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Transference
A telepath is a nightmare when you have a mind like his...
Professionally ruined, morally bankrupt and reflexively snarky, psychiatrist Derek Verbenk is a f*ck-up by even his own measure. Ethical transgressions have sentenced the once ambitious doctor to a career handing out prescriptions to rich housewives from his home office in Cherry Creek -- until a new patient with a newfound power turns Verbenk's life upside down and his soul inside out. Romping through Denver, breaking through barriers of privacy, social isolation and even politics, Transference is an odd-couple quest toward redemption full of wicked humor and radical honesty.
Professionally ruined, morally bankrupt and reflexively snarky, psychiatrist Derek Verbenk is a f*ck-up by even his own measure. Ethical transgressions have sentenced the once ambitious doctor to a career handing out prescriptions to rich housewives from his home office in Cherry Creek -- until a new patient with a newfound power turns Verbenk's life upside down and his soul inside out. Romping through Denver, breaking through barriers of privacy, social isolation and even politics, Transference is an odd-couple quest toward redemption full of wicked humor and radical honesty.
- GenresScience Fiction
248 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 7, 2017
12 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Kate Jonuska
10 books22 followersKate Jonuska is a Colorado native with a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Denver who went into journalism after college to pay the rent. She has since wracked up a decade of experience writing features for top-notch regional publications, including the Denver Post, the (Boulder) Daily Camera, The (Colorado Springs) Gazette and Boulder Magazine, specializing in food, fitness, travel, and arts and entertainment.
Her passion, however, has always been for fiction and she's seen success in that arena, as well. With a writing style best described as Margaret Atwood meets Amy Schumer, Kate's short fiction was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize, and her first novel, Transference, published August 2017.
While Facebook is all fine and good, you can keep up with Kate best on Twitter: @kjonuska. When her nose isn't buried in a book, you'll find her in the kitchen or in the yoga studio. Namaste, bitches.
Her passion, however, has always been for fiction and she's seen success in that arena, as well. With a writing style best described as Margaret Atwood meets Amy Schumer, Kate's short fiction was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize, and her first novel, Transference, published August 2017.
While Facebook is all fine and good, you can keep up with Kate best on Twitter: @kjonuska. When her nose isn't buried in a book, you'll find her in the kitchen or in the yoga studio. Namaste, bitches.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 1, 2019
Transference
This is contemporary fiction. Really GOOD contemporary fiction. There’s a paranormal element but it really just creates an unusual situation; it’s not really something that gets explored, goes to world-building, or has larger scale implications.
In 2018, I created a set of memes with the theme, #notyouDerek. “Derek” was just a name basically drawn from a hat, and I used it to troll motivational memes. When people asked who was Derek and why did I hate him, I’d just mysteriously respond, “Derek knows who he is,” and “Derek knows what he did.”
It’s a complete coincidence, but it makes this review actually delicious.
The main POV character is Derek. He’s both a snooty psychiatrist fallen from high station to neighborhood drug dealer and skeezy perv. As long as his misogyny lives in his own head, he doesn’t see any particular problem in objectifying women. In psychotherapy, he goes through the motions, saying the right things at the right times, but in his head imagining his patients naked and in compromising positions.
At the same time, his patients are neighborhood women doctor shopping for Xanax.
Everything changes when a new patient arrives who can read his mind. She also seeks oblivion, just a prescription for something to dull down sudden-onset telepathy. She’s so overwhelmed by the thoughts and feelings of others, she just wants relief.
Trouble is, she can see inside his dirty mind. Derek is a walking, talking #MeToo moment.
I’m a psychologist, and my training is psychotherapy. I think Kate did a great job with her psychiatrist, writing from his point of view. I don’t know how, but she did. Nothing in her bio suggests insider status here but she writes like an insider.
It’s unusual for a psychiatrist to actually engage in therapeutic endeavors these days. Med school is expensive and so is malpractice insurance; and there’s so much money in med management that, well, why bother earning a hundred dollars an hour to sit with distressed people?
This particular psychiatrist, though, is inconvenienced. He did a bad thing: He had sex with a patient. In Colorado, that’s a prison-time sort of offense but, because of privilege, he avoids the big penalty and just gets stuck doing therapy out of his home office like a plebian.
