The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich → Start Date: October 4th, 2015

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Nicole and I! Join us if you can!

[Nicole - Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die-]

Thanks Trisha! this sounds good

[Vicki]

I'm on board!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

well...I thought I'd be starting...but I don't have this book yet!

Are you guys okay re-scheduling??

[Vicki]

Sure.I have my book until the 17th, but IF no one else has a hold on it I can renew it. When were you thinking?

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

my book just says "in processing" so hopefully I should have it in just a few more days

it's good. we can just leave the thread here :)

[Vicki]

Sounds good to me.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Yay! My book is in!! I'll pick it up tomorrow!

[Vicki]

Awesome!!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

okay, I'm starting tonight
staying up waaaay too late lol

but I'll post updates tomorrow
it looks like a quick read, since it looks like it's not full pages but more like newspaper clippings and reports, journal entries and...all kind of fun stuff! :)

[Vicki]

I hope you liked it!!! You are like me and already stay up late! Lol

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

wow, I"m through Part I

and I"m not 100% sure what's really going on here

Carly(view spoiler)[ something is seriously disturbing her.....what voices is she hearing?
is she hearing.....reliving/replaying how her parents died?

or is there a THIRD personality in there? (hide spoiler)]

Kaitlyn(view spoiler)[ Yikes. she definitely....she scares me at times. she makes really poor decisions at times that really hurt Carly, like cutting :/ (hide spoiler)]

but..(view spoiler)[ between this whole absorbing thing and Carly working with Naida's rituals and potions......
and Ari and Viking with Kaitie...I just can't figure out how much of what they are saying is real and what isn't (hide spoiler)]

[Clementine]

I think I will join you guys tomorrow. *_*

[Clementine]

I'm totally guilty of buying this book for the cover. (view spoiler)[I didn't know this would be about multiple personality disorder! Otherwise, I wouldn't have bought it. There, I have said it. (hide spoiler)]

[Vicki]

Clementine, that's why I am going to need your input! Sorry if you don't like reading about (view spoiler)[ multiple personality disorder. Is it because you don't believe in that diagnosis or because they authors get it wrong or why? (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Holy moly

I'm through part II and I don't know what this book is about

Lol I don't think it's mental illness though - despite what her therapist keeps saying

It's a complete mind trip. I can't wait for you guys to start!!!

[Vicki]

Okay, I'll start for sure tomorrow but I'll try to read some tonight after my daughter's birthday party.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

oh my holy crap lol

so I'm through part 4
I am still COMPLETELY baffled

(view spoiler)[ I want to believe mass hysteria
and I want to think it was just kaitlyn and naida being sick

but.....cutting out your own tongue? and....the writing on the walls. I know the answers are in the missing footage and notes
but we have only what the police have

but what was with Air,there at the end?! jeez (hide spoiler)]

[Vicki]

Lol your comments are driving me crazy!! Lol

[Clementine]

"I don't think it's mental illness" that's exactly WHY I don't read books about (view spoiler)[ wannabe/sort of/ heuhhhhh dissociative disorder. When mental illness is explained by paranormal forces, it feels like we are back in the Dark Ages and people are sentenced to burn because they're "witches" while they are simply mentally ill. This sort of depictions has gotten to die. Seriously. I'm sick and tired of schizophrenia and DID being tropes in horror and paranormal. Why couldn't the author portray her Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll tennage girl without dragging mental illness into this??? WHY DRAG INTO THIS REAL MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE?!? WHYYYY? And that therapist is possibly the worst depiction of our work. Hell, it's a condensed script of everything that we should never do with a patient. Ludicrous. (hide spoiler)]

I'm presently at chapter 9 part I, but I'm really bumped. (view spoiler)[ She has mentioned at least 3 times how melodramatic she sounds and I'm just like: "Dear, you have no idea how that's a fact." Her voice annoys me so much! >.<' Ugh! (hide spoiler)]

I'm glad you're doing better with it, Trisha.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

I'm done
I seriously can't wait to see your guys' updates
this book is twisted

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Clementine wrote: ""I don't think it's mental illness" that's exactly WHY I don't read books about [spoilers removed].."

