18-year-old Dylan wakes up in a stranger's apartment, not knowing who they is or how they got there. What makes their situation even more unsettling is that they also don't remember the last three days. Dylan has suffered blackouts before, but not to this extent.
We soon find out that Dylan has Dissociative Identity Disorder and has not only has to learn how to “get along” with the identities that they have created, but also must discover and come to terms with the trauma they have experienced as a child, trauma that required them to protect themselves with an “army” of identities.
On her dedication page, Kate McLaughlin writes, “this book is for everyone out there with dissociative identity disorder, including a long-ago friend whose struggle I didn’t see.” She then proceeds to write a novel that discusses a topic that could very easily be (and often is) used as a basis for psychological crime and horror novels. Instead, she writes a story that treats its main character with compassion, portraying them as a hero rather than a victim.
This novel is a story about a brave young person who learns to accept themselves and use their strength of character (or characters) to navigate their reality and their history.

I like how this book portrays what it is like to live with dissociative identify disorder. As Dylan learns how to navigate with her "pieces", the reader also gets to learn more about how DID works. The book focuses on her attempt to try to figure out what childhood trauma caused her to split into pieces to protect herself.

There’s something so fascinating about reading about mental illness, it’s almost a guilty pleasure when it’s packaged as a novel like this. DID is one of those illnesses that people are drawn to learn more about, perhaps since it’s varies so differently from how our own minds work. References to movies, etc. about DID are made and several times Dylan says her mind should not be compared to James McAvoy in Split. This is a great way for the reader to overcome preconceived notions about the illness.

It’s evident that the author did plenty of research when writing this book (she thanks everyone who helped in the afterword) but I can anticipate the book receiving some backlash over how quickly Dylan’s diagnosis comes and how quickly she learns to live with it. It definitely comes across as too easy and thus not very realistic, but if we take into account Dylan’s struggles with mental health before the timeline of the book starts, and the fact that this is a YA novel and cannot go on forever to include more, I think most people can accept the timeline. The one thing I will say is that when Dylan’s trauma is revealed her ability to cope seems… impossible. I don’t want to include spoilers but it’s not what I would have anticipated for the trauma she is recovering from.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and I kept going for just one more chapter, especially after the halfway point. All of the characters are well developed and it was great to see their interactions with Dylan et al.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review. Opinions are all my own.

Pieces of Me is an engaging novel centered around dissociative identity disorder, trauma, and self-discovery in young adulthood. I quite literally could not put this book down and have been thinking about it ever since I finished. McLaughlin has an incredible way with character building and I am looking forward to reading more of her work.

Disclaimer: I do not have experience with DID and recommend deferring to any reviews from readers with that experience when evaluating if it is a fully accurate representation of DID.

Content warnings: dissociative identity disorder, child SA

Wow! I stayed up until 1am because I NEEDED to finish it .I knew what the trauma and who was involved that caused her DID by like chapter 2 or 3. That isn’t what kept me needing to read. Dylan kept me hooked, her character was so compelling and complex. I wanted to watch her go through the journey of discovering what happened to her and what that meant for her life. It was emotional, but in the best ways. Everyone was relatable. Well Connor feel like a unicorn, but I love his character still.
I didn’t know anything more than that Soap One Life to Live’s Vikki Lord had portrayed about DID.. I don’t know that I really know more, but after this book I feel that i have at least been exposed to a more realistic fictional portrayal of the disease..
I highly recommend this book.

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.

Good but not great. 3 solid ⭐️ for encouraging young readers who pick up this book, to start a conversation on DID, what it means and what it does to people who have it. A huge thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This YA is about a nineteen year old who wakes up not knowing where she is or what happened the last three days, comes to find out that through an absolute horrifying childhood trauma, has DID. Throughout the book she struggles to come to terms with her new reality, how to cope and better yet, how to heal her mind.

I like that this book is about DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, a rare and vastly under researched mental illness. As I have not read any YA's talking about DID.

I liked the main character, Dylan and I could feel for her yet at times I felt she wasn't well rounded enough. I felt like she was not padded enough. I love walking a way from a book and going, "That's a thing this main character would do" and with Dylan that didn't happen. I know the plot of the book surrounds her DID but I felt like it totally eclipsed her as a character.

