Customer Reviews

Sounds Like Crazy

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A wonderful, well-written story that tells us how far our minds will go to inhibit trauma and holding on to master everyday tasks. I found the story very moving. The main character Holly has to face life with 5 distinct personalities in her head. (The committee) ruling her day-to-day decisions. What happend to Holly in the past? What caused these interlopers to take residence in her head? The book is well-developed, from laughing out loud to teas - the book was very unpredictable. 5 stars for sure!

Author Shana Mahaffey emerges as a talent with a voice all her own in her remarkable debut novel Sounds Like Crazy. Holly is an Emmy-winning voiceover actress who walks around with voices in her head...and they're not following the script! It's an inventive, eccentric and ultimately healing tale of what happens when we keep secrets too close.

Kemble Scott

Author of the bestselling novels The Sower and SoMa

Length:: 1:58 Mins

I started reading Sounds Like Crazy and could not put it down. Kept me riveted from start to finish. When is the movie coming out??

This was such an interesting book. The book was written in such a way that I felt like you could really get inside Holly's head and see what was going on. I felt so bad for her. And yet it was so intriguing to read about how she lived her life through different identities.

And the Committee (as the different identities are called) are a hoot! My favorite was Ruffles, an overweight woman who was constantly eating Ruffles potato chips. I felt like she was the protective personality.

This was such a deep book, yet there were still humorous moments. And while I don't want to give anything away, it definitely captures you towards the end when you realize just why Holly has all of the identities.

What would you do with 5 different voices in your head telling you what to do?! Well Holly Miller, who stars in Sounds like Crazy by Shana Mahaffey, calls her 5 voices "the Committee", and she's brought negotiation to a new level as she tries to deal with the life before her and the people in her head that each play a key role in how she handles different situations. There's Ruffles, who weighs a ton and eats Ruffle Potato Chips all day while sitting on a purple pillow. There's the Faceless Boy, who Holly can only see his red Converse Sneakers. There's the Silent One, who prays all the time, and Sarge who is like a drill Sargent and very protective of Holly. And last but not least there's Betty Jane, the diva, the dress to the nines and "Charmin only" control freak who everyone is generally afraid of. (yes, that's Charmin as in bathroom tissue, which she makes Holly carry around because she won't let Holly use anything else if she goes to a restroom!). They make her life hell for the most part, but they also make up her life as she's always known it. What's a girl to do?! Deal with it!

Having multiple personalities makes it difficult to navigate a normal life, but Holly has the "support" of her dysfunctional parents, a long distance sister, a sometimes boyfriend, and a job as a waitress. Yes, I put "support" in quotes because basically her father left her mother, and pays Holly's medical bills (she sees a psychiatrist now) out of guilt for being a horrible father, and her mother basically dropped her off across the country at college and left her there, but gave her an "emergency" credit card, which Holly uses to support her habits, which include food, living expenses beyond the low paying wages of waitresses, and Betty Jane's expensive tastes. That's until one day a customer walks in to the diner, Betty Jane takes over flirting (always good for tips) and loves the voice of Betty Jane for his new animated TV show. Things should be looking up, except Betty Jane is even more over the top with stardom, the rest of the Committee wants to throw her out, and Holly's psychiatrist is trying to heal her for good- AND it all works together beautifully!

Shana Mahaffey has written a smart, funny, and compassionate story. What you may suspect as being just another "chick lit" selection, is really an amazing story of the healing of a woman who was so traumatized at a young age that it left her with dissociative identity disorder, or what was once known as multiple personality disorder. The plot turns from the madcap life of Holly living her life with the Committee, to what caused her trauma and ultimately how she is healed in the end. And it's because of this that the story is so much deeper than what you first see on the surface. Shana's writing is fresh & wonderful. Her characters are all so well written and fully fleshed out. Their personalities are so unique and the Committee is a blast. The story will sneak up on you, grabbing you in the end... I know because it sure grabbed me! It's original and it's a great read! it's about sisters, dysfunctional families, and it's about healing... (throw in some Ruffles potato chips and Charmin bathroom tissue and you're all set!)...