“Transference” is a Freudian, psychoanalysis sort of term and doesn’t come up explicitly in the story. It means when the patient responds to the therapist as though the therapist were someone else they have a relationship with. Freud would always present himself as an ambiguous stimulus, sitting outside the view of the patient and (at least on paper) not interacting much, so that the patient could project onto him and create transference.
Here, the doctor (Derek) is anything but ambiguous. He’s a repulsive toad. The relationship isn’t any more complicated than that.
His patient, though, Janet, turns out to be nearly as repulsive. She’s judgmental, resorts almost instantly to blackmail, and degrades poor Derek almost every chance she gets. When she can’t get her way, she stalks him (as one of Carl Roger’s patients famously did, actually) demanding an apology from him.
Here we get to issues of redemption, a theme cropping up in a lot of indi-lit in 2018. Can a repulsive man like Derek be rehabilitated? Can we have empathy for him, or at least compassion?
Think of all the men who went away under pressure from #metoo and #timesup. I’m thinking especially of Louis C.K.. Some of his comedy is really soulful and brilliant, but the man is undeniably a complete toad. Can we try to understand why he is as he is? Should we care? Is he allowed to apologize and re-enter the public scene? Am I allowed to go on YouTube and laugh at the stand-up bit where his daughter keeps asking “why?” in an infinitely regressive sequence?
All rhetorical, of course. Please don’t troll me with your hypotheticals, OK?
Anyway.
How could we rehab someone with habitually misogynistic thoughts? Jonuska throws him together with a telepath who he genuinely wants to help. He quickly learns to redirect his own unconscious process with intentional meditations. The meditations help Janet calm down and he quickly becomes her safe haven.
Let’s switch gears to Dexter real fast. Dexter is one of my favorite literary characters, and Jeff Lindsey is a pretty neat cat, too. Jeff is another author who understands psychology without being a psychologist. Dexter is always looking for someone to whom he can reveal his true self. What we’re afraid of as humans is that people will, if they get a glimpse under our performed presentations of self, believe we are monsters. Dexter is a literal monster, and so his fear is well-founded. Everyone who learns either tries to kill him, arrest him or use him.
Now Derek is pretty gross. He isn’t a monster, but he’s hardly sympathetic. His patient doesn’t accept him; she tries to use him, and, perhaps because he’s disgusting, has no problem mistreating him.
But she does see him. And she does, in her way, accept him. She accepts his function while rejecting his behavior. In this case, because his thoughts are visible, his thoughts qualify as behavior.
In the end, without really trying to, Derek changes his attitudes towards women. He examines his childhood traumas (very Freudian), manages his thoughts, and comes through a crucible changed. We have some explicit insight at work here (have a look at my review called “what is insight”) and some more noetic change.
We have a national crisis on our hands. When the current president leaves office, that crisis won’t be over. In some ways, it will be just beginning. I just finished writing a novel called Waking the Dead, about what happens when the people around you become monstrous. When awakened with a serum, can they be accepted back into humanity? I’m not the first to finish such a story. We’re wondering this.
The current POTUS is completely toxic. People voted for him and continue to support him despite explicitly racist and sexist comments and homophobic, transphobic policies. He’s mobilized hate for Muslims, immigrants and refugees, Mexicans, the queer community, and POC generally.
When he’s gone, what are we to do with the people who continue to rationalize supporting him?
Can we understand them? Have empathy or just plain compassion? Should we try?
And, finding them disgusting, are we likely to help?
Consider visiting me at jasondiasauthor.com.
For a video version of this review, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwWcU....
This is contemporary fiction. Really GOOD contemporary fiction. There’s a paranormal element but it really just creates an unusual situation; it’s not really something that gets explored, goes to world-building, or has larger scale implications.
In 2018, I created a set of memes with the theme, #notyouDerek. “Derek” was just a name basically drawn from a hat, and I used it to troll motivational memes. When people asked who was Derek and why did I hate him, I’d just mysteriously respond, “Derek knows who he is,” and “Derek knows what he did.”
It’s a complete coincidence, but it makes this review actually delicious.
The main POV character is Derek. He’s both a snooty psychiatrist fallen from high station to neighborhood drug dealer and skeezy perv. As long as his misogyny lives in his own head, he doesn’t see any particular problem in objectifying women. In psychotherapy, he goes through the motions, saying the right things at the right times, but in his head imagining his patients naked and in compromising positions.