I was already thinking I might tell you to go to the very very end and read the author's note.

Vicki, DON'T CLICK THIS SPOILER!

(view spoiler)[ the therapist IS bad. That's the point. She completely failed her patient. There's more, so many secrets, that you don't know yet (hide spoiler)]


but this author, she writes this from a PERSONAL POV and I think that might help with understanding why she's writing this.

the whole thing, it might still make you mad/frustrated, but the author's own experience with what she went through (both surgery to save her life and the disorder she suffered) and with having someone close to her with DID in their life..... it helped me know that this was coming from somewhere personal for her

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

okay, I'm doing to chime in what my theory is
I can't wait to see if you guys agree (I'm off my kindle, so it's much easier to put spoilers)

(view spoiler)[so....I want to agree that she had DID because she did have some symptoms of it

and that time in the interview when she passed out..and then came to and just kept talking....

THEN knowing Naida was also admitted at one point! Mass hysteria was really looking possible..added with 2 mentally unstable and....Brett was clearly not a good guy and Ari...
and John choking him. There were a lot of different personalities at play here

But...it still begs to ask
where is Carly/Kaitlyn's body?
How on earth did she snap Ari's neck. Her arms were almost useless with her wounds....
and how on earth did she drag him 1800 feet.

I think she may have been ill. She clearly suffered a lot and... to have been happy her Dad was dead and the hinting of abuse....

and her writing on the walls with blood and poop and ripping her own stitches out... Just..yeah. she was suck before she found all these friends.

but I think there was something more going on at the end. (hide spoiler)]

[Vicki]

Trisha, are you saying we should read the author's notes at the end before reading this? I'm about ready to start it.

[Clementine]

I'm even more frustrated after reading her author's note actually. If you know someone with mental illness, how could you choose to give it this kind of spotlight and make it a trope? How can you explain the (view spoiler)[therapist by saying "very neglectful" and leaving it at that? There are MANY breaches in ethics and patient confidentiality that would have gotten her kick out of her professional order, pronto. What the hell a therapist being interviewed by the cops about her patient? We are required by law and the rules of our practice to give out a patient's file if there's a court order. That's it. No involvement farther than that. (hide spoiler)]

I'll read on, but it's not because you know someone with mental illness that you understand the repercussions of your portrayal. It's not because you read the symptoms and criteria of the illness in the DSM (and failed to mention amnesia, by the way) that you can do whatever. May it be intentional or not, the horror trope she is using invalidates mental illness. Because of the contraversial surrounding the very existence of DID, what I'm getting from the book is: it's not real. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lalalala! It's all just a big farce.

[Clementine]

Chapter 18: (view spoiler)[There's nothing that scares more the bejesus out of me than "a shadow in a closet." (I'm serious LOL) Glad the creep factor is going up a notch though. ^_^ (Even if I just checked my closet LOL) (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Clementine wrote: "I'm even more frustrated after reading her author's note actually...."

well...I'm not going to argue with you whether this book was responsible for the author to write or not.

I was just trying to help you like it more.
if you hate it, you hate it.

I liked it.

[Gisbelle]

I thought was a different book lol

[Vicki]

Same book, different cover.

[Clementine]

Trisha wrote: "Clementine wrote: "I'm even more frustrated after reading her author's note actually...."

well...I'm not going to argue with you whether this book was responsible for the author to write or not.

..."

I wasn't looking for an argument, Trisha, nor was I trying to convince or anything. You loved it and I respect that. I was just explaining my point of view. That's all. I never said that I hated it, I just said that I thought this depiction of mental illness was a trope. Period. Please don't put words in my mouth.