The book is fast paced with simple sentence structure. The plot was easily explained and I lied that the book opened in media res.

I think the minor characters especially Izzy and Connor really stood out and did the most for moving the plot along. Sadly this just wasn't the book for me. I believe the author did a lot of research, but naturally there were some elements to me, of Dylan's DID that seemed a bit stereotypical or what one would see in a few Hollywood movies and tv shows..

I recommend this book to readers who love YA & want to read about a lesser known, mental illness.

Book: Pieces of Me
Author: Kate McLaughlin
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Wednesday Books, for providing me with an ARC. I am going to start out by saying that this is being marketed as young adult, but it is on the upper end of YA. It does contain a lot of mature content, including sexual assault, self-harm, substance abuse, and characters who are eighteen plus. It does do a great job with mental illness and the handling of it. I all of this out there, because there are topics in here that are not appropriate for younger readers.

I love Kate McLaughlin books. I love how much emotion so pours into her writing and how real she makes everything feel. This is one is no different. We follow Dylan who wakes up in bed with someone she doesn’t know. She had not idea what has happened or how she even got there. She finds out that she has been there for three days and her mother has been looking for her. To add to the confusion, this guy starts calling her by a name that isn’t hers. This trend keeps going. She meets people who know her, but are, again, calling her by different names. She has no idea what is going on. She does some digging and after an incident that puts her in the hospital, she is diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. This disorder sends her on the quest of trying to figure out what event in her past lead to this and who is responsible for all of this trauma.

I loved Dylan’s voice. She is someone who is just wants to be an art student and draw. However, all of this is put on hold for her to take care of her mental health. Her confusion and frustration comes out as she tries to make it through her day to day life. She just wants to get better and is just trying to make sense of everything that has happened to her. I liked that we get to see this struggle. Seeing her going through this and doing it in a realistic manner only makes the whole thing all that much real. Dylan is one of those characters that just feels so real to readers. We know her interests and know what she wants in life. We know the struggle. All of this, again, allows the reader to bond with her and form this deep connection with her character. This is what I am looking in a book. I want to see characters who are complex and real.

Dylan’s journey is what makes the book. This is good, because that is what the book is about. It is about her not so much overcoming, but coming to terms that her alters are a part of her. It is about accepting who you are. We see this and we see it those around her. She has a great support system, which is key. She has everything going for her and people wanting to be there for her. This is key with any mental illness. You need to have some people in your life to be there for you no matter what.

Now, the reason I gave this a four star was because I felt the ending was a little rushed and unbelievable. I don’t know the big reveal just felt like meh. We have had this big build up and then it’s over. I would have liked to have seen this fleshed out a little bit more and gotten to see the aftereffects of it. Maybe there will be a second book to explore this? I don’t know.

This book goes not come out for a while. It comes out on April 18, 2023.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/dDans6tzBro

A fabulous story of a young woman living with mental health diagnoses and how she her friends and family deal and experience with it. It was a fascinating read and I adored the MC and how she deals with her diagnoses. Highly recommended!

Just finished Pieces of Me by Kate McLaughlin in one sitting, and now I'm totally emotionally exhausted! This debut novel tells the story of 18-year-old Dylan, who wakes up one day in an unfamiliar apartment with people she doesn't know. She soon realizes she's been missing for three days and has no idea what happened during that time. Dylan is diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder and must grapple with the many people currently crammed inside her head, as well as a secret from her past that has put them there. Her only distraction is a budding new relationship with Connor, but as she gets closer to him, the secrets she's been keeping become harder to keep hidden.

Loved exploring all the characters' stories within Pieces Of Me – such a unique take on mental health and identity This book was so compelling and page-turning that I couldn't put it down. The characters were so well-developed and relatable that I felt like I knew them personally. Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, I couldn't put the book down.

I'm sure there's more to be said by those with personal experience - let's hear the #OwnVoices reviews.