At the same time, his patients are neighborhood women doctor shopping for Xanax.
Everything changes when a new patient arrives who can read his mind. She also seeks oblivion, just a prescription for something to dull down sudden-onset telepathy. She’s so overwhelmed by the thoughts and feelings of others, she just wants relief.
Trouble is, she can see inside his dirty mind. Derek is a walking, talking #MeToo moment.
I’m a psychologist, and my training is psychotherapy. I think Kate did a great job with her psychiatrist, writing from his point of view. I don’t know how, but she did. Nothing in her bio suggests insider status here but she writes like an insider.
It’s unusual for a psychiatrist to actually engage in therapeutic endeavors these days. Med school is expensive and so is malpractice insurance; and there’s so much money in med management that, well, why bother earning a hundred dollars an hour to sit with distressed people?
This particular psychiatrist, though, is inconvenienced. He did a bad thing: He had sex with a patient. In Colorado, that’s a prison-time sort of offense but, because of privilege, he avoids the big penalty and just gets stuck doing therapy out of his home office like a plebian.
“Transference” is a Freudian, psychoanalysis sort of term and doesn’t come up explicitly in the story. It means when the patient responds to the therapist as though the therapist were someone else they have a relationship with. Freud would always present himself as an ambiguous stimulus, sitting outside the view of the patient and (at least on paper) not interacting much, so that the patient could project onto him and create transference.
Here, the doctor (Derek) is anything but ambiguous. He’s a repulsive toad. The relationship isn’t any more complicated than that.
His patient, though, Janet, turns out to be nearly as repulsive. She’s judgmental, resorts almost instantly to blackmail, and degrades poor Derek almost every chance she gets. When she can’t get her way, she stalks him (as one of Carl Roger’s patients famously did, actually) demanding an apology from him.
Here we get to issues of redemption, a theme cropping up in a lot of indi-lit in 2018. Can a repulsive man like Derek be rehabilitated? Can we have empathy for him, or at least compassion?
Think of all the men who went away under pressure from #metoo and #timesup. I’m thinking especially of Louis C.K.. Some of his comedy is really soulful and brilliant, but the man is undeniably a complete toad. Can we try to understand why he is as he is? Should we care? Is he allowed to apologize and re-enter the public scene? Am I allowed to go on YouTube and laugh at the stand-up bit where his daughter keeps asking “why?” in an infinitely regressive sequence?
All rhetorical, of course. Please don’t troll me with your hypotheticals, OK?
Anyway.
How could we rehab someone with habitually misogynistic thoughts? Jonuska throws him together with a telepath who he genuinely wants to help. He quickly learns to redirect his own unconscious process with intentional meditations. The meditations help Janet calm down and he quickly becomes her safe haven.
Let’s switch gears to Dexter real fast. Dexter is one of my favorite literary characters, and Jeff Lindsey is a pretty neat cat, too. Jeff is another author who understands psychology without being a psychologist. Dexter is always looking for someone to whom he can reveal his true self. What we’re afraid of as humans is that people will, if they get a glimpse under our performed presentations of self, believe we are monsters. Dexter is a literal monster, and so his fear is well-founded. Everyone who learns either tries to kill him, arrest him or use him.
Now Derek is pretty gross. He isn’t a monster, but he’s hardly sympathetic. His patient doesn’t accept him; she tries to use him, and, perhaps because he’s disgusting, has no problem mistreating him.
But she does see him. And she does, in her way, accept him. She accepts his function while rejecting his behavior. In this case, because his thoughts are visible, his thoughts qualify as behavior.
In the end, without really trying to, Derek changes his attitudes towards women. He examines his childhood traumas (very Freudian), manages his thoughts, and comes through a crucible changed. We have some explicit insight at work here (have a look at my review called “what is insight”) and some more noetic change.
We have a national crisis on our hands. When the current president leaves office, that crisis won’t be over. In some ways, it will be just beginning. I just finished writing a novel called Waking the Dead, about what happens when the people around you become monstrous. When awakened with a serum, can they be accepted back into humanity? I’m not the first to finish such a story. We’re wondering this.
The current POTUS is completely toxic. People voted for him and continue to support him despite explicitly racist and sexist comments and homophobic, transphobic policies. He’s mobilized hate for Muslims, immigrants and refugees, Mexicans, the queer community, and POC generally.
