I really tried to finish it but I basically skimmed through most of it. The book was super long and seemed to drag on FOREVER! I started to skim because I had to know how it ended.

Unfortunately this book was not for me, it was a bit slower than I would like and it just didn't hold my attention. I am sure other people will love it!

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Sam Peoples who starts seeing Roberta, a therapist, following the sudden death of his wife is now dating Nina. He is still seeing Roberta, but he now believes she is manipulating and controlling him. He starts to notice other patients of Roberta's are showing up where Sam is. What is Roberta up to? Does she want Sam to stop seeing Nina an be with her? This is not the best written book, but the premise was interesting. Some areas were a bit more than I liked, let's just say rape. I am giving this a 2.5 rounded to 3

I was so confused for a good portion of this novel, and it was best in the middle, but maybe I didn't understand what was exactly happening to Sam? I wanted to like it, it was intriguing at times but it left me a bit frustrated (it took me forever to read, which is rare for me) and disappointed in the end.

I loved the blurb of this book and was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, it archived before I could read it.

Full review to come.
I deeply apologize, but life is a handful lately and I'm using all my free time to read, not review. I hope everybody understands.

I couldn't get in to this one and only made it a third of the way. I love thrillers and unreliable narrators as much as the next reader, but this felt so much like a fever dream that I had no clue what was happening.

DNF. 20%

I really wanted to like this book. I thought the synopsis sounded interesting and I like books that make me think. However, I thought the writing was disjointed from the beginning and there was too much thrown at the reader right away. The transitions didn't flow and there wasn't enough background about the characters for me to care about them.

this thriller was boring, exhausting, and so disturbing and I had problems from the very beginning. The writing was tedious and long-winded.The story is just too all over the place.Now, don’t get me wrong, It’s not the worst book I’ve read but definitely not the best.

Dieses Buch ist schwer zu beschreiben. Ich hatte große Mühe, überhaupt im Fluss zu bleiben, bzw. hinein zu kommen. Ist wahrscheinlich schlicht nicht mein Spachstil.
Etwas wirr und nicht wirklich spannend.

Looking for a book that illustrates that self-published authors can be just as talented as those who are contracted by big name publishing houses? Well, this is it! It's all the more impressive given that this is Rosenberg's debut. Essentially, this is a novel about manipulation, paranoia and memory lapses/loss. Sam is convinced his therapist, Roberta, is manipulating him in an effort to ensure he has to keep attending her therapy sessions. He also thinks she is trying to split him up from his girlfriend, Nina. But why would she do this, or is it merely a figment of Sam's imagination? What benefit would she gain from manipulating him in this way?

The author explores the vulnerability of patients, especially mental health patients, to be manipulated for the doctor's own ends, which is quite a scary thought. I loved the way the story begins right away, no messing about and no yawn inducing and irrelevant backstory - you are dropped into the middle of the action. This is such a highly original tale, which is a rarity in the genre - I have read thousands of thrillers but never one like this. Although there were a few minor issues, I found this deliciously disturbing and impossible to put down. There is a menacing undertone for the duration, and the author is adept at creating a compulsive and completely unpredictable read accompanied by intensely detailed descriptions. Overall, a fabulously creepy book that could've done with a few more chapter breaks, fewer characters and tighter editing, but it was expertly crafted in terms of plot, downright terrifying in terms of effect and kept my interest the whole way through. The cover is pretty amazing too! An absolute must read for thriller fans and those who particularly enjoy unreliable narrators. Please make this into a series, Simon!

Many thanks to Simon Rosenberg/Weapenry Co-op for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

You Are Not You will definitely join the 'Bad Thriller' club. It is also the first DNF book for me in 2018 so it will join that club, too.
Obviously, the blurb convinced me to request the book from NetGalley. If that hadn't been the case, I wouldn't have bothered in the first place. However, the book was not what I had hoped for.

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Blurb:

If you can't trust your therapist, who can you trust?

“You are not your thoughts.
You are not your past or your future.
You are only your body and this moment right now.”

This is the mantra that therapist Roberta Klein teaches her clients. It is supposed to be reassuring. It is supposed to centre them and keep them in the present. But what if it means something else?

Sam thinks it might. He can’t work out why Roberta is so against his relationship with his new girlfriend Nina. And his therapy sessions are becoming increasingly uncomfortable. It’s like Roberta needs him somehow. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

And that’s when he begins to notice her patients. He’s never met any of them before, but now they are turning up everywhere.

On the streets. Living in his apartment block. In his bedroom at night.

And some of them are showing up dead.

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I don't want to beat around the bush: this thriller was boring, exhausting, and so disturbing and I had problems from the very beginning. The writing was tedious and long-winded and it didn't help that every mundane thing was described to the tiniest detail. The chapter length did the rest.
With a book length of 460 pages, You Are Not You had only 12 chapters. Why? Seeing the estimated time to finish each chapter on the bottom of my kindle screen (45 min to go, 1 hour 22 min to go etc.), made me not want to pick up the book at all. There were so many situations in the book in which Rosenberg could've started with a new chapter but didn't. It didn't help with the reading flow at all.

Another issue was the third person narrative in the book. It was basically confusing from the get go.
The novel was divided into three parts and every part was about a different person - or so I thought. Even though part one was titled "Roberta", the third person narrative was told from three different persons, including Roberta. What is the point of having three different parts of three different person when the book is about even more than those three different persons?
The change between those third person narratives was not chosen very well either. I never knew when the author switched between the characters, it just did from one sentence to the next with no paragraph inbetween. I'm not sure if this is part of Rosenberg's writing style, I, however, found it very irritating.

