Title: Confessions of a Sociopath
Author: M. E. Thomas
Year: 2013
My Rating: 2/5 Stars
Synopsis: Thomas gives an honest and at times uncomfortable insight into her world as a sociopath which whilst interesting, became rather repetitive midway through the book.
I do feel a bit bad giving it 2 out of 5 as it was in places an entertaining read, I just found it became boring and self indulgent. Perhaps if you are a sociopath, you might enjoy it more as you can relate to Thomas but for anyone else I would suggest there are too many other good books out there and this one might just be best left on the shelf.
This book was a complete impulse purchase as I got sucked in by a bogof offer at the airport. I'd been reading a few books on psychology by this point and had a basic understanding of the personality traits of sociopaths and I thought this book might help to deepen my understanding and confirm my suspicions on a couple of potentially sociopathic work colleagues.
As a self confessed 30 something female sociopath, Thomas is everything you would expect her to be... charming, manipulative, intelligent, heartless and generally lacking any kind of moral compass in life. The opening paragraphs portraying perfectly her complete lack of empathy as she sets the scene of a woman returning home on a beautiful day to find a baby opossum paddling frantically in the pool trying desperately to find a way out but unable to lift itself over the side. She rushes for the net and then proceeds to try and drown the poor thing, after several unsuccessful attempts she then decides to leave it and let nature take its course - this is apparently how a TV show of Thomas's life would start?! As a self confessed 30 something animal loving softy this was uncomfortable reading and instantly switched me off from the idea that there is a benefit to having socipathic characters in society, which I think is one of Thomas's objectives.
I do feel a bit bad giving it 2 out of 5 as it was in places an entertaining read, I just found it became boring and self indulgent. Perhaps if you are a sociopath, you might enjoy it more as you can relate to Thomas but for anyone else I would suggest there are too many other good books out there and this one might just be best left on the shelf.
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