When he’s gone, what are we to do with the people who continue to rationalize supporting him?
Can we understand them? Have empathy or just plain compassion? Should we try?
And, finding them disgusting, are we likely to help?
Consider visiting me at jasondiasauthor.com.
For a video version of this review, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwWcU....
October 4, 2017
I would give this one a 4.5 if I could. The only reason I can't give it a perfect 5 is not because of the story or writing, but rather its need for a more thorough editing. I've long since resigned myself to the fact that all books are published with a few typos, no matter how eagle-eyed the editor, but this had too many to be ignored. Enough that I was repeatedly knocked out of the flow of my reading and had to flounder for a moment before finding it again. Most of the issues were simple-fix stuff like duplicated phrases ("...offered just the right the right amount of..."), or missing words or letters ("...vowing to try do so from now on..."). There was also one glaring continuity error, where a woman says she's going to Vail and then everyone thinks she's in Europe.
All right, enough of that. On to the good stuff!
The book is written in quick, relaxed prose that kept up a good pace while mixing in just the right amount of description to keep me grounded in the story. There's also some great characterization, with the author doing a good job of making a generally unlikable character/narrator totally relatable. There aren't any superfluous characters in the cast, every one helps to move the story forward. The dialogue is brisk and natural, again moving the story along quickly. All these things stack together, making the book engaging and hard to put down. It's a super-fast read, and I'd definitely recommend it.
Note: I received a free copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.
All right, enough of that. On to the good stuff!
The book is written in quick, relaxed prose that kept up a good pace while mixing in just the right amount of description to keep me grounded in the story. There's also some great characterization, with the author doing a good job of making a generally unlikable character/narrator totally relatable. There aren't any superfluous characters in the cast, every one helps to move the story forward. The dialogue is brisk and natural, again moving the story along quickly. All these things stack together, making the book engaging and hard to put down. It's a super-fast read, and I'd definitely recommend it.
Note: I received a free copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.
July 28, 2017
A naturally gifted writer, the author weaves together the impossible with the highly probable. Though one of the two main characters has superpowers, the emotions, reactions and psychological drama (and damage) are all too real.
I volunteered to review an early version of this book and found it to be an entertaining look at the real world realities of having powers. We all know the maxim from Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibility". Transference adds an additional layer to that saying by examining how someone with powers is still very human and, how even someone without powers still has great responsibilities to those around them.
Dr. Verbenk, the main character is very very very flawed. At times it is almost too uncomfortable to know his thoughts and how he views the world. Treading the line between unlikable but readable and wholly unlikable and unreadable, Verbenk grows throughout the novel until he is a fully realized character. You never 100% root for him, but that is okay. He is flawed and through those flaws his triumphs stand out that much more.
The psychology of how we all (to some extent) feel trapped within our lives and the roles that have been designated to us plays a large part in this making this book work. How we force ourselves to change and how others play a role in thatchange makes for great drama.
This book is funny, sometimes shocking and always wonderfully written. Buy if you want to read about two flawed, but intensely human characters trying to use what power they have to survive in lives they don't necessarily want.
I volunteered to review an early version of this book and found it to be an entertaining look at the real world realities of having powers. We all know the maxim from Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibility". Transference adds an additional layer to that saying by examining how someone with powers is still very human and, how even someone without powers still has great responsibilities to those around them.
Dr. Verbenk, the main character is very very very flawed. At times it is almost too uncomfortable to know his thoughts and how he views the world. Treading the line between unlikable but readable and wholly unlikable and unreadable, Verbenk grows throughout the novel until he is a fully realized character. You never 100% root for him, but that is okay. He is flawed and through those flaws his triumphs stand out that much more.
The psychology of how we all (to some extent) feel trapped within our lives and the roles that have been designated to us plays a large part in this making this book work. How we force ourselves to change and how others play a role in thatchange makes for great drama.
This book is funny, sometimes shocking and always wonderfully written. Buy if you want to read about two flawed, but intensely human characters trying to use what power they have to survive in lives they don't necessarily want.