Thank you to St-Martin's Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This eARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

This feels like an idealized version of someone dealing with a recent diagnosis of DID. Family and friends accept everything relatively easily and resolution is smooth with no setbacks. The family and friend characters are rather one dimensional. The narration and dialogue come across as stilted. The story is presented very matter of fact and in a completist way that doesn’t sound natural in the first-person point of view.

There are no layers or complexity to this story, and not as much of a mystery element as the blurb would suggest. The story is about understanding and conceptualizing DID, or Dylan’s system as it is referred to. It seems the author put a lot of time and research into this story, and it’s interesting but I didn’t feel engaged by the characters or story. Having said all of that, when I think back on my teenage self, I think I would have seen this straightforward and understandable narration of a young person experiencing DID as a positive and interesting read. As an older reader, it didn’t satisfy me.

It should be noted that the story focus is on understanding and living with DID. The trauma that precipitated the creation of the alters is addressed, but it is not the focus.

This author managed to take a very difficult subject matter like DID (Disassociated identity disorder), and spin it in a way that makes a very great read but also doesn't take away from the seriousness of this disease. I was a little concerned to read about this disorder at first because I thought that the multiples might make for a confusing read, however the author wrote it perfectly as we were finding things out at the same time as the
original (Dylan.) This Thriller was one that left the reader guessing and it had lots of very tense moments that left you unable to close the cover. This book was written in just a way to give you everything you needed for the plot but left out just enough to keep you wondering and keeping you hooked in the process. Our main character is left suddenly with big gaps in her memory, finding drawings she didn't remember doing and running into people who know her by a completely different name. This leaves our main character, Dylan struggling to figure out what is wrong with her. I really liked how our character wasn't written to be crazy like you see a lot of times with multiple personalities but she was very human and confused. I also thought that she was easy to relate to with her feelings of helplessness as she struggles to figure out what is happening to her and what caused this to happen in the first place. The part I loved the most was trying to figure out along with our main character why she split her personalities in the first place. This author took a very difficult subject and made it not only easy for the reader but also made it mesmerizing. This was a really good book and will make all others pale in comparison. The part I loved the most was trying to figure out along with Dylan why she split her personalities in the first place. This was unlike anything I have ever read before and nothing will come close to it in the future I can tell. This is a book that will leave its reader talking and I cannot wait for everyone I know to check this one out. There isn't a single thing that I would change about this book and I cannot wait to add it to my collection when it comes out.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! The author immediately sucked me into the story, and I felt connected to Dylan and her system. I also appreciated that the story didn't completely villainize DID or mental health in general, which is common in books, movies, and TV shows. The only critique I would have regarding this book is that the progression of the story was somewhat quick. The general pacing felt fine, but it seemed like things quickly fell into place for Dylan's system if we consider the overall timeline.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kate is one of my favorite authors but this time around Pieces of Me just didn’t grab me like all the other books before.

DID is a legit disorder and I give kudos to Kate for taking on this difficult subject. I loved how family came to the rescue when it was needed and that it wasn’t another story of your just different and crazy.

I love this author and can’t wait to read what comes next.

Book Title: Pieces of Me
Author: Kate McLaughlin
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press~ Wednesday Books
Genre: Teen Y/A Mental Health
Pub Date: April 18, 2023
My Rating: 3 Stars!

Dylan is living in a fog doesn’t know what is going on. She discovers drawing she didn’t’ draw. She even meets someone who knows her by a different name.
At first it's jarring and completely understandable that Dylan doesn't know what's going on and is confuse
Dylan has DID - disassociated identity disorder.
Story continues with her many struggles.

I have read several stories where DID was involved only those stories were mysterious and DID was the answer.
This is a mental health story and to me is nonfiction.
Author, Kate McLaughlin did a lot of research. A must read is the back of the book with her Acknowledgements and resources.
In her ‘Acknowledgements’ she tells us her inspiration for writing this.
In her ‘Further Research’ she included many resources: Books, Movies, and YouTube Channels.

This was difficult to rate. There is no doubt this is a great book on this subject! I high recommend it to anyone interested in the struggles of DID and wants more information
However, it was not an enjoyable Sunday afternoon read for me.
At the beginning Ms. McLaughlin mentions some thematic materials (which to me should have been triggers) There is discussion of child abuse/sexual assault, alcohol abuse, smoking, vaping and sex.

