INSIDE OUT
Terry Trueman
HarperTempest
Fiction
ISBN: 0066239621
128 pages

"Long gong…barrelcracker… barrel…barrel o'monkeys…wong-gong."

"Time…grime…pantomime…long-gone wong-gong is a wong-gone long gong…"

These words may seem strange and convoluted to you, but Zach Wahhsted hears them in his mind day in and day out. Zach has schizophrenia, which causes him to hear voices. He finds that if he takes all of his medication on time, the voices go away and he has fewer problems getting through the day.

All Zach wants is a maple bar as he waits at the local coffee shop for his mother to bring him his meds. But before she can deliver them, Zach finds himself a hostage in the middle of a holdup gone wrong. The longer he goes without his medication, the more difficult a time he has keeping in touch with reality.

Hours after he is supposed to receive his medication, Zach agrees to stay behind as a hostage while the boys he calls Frosty and Stormy let everyone else in the coffee shop go free as part of a deal with the police. Reality begins to slip away, and the voices in Zach's head grow louder as he tries to stay alive and get out of this mess.

Complex and chilling, Terry Trueman's picture of a schizophrenic's mind alternates between lucid and hallucinogenic. Often, the reader's feelings towards Zach are as confused as Zach's thoughts. Every word in this small book is powerful and gripping. Don't be surprised if you find yourself out of breath at the end.

   --- Reviewed by Carlie Kraft Webber

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