November 10, 2018
Transference is more fable than novel, driven as much by repeat performances of the message as by plot. This actually works in its construct, however, because it's a very well-disguised comic book as much as a traditional story. The premise might sound preposterous in a synopsis, but the author incorporates it so seamlessly and unquestionably that the reader won't so much as hiccup. Emotionally challenging and often uncomfortable, Transference is a fast read not because it's simple, but because the pages practically turn themselves. I found myself firmly in the role of observer, not caring for either of the main characters, trapped in horrified fascination and unable to look away. Unusual and thought-provoking, it may also leave you mildly paranoid for a while...but only in the best of ways, of course.
August 7, 2017
A refreshingly unique approach to a genre that has been glutted with tired retellings of the same stories over and over lately. Transference is a novel, above all else, about becoming more than you are or thought you could be. Both main characters have to fight back the demons they carry with them--though in very different ways--to find the person they could be. The power behind this story is that the author never fails to confront the reality of being a real person--Verbenk isn't a particularly likable person, but he's certainly real.
A great debut by Jonuska, I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future.
A great debut by Jonuska, I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future.
October 16, 2017
This was a fun read and went by so quickly! Trying to avoid spoilers, so I'll just say it's about a therapist who gets more than he bargained for with one of his new housewife patients who comes to him for medication and help with unusual symptoms. The story takes places in the Denver area which is always fun for me trying to guess where places are or trying to compare what they look like in the book to real life. #locallove
The author does a great job of blending humor and elements of fantasy, and her characters Dr. Verbenk and Janet are so different but they play off one another so well. Definitely recommend.
The author does a great job of blending humor and elements of fantasy, and her characters Dr. Verbenk and Janet are so different but they play off one another so well. Definitely recommend.
October 13, 2017
This was a hard book for me to start~ I read mostly kidlit, and to be faced with such a deeply flawed main character was very disturbing~ I think it was so disturbing because it also felt extremely realistic. I have no trouble believing that there are plenty of Dr. Verbenks out there. The writing feels effortless~ Jonuska truly is a character writer, but her plotting (both in the internal and external arcs) is equally captivating. As Janet enters the story, I latched on and couldn't stop reading~the prose made me laugh out loud at times and the characters sucked me in. Depth, humor, darkness, heart, and healing~ with a superpower dynamic duo that can't be matched. I'm so glad I read this book. Can't wait for more from Ms. Jonuska.
August 7, 2017
I was lucky enough to get this book in advance, and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to rate it.
Ms. Jonuska has taken one small plot twist and allowed it to grow into a grand adventure. Each character is strongly created and the dynamic, sometimes deeply harsh conversations delve into many issues, allowing the characters to examine who they are and why they make the decisions they do. Yet even with it's sharp wit and depth, the book is a fun, easy read. You will love it.
Transference is a *strong* first piece of work and I honestly can't wait to read what she creates next.
Ms. Jonuska has taken one small plot twist and allowed it to grow into a grand adventure. Each character is strongly created and the dynamic, sometimes deeply harsh conversations delve into many issues, allowing the characters to examine who they are and why they make the decisions they do. Yet even with it's sharp wit and depth, the book is a fun, easy read. You will love it.
Transference is a *strong* first piece of work and I honestly can't wait to read what she creates next.
Read
December 22, 2017Loved this book, about a male therapist with no sexual boundaries. It hooked me from the first line, "For a mistake that ruined his life, the sex should have been good, but no." It kept me laughing and was very touching as well. Highly recommend this book.
August 13, 2017
From the moment I read the synopsis I knew Verbenk will be entertaining and from page one, I couldn't put the book down. It's well written, witty, yet deep. The climactic setting and characters that jump off the page will make you forget where you are.
I hope there will be more from this local author!
I hope there will be more from this local author!
August 15, 2017
Great read. Kept me in suspense. Nice use of descriptions. Liked the local twists she used. Looking forward to more from Kate!
August 6, 2017
A fun book with interesting twists. The author does a wonderful job of getting into her character's heads and keeping the reader guessing.
Read
September 1, 2017Review pending, stay tuned!
October 11, 2017
Creative, amusing and fun read. Can visualize a TV series with the Telepathic/Therapist team.
June 8, 2018
“Transference” is a fast-moving urban fantasy about a psychiatrist whose new patient can read his mind. I wasn’t expecting much at first: neither the headshrinker nor the politician’s wife seem very likable: he’s a lech, and she’s a bitch (although If it’s played for laughs, this can be fun, as in the British tv series, “MisFits”). Jonuska expertly skewers many of ultra-healthy Colorado’s current fads, such as Starbucks, jogging, and almond milk, leading you to think the two may just have shallow, “First World” problems. But both also harbor genuine hurts, such as infertility and family suicide, revealing the source of their bitterness. It’s great to see them pool their “powers” and rise above themselves to help another in serious trouble.
