Review with Spoilers for Tell Me Who You Are

My Review with Spoilers for Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna asks: is this book a new Silent Patient? Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna got pitched as The Silent Patient meets Gone Girl, which is an ambitious combination. What’s the deal with this book about a psychiatrist with a dark past? Let’s discuss.

Review With Spoilers for Tell Me Who You Are

Tell Me Who You are by Louisa Luna: Overview

Published on June 4, 2024 by MCD/Macmillan
352 pages
Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy
I read this book in May 2024

Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna: Jen’s Quick Summary

Part of my Review with Spoilers for Tell Me Who You Are. Original photo of a copy of Tell Me Who You Are on a bookcase next to other pink and red thrillers and mysteries

Tell Me Who You Are is a classic psychological suspense book
It has multiple POVs
The main character is Dr. Caroline, an unconventional therapist with a dark past
Goodreads reviews are starkly divided, with readers either loving the book or disliking it.
Also by Louisa Luna: the Alice Vega procedural series, which includes Two Girls Down, The Janes, and The Hideout. Luna also wrote two young adult novels and a comic mystery.

Review for Tell Me Who You Are: Jen’s Analysis

I have really enjoyed Louisa Luna’s procedurals, which are dark in tone and feature bounty hunter Alice Vega, who teams up with a former cop to solve gritty mysteries. So I was excited to see what she’d do with a suspense story.

Tell Me Who You Are features Dr. Caroline Strange, a Brooklyn psychiatrist with a dark past.

As the book opens Dr. C has an appointment with Nelson Schack, a new patient. Nelson tells her two things: he knows who she really is and he thinks he might kill someone.

In another plot line, someone kidnapped a reporter named Ellen Garcia. Her connection to Dr. Caroline? She wrote an article calling Caroline one of the worst doctors in Brooklyn. So when the police are looking for Ellen, they come right to Caroline’s doorstep.

In a third plot line, a man named Gordon Strong has an obvious connection to a young Caroline.

How Do These All Connect?

I’ll tell you in the spoilers below, but they do.

My overall take on Tell Me Who You Are is that I enjoy Luna’s writing, but I didn’t love the plot of this or the resolution. I also did not feel very invested in the Gordon Strong plot.

I see the connections to The Silent Patient: Caroline is a psychiatrist and her husband is a sculptor (there were art themes in TSP.)

Nelson’s pronouncements intrigue (and alarm) Dr. Caroline, decides to investigate. My hot take on Alex Michaelides is that all of his books have a strong classic mystery element in which a character interviews witnesses in an attempt to get to the truth. Dr. Caroline does this as well, falling down the Nelson rabbit hole.

I kind of wish that Tell Me Who You Are went MORE out there, Gone Girl style.

For me, Tell Me Who You Are didn’t lean enough into the gaslighting and pulling out the rug under the reader that a good suspense story needs to do.

Spoilers for Tell Me Who You Are and the Ending Explained

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Who Kidnapped Ellen?

Nelson did. He felt a kinship with Dr. Caroline because, as he said, “I killed my family and you killed the one next door.” (Nelson killed his abusive father and then kept going, killing his mom and brother too.)

What? Did Caroline Really Kill the Family Next Door?

Nelson thinks so. He read about Caroline’s connection to the Strong family murders thirty years ago. Gordon Strong, Caroline’s next door neighbor, killed his teen kids, his wife, and then himself. Nelson became obsessed with Caroline, and decided to kidnap Ellen because she called Caroline a bad doctor.

If that wasn’t enough, Nelson had Dissociative Identity Disorder and two alter egos: Will and Billy Harbin. Will found Caroline’s mother in a nursing home and told her that Caroline was a manipulative sociopath who was responsible for the murders. I’m not sure why he did this.

Huh?

I agree, this is the weirdest part. And I love weird … when it makes sense. How did Gordon decide that Caroline was involved? Why does he decide discuss it with her mother, a woman in a nursing home with memory issues?

Dr. Caroline says that Nelson “kidnapped Ellen not only to pledge allegiance to me but also to put me a little bit the hot seat. His goals were a bit splintered – he waned to have me for himself and also kill me. It was all mixed up, the sex and mommy-daddy stuff and the joy that violence brought him.”

That is a bit hand-wavy, but many readers have called out Alex Michaelides for questionable psychiatric portrayals. I’m no expert, so I don’t know. Caroline calls DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) a “Hefty bag of bullshit” and says that many experts think patients with DID actually have borderline personality disorder. So is she saying Nelson/Billy/Will is faking?

What is the Ending of Tell Me Who You Are?

Nelson was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The rescued Ellen writes a new article in which she, Caroline, and the female detective on the case are survivors and heroes.

The twist at the end (I guess this is the Gone Girl element) is that Caroline admits to manipulating Gordon into killing his family. Just for kicks, at age thirteen, she made the unstable Gordon into thinking his wife was cheating and leaving him. He then killed his wife, his two children, and himself.

Was this a surprise? Not at all, because Caroline seemed very “off” the whole time. My theory was that Nelson/Bill/Will were all alter egos of Caroline, and that she kidnapped Ellen.

Leave your comments and questions below. I will answer them all and spoilers are fine

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6 Comments

Jenn

2 years ago

I had the same theory about Nelson and the others being Caroline’s alters. She mentioned having a sleep disorder, so I figured that they were emerging when she thought she was asleep.

I also thought her husband was the kidnapper. That guy was weird.

Author

Jen Ryland

Reply to Jenn

Ooh, interesting theory on the sleep. I like it!

Alex

So her being in the park actually practicing talking to herself was supposed to be a red herring? I find it odd she would have both sides of the same conversation before actually having those conversations with Billy/Will. Idk something seems so off.

Also when she was talking to the woman with the shopping addiction about eating, it almost seemed like she was trying to transfer her shopping addiction into an eating addiction for kicks, no?

Reply to Alex

Really good points! I’m going to think about those things…

Nebartell

1 year ago

I read this book and when I reached the end, I felt like I could not tell anyone what this book was about. I am thinking about reading it again to see if it makes sense. (And I NEVER reread)

Reply to Nebartell

I can understand that. If you decide to re-read, let me know your thought!!

Review with Spoilers for Tell Me Who You Are