I had enjoyed Alyssa Cole’s previous thriller, “When No One Is Watching,” so I was eager to read her latest, “One of Us Knows.” This novel takes the unreliable narrator to a different realm, literally and figuratively. The main protagonist is Kenetria Nash (“Ken”) who suffered some unknown trauma as a child which resulted in her suffering from Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID), known in the vernacular as “Multiple Personality Disorder.” Several of the primary characters in the novel “front” i.e., take control in the “outer world” while the others remain in the “inner world,” or as in Ken’s case, remain dormant with resulting gaps in her memory.

The inner world is a castle, with each of the characters inhabiting their own rooms but also interacting in the common areas. They each provide a specific skill set which they share with Ken in the outer world as she needs them.

The narrative opens when Ken finds herself on a boat dock in the late evening. She is wearing clothes that are far from her usual style of all black outfit, leather jacket and docksiders and has lost a considerable amount of weight and muscle mass. Consulting her unfamiliar phone, she realizes that 6 years have passed since her last memory and she is waiting for a ferry to take her to a remote island where she has been hired to serve as caretaker of a castle there. Although she doesn’t want the job, she is informed by Soloman, one of her “headmates” that they have been evicted from their apartment for non-payment of rent, so she has no choice.

When she arrives on the island, her headmates inform her that the castle looks exactly like the one they inhabit in the inner world. Ken does not have access to the inner world, so she doesn’t recognize the similarities. Both the island groundskeeper, Celeste, and John, the ferry boat captain strongly urge her to leave the island immediately, warning her that it is not safe, filled as it is with legends of goblins and a history of accidental deaths. She ignores their warnings and stays on the island. What ensues will put her in a life or death struggle requiring the assistance of her headmates to survive.

“One of Us Knows” is a wildly imaginative thriller which recreates the feel of suffering from Disassociative Identity Disorder, with a richly detailed “inner world” populated by fascinating characters who manage to help Ken cope with the trauma which has impacted her life so severely. Her ordeal at the real life castle will help her remember and come to terms with the trauma which resulted in the need for her headmates.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for providing me an ARC of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I was really excited about the premise of this book. The main character, Ken, has DID and her different identities take over throughout the book. Ken is struggling with her past trauma while also being thrown into a brand new terrifying situation.
I really wanted to love this book and its storytelling, but I found myself getting lost and losing interest as parts of the plot unraveled and lost coherence.
I think this book had a lot of potential but it just wasn't for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC for my unbiased opinion.

DNF at 14%. I get what the author was trying to do here, but it did not work and felt like a scattered mess. I wasn’t rooting for any of the personalities or cared to know more. Tried 3 different times to get into this and just couldn’t, sadly.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book may be of paramount interest because of its unique spin on DID, but it also addresses many other important issues including those of equality of gender and race, as well as the importance of self-forgiveness, Cole does a great job of character development of each "headmate" that makes up the "Bad Day System", which makes it easier to follow a story that relies heavily on DID. I rated this book 3 stars because it was difficult to follow some of the scenes, especially the hunting scenes which took place towards the end and some of the scenes in the inner world.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for this ARC!

4.5 stars
This is my first book by this author and I absolutely LOVED this book. I have never read anything like it. I loved the DID representation and how the story was told in such a way that you could picture everything. Due to the multiple personalities, it was hard to keep up with who was talking which is the only reason this book isn’t a five star. Overall i loved how the book concluded and i had a hard time putting the book down. I wanted to know why she was needed at the island.

I would like to thank NetGalley for the ARC.

I wanted to love this book because the premise is really original (the main character has dissociative identity disorder) and I like the author. But I found the story to be somewhat hard to follow given the jumping around between each character's POV. Also, I felt like some of the POVs were unnecessary in the first half of the book (like the whole anime obsession) and the pages could've been used to build out more of the "outer" world. Overall an easy read with lots of twists and turns for readers who like an unexpected story. But I'm not sure I actually followed the whole storyline?

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for giving me an e-ARC of this book!

5/5. Absolutely freaking amazing. Alyssa Cole is an autoread for me, whether it’s mystery/thriller/horror or romance. What an absolute force. I could not put this book down. It had all of my favorite tropes, I’m a sucker for any haunted house, let alone two! It had moments of Ready or Not and Get Out. I will absolutely be buying a physical copy of this for my bookshelf and I will be rereading it. I will also be gifting this one a lot. Wow! Can’t wait for what’s next (already!).

I loved the cover of the book and the premise. Unfortunately, the execution of the premise was confusing and difficult to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of One of Us Knows! In all of the books I've read over the last three years, I don't think any of them have explored DID through the main characters. I found this incredibly interesting and enlightening. I really liked this aspect. I also thought the overall mystery was interesting. A little campy, though, for those of you who don't like that.

I will say I was SO confused with how the DID system interacted with one another. Some voices were regular, some italicized, some italicized in parentheses. Sometimes they were in real life, sometimes they were in the inner world. It took me out of the book a lot because I just couldn't keep up with it.

Overall: enjoyable, quick, and definitely different from most of what I've read before!

2.5 rounded up.

I'm a big fan of Alyssa Cole, and this one was a bit hard to follow with all the personalities you're trying to keep track of. Definitely would not listen to this as an audiobook as I found it confusing in general. I could not imagine trying to keep up without being able to look back on chapters and re-read sections. The premise was truly so interesting and ultimately, it just fell a little flat for me. I wish she could re-do it because again, I really loved the premise, just didn't love the execution.