April 18, 2018
I love a good redemption story. Dr. Verbenks, the main character, is not the kind of man I would normally have much sympathy for--my old fashioned terminology would call him a lech. But the story gives him a satisfying arc including a bit of explanation for how he became who he was--a failed shrink who was lucky not to be in jail--and how he will become better through his friendship with Janet, a politician and crusader who suddenly develops telepathy and comes to him for help.
Janet's powers aren't a boon, but a curse to her, making it difficult to handle her life because she is constantly bombarded with the thoughts of others. A lot of telepath stories explore that potential downfall of the gift, and the author kept it fresh and interesting because of the nature of the woman's work.
Strong storytelling, compelling characters, and a refreshing turn on tropes. All in all, a good read!
Janet's powers aren't a boon, but a curse to her, making it difficult to handle her life because she is constantly bombarded with the thoughts of others. A lot of telepath stories explore that potential downfall of the gift, and the author kept it fresh and interesting because of the nature of the woman's work.
Strong storytelling, compelling characters, and a refreshing turn on tropes. All in all, a good read!
August 16, 2017
I enjoyed this book on so many levels. First of all...Kate Jonuska is an amazingly talented writer. She did a beautiful job of making me love (and root for) her very human, very flawed characters. The book kept taking me by surprise; I found myself vacillating between anger, sadness, intrigue, suspense, and laughter. At one point, during an emotional stand-off between the two main characters, I felt shivers run up my spine and realized I was flinching and clenching the book tightly in my hands. It is a powerfully written section that really pulled me in and made me forget where I was. I LOVE when a book does that! Ms. Jonuska was also able to beautifully and effortlessly weave a deeply insightful thread throughout the book...of compassion, transcendence, epiphany, and the beauty of forging unlikely bonds with our fellow human beings. I highly recommend Transference as an intelligent, entertaining, thought-provoking read.
November 10, 2017
If the cover doesn’t get you to pick up this book, then the synopsis will for sure. Transference by Kate Jonuska is the perfect book to read when you feel like maybe you aren’t doing the best in your life, because Dr. Verbenk will make you feel a whole lot better about yourself. Ha, that’s not the only redeeming quality of tis book, either. The writing is flawless, flows well, and gives off a vibe that makes you feel as if you are talking to an old friend.
The lowdown is that Dr. Derek Verbenk has reduced himself to being just a pill pusher, because he can’t seem to get his act together. His moral compass is cracked and he can’t seem to get it back on track. Sleeping with his patients may be the least of his worries, when someone comes into his life and pulls him out of his rut, to take him on a whirlwind adventure that even Verbenk isn’t ready for.
Throughout the book you will find Verbenk unlikeable, unreliable, and down right shameful, but isn’t there time in our lives when we all have been? He’s one of those characters that you want to hate, but you can’t seem to. Even though sometimes you may want to wring his neck, he’s still pretty funny, even when you know you shouldn’t be laughing.
I adored how this book was written, you get such a clear view into the mind of Dr. Verbenk, and how he feels at any given moment. It’s incredible to be inside another persons head, and I love the psychological aspect this book. The characters were clever and kept the story chugging along. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, so funny and quite different than a lot of what I’ve been reading recently. Thank you to the author for sending me this book.
The lowdown is that Dr. Derek Verbenk has reduced himself to being just a pill pusher, because he can’t seem to get his act together. His moral compass is cracked and he can’t seem to get it back on track. Sleeping with his patients may be the least of his worries, when someone comes into his life and pulls him out of his rut, to take him on a whirlwind adventure that even Verbenk isn’t ready for.
Throughout the book you will find Verbenk unlikeable, unreliable, and down right shameful, but isn’t there time in our lives when we all have been? He’s one of those characters that you want to hate, but you can’t seem to. Even though sometimes you may want to wring his neck, he’s still pretty funny, even when you know you shouldn’t be laughing.
I adored how this book was written, you get such a clear view into the mind of Dr. Verbenk, and how he feels at any given moment. It’s incredible to be inside another persons head, and I love the psychological aspect this book. The characters were clever and kept the story chugging along. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, so funny and quite different than a lot of what I’ve been reading recently. Thank you to the author for sending me this book.
