Therapy
Product Type: Book
Product Price: $25.95
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
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Description
No witnesses, no evidence, no body: Star psychologist Viktor Larenz’s twelve-year-old daughter, Josy, who had suffered from an inexplicable illness, has vanished under mysterious circumstances during a visit to her doctor, and the investigation into her disappearance has brought no results. Four years later, Viktor remains a man shattered by this tragedy. He has retreated to a remote vacation cottage on a North Sea island, where a beautiful stranger named Anna Glass pays him a visit. She claims to be a novelist who suffers from an unusual form of schizophrenia: all the characters she creates for her books become real. While writing her most recent novel, Anna has been tortured by visions of a little girl with an unknown illness who has vanished without a trace, and she asks Dr. Larenz to treat her. Viktor reluctantly begins therapy sessions with the stranger, but very soon these sessions take a dramatic turn as the past is dragged back into the light. What really happened to Josy? Do Anna’s delusions describe Josy’s last days? And is Larenz a danger to himself and others?
Therapy is an absolutely gripping psychological thriller, an intelligent, fast and furious read that will stay with you for a long time after you have followed Viktor into the depths of his own psyche, and have figured out who Anna Glass really is.
Reviews
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-09-03
Summary: "gripping and creepy psychological thriller"
Viktor Lorenz is a man on a mission. That mission is to find out what happened to his daughter who disappeared over four years ago. Josephine, the daughter of this eminent psychologist was a sickly girl for quite sometime and on a visit to yet another doctor to discover the cause of her illness she just disappears. What results is the ruination of Viktor's marriage, his lucrative practice, his very mental health. You see, the good doctor lands in a psychiatric hospital because not knowing what happened to his daughter broke his mind. At the hospital he meets his attending psychiatrist Doctor Roth and it's Dr. Roth who hears what exactly transpired in the four years since Josy went missing and Viktor lost his mind.
After the disappearance Viktor goes to a family vacation house on a remote island in the North Sea to 'get away from it all'. His wife thinks he needs to let it go, that Josy is dead but Viktor just can't let it go. It's on the island that he meets Anna Glass, a strange woman who Viktor swears seems familiar. Anna is a writer of children's stories. She's also schizophrenic. She's desperately seeking his help and when she starts telling him stories that are eerily similar to the circumstances that surrounded Josy's life and disappearance he just can't seem to stop seeing her. What results is seeing the progression of a man who's world is turned on its end.
This book reads like a freight train with no brakes. It's not that it's action packed, it's just told in such a fluid and gripping style that it's nearly impossible to turn down. The chapters are short and the pages fly by, each one ending in a way that has you aching to see what happens next. Is Josy alive? Is she dead? What did Viktor do to end up in a psychiactric ward? Is Anna Glass who she says she is?
A fantastic book from start to finish with some very good twists.
Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2009-10-10
Summary: "What is true . . . What's a delusion . . ."
An eminent psychologist suffers a breakdown after the disappearance of his 12-year-old daughter goes missing during an doctor's appointment he had taken her to in an effort to find out what was causing the mysterious illness she'd been suffering from for about a year.
I have mixed feelings about this book -- on one hand it definitely kept me turning the pages but on the other hand I spent the whole book trying to figure out what was really happening--what was true and what was a delusion (which was great)--but at the end, everything is explained by these psychologists and really there was no way the reader could have figured most of that stuff out from the story. I felt a little cheated. Also -- don't know if it's because of the translation but in places the writing seemed really amateurish . . .
Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2009-08-30
Summary: "Psychological Bloodhounds"
Although this was a well-written, well plotted story with masterful twists and turns to keep readers and psychological bloodhounds off the scent, I did not like this book. I did not like any of the characters, save for an investigator called Kai and the mayor of the island retreat called Parkham where protagonist Dr. Viktor Larenz retreats after the disappearance of his daughter, Josy, then 12.
Four years after Josy's disappearance and Viktor's separation from his Ice & Iron wife, Viktor becomes plagued by physical illnesses. A woman named Anna Glass meets him at his retreat, offering tantalizing tidbits about where Josy might be. A self-proclaimed author, Anna Glass tells Viktor about her children's books and how she, Anna, a psychotic had her characters come to life and her stories enacted.
Drawn into this net of madness, Viktor pursues her to find out the whereabouts of his daughter. Anna is a mysterious figure, as wispy as the smoke and fog that sometimes enshrouds the island.
I admit that I did not like this book. While the plot twists were quite clever and almost devious in their execution, Viktor's fate and the conclusion of the mystery of Josy's disappearance left me cold.
Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2009-06-08
Summary: "Lost in Translation"
Possibly because of translation problems, the narrative seems dull, amateurish and oversimplistic. I was also distracted by an annoying typo early on. Cannot recommend.
Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2009-05-19
Summary: "Therapy"
Therapy started out strong but I felt like it got derailed halfway through and that the ending was a bit lazy. Without spoiling it, the loose ends were not entirely tied up and the tone of the book changed too much. Interesting idea, maybe not the best follow-through.