Quoth Erin: "the bulk of the story is absolutely about therapeutic dickery, and it's super frustrating to read. [...] He gets an idea in his head and sticks to it, even as that requires him to lean harder and harder into 'willfully misunderstanding what the actual patient in front of him is saying.'
"Their childhood trauma doesn't get a lot of page time, and imo it's not graphic, but we do see physical abuse at home and bullying (mostly transphobic bullying) at school."
Quoth Rax: "transition itself isn't 100% the thing that "solves" the plurality but textually, it is solved, one of the three of them makes a point of leaving, and it becomes a thing of the past. however, the final scene calls this into question a little bit by having the main character act like the person who "left" and then notice this and sort of sit wordlessly with it as the book ends.
"it was definitely the most frustrating part for me of a book i otherwise loved, and that we in general really appreciate and recommend.
EDIT: and having read the book ourself now, the therapeutic dickery is REALLY rough to read. We actually had to skip four hundred pages in the middle because we found it so upsetting we just couldn't read that part anymore.
Content Warnings
"Their childhood trauma doesn't get a lot of page time, and imo it's not graphic, but we do see physical abuse at home and bullying (mostly transphobic bullying) at school."
Quoth Rax: "transition itself isn't 100% the thing that "solves" the plurality but textually, it is solved, one of the three of them makes a point of leaving, and it becomes a thing of the past. however, the final scene calls this into question a little bit by having the main character act like the person who "left" and then notice this and sort of sit wordlessly with it as the book ends.
"it was definitely the most frustrating part for me of a book i otherwise loved, and that we in general really appreciate and recommend.
EDIT: and having read the book ourself now, the therapeutic dickery is REALLY rough to read. We actually had to skip four hundred pages in the middle because we found it so upsetting we just couldn't read that part anymore.