Look down at me and you see a fool.
Look up at me and you see a god.
Look straight at me and you see yourself.

The speaker of those words, which open Stephanie Wrobel’s terrific novel, is Charles Manson, and they gave me chills. Perhaps it’s because someone that society deemed insane was cognizant enough to recognize how he was viewed by the different factions around him, or because that last line shows just how thin a line separates our own fragile psyches from maintaining normality or teetering over into madness.

"The last part of the novel will be true to its title as the walls come down around the secrets and identities of those we have been reading about, which makes for an incredible ending. THIS MIGHT HURT deserves to be one of the most talked-about books of 2022."

THIS MIGHT HURT deals directly with issues like this, but Wrobel does so in such a clever and subtle way that it takes until the very end of the book for readers to put together all the clues of this puzzle. Essentially, this is the story of sisters Natalie and Kit Collins. Like many siblings, they’ve grown apart as they’ve gotten older. The real separation occurred after the death of their mother, which they each handled quite differently.

One day, after years of drifting from place to place and job to job, Kit learns about Wisewood. Located on an exclusive island off the coast of Maine, this isolated community specializes in helping people “maximize” themselves and lose their fears. When she tells Natalie about this, of course her big sister questions it and worries that Kit is throwing her money away on a whim. Nevertheless, she goes and is there for what is intended to be a six-month stay. Then one day, Natalie receives an email from Wisewood: Would you like to come tell your sister what you did --- or should we?

Natalie has always wanted to confess her big, dark secret, yet she has been too scared to do so. She heads off to Wisewood but is told that no guests of residents are allowed there. She promises to stay one night after seeing Kit and then leave, assuring herself that her sister is all right. Upon her arrival, she hears a blood-curdling scream, which is played off as just one of the many therapies they utilize. She continues to search for her sister as she studies the island warily.

At the same time, we see scenes from their past as the girls are growing up with their parents --- a kind mother but an extremely difficult father who is referred to in these passages as “sir.” The girls’ names are not directly given, a fine subterfuge by Wrobel to play into the secrets that will be revealed in the last third of the book.

For the second part of the novel, the narration switches from Natalie to Kit. We get to experience Kit’s arrival at Wisewood and the true cult-like teachings that are practiced there. Behind these lessons is a woman named Rebecca, who everyone refers to as Teacher. Kit takes an instant liking to her --- so much so that she signs on to work at Wisewood after her initial time as a voluntary patient is over.

We then see bits that seem to feature the sisters, again without giving direct names to either, where one of them is now a world-renowned mentalist who runs a show dealing with overcoming pain and fear. The male assistant is the same person who worked on the magic acts that one of the sisters used to perform when she was much younger. This may sound confusing, but trust me, Wrobel has things wound up very tightly.

The last part of the novel will be true to its title as the walls come down around the secrets and identities of those we have been reading about, which makes for an incredible ending. THIS MIGHT HURT deserves to be one of the most talked-about books of 2022.