A young girl awakes in an asylum. She’s been there before, she knows why she’s there but she doesn’t know her sister very well, even though they are always together.
Her name is Raven Slade and she suffers from multiple personality disorder and regular dissociative episodes. Her sister was her twin who died at birth. Her father, the director of the same asylum she currently resides and an undercover CIA agent.
The rest is where the story gets murky. Daniel Keyes touches on a possible terrorist attack hidden behind riddles, prophecies and a hypnotic state Raven’s father put her in.
My thoughts
I felt for Raven throughout this novel but everything else seemed to be too much. The story of Raven was what kept me reading and I hoped that it would sort itself out in the end.
Raven’s sister fell in love, was blessed with a name, took part in terrorist activity and kept Raven wondering who’s side she was on.
With each different character, part of the world and look at the riddles the storyline became even more confusing and, in my opinion, lost sight of what was truly interesting.
Based on this book I have no desire to read another Daniel Keyes novel which may be a shame as there was a lot of praise for Flowers for Algernon.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah Butland