Book Reviews and OCD: Twitching the Pages Away.

    I have recently, within the last three months, completed reading the first two books of a trilogy by an author who, in my opinion, has put a rather vocal  and realistic voice to a type of person who is normally hidden away in the closets of embarrassed family members.  It’s sad how people view others in this world, as they instantly lock in a particular carbon copy idea of someone based on medical or psychological diagnosis and use this as their mental image of that person.  I myself have been labeled and targeted due to an uncontrollable psychological disorder, and it is frustrating, to say the least.  Author Dan Wells does a phenomenal job describing the thoughts and reasons behind one such disorder, mixing thrilling fiction with a young man suffering internally with being a sociopath.
    In the first of the trilogy, the main character, John Wayne Cleaver, is introduced to the world.  He lives with his mother in the home above their family owned morgue.  John, a boy who struggles with his mental need to hurt people, burn things, kill animals, and obsess about torturing others, thoroughly enjoys working in the morgue.  His mother and her sister, the two family members who work at and run the morgue in a small town in the United States, do their best when John tries to work in the morgue with them.  He usually manages to sneak in a take over one task or the other, knowing full well that his caregivers are far too busy to notice him working on a body, let alone stop him, as they never turn down the chance to finish preparing a body early.  Although his mother has her own reservations about letting John work on bodies with her, she hopes that giving him an avenue to satiate his urges will divert any other trouble.  Being obsessed with serial killers and using references tot hem in every school assignment given to him just won’t cut it any longer, and his teachers and classmates are, for the lack of a better word, frightened of him. 
    At the book progresses after the opening introduction chapters, John struggles with following his “rules,” a regimen he takes very seriously and follows regularly and with as much stringent passion.  His rules don’t allow him to look at people for extended periods of time, as he is fearful that he will stalk them.  His rules prevent him from saying or thinking bad things about another person.  If he does think a bad thought about a person, he is forced, per his own punishment rule, to verbally compliment them.  The list of rules is a failsafe to his natural need to want to hurt others.
    John’s therapist agrees that he is a sociopath, and regularly discusses why it is that John has become a sociopath.  He even allows the boy to read his own notes during their sessions, which provides a two-way road of communication and trust.
    John enjoys helping his elderly neighbors with yard work, though his joy is not in helping others.  He spends hours raking the leaves because he knows that, at the end of the day, the elderly man will allow him to start a raging fire to burn away the gathered leaves.  The fire gives an outlet to the sociopath main character.  But all good things must come to an end.
    Once bodies begin turning up in town, accompanied by an unidentifiable black sludge, John is quick to find the killer, but only to learn about how the murders were committed and why the killer chose to kill.  After some sly stalking and quick thinking, John eventually finds out who the killer is, and does what any good natured sociopath would do: he stalks the murderer and leaves taunting notes for him. 
    I will refrain from writing more about the plot.  If this book sounds interesting, you can pick a copy up at your favorite book store.  It’s well worth the money.
    I liked this book tremendously.  I liked the sequel, Mr. Monster, for many of the same reasons that I liked the first.  It was full of unexpected turns, humorous at certain points (a teenaged boy admitting that he stalked a girl for an extended period of time without realizing it is pretty funny), but most of all, it delves into the realms of troubled minds. 
    The author describes the disease, and the thoughts given to the main character are real and what one would expect from a sociopath.  Normally, most people would be weary of a troubled young man like this.  Having him locked in text is safe enough that people can have access to something uncommon and be able to step away from it if needed. 
    As far as psychological disorders go, there are plenty of them to go around.  I have first hand knowledge of one such disorder that is most commonly known as OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  I perform rituals of everyday actions until they feel “correct” in my head because I think that something bad will happen otherwise.  I constantly have scary and sick thoughts about all sorts of things.  For instance, when I lock a door, I don’t just insert the key and turn it to the locked position.  I have to shut the door in a certain way, insert the key just right, turn it until the lock has been set, turn the key back and not pass a vertical position, and then shake the door handle for a period of time (usually ranging from five seconds to two minutes).  I do this because if I don't do it correctly, I feel like someone might break into my home, or that someone I love will be injured or worse.  If anything in this carefully done set of actions is done wrong, I start over, even if that means someone is watching me and laughing or if it means that I am late for something.
    I’ve spent a full hour setting an alarm clock, turning it on and off over and over, setting and resetting the time, and setting it down and picking it up until it touched the desk top just right.  I’ve spent minutes changing television channels with the remote, despite the fact that it should have taken less than thirty seconds.  I’ve turned sink faucets off and on so many times and so forcefully that I’ve broken the handle.  I’ve broken heavy locking doorknobs because I’ve shaken them so many times.
    How do I cope with my obsessions if I absolutely can't perform the ritual, or if there is no physical ritual to repeat?  Compulsions!  I blink forcefully until it feels “correct.”  A lot.  I sniff loudly and repeatedly until it feels “correct,” even though I look like a complete idiot when I do it (About a week ago I did it in front of the mirror, just to see what it looks like.  All I can say is WOW, what a moron).  I basically blink and sniff nonstop throughout my day, which is, to say the very least, frustrating.  People look at me like I’m a complete freak, or they laugh at me, or they make comments when I walk by.
    So, the morale of this entire blog comes down to a few key points:
    1. Don’t judge people for being weird.  There’s good people behind those odd thoughts and strange facial ticks.
    2. Read the two above mentioned novels, and, if you like them, keep an eye out for the last book in the trilogy.
    3. If you suffer from OCD like me, and cannot set an alarm clock or turn the volume up or down on your television because you feel the need to jump the volume up and down for a full minute before setting it to what feels correct, just do what I do:  HAVE YOUR WIFE DO ALL OF THESE THINGS FOR YOU, AND THANK HER FOR BEING A ROCK IN YOUR OTHERWISE SNIFFING AND BLINKING WORLD OF ODDITIES!