Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Eighth Girl

I went into The Eight Girl expecting a really dark psychological 5 star read and while it was good unfortunately I think I had my expectations set too high.

The story centres around Alexa Wu and her struggles with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). Quite early on we're introduced quite openly to some of her personalities. There's Runner who seems quite brutish but will always have Alexa's back, there's Dolly an adorable childlike persona who exudes pure innocence, Oneiroi the only voice of reason and The Fowls who are there to wreak havoc. This is where the book flourishes as it's fascinating to see how the personalities interact and the impact that they have, both positive and negative, on her everyday life.

Parts of the book are also told from the POV of Alex's psychiatrist Daniel Rosenstein and to be honest this is where it starts to get messy and unrealistic. It's incredibly hard to see his character as a plausible medical professional due to a host of issues including gross breaches in patient confidentiality and huge multiple crossings of many boundaries. If this was part of the storyline fair enough but this is passed off as pretty normal behaviour and not really addressed.

Overall, an interesting read but I think I would have enjoyed it so much more if it concentrated mainly on Alexa, her personalities and their origins, interactions and impacts.

Content Warnings

amberinpieces's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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stephbakerbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Okay, I don’t know what I really expected with this book, but nothing that happened was what I expected. I think my main issue with it was that it was doing too much in one story so nothing got the right amount of attention it needed.

We get two first-person POVs, from Alexa and her therapist, Daniel. I would’ve liked it better if Daniel’s chapters were just gone...I never understood why his POV was included! To me, they didn’t add anything to the story, and he was kinda creepy anyway. Alexa was a much more interesting character and I would’ve rather just stayed in her head. I loved learning about her different personalities and seeing how they interacted with each other—that was the best part of this book.

The plot...was intense. This was a lot darker than I was expecting—be wary of the content warnings below. I’m not sure if it was all just for shock value or what, but a lot of it seemed unnecessary to me. Maybe it’s just not my kind of book.

Short chapters made for a quick read and I suppose it did entertain me...but I’m just left wondering what my takeaway from this book should be beyond an icky feeling.

(My initial take on this was three stars but I’ve decided to change it to two...)

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charlieleelee's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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amatranfer's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This January I joined a reading group that was exploring books on the topic of mental health, so I was thrilled to get accepted to review this book about a girl with multiple personality disorder and her therapist.

But this wasn't it for me. Very quickly, it became some crazy story in which the girl and her best friend are trying to dismantel a traficking ring... It felt very slow at parts and I didn't care about the story for much of the book. The big plot twist wasn't expected, but it also wasn't impressive.

The other selling point for me at first was that I thought there would be more exploration of the Asian culture, but this was barely mentioned.

Not for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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allzen_nochill's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Y'all, I LIKED THIS. It's been a minute since I read a good thriller. I love the idea of a protagonist with DID, so often folks with this disorder are relegated to being villains. I can't say whether this is an accurate portrayal of what living with this disorder is like, but as an outside observer it seems to be careful, researched, and sympathetic. The twists actually surprised me, which is how I always judge a good mystery, and I loved the author's writing style - letting us linger on sentences that needed some marinating & yet punchy where it needed to be. I would love to see more from her.

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josethi's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is hard for me to rate. On the one hand, every time I picked it up, I was interested. On the other hand... I just didn't want to pick it up.
Random thoughts:
The premise was great and right up my alley. The overall weirdness and progressive disconnect were compelling.
The "big reveal" was not that big and easily deduced

from the title

.
The psychiatrist's point of view made me laugh with confusion and sort of distaste, but they added to the story.
I finished reading it yesterday and I already forgot I read it. For a book with so many trigger warnings, it should not be this forgettable.

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