So I went around the next day surfing the Net for some Sheldon stuff, and stumbled upon ebook2u.org. After reading a few synopses, I finally selected 'Tell Me Your Dreams'.
(stop reading this review now if you're gonna go read the book, or proceed if you don't mind spoilers)
It was such a simple site and the story started off just fine with the three main characters, Ashley Patterson, Toni Prescott and Alette Peters. Sheldon cleverly described the three women, propelling me as a reader to peg each one with an actress to play the roles.
I had Underworld's Kate Beckinsale as Ashley.
(Can you spot a trend there?)
Anyway. Back to the story.
I read a few chapters in, and by the time it was that chapter where Walter Manning was killed, I got a feeling that the girls are all killers in their own right, despite the good daughter personality that Ashley has or how magnanimous Alette was when her work was overlooked or how shallow Toni was in assessing her colleagues.
It happened quite quickly for me after that. I need to know which of these girls would be found out first. Then Sheldon took me back in time, at the point where Ashley was still a very young girl who had just found love, and her father, Dr Steven Patterson, a successful yet strict parent made sure she and the guy she was in love with are separated.
It was the turning point that traumatised Ashley, and with that I summed up the story as a multiple personality disorder (MPD) thriller. John Cusack's Identity came to mind, and I was thinking man, Ashley's screwed. (I was wrong. She was beyond screwed.)
One by one Sheldon dished out the murders, and with each death I began to see that it would be difficult for Ashley, the host of the multiple personalities or alters as Sheldon offers, to evade capture.
The writer surprised me with Ashley's defeat to law enforcers so early in the book. I remember looking at the amount of chapters the book has, and going, "What, so soon? Shouldn't she be on the run for a bit at least?"
But that's not how Sheldon sees Ashley pushing forward. Jailed and hopeless, Ashley's character took a back seat for a while from this point of the novel. Sheldon introduced David Singer, a lawyer who owes Dr Patterson a favor. This part of the novel shares Singer's point of view, yet Sheldon's smooth transition from the three women to this young professional is seamless - I realised that I had entered the second part of the book, but did not feel totally disconnected from Ashley especially as well as her alters.
As Singer defended Ashley, you began to root for the guy a bit more than the actual serial killer, perhaps because he stumbled upon obstacles after obstacles, and because Sheldon had given a deep insight into Singer's life, you just wanna punch those other law practitioners who were making his life miserable.
Not going to go into details here but suffice to say that Singer managed to win the Ashley Patterson case by the skin of his teeth, and I thought once again, "Hey, more chapters coming. What gives?"
The end of the second part of the novel brings forth the most interesting part of the of the story: Ashley's asylum journey.
Even with Sheldon's choice for easy words, straightforward explanation and down-to-Earth storytelling, this writer managed to give me quite a few chills as I discovered what really happened to Ashley.
The third part of the novel introduces Dr Gilbert Keller, Ashley's psychologist. From his point of view I was given the chance to learn quite a bit more about MPD, and how the three women inside Ashley Patterson has more in common than what was initially revealed, and I began to understand the rage she harbours.
The ending is quite predictable, but fittingly so, after all, with the merging of the characters you don't really expect any one of them truly diminishing.
All in all, it is no surprise that Sheldon's work is adapted onto big and small screens so often. If anything, Tell Me Your Dreams, first published in 1998, is quite ahead of its time as I did a quick fact survey - to me the first all-focus-on MPD movie and (somewhat clinically) dealing with it is Identity (directed by James Mangold and written by Michael Cooney) which came five years later. There were other books and movies, sure, but so far across my reading sphere Sheldon's work here provided a deeper insight (yet easier to understand) into what MPD can be like. Note that I read this book for the first time right now in 2014 when more average Siti like me are familiar with psychological terms that are ailing us.
If you've never read Sheldon before, this book is just as good as any other of his, I believe, to start with. Bear in mind that Sheldon is a prominent TV guy, Tell Me Your Dreams will come across as a movie more than a novel, but make no doubt that it is a great piece of literature to enjoy.
As Singer defended Ashley, you began to root for the guy a bit more than the actual serial killer, perhaps because he stumbled upon obstacles after obstacles, and because Sheldon had given a deep insight into Singer's life, you just wanna punch those other law practitioners who were making his life miserable.
Not going to go into details here but suffice to say that Singer managed to win the Ashley Patterson case by the skin of his teeth, and I thought once again, "Hey, more chapters coming. What gives?"
The end of the second part of the novel brings forth the most interesting part of the of the story: Ashley's asylum journey.
Even with Sheldon's choice for easy words, straightforward explanation and down-to-Earth storytelling, this writer managed to give me quite a few chills as I discovered what really happened to Ashley.
The third part of the novel introduces Dr Gilbert Keller, Ashley's psychologist. From his point of view I was given the chance to learn quite a bit more about MPD, and how the three women inside Ashley Patterson has more in common than what was initially revealed, and I began to understand the rage she harbours.
The ending is quite predictable, but fittingly so, after all, with the merging of the characters you don't really expect any one of them truly diminishing.
All in all, it is no surprise that Sheldon's work is adapted onto big and small screens so often. If anything, Tell Me Your Dreams, first published in 1998, is quite ahead of its time as I did a quick fact survey - to me the first all-focus-on MPD movie and (somewhat clinically) dealing with it is Identity (directed by James Mangold and written by Michael Cooney) which came five years later. There were other books and movies, sure, but so far across my reading sphere Sheldon's work here provided a deeper insight (yet easier to understand) into what MPD can be like. Note that I read this book for the first time right now in 2014 when more average Siti like me are familiar with psychological terms that are ailing us.
If you've never read Sheldon before, this book is just as good as any other of his, I believe, to start with. Bear in mind that Sheldon is a prominent TV guy, Tell Me Your Dreams will come across as a movie more than a novel, but make no doubt that it is a great piece of literature to enjoy.