And please, if you're the one who contacted the author to tell her about my point of view, don't do that again. She just sent me a message and it makes me most uncomfortable to think this isn't a "safe" place for readers to express their opinion.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

omg I never - would never - reach out to the author. EVER to tell them someone didn't like their book.

Ever. I'm sad anyone on here would think that of me. I don't think it's ever a good idea for an author to engage a reader unless we, as a reader, reach out.

EVERYONE is able to see right on here that we have a buddy read. (it's attached to the book on the main page at the very bottom).

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

I'm sorry the author reached out to you and I'm sorry this book upsets you so much. I'm sure you didn't mean to aim your anger at me.

but it feels that way.

I'm going to just duck out of this area now. again, I never aimed to argue. And although it may not have felt to you that you were arguing, it felt that way to me.

[Clementine]

She said and I quote that "a reader pointed me towards your thoughts about DID in The Dead House."

Really sorry about the misunderstanding, Trisha. You don't need to duck out. I'll be the one leaving.

[Gisbelle]

Vicki wrote: "Same book, different cover."

I just found out when I clicked on the book. Major fail on my part :)

Anyway, I bought the ebook, so I'll probably read it soon.

[Gisbelle]

I know this is none of my business, but I just can't help it.


Clementine, please don't feel like I gang up on you or whatever, but I've known Trisha for years and we have read many books together. I can't imagine she would ever do that to anyone. Let's be honest here, why would she do that? It doesn't make any sense.

It's not cool that the author contacted you. She should have known that not everyone will love her book or agree with her.

Anyway I don't know the whole story, so please excuse me if I don't make any sense.

[Clementine]

Gisbelle wrote: "I know this is none of my business, but I just can't help it.


Clementine, please don't feel like I gang up on you or whatever, but I've known Trisha for years and we have read many books together..."

I don't know Trisha, I only know that she flipped me off rather harshly because she misinterpreted my tone. I only know that the author began her message with "a reader pointed me towards your thoughts about DID in The Dead House" and sent it a good 30 min after Trisha commented on the thread. I only know that human behaviour is contingent in time, so yes I asked Trisha she were the reader's the author was mentioning. Really, you can't see the logic in that? "It doesn't make any sense", you say. Well, I'm sorry but I do see it and you would too if you would consider putting yourself in my shoes for a short moment. I apologized to Trisha, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't know her and she doesn't know me and she has made as many assumptions about my intentions as I have made about her.

I won't be participating in this buddy read anymore, so please don't assume that I'm ignoring you from this moment on. I'm just done with this book and this author. I'm just done because this whole situation has drained me, when I used to come here to enjoy myself.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

Yikes. Sorry Vicki (and Nicole)

Looks like this buddy read got pretty detailed

Let me know when you make it back to this book. :) and we'll pull the chat back to book talk

[Vicki]

Trisha, I REALLY want to read this one but I haven't started it yet only due to circumstances. I plan to get to it this weekend. But my priority is The Death Code as you know since I have to finish it by Saturday. But I'll definitely be reading this!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

no worries
To remove some stress, want me to kick it to inactive
then reactive it when you're ready for it??

[Vicki]

I'm okay either way. I'll get to it this weekend but maybe AFTER church and my granddaughter's birthday party. Lol Always something in my family going on! Lol

[Vicki]

I'm starting this one today if I have time due to my mother-in-law situation.

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

okay....but no worries if you don't make it to it.

[Vicki]

OMG! I loved, loved, loved this book! I liked the format that was a bit confusing at first, but quite unique. It took me quite awhile to figure out what was happening.

Some parts were really freaky! The therapist (view spoiler)[was definitely no good! Unfortunately, in any world of professionals, there are bad ones: doctors, teachers, pastors, coaches, etc. THIS therapist was BAD! (hide spoiler)]

I'm glad I stuck it out with all I've had going on!!

[Trisha, lives on coffee]

yay! I'm so glad you liked it Vicki!!