Review of Overload

ciecheesemeister · Post by **ciecheesemeister** » 07 Jul 2021, 09:17

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Overload" by C.S. Jones.]

3 out of 4 stars

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Overload is a short psychological thriller by C.S. Jones. The story focuses on a young woman named Tracy, who is trying to get ready for her day. Tracy has severe anxiety and PTSD due to a fatal auto accident that killed the rest of her family.

This story is appropriate for mature audiences only. Readers who are sensitive to scenes of gore and detailed descriptions of injury would be advised not to read it.

There are a lot of things that the story does right. It is not what I was expecting. It plays on the idea that a person’s worst enemy is often in their own mind. It also examines the idea that untreated or improperly treated anxiety and PTSD can make the person struggling with these conditions feel as if they are irreparably broken and somehow less than human.

I related to Tracy’s struggles. I have complex PTSD and have had periods in my life where I dealt with panic attacks that were so severe that I felt as if I was dying. I have also dealt with self-injury as Tracy does. I sometimes ended up in the emergency room, and when I was sixteen years old, I was hospitalized against my will. Medications did not help, in fact, most of them made the problems worse.

I felt as if the medical professionals saw me as a silly hysterical female looking for attention. My family told me that I needed to just calm down, take the pills even though they exacerbated the problem, and told me to “just stop thinking that way.”

The emergency room staff behaved in a more professional manner than the staff on the psych ward, who treated me like a sub-human creature. My experience on the psych ward was so bad that I made a promise to myself that I would die before I would ever allow myself to be placed in such a situation again, and I have kept that promise to this day.

As an adult, I had to work even though my anxiety was so pronounced that I could hardly function. During the last 15 years of my working life, I was an exemplary employee who rarely called in. The rest of my life was falling apart, and I could barely take care of myself. This is where I found myself really relating to Tracy, who is struggling to pull herself together while her thoughts keep returning to the car accident and to her physical scars.

The main thing that the story does well is creating a realistic, relatable character. Anyone who has ever dealt with anxiety, PTSD, or self-harm will be sympathetic to Tracy. I can’t say enough good things about her.

I am not sure that the story was professionally edited. There were several minor and borderline errors and instances of improper comma usage, such as in this sentence.

“Her father, the driver had died first, immediately upon impact…”

There should be a comma after “the driver.” Thus, “Her father, the driver, had died first, immediately upon impact…”

These issues do not severely detract from the story’s overall readability.

The thing that I liked least about the story was the following sentence:

“At 26 years old, 5’3 and 127 lbs., Tracy would be considered a young, healthy, sexy woman in her prime years of energy and potential… but all she saw when she looked through her mirror was the leftovers of a person’s caged struggle to survive inside a fleshy shell, where chaos swirled constantly, and sanity slipped further away with every day that passed.”

I don’t care about Tracy’s height or weight. I feel that it is best to keep such attributes vague. I also do not feel that it is necessary to describe her as “sexy.” The sentence is awkward and stands out from the rest of the narrative in a negative way.

Rephrasing the paragraph in a similar fashion to the following would allow it to flow seamlessly with the rest of the narrative.

“Tracy was a reasonably attractive 26-year-old woman with a bright mind and a lot of potential, but all she saw when she looked through her mirror was the leftovers of a person’s caged struggle to survive inside a fleshy shell, where chaos swirled constantly, and sanity slipped further away with every day that passed.”

I also question the use of the trope where a person experiencing psychological distress is administered an intramuscular sedative injection against their will. I have never seen this done outside of movies and television, either as a patient or as a healthcare worker. Even in the 1980s during my dreadful psych ward experience, I never saw this happen.

My mother was a nurse who was trained in a psychiatric hospital. She described the staff using shock treatments and placing patients in ice baths. Patients were often overmedicated, but they were not given sedative injections against their will.

Overall, Overload is a well-written story that lands a quick and powerful punch on the reader. It won’t be easily forgotten. In its current form, I rate it three out of four stars.

******
Overload
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NetMassimo · Post by **NetMassimo** » 13 Jul 2021, 10:42

This seems like an intense psychological thriller, though from what you wrote, some bits don't fit particularly well with the story. Thank you for your great review!

Wesusa · Post by **Wesusa** » 13 Jul 2021, 12:56

Wow, this seems really interesting. The cover itself is beautiful as well. Great Job!

derialist · Post by **derialist** » 15 Jul 2021, 15:52

I like that the depiction of the struggles people with anxiety face were real and that it was relatable. Tracy represents a whole demographic of people whose world is not understood by most and it's great that overload gives us a glimpse into their world. This is a nice review. Good job

Black Jewel · Post by **Black Jewel** » 15 Jul 2021, 19:56

From your review, it sounds like this story might send a couple of mixed messages. Yes, this kind of struggle does happen, but perhaps the story is putting out there bad... I'm not sure how to say this... Bad insight on how patients are cared for? If the intramuscular sedative injection is not something done, then it somewhat puts out there a bad vibe. IMO

Khushboo Barwar · Post by **Khushboo Barwar** » 19 Jul 2021, 02:13

A psychological thriller with detailed gore? Well, I'm in! Furthermore I would really like to know how a person with PTSD and severe anxiety deal with these psychological events. Looking forward to reading this.