Thanks to Book Club Girl, NetGalley, Harper Collins, and William Morrow for this copy of "One of Us Knows."

I was totally gripped, although maybe a little confused but I think that's on purpose, from the first page!

It's not a spoiler that Kenetria (Ken) has dissociative identity disorder and her headmates share a castle in their mind.

While Ken was dormant, one of the headmates has accepted a job as caretaker at a creepy castle, which just happens to look exactly like their internal one (cue the spooky music here!)

Such a creative, wild, thrilling book!

Where do I even start? Alyssa Cole once again reaches an impressive level of storytelling that fully immerses you every step of the way! Intense is an understatement but wow. The pace of this novel is perfect a slow build that draws you into an edge-of-your-seat race to the end.

I was nervous about how a story involving DID and a person's multiple personalities/ personas would translate into writing but I was genuinely impressed with the ease of flow between personalities without confusion. Each character is well written and their traits are clearly identifiable at each transition.

Once again Cole’s thriller addresses the hard-hitting topics, I.e. Racism, politics, pandemic life and mental health crises, with equal parts sass and eloquence. I cannot wait to reading more of her writing. I look forward to gifting this and suggesting it to friends and family.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alyssa Cole William Morrow & Harper Collins publishing for allowing me to read a copy of this amazing novel in advance .

This book is a WILD ride, with tons of twists. I was totally engrossed in the inner and outer world of the main characters and learning about how it might feel to have dissociative identity disorder. There were a few plot holes, but I didn't really care because I was having such a good time.

I went into this story without any previous information and I was happily surprised that it wasn't another Gone Girl Style Tale.

Instead, Alyssa Cole has woven a mystery into the amazing world of Ken (Kenetria) Nash - who during her short stint in foster care experienced a trauma so awful that multiple personalities bloomed to deal with the aftermath. Ken/Della has had plenty of trouble dealing with everyday life since but nothing compares to Ken coming conscious after a long dormant time to find that she (they) will be the caretakers of a home on an island, an actual castle!

Cole builds the world clearly and fearlessly and we meet all of the personalities as we learn more about Ken/Della's past and much more about the current mystery - like where is Della? Why is there a castle? How did Ken get this job? And as always, can Ken and the others in the head get along? Absolutely wonderful, thrilling, enthralling and crazy - this is a must read for all mystery lovers!
#Williammorrow #oneofusknows #alyssacole

This was a strong and well written thriller. I was emersed in Ken’s world and interested to learn about the innerworkings of her system. Cole does a great job at fusing Ken’s inner and outer worlds. I have to assume Cole did some serious research into dissociative identiy disorder and I was fascinated to learn more about it thoughout this novel. I had a few questions at the end but I might have just missed them as the story wrapped up.

I've read all kinds of thrillers, but this is the first I've read where the protagonist has DID (dissociative identity disorder aka multiple personalities). This means that a lot of the mystery and tension lies between the personalities. When troubles in the outside world arise, you now have the added layer of which personality was "fronting" when the issue occurred and what did they say/do to the outside people? While confusing at times, I still found this to be a highly entertaining thriller.

A beautifully complicated mystery that unfolds due to all of the witnesses in her head.

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole is a standalone thriller that captivates straight from the start! When Ken suddenly wakes up after being in an inactive state within her body, she has to follow the lead of her alters and stay at an isolated castle on an island. But in the process of trying to be a caretaker, she becomes a prime murder suspect and she plus her alters must prove their innocence.

I’m saying this now, Keke is my favorite alter aka headmate of the Bad Day System. I love that this is told in multiple POVs and done in a way that expresses the fact that the protagonist has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). On top of there being a total of eight people in one body, they all have their own issues! It’s such a cool way to get through a story.

While there are lots of tough and dark topics that come up, it is done in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming. Additionally, the way the host is just as lost as we are allows us to connect to everyone even more. I really enjoyed this psychological thriller!

If you're looking for a complicated to solve mystery into a psychological thriller then this is for you. Ready to dive into the world of a black woman who chooses to live inside her mind while her alters/headmates run her life? I highly recommend this, just be ready for a wild ride!

Alyssa has a huge backlog of novels for you to check out. But, if you liked this, check out When No One is Watching

*This was an honest review for a complimentary copy of One of Us Knows from Alyssa Cole via Cocoa Chapters and NetGalley

I chose this book because I was excited about the main character having DID - something i haven’t come across in fiction yet. I feel like the premise of the book was good but the execution was lacking. I didn’t like the main character and it was hard to discern if Ken was the main character or just another alter. The story definitely got convoluted and hard to follow. The climax was also underwhelming. I also think the book had pacing issues where some parts were fast paced leaving out too many needed details with others being so slow and having too much detail. Would not recommend this book to my friends.

This thriller was interesting to me - I enjoyed the plot and the storyline but did not enjoy the characters or their relationships to each other. I’d have a hard time recommending this to my friends.

I love Alyssa Cole's books but this one just wasn't for me. I loved the premise of it and felt like it would be an intriguing and interesting read. There were moments where it was in fact those things but it was also slow moving and I didn't much care for the metaphors and similies used among other things. It wasn't keeping my attention at all which is why I'm tapping out at 33%.