Haunted Sister by Lael Littke

When I started reading this book, I was expecting a ghost story, but Littke's novel of a twin who thinks she is possessed by her dead twin, touches on DID. The main character - Janine/Lenore - is even told that DID is a possibility, but Janine believes that in a near death experience, the long dead Lenore has entered her body for a second chance at life.

Overall Littke did a pretty accurate job of describing the fear I felt when I first suspected that someone else was living inside my body. I wondered if I was possessed; I wondered if my soul had split into pieces - if I was a conjoined twin without the other body. I asked, "Can more than one soul dwell in the same body?" I was scared to look in the mirror because I didn't know who would be looking back at me.

This book is written for teens, but I think anyone with DID would enjoy the story. The novel is not a textbook case, but neither is it a Hollywood depiction of DID, which I appreciated. This is a topic I have never come across in a teen novel, and I have read a lot of them. While I am glad to see an author tackle this subject, I worry that someone without background knowledge about DID would become very confused by this story line. I was even confused at times (hell, I'm confused at times about my own life).

This novel gives a lot of room for thought. It brings up society's views toward "crazy" people. It brings up the confusion and struggle of knowing one is not "normal" - whatever that is. It also talks about trauma being the cause of DID and how out of control a person with DID feels in the beginning - and sometimes in the middle and end.

Thank you, Lael Littke for writing about a topic that seldom gets a fair shake. This is as close as I've seen in fiction to actual DID. Remember I said close. No two systems are the same; no two alters are the same; this is a book that is presented as a haunting, and it is fiction. Lenore often acted like a rebellious alter in a system that is not functioning well. Remember that when a system functions well, no one outside of the system (unless they are super emotionally close to the person) can tell that the person has DID. Often it takes years for the person with alters to know about them. Littke has too many people figuring it out in her novel; when in reality, it would only have been one or two if that. However, I am happy to see a book, any book, give DID an opportunity to be seen in a less scary light. Note: those without DID may be scared (or confused) about DID by reading this book, but those with DID may relate in some small way to Janine/Lenore and feel that yes, there is literature out there for us.