Girl From the Tree House by Gudrun Frerichs was one of my favorite summer reads thus far. This book had me from the first page. Elizabeth and her multiple personalities, all of whom had their own personalities, despite sharing the same body. I wish the book came with a map/description for all of her personalities so you could keep track of them. However, Gudrun does an amazing job of describing whom (is this the play to use whom) is in control of the "body".

There were twists and turns along with some action in this book.

I feel like if I explain any more I'll give the book away. I must say that despite having multiple personalities, Elizabeth is a pretty bad ass character. If you are looking for a good summer/beach read you should pick this book up, you will not regret it.

Thank you to Gudrun Frerichs, BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for the advanced copy for my Kindle. I apologize that my moving has delayed this review a couple of weeks :-(

Description
It all unraveled at the funeral... Horace Reid's death opened the door to our freedom. His widow, Elizabeth, exists only on paper. She disappeared thirty years ago. It's us, the Tribe, who live in her body now. But nobody knows that. Us are Elise, the reluctant host, Lilly the closer, Ama, the proverbial mother, Sky, our wise guide, Amadeus, the warrior, and Luke, the man around the house. There are others, but we make sure they stay hidden and away from harm.

After Horace's funeral, they tried to lock us in a mental hospital. Our sister-in-law had it all carefully planned. Thanks to quick thinking—yes, being a multiple has its advantages—we escaped to New Zealand's South Island. Tucked away in the West Coast wilderness we... well, the plan was to continue our healing. We didn't expect that monsters from our past still had us on their radar. When the police accuse us of murder we have to run again. Where to go, which way to turn? Our neighbor Scott appears helpful, but can we trust him? Can we trust ourselves? Can we trust anyone?

The GIRL FROM THE TREE HOUSE is the first of a series of psychological thrillers set in current day New Zealand. It describes how Elizabeth, a thirty-two-year-old woman with multiple personalities (Dissociative Identity Disorder, DID), fights for her sanity and freedom. Four core personalities tell the story from the inside out, giving a touching insight into the workings of the dissociated mind. There are no graphic descriptions of abuse.

My Review:

The Girl From The Tree House is a thought provoking account of Elizabeth and her struggle with multiple personality disorder. It is very well written. It goes into details leaving you on the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens next. Because of the subject matter this is not a book that is one you should be afraid to read. It is extremely well thought out and describes the Tribe in such a way that is easy to understand and follow. Well Done!!

This book was provided for free in exchange for my honest opinion, and I can tell you, that you will not be disappointed. It is a book you need to definitely read.

I give this book a 5 star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really liked the premise of this book, but no pun intended, it seemed detached at times. I like that the point of view changed with the different personalities, however I struggled with understanding where the personalities came from and who they were. I think there needed to be a firmer way to introduce these and to reveal the background. I still got the story, but it seemed a little far fetched because there was not enough buildup about the Gateway community and who they were from the beginning.

'Girl From the Tree House' is a tough read at times, but is one of the most fascinating books I've come across. The mental Health issues of the main character are dealt with in a very sensitive matter, simultaneously quenching my thirst for the unusual whilst giving me an enormous amount of sympathy. I have read about mutliples before, but never with this amount of depth and understanding.

Crime fiction writers have always had a field day with a DID protagonist . They are always in the thick of a web of lies , deceit and conspiracies but completely clueless damsels in distress . In my previous reads , there has always been an understanding therapist who helps them to get to know the other alters ‘ secret and eventually facilitate the alters ‘ integration with the host . But here , the protagonist ‘ s alters seem to be able to look out for Elise ( the default alter ) themselves . They often remind each other about Miss Marple ‘s comments during their therapy sessions with her ( their nickname for their therapist ) but they don’t seem to miss the therapy couch to get to know each other – they have their black book where they write letters / short notices to the others when one of them gets the ‘body-time ‘ . Perhaps Gudrun is showing how normally can a person with DID can function in a regular scenario . It seems somewhat ideal but not entirely impossible .

from my earlier reads is that ” integration of the parts ” means that the person is cured of DID. A quick research showed that Gudrun might be more honest about the integration subject than several other authors . Lillie observes , ” I don’t know if there exists such a thing as integration . I suspect it’s a myth spread by a bunch of zealous clinicians , who still haven’t paid off their mortgages and need income . “

There is the ‘ mother – figure alter ‘ , ‘ the wise-person-in-the-crowd alter ‘ , ‘the hard-headed & unsentimental alter ‘ , ‘ the lost-little-one child alter ‘ which I identified from my previous read . But its the personality and the little details of the characters that actually make these characters stand out from several others . For example , Casper can speak Finnish & Lizette French (!!) . Lilly is German while the others are Kiwis (!!!) . These details can come only from somebody who has a deep understanding about DID .

