Book Review
Title: I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is In Love with a Pedophile: 6 Patient Files From Prison
Author: Dr. Harper
Genre: Short stories/Horror/Mental Health
Rating: *****
Review: I am going to follow the same method as my review of the first book and review the patient files individually but you also need to be aware that all the stories are connected and there is a overarching story line that you need to be able to follow. With Elliot now stuck in prison after being framed by Kierra and the Happy Family cult, Noah is MIA, but he has been presented with an opportunity to possibly escape by a mysterious prisoner and I am already sold.
The first patient file belongs to Sam, who is also in prison with his love Arthur, but they are having issues in their relationship and turn to Elliot for help. It turns out that Arthur abused Sam when he was a child and developed alternate personalities to help him cope. However, Sam the true personality claims to love Arthur which poses some many problems in treating him much to the anger of the prison therapist. Elliot seems to be helping Sam but when the prison therapist tricks Elliot by swapping out Sam’s medication and telling him the wrong grounding words, Sam snaps and kills Arthur before dying himself which hurts Elliot as he was genuinely trying to help the boy. Elliot does learn from Tony, the prison conspiracy theorist, that Sam was one of the Glade Farm Boys, specifically #93 meaning there are 92 others just like him. Throughout this story we get flashbacks to Elliot’s life before prison with Noah as they find a little boy on the beach who seems to be one of these boys.
The second patient file belongs to Don, a prisoner who is there because he intentionally infected people with HIV and Elliot tries to help him only to be attacked and injected with Don’s blood meaning he has a high chance of getting HIV unless he gets the proper medication. However, the prison therapist will not give Elliot the medication he needs unless he hands over Sam’s photo, but he knows it is significant to her and withholds it. He is then approached by Don’s cellmate who offers him the pills he was given for his help and Elliot immediately agrees. However, when Don ends up dead, Tony tells him that Bernard is the biggest dealer in the prison and he ratted Elliot out the Doctor Zhang who puts him in solitary for stealing pills which means the window where he could counteract the HIV infection with medication will be gone and he will have a 92% chance of testing positive for HIV. It seems like Elliot’s life is just getting harder and harder but we get another flashback to the back on the beach where he tells Elliot and Noah and that the “animals” on the “farm” are attacking, raping and killing young boys and this is mystery I think we are going to follow throughout the novel.
The third patient file belongs to an inmate who has a very strange addiction. This inmate likes to copy the personalities of other to keep the crushing emptiness inside himself away and Dr. Elliot Harper is his new target as Doctor Zhang wants something from Elliot. For a while the real Elliot and the imposter talk and when Zhang arrives for Elliot’s decision they give different answers but the copycat leads Zhang to what she wants which is good for the real Elliot as he gets the medication he needs but he has sacrificed his only chance of finding out what happened to Sam in his childhood. However, this inmate has strikingly similarities to the young boy on the beach, who we now know is called James and he claims to have another James copying him, but Noah is there to help him see that it isn’t another James but James’ opposite.
The fourth patient file belongs to Chase, who is the Zombie Killer from the first book. He approaches Elliot and asks him to build him a conscience as there is someone within the prisoner trying to manipulate him into killing again. For a while, Elliot doesn’t believe him, but Chase wants to get better and works with Elliot until they are both called into Zhang’s office. Elliot faces off against Zhang and wins Chase trust as he tells Elliot that Zhang wants him to eat the bodies of the children, she has kidnapped in order to replace the man that is currently disposing of the bodies. Elliot isn’t sure whether he believes this, but Zhang’s reaction proves it as she says Chase’s trigger phrase which causes him to attack Elliot and bite off his ear, but he is getting closer to the heart of the mystery. Back in the past it seems that James is or was one of the children kidnapped by Zhang and it seems that they might be a part of a pedophile ring or some CIA experiment like Chase was and I can’t wait to see what the ending 2 files have in store for us.
The fifth patient files belongs to belongs to Tony, who isn’t who we think he is. It turns out that his name is Richard and he has assumed the identity of someone else to cover up his grief from killing him own son but he has tons of information of Zhang that could bring down her pedophile ring once and for all and Tony gives Elliot the opportunity he needs to get that information but it is clear that Elliot can’t trust anyone inside the prison as the prison is a cover for the ring itself and a lot of inmate are involved with it. This means that every second Elliot is inside the prison knowing what he knows his life is in danger and he doesn’t even have anyone on the outside he can ask for help as Noah is still missing and his only other friend Zack refuses to believe him meaning Elliot is completely on his own taking on a powerful group of people to save lots of boys from being abused and trafficked.
The final patient file belongs to James as Elliot is finally able to bring the pieces of the puzzle together and rescue the boy he failed to protect before. However, Elliot is now a prison escapee but with Zach’s help the public opinion on him is changing. Zach is also able to reunite Elliot and Noah, and Noah is a darling as he wants to continue his budding relationship with Elliot even though he has tested positive for HIV. Zach has a condition; however, he wants Elliot to join him on a island retreat hosted by SlapDot the same company that Tony/Richard apparently worked for as Zach has uncovered something that makes him believe something bad is going to happen there and he agrees. However, Kierra is coming with them as Noah truly believes she has changed but I don’t believe it for a second. Right at the end of the book we get a comment on the SlapDot announcement about a massacre that is going to be livestreamed during the retreat and I can’t wait to jump into the final book as soon as I can and I hope that Elliot gets the happy ending he deserves with Noah.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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