I'm (darkly) fascinated by stories about the mind's ability to protect itself by splintering the personality into pieces... The books are always horrific in their details - the abuse that renders this the best protective mechanism for survival is inevitably soul-crushing and devastating to read about - but the survival story is so moving and powerful and the logistics of how the person manages the personalities fascinates me.

A.F. Carter has done a marvelous job writing in the different voices that comprise Carolyn Grand. The interconnectivity is well managed. The bad guys in this piece are REALLY BAD, and the conflict that derives from the various personalities' dealings with both the father AND the therapist is cringe-inducing in a way that felt believable even in its parade of horribles. This is a woman who literally cannot catch a break, and her ability to manage the dreadful things that keep befalling her was impressive but never oversold. Each of her personalities jumped off the page and kept me engaged in the story, precisely because each voice was so uniquely presented. I cannot imagine how difficult it is to hold all of those voices in your head (either in reality or as the author presenting this reality); it impressed me to no end and definitely secured Carter a place on my "authors to watch" list...

This is NOT a story for the faint of heart; no multiples tale ever is. But it is a moving, powerful examination of what it means to survive, and how survival may not always look or feel all that impressive to the person doing it, but what IS always impressive is that they manage at all. The ending came together in a way that might, at first blush, seem a little tidy - but honestly, by then, I wanted something to go Carolyn Grand's way so badly that it felt deserved rather than overly optimistic, as though at some point the universe HAD to give this poor woman something as a reward for all she had endured.

It was a powerful read and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if at times it left me wanting to wash my brain out with soap...

Though the premise of this book really intrigued me, I couldn't quite get into the story. It's a clever idea, but I am not sure it really worked in the execution, but maybe other readers will connect much more to the character of Carolyn and the story.

Carolyn Grand doesn't exist. Not exactly, anyway. Legally, there is a Carolyn Grand, but inside the mind of a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder there is no Carolyn. There is only Eleni, Martha, Victoria, Serena, Kirk, and Tina. And when Carolyn's abusive father is found murdered, they have to find a way to work together to protect Carolyn, and themselves.
Trigger warnings: Child Abuse, Child Sexual Abuse, Animal Abuse

Really enjoyed this one! Liked getting to know each personality & what made them so unique. Fast paced & intriguing. Will definitely recommend to others.

Oh! I couldn’t help but think of the movie “Split” as I read this book.; nothing similar, it just came to my mind.
Very well written. I am glad I got to read this one because it was a nice break from the usual thriller and mysteries.

The author succeeded in making each personality unique. I was rooting for all of them and didn’t want them to disappear.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of ALL OF US by A F Carter in exchange for my honest review.***

A woman with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder once called Multiple Personality Disorder) is embroiled in a murder case involving her recently paroled abusive father.

I loved the premise for ALL OF US but wasn’t a fan of the execution. Though A F Carter is a pseudonym, I felt like I was reading a man ideas of how he thinks abuse survivors behave. I’m a psychologist and while I haven’t had any DID patients, I have known of some. Carter seems to have watched the movie Sybil, a fictionalized account of a true story, as research for creating Carolyn and her alters (personalities). His writing of abuse and DID lacked authenticity.

Carolyn is somebody with a history of multiple childhood abuses. A police officer violated his code of ethics by having a relationship with her. Because of his position of power and her history, she wasn’t in an emotional place to consent. I wish Carter didn’t go there because it made me have a stronger negative reaction to ALL OF US. I didn’t connect to the story, possibly because the story was more told than shown.

Regretfully, I can’t recommend all of us.

Enjoyed this book immensely. Storyline was fascinating. A woman with schizophrenia and multiple personalities accused of murdering an abusive father and detectives trying to figure out which was responsible if any was engrossing. Thanks NetGalley for allowing me to preview this title. Well worth the read.

This one was so intriguing! It reminded me of the movie Split, which I loved.

All Of Us is written in first-person. The fun part, though, is that although technically it is a story about one person, Carolyn Grand, that person has 6 identities. So we get to hear the story told by each identity throughout the book. And, some of the identities don’t even like each other, which I thought was hilarious!

Carter did a wonderful job of building up each of Carolyn Grand’s personalities. All the way through to the end of the book I still felt like I was learning about each character with every page I read.

I did get a little bored at times. The story got a little repetitive for me. The ending, for me, was a bit predictable as well, which was sort of a disappointment. I hoping for a little more of a twist, I guess.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend!

