About My Book Reviews

Monday, December 23, 2019

When Rabbit Howls by Troops for Truddi Chase

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Title: When Rabbit Howls

Author: Troops for Truddi Chase

Published: 1987

Genre: Memoir

Grade Level: Adult

-Trigger Warning: violent sexual child abuse

-Movie Rating: R

DNF**ed
(This review will be over the first 100 pages)


Blurb (from goodreads):

When Truddi Chase began therapy she was already building a successful career, a marriage, and a family. But what she was seeking most were explanations for her extreme anxiety, mood swings, and periodic blackouts. What finally emerged from the four-year sessions was terrifying: Truddi Chase’s mind and body were inhabited by the Troops—ninety-two individual voices that had rescued her from a shattering childhood of violent, ritualized sexual abuse by her stepfather that began when she was only two.

For years the Troops created a world where she could hide from the pain, and be shielded from the truth. It was a world Truddi Chase didn’t even know existed, until she and her therapist took a journey to where the nightmare began. Challenging every preconceived notion of the human mind, When Rabbit Howls is made all the more remarkable in that it was written by the Troops themselves—Truddi Chase’s story is told by the very alter-egos who stayed with her, watched over her, and protected her. What they reveal is a spellbinding descent into a personal hell—and an ultimate, triumphant deliverance for the woman they became.

Disclaimer: My review of this memoir is not in any way a reflection upon the author or their life. I am a book reviewer, I review books… not people.


My Scores:

Writing Style: Awful

Normally, I am trash for these kinds of novels, but this one is just so confusing. It gave me the impression that it was originally written in a different language or something. I expected there to be some jerky transitions because of the diagnosis of DID, but that aside it is still completely baffling.

First off, it randomly switches POV’s (which isn’t supposed to happen in an autobiography) between Truddi Chase and the psychiatrist, Robert A. Phillips, Jr., Ph.D. If the focus had remained on Chase, despite being from the psychiatrist’s POV, it would have been fine. Just like when Susannah Cahalan used other testimonials to fill in the missing gaps of her memory in the amazing memoir Brain on Fire.

However, the psychiatrist often discussed his experiences as a teacher… and the student’s reactions to the recording of Chase’s therapy... and how one student in particular also suffered from DID… It just went so far off topic that I lost interest and lost patience.

Second, Chase needed to call the psychiatrist a different name to make him more approachable, so she renamed him ‘Stanley.’ That would have been easy to follow except that he still refers to himself as ‘Stanley’ when scenes have nothing to do with Chase. I highly doubt that he thought of himself as ‘Stanley’ while teaching his college students, or that the students thought of him as ‘Stanley.’ These scenes have nothing to do with Chase, so it made the POV switches harder to understand than they already are...

This on top of trying to comprehend a deeply fragmented mind and memory of Truddi Chase just gave me a headache.


Characters: Annoying
(I known they’re real people. I’m referring to them as character’s anyway.)

Truddi Chase was a strange character because there was no “I” persona. Only “the woman.” She was so fragmented that she couldn’t tell who her core self was anymore. I wanted the heart and soul of the book to be the fleshing out of her character, her background, and her recovery. But between the jerky transitions, the flowery language, and the switching POV’s, it was hard to gain an understanding of her character at all.


Plot: No Plot

As previously mentioned, the plot was all over the place. The book just kept losing focus. I grew so frustrated that I stopped reading. There was just as much attention given to the college students as to Truddi Chase’s character and therapy… which I am not okay with! 


Overall: Confusing

Normally, I am trash for these kinds of novels, but this one is just so confusing. Between the jerky transitions, the flowery language, and the switching POV’s, it was hard to gain an understanding of Truddi Chase at all. The plot was all over the place. The book just kept losing focus… I grew so frustrated that I just stopped reading after the first 100 pages.


Goodreads Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

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