To the outside world Carolyn Grand is the survivor of an horrific childhood of physical and sexual abuse - but on the inside she is a family of personalities who drift in and out of control of their shared body. The official diagnosis is dissociative identity disorder (DID), but for Martha, Victoria, Serena, Kirk, Eleni and Tina it is just who they are. Each member of their unique family has a role to play in keeping the train wreck of their life from going off the rails completely. Martha is the home-maker, the grown up of the group who takes care of the bills, the shopping, the cleaning, and making every cent stretch as far as it can. Victoria is the confident face of their collective, the strong voice that speaks up for all of them. Serena is the hippy, the one who sees light, and beauty, and colour around them. Kirk is a man trapped in a woman's body with a whole bunch of women, but he has a knack for making friends in all the right (and wrong places). Eleni is the risk taker, the one who seeks out casual sexual liaisons to ease the sexual tension. All of them come into play as needed, though Martha and Victoria tend to dominate - and the most reclusive of all is the remnant personality of the child who survived the abuse and remembers for all of them - little Tina.
They have walked a knives edge for years, trying to keep it together enough to avoid being shipped off to the nearest secure mental health unit. Overall it seems to be working out well, until Eleni decides to chat up the wrong man and brings all of them to the attention of the NYPD - and another stint in a secure mental health unit. One of the conditions of their release is that they attend therapy, a game they have played many times before - but this time the therapist isn't playing the game and their freedom is in serious jeopardy. To make matters worse, the collection known as Carolyn Grand has discovered that their father, Hank Grand, is due to be released from prison. All the safety they thought they had disappears through the manipulations of their therapist, and the deliberate and calculated stalking of their father. Just when it seems like things can't get any worse for them, Hank is found murdered and they are suspect. No one in the collection admits they killed Hank - but does that mean that none of them did it, or that none of them want to confess? With their freedom under threat from multiple sides, the collective is going to have to make some difficult choices - and difficult decisions.
I picked up All of us after seeing it on the new books list for my local public library and wasn't sure what to expect as it was about multiple personalities and that can go very very wrong - but what I found was very very good. A.F. Carter has written a novel about a woman who on the outside is a survivor of childhood abuse - but on the inside she is the fractured remains of the personalities that rose up at the time of the abuse and in the aftermath. The she's, and one he, that are in the body of Carolyn Grand are unique individuals with their own voices. By moving from personality to personality Carter creates a sense of the chaos that inhabits Carolyn's body, while also showing how the personalities interact and work to control themselves and each other. The other characters introduced through their eyes add interest and depth to the story and help expose secrets as well as cover them up - no one necessarily knowing one from the other. This is a fascinating and thoroughly absorbing novel to read, and I had to read it in one session as I didn't want to put it down.
If you like this book then try:
- Sticks and stones by Katherine Firkin
- The liar's daughter by Claire Allan
- I've got you under my skin by Mary Higgins Clark
- Safe by S.K. Barnett
- The nowhere child by Christian White
- Good me bad me by Ali Land
- Vodka doesn't freeze by Leah Giarratano
- The edge of normal by Carla Norton
- Crimson Lake by Candice Fox
- City of fear by Alafair Burke
- Eeny meeny by M.J. Arlidge
- The vanishing season by Joanna Schaffhausen
Reviewed by Brilla