A big thanks to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

As the result of severe childhood trauma, Carolyn Grand split herself into six different personalities. This well crafted pageturner shows each of them dealing with daily life and clearly explains their need to be.
Tough enough already, life gets even more complicated when Carolyn becomes a suspect in a murder case. Did she do it? And if so, which part of her did?
'All of Us' is an exceptional read covering the complexity of multiple personalities as well as giving the reader an action packed psychological thriller. The end is a bit of a let down, yet at the same time provides much food for thought.
This impressive story will definitely stay with me for a long time.

Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic / Mysterious Press for the ARC.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. Carolyn was such an easy character to connect with and I really liked the plot. This book does get very dark very quickly, so be prepared to deal with some deep seeded issues.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

This book was enthralling, and did an incredible job at creating a cast of distinguishable characters whose motivations and actions were not just coherent, but believable. A story of a system stacked against "Carolyn" and and what she does to finally be free of it, and her abusive father. Well worth a read, that is thought provoking and will stay with you long after its finished.

Carolyn Grand is the star of our thriller, All of Us, but she just happens to be comprised of six alternate personalities. We have Victoria, a carefully constructed extrovert, Kirk, a heterosexual and outnumbered male, Martha, a no nonsense mother figure, Serena, a bohemian artist, Eleni, charming deviant, and lastly Tina, the small seed that remains of the original Carolyn after suffering years of sexual abuse as a child. After an unfortunate incident the personalities who usually resort to whatever methods available to gain control of the body must unite for a common goal - being committed to yet another psychiatric facility. Carolyn's functional foothold in society is threatened when her she learns that her father, Hank Grand, the man responsible for years of sexual and physical abuse is being released from prison early. Hank begins to appear at places that Carolyn frequents ultimately bringing back horrifying memories to all of the personalities, not just the one who remembers.

Hank is suddenly murdered putting Carolyn and their history straight into the police's radar. He did have other nefarious business in the squalid hotel room that he was found in making evidence and witnesses hard to come by and hard to believe. One of the detectives assigned to Hank's case finds himself enmeshed into Carolyn's personal and very lonely existence. The detectives, the reader and Carolyn's many personalities are all wondering the same thing - could any of their fellow personalities who can barely keep appointments, be responsible for murdering their father?

This book is intensely intriguing and so is the concept behind DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). You can decide for yourself if you believe in DID. I believe that it could definitely be true - even if it has been sensationalized in its various forms. Trauma invites the break down of the mind, who is to say that your mind couldn't break down so far that each function to survive became a personality unto itself? With Carolyn's character each personality is entirely different from the others - and those are just the ones that are around in the books time frame. None of the characters fall flat either but the most unknown is Tina and it does make sense as to why she would be elusive. 

"'Where do you go, Victoria, when you're not in control and not watching?'

'Well, that's the question, isn't it? And I apologize for not having an answer, except to say we don't relate well to clock time. It seems to me that I exist at every moment, but I know that can't be strictly accurate.'

'And why is that?'

'Because there are periods of time I can't account for, long periods of time. But, then again, where does your anger go, Doctor, when you're not angry? Your laughter, your hunger, your thirst?'"

There were several angles in this book that I was surprised at but the main one being the plot development with Detective Ortega but it tied everything together nicely (for everyone involved). I feel that this book has a heartbreaking but brutal take on mental illness, poverty and what it takes to survive. I loved the fact that this book spun an entirely different thriller than what I have been reading so much of lately - it was refreshing and extremely well put together. It feels like I have been reading a lot of under-hyped books lately and this one qualifies for sure. If you're here, reading this and it sounds interesting - please consider purchasing this book to read.

This title has some fairly sensitive topics strewn throughout it's chapters but as from the description it is expected, the main ones being: physical and sexual abuse of a child, drug use, mental illness, suicide and poverty. I would highly suggest this book to readers who enjoy psychological, thriller, suspense, murder mysteries, mental illness, unreliable narrators. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this odd and stunning thriller.

I love stories about multiple personalities. That is what drew me to this book. I think the brain is an amazing organ; however, this one just didn't do it for me. I felt like it bounced all around. The idea, premise, and story line were a great idea, unfortunately the execution wasn't noteworthy. The characters lacked substance. This story had potential, but for me it just scraped the surface of what it could have been.
#netgalley #allofus

This book is AMAZING! Pulled me in to Carolyn Grand's story from the first page to the last! I could not guess where things were going. It was amazingly written. The characters defined in a way that made me want to know more about each one.