Check out the entire review at https://sherlockedsharon.com/2019/07/08/girl-from-the-tree-house-women-of-our-time-book1-book-review/

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.
This book totally touches down realistically on DID. The character and her alters were portrayed amazingly.
i cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

This book will stay with you after you've read the last sentence.
Girl from the Tree House is one of those books you may encounter by chance if this is not your typical read, but it's written so well and grips you with it's intensity and truth.

There are still people who don't believe in multiple personality, people who can't believe what can happen to little children and more over, how incredibly strong even the most broken ones can be.

As some readers of this eARC already pointed out, this book is not overly graphic and it's really about the different personalities but I still want to give a warning for a few still hard to read scenes where it is made clear in a few words what happened that broke Elizabeth.
Still, Gudrun Frerichs never writes for popularity or shock value, she wrote this story to try and show how a person with multiple personality disorder tries to stay alive while coping with a trauma so severe it caused the original personality to go into hiding. That's my best way to describe it without giving away too much.

If you are researching this difficult theme or have interest in it, I'd recommend this book. Frerichs writing style is easy to follow, you will like the protagonists who are also guardians and it gives a little bit of insight to the vast, polarizing and difficult working of the mind. If you start on multiple personality, start with this book as it has the personalities in the spotlight and not so much the trauma. It is difficult enough to experience their feelings and sorrows.

Thank you to Gudrun Frerichs, the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC.

Girl From The Tree House by Gudrun Frerichs. Intriguing book about a woman with multiple personalities. It is uniquely told with the POV of the alternate personalities of the "Tribe". One of best stories that has been written about multiple personality disorders.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I am new to NetGalley and Girl From The Tree House was the first pick. I could not have picked a better book to begin my journey with NetGalley.

I truly enjoyed reading the book. Right from the word go, the book grabbed my attention. I have not read such a brilliant fictionalized depiction of dissociative identity disorder It is indeed a well-crafted book that manages to seamlessly integrate the different personalities. Looking forward to the next book in the series. I highly recommend the book.

What an interesting read about person with mental disorder. In Elise case its Dissociative Identity Disorder. She has so many personalities living in her head. Book talks about very difficult problem, that abused people usually developed some mental problems and system instead to help them, threats them like a crazy lunatic. I think the abuser should be locked and filled with tones of medications not other way around. Institutions let down victims of abuse on daily basis. Author did really good job of creating this difficult mind of a struggling person.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is written from a different perspective than most I have read. A well written story but I found it hard to discern the characters from one another. Just found it very hard to read,

I really loved the main character (or should I say characters?). I am always a bit intrigued with movies (and books) about people who have D.I.D...and though this book could have been a disaster, the author really flushed out all the personalities and was still careful with how they addressed this mental illness.

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this book.

I didn't enjoy the writing. I felt the characters were really flat. To me it seemed that all the characters had the same personality and the same voice. There were no changes from one personality to the next.

I got quite bored very quickly and ended up getting to the point where I hated to even pick this book up to try and read it.

In the future I may consider attempting this book again. If I do finish it in the future I will be sure to leave a full review. However, at this present time I can not bring myself to finish it.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the author for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a different reading for me, I like psychological thriller and this is quite so. The book category is Mystery & Thrillers and Women's Fiction on NetGalley website, but I have to say that the "thriller" part, isn't about a crime as I thought when I read the synopsis. There isn't even a "real crime" and with that I mean that the murder isn't the "protagonist" or the main thing that needs to be solved. There is a murder but the protagonist's tale is the main subject of the book.

The book is told by different points of view, but those points of view belong to the same person. This woman, because of the trauma endured when she was a child, has developed a dissociative identity disorder so the book is told by these multiple personalities that live inside her.

The main personality is Elise, who is the "first born" personality after the trauma that young Elizabeth endured (we don't know anything about this trauma, we can guess at first but then little by little what really happened becomes clear and to know the complete story we need to read the complete book, which I like). Elise doesn't think about herself as a "multiple" (as they call her) but she knows she has blackouts.

Then there is Lilly with whom the tale begins. She is at her husband Horace's funeral, an over seventy man, and Lily begins her tale about the "tribe", as they call all the ensemble of the personalities,

There is Sky, who with Luke plan the escape. The tribe knows that Elizabeth has a aunt, Amanda, who died 30 years prior who left her her house in the South of the island so Sky and Luke want to take the tribe there, to escape the husband's sister, Helen, who wants to lock them in a mental facility.

Then there's Ama who is the cleaner of the group. While she's cleaning she finds an old photo album. Why the woman in the photo looks like her? The picture is 30 years old! Those small facts, such as Ama who looks like her aunt Amanda, explain how the personalities were born.

