Horror, as we know, comes in many forms. I’ve talked here before of creatures that lurk in the dark; of drug-addicted, organ-harvesting nurses; of voodoo, witches and serial killers; but what about the real horror? The horror that can manifest itself through the minds of ordinary people, the figurative demons, the very ones that you could well have queued up with at the butcher’s this morning, or sat behind on the bus carrying you to work?
These are the real horrors, the very non-fictitious horrors of man.
In I’m a Therapist and my Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter, while claiming to be a work of fiction, explores the hidden horrors of the real world.
A Perfect Quick Read Option
What I loved about I’m a Therapist and my Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter; is how short it was. I know this sounds like I’m highlighting a negative, but I’m not, quite the opposite. Sometimes you don’t want anything too heavy, sometimes you want a quick read that won’t eat into your time too much: I’m a Therapist and my Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter is the perfect book to satiate that need.
Set over just 140 pages, the book is broken up into 6 short stories. The short stories are then further broken into three parts each. With the formatting of the book, it’s very easy to get carried away and before you know it, you’re halfway through. I speak from experience as I planned to read a story-per-sitting, but I ended up finishing the book in its entirety inside of a day.
Stories that seem way too Close to Home
Again, I say this like it’s a bad thing. However, the fact that the stories pertain to mental illness, gives the whole book a realistic edge that conventional horror could never achieve. There’s something about knowing the characters could well be similar to people we know, to people we work with, or even strangers that we pass in the street that cause a shiver up one’s spine.
I won’t go into the stories in any much detail, as that would spoil six spookily pleasant surprises. With each story entwining with earlier tales, it’s highly recommended that you don’t give in to the temptation of skipping to the more interesting looking parts, like Patient #220, for instance.
The Cases feel like they Could be Real
The author of I’m a Therapist and my Next Patient is Going to the Next School Shooter is called Dr. Harper. As I’ve mentioned, the stories all seem very real. So much so that I found myself questioning whether or not it’s actually fictional. However, there are a few events that bring you to the conclusion that it is, in fact, real. This is all well and good, until you realize that said events could have been cleverly written into this delightful masterpiece to again ask ourselves, “is this actually real?”.
Final Thoughts
I picked this book up after an abundance of positive posts on literature-related Facebook groups and thought it sounded perfect. Despite having been a little disappointed at the book’s longevity, this turned out to work really well for the fast-paced style of the book.
I’ve since learned that this was just one of a whole series of similar books by Dr. Harper; all titles beginning with “I’m a Therapist and…”, and it needs to be told, dear reader, I can’t wait to get stuck into them all. It’s rare that I deter from my usual authors. In this case, however, I am so happy that I did. Dr. Harper is, in my eyes, a real treasure to the world of literature.
