Shifting to Freedom

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Pub Date 05 Jul 2021 | Archive Date 07 Sep 2021

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Description

In the literary, auto fiction about contemporary women, Shifting to Freedom, Tess, a medical doctor, to escape from fear, pain, horrendous manic depressive mood swings, and hallucinations, dissociates, crossing invisible barriers to become ‘alter’nate personalities.

Her life, heartrending in sadness, constantly threatens to become unraveled.

Her tenuous hope for recovery is as fragile as her emotions.

“Shattering” is her constant fear.

We hear her cry from the darkness, tears we cannot stop, but we hold on to what we can—hope.

In the literary, auto fiction about contemporary women, Shifting to Freedom, Tess, a medical doctor, to escape from fear, pain, horrendous manic depressive mood swings, and hallucinations...


Advance Praise

What people are saying about Shifting to Freedom:
“Marlene writes with great facility. Her writing is intelligent; her prose is poetic. In my practice, I’ve treated patients with Multiple-Personality Disorder. It would be unprofessional of me to give a definitive diagnosis without interviewing Tess and the “alters.” However, there is no doubt that Tess has dissociative episodes. To survive the horrific traumas of childhood, she would have had to develop an escape mechanism, and dissociating was probably, the only way.”— Dr. David Yeung MBBS, FRCPC.

“I can’t help but think, because of the explicit detail, that this story is, at least in part, autofiction. Or else, the author must have known Tess, intimately. Her story is painfully acute, deeply sad, riveting, and all engrossing. It brings awareness to Multiple-Personality Disorder that I could never have imagined. To help rid the stigma that surrounds mental illness, Tess’s story needs to reach a broad audience.”—ML from Vancouver, BC., a beta reader and severe critic during the early throes of Tess’s story becoming a book.

What people are saying about Shifting to Freedom:
“Marlene writes with great facility. Her writing is intelligent; her prose is poetic. In my practice, I’ve treated patients with Multiple-Personality...


Available Editions

ISBN 9781777668716
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Average rating from 3 members


Featured Reviews

If you've read any of my other recent book reviews, you will already know that every book I read starts out with the full 5 stars and that I'm always hopeful that I'll finish reading with 'em all firmly in place too. This book ain't no different to those.

I have high hopes to start with 'cos, at the time of writing this review, this book has three 5 star reviews, so I shall remain hopeful that it meets my expectations to be awarded the full five too.

Oh boy, the first 4% is reviews and praise and adverts for other books - I can understand the copyright and dedication being at the start, but surely the reviews should go at the end??

The first chapter was good and maybe it's 'cos my Kindle is so old, but the first letter of each chapter (and the introduction) is a lot farther down than it should be and is cutting off part of the third line of each chapter, which is annoying and is making the first star wobbly already.

Other than those first letters making the first three lines of each chapter very confusing, so at 8% it's still the full 5 stars... just not as stable as they could have been so far.

The first 5 chapters have been great and I'm really enjoying the book so far... I'm wondering how soon the multiple/'alter' personalities will start putting in an appearance though... I hope it's soon 'cos I don't want it to be rushed in the last half or less of the book. I'm remaining open-minded and hopeful for the time being though.

Maybe it's just that I'm more into the book now, but chapters 6-9 have seemed to be considerably shorter than the first five... almost as if all three chapters could have almost fit into a chapter and a half of the first five. That could just be me though lol I think I prefer the shorter chapters too... straight to the point and no fillers that the first few chapters felt like they sometimes had.

Bullseye! I just needed to be more patient lol I've just been introduced to her first "alter" and it sounds like this identity is already comforting her, which is awesome!

Oh yes, the author is really into their stride with their book now. They've found the right length of chapter, describe everything just perfectly which makes me want to keep on reading. Such a good book now and I'm so glad I was pre-approved by the publisher to get it on Net Galley... a definite must-read now that we've got past all the back-story at the beginning. That fourth star is still wobbly, but purely because of the first letter in each chapter (and the introduction) now... if it carries on like this (which I'm really hoping it will) it'll be another 5 star review for this book.

I'm loving this book now... just a touch worried that I'll either have nightmares tonight or won't be able to sleep at all, after those descriptions of the injury!

I'm now at 25% so it seems as good a place as any to stop reading until tomorrow... I'm guessing that the characters "alters" will start appearing more and more now and I can't wait to meet them when I pick up my Kindle again tomorrow!

I don't know where the last hour has gone, but I've somehow managed to read up to 34% now and I'm still really enjoying the book. The first letter thing is still annoying me, but that's the only thing so far today, so still at the full 5 stars, even though the fifth star is wobbly after the start of the book yesterday.

Ooh! That was a bit weird... the text at the start of chapter 33 goes onto a second page with just a hint of a divider between the title and the start of the chapter!

Wowsers! Chapter 38 sees me in floods of grief for the family... amazingly powerful and so well-written!

Wowsers again! I wasn't expecting *that* to happen at all! I won't ruin it for you and tell you what "that" is, but it really is unexpected!

Just finished reading it and I'm stunned at the sheer brilliance of it. It's a must-read by everyone and I wasn't expecting all the twists and turns in the last quarter or so of the book.

It's a well-deserved 5 stars from me and if it hadn't been for that first letter in every chapter, it would have been a firm instead of wobbly five stars.

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