I have never read this author. A great book that held my attention to the end. I read it in one day. All the characters were interesting and each played their own part to make the story. Thanks Net Galley for providing me the opportunity to read this fabulous book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of All of Us.

I hope a protagonist with DID as the main character isn't the newest trend in thrillers. This is the third book I've read this year featuring a heroine with this mental illness.

All of Us is not for the faint of heart and there are terrible triggers here including sexual abuse and violence, pedophilia and manipulation.

The straightforward (or not) premise focuses on Carolyn Grand, a self sufficient woman in her late thirties who has survived a childhood of horrific and unimaginable abuse at the hands of her pedophile father and foster parents, just to name a few, with the help of her six distinct personalities.

When their sadistic father is released early for good behavior from prison, Carolyn and her family struggle to maintain their independence and their sanity, but that is hampered by the brutal man's death. And Carolyn and her personalities are the main suspects.

The author does a good job sketching each individual personality, their tone and voice is distinct, powerful, sad and beautiful in their unique way. And why shouldn't they be? They are individuals.

The mystery behind the murder is sparse, the author focusing instead on each personality and the time they spend with their ego-maniacal court appointed therapist, which felt like filler and didn't offer much in the way of narrative and how Carolyn has managed to survive.

I wanted to know more about Carolyn, and how she survived with her personalities.

How did they learn to work together to keep Carolyn a functioning member of society?

Why are these personalities the last ones left?

My main issue with the story is with the detective who turns into a love interest. This was completely unnecessary and turned a dark story of survival and hope into a Lifetime movie of the week.

Does every story with a hero/heroine need a love interest, even a heroine with DID?

Is Carolyn and her family stronger, better, because she has a man who can watch out for her?

I think Carolyn was doing pretty well on her own, considering all she had endured.

The ending is too neat and requires a suspension of disbelief I was able to wield, because I wanted a happy-ish ending. I just couldn't suspend disbelief for the detective turned boyfriend.

Why can't the detective just be a good and loyal friend to Carolyn?

I wanted to know more about Carolyn and see an internal struggle among the personalities about dealing with their psychotic father.

The writing was good, and the personalities were all likable in their own, unique way, but the plot needed more conflict and suspense.

What I love about netgalley is that some novels land in my lap which I would never normally have been aware of or possibly been drawn to. This was just one of these novels, totally different from anything I’ve ever read before.

The main protagonist is a character Carolyn with multiple personalities, who battle to take control of her body on different days/times.
I wouldn’t be giving anything away to say she had suffered massive sexual abuse during her childhood, which resulted in the personality split as a method of self-preservation.
A fascinating story unfolds, after a difficult first chapter, wherein her extraordinarily different personas get up to different antics while inhabiting her body, and the other characters have to then deal with the fallout of the actions, communicating with each other by leaving post-it notes to keep each other up-to-date of recent developments.

I don’t like to give spoilers so I won’t go into the details of the unfolding dramatic events, but Carolyn becomes involved with the police as well as a very dubious psychoanalyst, and the reader is left constantly wondering who is on her side and what traps are being laid, and as we hurtle through the unfolding events it becomes a murder-mystery kind of novel and totally gripping right up to the very unexpected ending.

I found the novel thoroughly enjoyable and would read others by this author.

I tried to leave this review on Amazon but it said that reviews could not yet be accepted as the book is not due to be released until June.

I was curious to read this book because of its interesting premise: our narrator suffers from multiple personalities. This is a concept that could easily have gone off the rails but the author does a great job of letting the reader inside Carolyn’s mind. The narration shifts between the personalities so we are able to get to know them and get inside her head.

Overall I found this book to be interesting. I did have a little trouble at the beginning flipping between the personalities and keeping them straight. I enjoyed learning the history which caused the split and thought that the writing gave me a clear picture of each personality and how they would dress/act. I read this over a period time and found the pace to be slow for me. I would recommend this book as straight forward read that was well written.

I really tried, but this just wasn’t for me. I was confused by the numerous personalities. I do think it has an interesting storyline and that others will enjoy it.

I may reread before it is released in June - I'll adjust my review if my opinion changes.