequel, and it addressed every question I had regarding the character. Once again, the author has intertwined other characters within a story and by doing so made a page turner. Although the majority of what is written is fictional, it is apparent that the author has done her homework, and she does mention some real-life settings and characters throughout the book. For anyone who enjoys this era in time, and the inside scoop of what happened within the walls of mental institutions in the early 1900's, this book would totally be of interest to you. The writing plays like a movie in the mind, and it would be great to see it as a movie, someday.

[Patricia Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an intriguing tale that did keep me turning pages. Though fictional, the book provides a realistic and disheartening look into the mental institutions of the 1920’s and 30’s. The author has a background in Family Systems, and has set out to shed some light on the diagnoses of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder (i.e., sociopathy).
I found myself, on more than one occasion, wishing Ms. Crumpton had sought the services of a good developmental editor. With the author’s background and obvious motivation, she could write a great book! I would love to see a revision.

[JJ Broenner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very complex story about a woman named Kimberly. Her live intertwined with some actual human figures form the 1920’s and 1930’s; the story begins with a huge event in her life and then goes back to her childhood to explain the making of her mental state at the time of the event. She is a complicated person and so is her father; they both lost her mother, but for Kimberly that was directly after her birth so she never knew her mother. Mental health treatments in this time period were a bit different than in the modern world and that is explored. The content while heavy is an interesting read and keeps you wanting to know what happens next.

[Amy Meier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you @BookTasters and the author for allowing me to read this book. The view into mental health treatment of the era was both fascinating and disturbing. From one characters psychopathic issues to those of a classic narcissist the spectrum is broad and covered well with enough detail to engage a clinician while being accessible to a lay person. The glimpses into personal thoughts of the characters at first were distracting but then became a window into their personality. I enjoyed this book and would recommend.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fading of Kimberly had me on the edge of my seat, literally! Crumpton gave an interesting, intriguing and exciting view inside mental health and its somatic take during the 20th century, which at times, had me contemplating whether I'd read until the end - so glad I did!! This book was new, yet phenomenal and yes, I'm highly recommending you guys read it.
Thanks to Mrs. Crumpton & Booktasters for this treat!!😁

[Geo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was intriguing. I'm really glad I got the opportunity to read it. It gives an interesting look at mental health and treatments in the early 1900's. Although this is a sensitive topic for some, it kept me interested and wanting to read more and find out what happens next. I highly recommend giving The Fading of Kimberly a try.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story of how vanity can turn to madness and steal away all that you had. I love how it also shows that one should be careful what they wish for. I recommend this to all who love a good read.

[Pamela M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The fading of Kimberly” at times had me on the edge of my seat and other times I was unsure if I wanted to finish it. I’m very glad that I did, but it’s not one of my favorite books I’ve read.
Kimberly comes from a wealthy family, her mother passed away in childbirth, so this story is mainly about her life with her father trying his best to raise a daughter alone with the help of nannies and the butler, she also goes off to boarding school only to be witness to a murder of a friend.
The story goes off to the murderer and then to adult Kimberly in a mental institution and life after a lobotomy. A very touching story to be honest, but I felt like it went off track at times. Not just the different characters, but it seemed to be a different story all together at times, and veered off to a few pages that didn’t seem to add to the story at all. It’s a little confusing.
It had a couple twists to the story and surprises at the end that I didn’t see coming and left me wondering what happened next. I do recommend this book, and suggest you stick with it if you begin to wonder if you should or not.