Susan, suffers from agoraphobia, terrified to leave her house. When Susan becomes convinced that her husband has been somehow sneaking into her apartment at night to have sex with her, she sets up a video camera to catch him in the act. Instead, she catches her psychiatrist, Dr. Ahriman, raping her. Dr. Ahriman has taken control of Susan's mind--with a key phrase, he can force her to do anything he wants and leave her with no memory of her actions. When Dr. Ahriman discovers Susan's video camera, he uses his power over her to force her to commit suicide. In the mean time, Susan's best friend begins to develop her own mental illness, autophobia, and becomes terrified of herself and what she might do. Dusty, Martie's husband, begins to suffer from fugue states, losing chunks of time. Skeet, Dusty's brother, is an addict and attempts to commit suicide. Will Martie and Dusty find out who is behind their disorders in time to save them from the same fate as Susan? Read False Memory to find out!
Review
I bought False Memory at the library book sale because it was a Dean Koontz I hadn't read. I usually really enjoy his work, but I had a really hard time with this one. I've started books before that I lost interest in and had a hard time finishing, but this book was difficult to finish for a completely different reason: it really disturbed me. I guess the idea of someone else having control over my mind without my knowledge was just too horrifying. And the idea that someone could rape another person without the victim's knowledge or force someone to commit suicide against their will is just unbearable to me. I guess it bothered me, too, that the killer was a doctor, a therapist, someone who should be trustworthy, and he just used that position of trust to destroy others rather than help them. While I still love Dean Koontz and would recommend him as an author, this is not a novel I would recommend to anyone else. While it might not affect another readers as deeply as it did me, I wouldn't want to take the chance that it might.
Review
Koontz, D. (2000). False memory. New York: Bantam.
[Book cover art for False memory]. (2008). Retrieved from
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL58896M/False_memory
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