BOOK REVIEW: The Girl in the Green Dress
“…when I look back at my life I could easily see it as a sad life, horror but it’s not actually a horror story, in many ways my story is a love story, it’s a story of self-love and self-care and thinking about myself in a way that isn’t selfish in the way that we perceive selfish to be a negative thing but being aware of myself and what I needed and being able to provide it for myself…” – Jeni Haynes in her author talk with the National Library of Australia
This book was a page turner in both the worst and best ways. Beautifully written, The Girl in the Green Dress is a harrowing tale of how Jeni Haynes’ MPD saved her life and how incredibly difficult and re-traumatizing it can be to engage with the legal system as a victim of abuse, and presents the brutal reality of familial abuse and the way abusers are able to isolate their victims – trapping them in the cycle of abuse with seemingly nowhere to turn. This book is not an easy read in terms of the topics it covers, Haynes takes steps to protect the reader by ensuring that particularly confronting accounts are starred with a point to skip to if the reader is not feeling up to it, but ultimately The Girl in the Green Dress is her first opportunity to wholly speak on the abuse that she suffered throughout her life and as stated by Haynes herself, despite all of the horrific accounts in the book, this is her love story and I agree with this. This book is an ode to herself, her strength, to the protection afforded to her by her alters – who you will also hear from in the book. As a reader, I also had the absolute pleasure of being able to feel immense pride and satisfaction for Jeni, as she becomes the first person in the world whose alters are allowed to testify in court and shows the world and her abuser just how strong she is after a decade of waiting for the charges and trial that culminate in her father’s imprisonment for 45 years.
Whilst I enjoyed the collaboration with George Blair-West and believe that his medical insight was invaluable, I’m not entirely sure that I enjoyed the way that it was woven into the book. In saying this, I also can’t think of a better way that this information could have been integrated. The integration of these parts of the book are clearly labelled as well, however, so if you’re someone who wants to come back to all of the information at the end or wants to skip it entirely that’s also possible.
Between Haynes’ account of her life and the commentary and information provided by Blair-West, this book is likely to be quite confronting to readers for a number of reasons. In the first instance, reading detailed accounts of horrific abuse is confronting in and of itself. Following on from that, if you are someone who has experience with abuse or the failures of the legal system then the content in this book is very possibly going to be triggering for you. Additionally, Blair-West provides context and information on a range of issues and experiences in relation not only specifically those who have MPD/DID, but also of the impacts of a range of experiences such as abuse, neglect, favoritism and more have on an individual and this may also be confronting for you if you have experienced any of these behaviours.
Despite – and because of – the confronting information in The Girl in the Green Dress, I’d recommend it to anybody who is able to read it whilst also maintaining their own mental health. If you need to put the book down and step away for a while, if you need to check in with your own mental health practitioner or support network then do so. Stories such as the one shared by Jeni Haynes are important for so many reasons, when people share their stories and vulnerabilities it’s a privilege and an honour for us as readers to be able to consume their literature and learn about ways that we can create positive change in the world and understand the experiences of others.
