The Girls He Adored Book

This book appealed to my psychology background and was a real treat. Nasaw does a great job at creating a character who suffers from both the controversial Dissociative Identity Disorder phenomena and all of the implications that go with the disorder, and meshed it so brilliantly with Antisocial Personality Disorder in such a believable way. Max actually reminded me of a new and more twisted Hannibal Lector.

What I loved about this book is the amount of time and detail the author spends developing the antagonist. We go way back into Max's childhood and learn of the repeated atrocities and abuse that played such a large role in shaping him into the monster he eventually became. You actually felt sorry for the little boy who lost so much at such a young age (which, albeit, doesn't excuse him from becoming a serial killer when he grew up). So many criminal/forensic/thrillers spend so much time developing the protagonist and focusing on the mere chase of the "bad guy(s)" that they often neglect to fully divulge motives of the killer. Kudos to Nasaw for depicting such a fleshed out antagonist.

Overall the novel was very original, gripping, fast paced and completely disturbing, but made for an excellent holiday read. I will be eagerly looking forward to the rest of the series.

There are some very gory and graphic details given so cozy readers beware!