And then Amadeus, Casper and even children. Because the personalities aren't the same age. They're from 5 years old to 52 (if I recall correctly).

Where do I start to comment this book? It's a wonderful journey, very different from the usual, I liked meeting all those personalities so much and read about different behaviour of Elizabeth and that those personalities have a voice. They are all so different! I liked the author's style so much and the fact that the chapters are told by different people is so particular. I liked how she describes all the different personalities in relation with external forces especially with Scott (friend and aunt Amanda's neighbour, possible Elise's romantic interest or better Lilly's).

I liked the comparison that one of the personalities does with a broken vase that is glued together. It is still a vase (still a person) but there are cracks and those cracks are the different personalities. I believe that this is the sentence that best describe this situation.

Another personality says that each one of them can speak a foreign language. I wonder whether this is how Elizabeth is shown in the real world, I mean, when, for example Casper is present can Elizabeth speak Finnish? (because Casper knows that language). If this is true Elizabeth must be a wonderful person. I mean the real person knows a lot of languages.

The book is set in New Zealand, written by a German author but who lives in that far away place. I have a question: Do people in New Zealand use the imperial system (feet and pounds...)? or it's something that the author uses so Americans will understand it better? And then there are "slang" terms that I thought they were only Americans such as "AWOL", but I see that she uses them here (maybe they are used in NZ, too). I need to research New Zealand. Right now I know that there are Alps there, too, and that if we excavate, pass by the centre of the earth and come out the other hemisphere, we're in New Zealand (from Italy of course). Well that's what they told me in elementary school.

I need to say that when things started to get bad, I almost lost hope to give 5 stars to this book, but luckily everything was solved quite soon and how I hoped. The theme of the book isn't easy, it isn't for everyone, but violence scenes aren't described. It's said about them but they aren't shown.

I think I will read the next book because I want to know how the tribe's story ends (I hope the next book is a sequel of this one) and whether all the personalities will coexist in Elise, or they will be "put to sleep".

I have a question about the book. During the tale, Elise says she married Horace in 2001. And in the next sentence she says that the marriage lasted 24 years. We're in 2015 in the book, so it should be 14 years. I don't know if it is Elise that remembers wrong or if it's an author's slip. Or maybe 24 are the years that Elise knew Horace (she was 10 when her parents died). But I'm sure that in the first chapter she says 24 years of marriage. And even Elise's age is an enigma. In the book, she says she's 42, but the synopsis says 32. I have an ARC so maybe they corrected everything.

This is a portion of my original review on my blog Trails of Tales
Girl from the Tree House‘ is an attempt, an excellent attempt to encase the reader into the inner world of a woman living with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her struggles to accept her ‘disorder‘ as a part of herself and then healing herself through acknowledgment is potrayed just the way it is. No guise. Absolute rawness.

We therapists tend to use the word ’empathy’ a lot. It really is at the crux of what we do. But the meaning of this potent and powerful word is often misunderstood.

What the author Gudrun Frerichs did when she created Elise and crafted her journey is an elegant example of empathy. Being a former psychotherapist and trauma specialist, Gudrun Frerichs could have easily introduced a therapist’s observations into Ellise’s or the Tribe’s voice. In fact, it must have required continuos conscious efforts to not let a psychologist’s thinking sneak in. No. It was completely, unapologetically, marvellously Elise and every individual part of hers.

It was overwhelming how precise the author has been in building the voices of every part of Elizabeth and giving them their individuality. Their unique personalities and motivations subtly nod towards the reasons for their conceptions without putting undue focus on it. This would have required acute observation and careful sensitivity. I cannot help but be in awe of the capabilities that seep through Gudrun Frerichs’ writing.

Girl From The Tree House
(Women of Our Time- Book 1)
by Gudrun Frerichs
due 6-28-2019
BooksGoSocial
#NetGalley. #GirlFromTheTreeHouse

Easily the best book I've read about DID (dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder) with clear insight into how, why and when the personalities surfaced and interacted with each other, and how it affected the life of a young girl in New Zealand.
This helped me understand much more about how the disorder can consume the mind and life of people and how their emotional well being is further constrained by society's stigma and their own fear of being hospitalized.
Well written and engaging, I look forward to the next book in this new series.
Thank you to the publisher and author for sharing this e-book ARC for review.

Omg I love thrillers periodttt and this was no exception. Hooked since the start of the book.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Girl From The Tree House is a fantastic thriller that will keep you flipping the pages until the early morning hours. I could not put it down.

Thanks to NetGalley foran ARC of this ebook. I absolutely could not put this book down. I was amazed at how the author put the mind of someone with DID together. So clever! She did a great job and this is now one of my favorite books. Such a great read can't recommend enough.

This book hooks the reader from the start! A change from this author's typical work...looking forward to the next in the series.