Last but not least: the characters. Roberta was a bad therapist and even a worse human being. She drugged one of her patients, Sam, and raped him... Yes! She raped him! What the heck!! This is the second time in a book in which an author uses rape to make the story more shocking. No! This is NOT okay! Not EVER!
Then we have Nina, a lawyer. She thought she was being followed. She hid behind some bushes and tripped her follower up once he was close to her hiding place. The guy fell face first to the ground, started bleeding, and was so shocked and scared that he was pleading with her to leave him alone. Of course the guys wasn't her stalker, just a random guy. And what does she? She runs away and leaves the guy to himself. Talk about horrible people.

I couldn't bring it over myself to finish this novel which is why I decided to DNF it at 28%. I wasn't invested in the characters and the story at all and I honestly do not really care about the outcome of the book. You Are Not You is definite 1 star for me.

“You are not your thoughts. You are not your past or your future. You are only your body and this moment right now.”

With that said, I in this moment, right now - well I’m feeling disappointed. I had high hopes for this read. Yet, in the end I am just left feeling empty. When I finish a book I want to feel full from ingesting - often gorging- on all the words I’ve just read. After, You Are Not You, I’m just left feeling hungry and in need of a binge-fest for my soul with words and pages that leave me feeling full and satisfied.

Now, don’t get me wrong, It’s not the worst book I’ve read but definitely not the best. Let’s just say it leaves a lot to be desired. Sadly, I must give You Are Not You only 2 stars.

Ugh, I wanted to love it and I only liked it! 😔
I love stories where there are unreliable narrators, but in an attempt to build suspense and mystery this book keeps you in muddled waters for most of the story and that can be confusing and boring. It progressed slowly and hardly gave me any insight into what the world was going on until later. I am personally not a fan shifting POVs, but it was okay here.

Who knows it might have been the author’s intention to leave readers a little perplexed in this world of crazy. Maybe that is the selling point and I am just missing it? 🧐🤔🤔🤔 Anyway, still didn’t love it (even in hindsight). I think that there is a lot of potential here and I was an interesting story. The execution was just a little blah. Did not hate it though so I think it still deserves 3 Stars! 🙃

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for letting me read You Are Not You by Simon Rosenberg for an honest review. All opinions are my own!

My first time reading that author and I don't regret it!
I must admit I was attracted to the cover.

I like that kind of stories involving people being in therapy, people being manipulated... It's confusing, keeps you guessing... Either you like it or you don't!
I give it 3.5 stars. I liked it but didn't love it! I'm not a huge fan of shifting POVs. Other than that it was interesting and well written!

Review shared online on NetGalley, Twitter, Goodreads...

I struggled a lot with this book for some reason that I can't quite place.
I'm typically a person who can read a book cover to cover in 1-2 days, a week at the most. This book took me nearly a month and often I was forcing myself to read it for the sake of writing a review.

The writing was a bit strange. At times the sentences seemed incorrectly written, but at other points the wording and language was so sophisticated and unique it seemed like completely different authors. It made me struggle with the tone of the book.

The main issue that presented for me, however, was the storyline itself. The concept was so great! I loved the first chapter and the idea that their were basically people in your brain haunting you, who you inevitably ran into in real life. It definitely had mind-f*** potential. But the story progressed so slowly and in such a confusing and pointless manner that it just didn't do it for me.

I wanted to love the book, but unfortunately the story just didn't catch with me this time.

I thought I was going to love this book. I absolutely adored Angela Marson’s book which involved a twisted therapist who manipulated her patients. Unfortunately, I really struggled to get into this one. I didn’t connect with or even like any of the characters so didn’t really care about their story. I found parts long winded which didn’t add anything to the plot. I zoned out a lot whilst reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

The premise sounds very exciting: Sam is in therapy, but becomes increasingly concerned with his therapist Roberta’s behaviour. Roberta sees Sam’s girlfriend as a problem, she seems to want to keep him to herself, within her control. Sam decides to leave therapy, but starts to notice that his world is increasingly populated by Roberta’s other clients. Is Roberta an evil mastermind with a pathological need to control her patients minds or is Sam going completely mad?

And there are indeed bits of the book that are exciting, but it just has too many problems to weigh up for that. I think I get what the author is going for: a sort of feverish paranoia that takes place mostly in the minds of people and nobody really knows what’s going on. As the story progresses and things keep twisting and turning, the fear and paranoia ratchets up.

Unfortunately it doesn’t really work because of several reasons:

1. The story is just too all over the place. You don’t have a sense of “oh I think this is what’s actually going on, no wait, here’s a clue, it must really be like this”, because it feels like literally anything could be happening or anything could be true at any point in the story. This takes away suspense and interest.
2. The characters have absolutely no personality. They are given no background to speak of, they have no real chemistry and I ultimately just didn’t care what happened to them. They were cardboard cut-outs being propelled through a narrative they had little to no control over.
3. It’s bogged down by inner monologues/thoughts that I personally didn’t find interesting and didn’t shed any light on the story. These are the parts that I started skimming, and it really gets in the way of the parts of the story that do have some excitement.
4. Sort of related to point one, but nothing is ever actually made clear, there’s no reveal of how things really are at the end – it could all still be one way or another and nothing is properly explained. And the ending is just plain weird.

It sort of feels like someone had a really detailed and long nightmare, and then just wrote it all down, complete with random weird things happening, no cohesive narrative or proper ending. You just wake up and think “huh, that was weird, I’m glad it’s not real”. And maybe that works for some, but it did not work for me.

This book had a wonderful start. You see your psychotherapist and you think that all the therapist is trying to do is break you up with your new love Nina. Are you crazy? It kept me on edge, until the end. I was disappointed and there is nothing worse than an ending that just leaves you feeling kind of betrayed. I would revisit this author at another time but not in the near future.