Want to thank NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press~ Wednesday Books for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 18, 2023

It is clear that Kate McLaughlin spent a lot of time researching Dissociative Identity Disorder and listened to real stories of people living with DID. I have watched several documentaries about the subject and know more about it than the average reader, but this story brought the disorder to life to help others understand it. She also gives us an idea about how others react to people with the disorder, including those who find it hard to believe that the person isn't justing acting or making it up. From the description I've just given, it might seem like this book is quite clinical, but it is the opposite. Readers will grieve with Dylan when see uncovers her hidden memories that caused the disorder as well as her internal characters who hold those memories and try to protect her in their own ways. They will also identify with Dylan's supporters and friends, both those who love her unconditionally and those who take a little longer to understand. The description of Dylan's rich inner world is creative, but also helps her express what is nearly impossible for those with the disorder to explain to us: multiple people sharing one body. YA readers will love this story.

I’ve enjoyed this author’s previous books and overall this book was also enjoyable to read. The book quickly begins in a rush of events – kickstarting the protagonist Dylan’s journey. Dylan has DID but she doesn’t know it at first and loses track of time and wakes up in an unfamiliar location. Overall, I really enjoyed the novel because it was interesting to see how Dylan dealt with both this new diagnosis and how she dealt with her past trauma that caused her personality to split. My only issue was that everyone in Dylan’s life was so supportive of her and her condition – her mother, her best friend, her new boyfriend, and even her stepmom and dad. The only person who wasn’t as supportive right away was her twin brother. Now, I haven’t met anyone with DID so I don’t know how accurate the portrayal was – however the fact that everyone quickly accepted, and she faced no struggles felt a little unrealistic. But I could suspend belief for the sake of the story because I really did enjoy the narrative and the characters we got to meet – especially all of Dylan’s alters.

I recommend this book for those who have an interest in DID that isn’t in a horror setting (as it often is used).

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Pieces of Me by Kate McLaughlin was certainly an interesting book and kept me reading. I also believe it is informative and a way to make readers aware of a particular type of mental illness. Dylan was a likeable character (or should I say "characters") but at times the story was moving along too slowly and I was ready to move past the struggles and get on with a recovery for her. I believe that all people who suffer from this mental illness and their caregivers should read this book to help them understand the power of this illness. I was pleased with the ending of the book.

4/5

Pieces of Me is a really interesting look into Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), along with the diagnosis and therapy accompanying it. I liked Dylan as a main character, and even the other personalities added interest to the story. It's tough to understand a concept as abstract as DID, but I think McLaughlin did a nice job of trying to make the experience accessible for her audience.

The characters themselves are a bit lacking. Connor accepts everything as a knight-in-shining-armor trope, Izzy is beyond unwavering, Dylan undertakes her diagnosis eagerly, Mom/Dad just accept everything at face value--no questions asked. It all just seems to come together a little too easily with no bumps, conflicts, etc. The big "secret" was also pretty easy to figure out early on, but still worked in terms of plot development.

I'll tell my students about: childhood trauma, sexual abuse, mental health issues, language, alcohol, drugs, medication, sex.

**Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free ARC prior to publication. All opinions expressed are my own.**

*Thank you to the Publisher, Author, and Netgalley for providing me with a E-ARC of Pieces of Me in exchange for an honest review*

Wow this a really powerful book. I think that the author did a great job of representing DID. I'm actually fond of the cover as well.

Dylan wakes up in an apartment unsure of where she is, who she is with, and unaware of the past three days. After her best friend suggests that she has DID - dissociative identity disorder - the diagnosis is confirmed by a doctor. Unsure what trauma caused the DID, she begins delving into her past.

I'm not sure how to rate this book. I think DID is a fascinating topic, particularly the therapy and integrating personalities. However, everything seemed to come so easily to Dylan. She didn't struggle with the diagnosis, but seemingly accepted it with very little questioning. The process of meeting her alters seemed routine, as if she was meeting a new neighbor. The ease just did not seem realistic. I understand this may appeal to a young adult/teenage reader, but it didn't work for me. Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.