Someday you will be able to point to the bright yellow spine of SOUNDS LIKE CRAZY on your Number One bookshelf and say, "First Edition. I heard about Shana Mahaffey way back in '09. I'm pretty proud of that." This is clearly the first of other good novels to come, since this is a work of pure imagination.

One of the many enjoyable techniques that SOUNDS LIKE CRAZY employs is to provide a membranous barrier between the contorted mind of our heroine, Holly, and the hazardous world through which she must negotiate. It spoils nothing to say that this wonderful protagonist triumphs, since the manner in which she triumphs is reason alone to rush out and buy this book before the reprint orders go out.

An excellent, excellent first work. Brace yourself for additional gushes of wonder from this new author, Shana Mahaffey.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and recommend it highly. The first half of the book is a whirlwind depiction of the ups and downs of attempting to live a life with a "committee" in one's head. The main character is interesting and likable, and it is at once funny, touching and sad to see what she goes through trying to please and appease all the people living in her mind. The second half of the book reads like a whodunnit, as the main character begins to learn how she came to have a "committee" in her head. There are numerous "Ah ha!" moments as the reader finds out who each of the voices/characters are, thus ending the book in a truly satisfying way.

I couldn't put the book down! It kept me involved thru out.

Very entertaining. It brought out all the emotions, I laughed and cried.

A very intricate undertaking for a first book,

I thought Ms. Mahaffey pulled it off masterfully!

Can't wait for her next one.

I just couldn't stop reading, and it was funny, sad, crazy, inspiring and yes, it made me cry because it's written beautifully.

I like Holly. She has to be one of my most favorite characters of the year. With her practical and often irreverent take on "The Committee" (the people in the apartment inside of her mind), she's trying to make a go of it in New York City, away from the image-conscious mother who always seems to look at her in distaste, and incommunicado with "the Father" whose only contribution is the "emergency" credit card she's had since college. Although her sister Sarah lives across the country with her husband and two sons, she serves as Holly's emotional support, the only person besides her therapist that she can speak about "The Committee" freely to.

There's The Boy, pretty much silent except for his glaringly red Converse sneakers; Sarge, with his scar, who constantly keeps The Boy with him, and attempts to impose some kind of order when the others are getting out of hand; Betty Jane, the Southern belle, with a diva's sense of entitlement-the one who "rules the roost", The Silent One, who meditates and prays; and Ruffles - 300 pounds plus, dressed in purple, who sits on a pillow stuffing potato chips in her mouth, and whose weight causes Holly's head to always tilt to the left.

Betty Jane and Ruffles help Holly with her job as a waitress, and it's Betty Jo's personality which lands her a job as a voice-over artist on the cartoon show "The Neighborhood". Holly's therapist works out an agreement with Betty Jane and the rest of The Committee that will allow Betty Jane to work on the show and step forward when needed for other voice-over work, while still maintaining Holly as the decision-maker.

Unlike my previous tentative understanding of multiple-personality disorder, Holly is fully aware of each of the members of her committee, holding conversations with them and even actively disliking Betty Jane. As she works out her relationship with her feckless boyfriend Peter and her new life as a famous voice in a popular show, her sessions with her therapist become more infrequent, as she thinks that she has it all under control. Then an embarrassing incident at an awards show, with both Ruffles and Betty Jane vying for control at the same time, shows Holly that she may need help after all. When Betty Jane leaves, taking the rest of The Committee with her, Holly is left feeling bereft and alone. When they return, Holly's therapist works out an agreement where the committee members all come forward during sessions, and slowly, the real work of integration begins.

Although the novel is about a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder, it is also a novel that we all can relate to. As Holly tries to take control of her out-of-control life, she finds out that some secrets are better uncovered, and that she is a special and unique person in spite of her parents' bad upbringing. The heartbreaking stories that brought each of the committee members to being remind us of how very fragile the human psyche can be, and as we witness her small triumphs, we celebrate her healing and the power of the mind to both protect and save us.

QUOTES

I glanced at the two writers. One said, "That was inspired, Holly. Almost like you were Harriet." He turned to the other writer. "She does these voices as if they live in her head."

If they only knew.

"With Walter's spies it could go like this: Holly is in therapy. Why is Holly in therapy? Holly's a fraud. She doesn't do voices. She has voices in her head that do them for her."

One thing my parents never managed to beat out of us was hope.