January 25, 2019
Transference, by Kate Jonuska, is a deep psychological superhero novel with some serious #MeToo content.
The main protagonist is Dr. Derek Verbenk, a psychiatrist who's got his own issues, and some of them have caught up with him. The rest all catch up too when his newest client is a telepath trying to figure out how to control her new "gift." And she's a senator's wife, to boot.
Having recently written a telepath character myself I really enjoyed seeing it from the mundane's perspective.
Kate masterfully gives us dialog that drips reality and doesn't pull punches. Her characters are richly detailed and thoroughly understood. Their actions and decisions make sense, even when they're bad decisions. And there are some pretty bad decisions!
The story moves along well and I never found it bogged down. The level of detail worked great to bring everything to life and not get in the way of the story. Having worked through my own share of baggage I related with the characters only too well.
The writing and editing were solid and polished. The story is deeply engaging and rarely predictable. The point I most thought it was about to get predictable was a clever twist-within-a-twist. Not a "my head exploded" twist, but a direction change neither character could ever be quite the same afterwards, and one that played out exactly how it should have.
The main protagonist is Dr. Derek Verbenk, a psychiatrist who's got his own issues, and some of them have caught up with him. The rest all catch up too when his newest client is a telepath trying to figure out how to control her new "gift." And she's a senator's wife, to boot.
Having recently written a telepath character myself I really enjoyed seeing it from the mundane's perspective.
Kate masterfully gives us dialog that drips reality and doesn't pull punches. Her characters are richly detailed and thoroughly understood. Their actions and decisions make sense, even when they're bad decisions. And there are some pretty bad decisions!
The story moves along well and I never found it bogged down. The level of detail worked great to bring everything to life and not get in the way of the story. Having worked through my own share of baggage I related with the characters only too well.
The writing and editing were solid and polished. The story is deeply engaging and rarely predictable. The point I most thought it was about to get predictable was a clever twist-within-a-twist. Not a "my head exploded" twist, but a direction change neither character could ever be quite the same afterwards, and one that played out exactly how it should have.
November 18, 2017
Transference is a telepathy tale about a psychiatrist, Derek Verbenk, who has been disgraced. He practices from his home and is almost doing better until a new patient shows up, turning this situation around. With a much-emphasized humorous touch, this novel is light-hearted yet very enjoyable to read.
Besides the humor, the story focuses on mental health, social isolation, and politics, which I found to be a clever touch from the author, it’s always hard to include topics such as the ones mentioned humorously.
I found the cover to certainly reflect the content of the material. The literature was witty, and the pace was suitable for the storyline.
One thing to look out for was also the dark nature of the story. The description was just enough to nurture the imagination, and I enjoyed the way the author used her skills in making the reader bond with the characters. I would have appreciated it more if the work was professionally edited. However, what did exist was a very nicely written story. I recommend this story to people that enjoy literary fiction.
Besides the humor, the story focuses on mental health, social isolation, and politics, which I found to be a clever touch from the author, it’s always hard to include topics such as the ones mentioned humorously.
I found the cover to certainly reflect the content of the material. The literature was witty, and the pace was suitable for the storyline.
One thing to look out for was also the dark nature of the story. The description was just enough to nurture the imagination, and I enjoyed the way the author used her skills in making the reader bond with the characters. I would have appreciated it more if the work was professionally edited. However, what did exist was a very nicely written story. I recommend this story to people that enjoy literary fiction.
July 30, 2017
I received an advance copy of this book. A fun read with harrowing moments, cringe-worthy scenes, and heart-warming ones.
Janet can read minds, don't ask her how and don't worry too much about why. Just enjoy it. The two main characters alternate between annoying and sympathetic, in a good way.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
Janet can read minds, don't ask her how and don't worry too much about why. Just enjoy it. The two main characters alternate between annoying and sympathetic, in a good way.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
November 29, 2017
A fun story with with real world, obsessive, flawed characters. Considering most of the story is told through conversations on a psychiatrist couch, the spoken (and non-spoken) dialog had to be on point, and it was. I enjoyed this quite a bit!
August 2, 2018
You'll get angry, you'll laugh, and you might even cry a bit. It's a great read. I'm looking forward to more from the author.
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