“Pretty Girls” by Karin Slaughter: “It was almost like Claire was two different people,” one who loved her husband and one who knew he was a monster

The cover of this violent thriller by bestselling author Karin Slaughter has laudatory blurbs by Lee Child and Gillian Flynn, both of whom I have previously discussed. And like the characters of Child and Flynn, suggestions of multiple personality in Slaughter’s characters are unacknowledged, and may be present only because they reflect the author’s own psychology.

Claire, the main character, is the youngest of three sisters, just like the author is in real life, a similarity highlighted by Karin Slaughter, herself, in several published interviews.

Claire’s “inhospitable womb”

Early in the novel, when Claire was in love with her husband (whom she understood to have been an orphaned, only child):

“Her husband had made it clear that he wanted a big family. He wanted lots and lots of kids to inoculate him against loss, and Claire had tried and tried with him until finally she had agreed to go see a fertility expert who had informed Claire that she couldn’t have children because she had an IUD and was taking birth control pills. Of course Claire hadn’t shared that information with Paul. She had told her husband that the doctor had diagnosed her with something called ‘an inhospitable womb’ ” (1, pp. 45-46).

Had Claire been trying to deceive her husband? At this early point in the novel, the text does not give her a reason. Moreover, if Claire had known that she had an IUD and was taking birth control pills, why did she go to the fertility expert, and why didn’t her husband find out the truth, since he is portrayed as extremely attentive and intrusive to the details of her life?

If the reader stops to think about it, this is a very puzzling incident, which raises the question of whether Claire had one personality who wanted to get pregnant, but another personality who did not. And if her husband did not find out what she was doing to prevent pregnancy, it might be testimony to the extreme secretiveness of alternate personalities.

A hundred pages later, Claire’s sister has a similar hypothesis: “Lydia wondered if her sister knew how light her voice sounded when she talked about her life with Paul. It was almost like Claire was two different people—the woman who loved and believed in her husband and the woman who knew he was a monster” (1, p. 147).

Claire Compartmentalized

Back when Claire was in college, “She was remarkably adept at compartmentalizing everyone in her life. Her townie friends never met her college friends. Her cheerleading friends never mixed with her track club friends, and hardly anyone knew she was on the tennis team. None of them would’ve ever guessed she was sleeping around. Especially whichever man she was dating at the time” (1, p. 149).

Undiagnosed multiple personality may be described as compartmentalization.

Claire’s Mysterious Emotions

In multiple personality, the regular personality may sometimes be puzzled when it acts on, or experiences, the emotions—e.g., anger or sadness—from one of its alternate personalities.

“Lydia asked [her sister Claire], ‘What did you say?’

“ ‘I didn’t say anything at first. I was too angry. But I didn’t know I was angry, you know?’

“Lydia shook her head, because she always knew when she was angry” (1, p. 138).

“Claire’s cheeks were wet. She was crying. Why was she crying?…She touched her fingers to her face. The tears were real. How could that be?…She was still crying. This was crazy. She wasn’t in mourning. Why was she crying?” (1, pp. 302-304).

Concluding Comment

In several published interviews about Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter highlights the fact that she is the youngest of three sisters, just like Claire, her main character. This would not imply that what happens to the character, or what the character does, has happened to, or has been done by, the author, but it would suggest psychological similarities.

In short, Pretty Girls has unacknowledged indications of multiple personality, a condition which is not required by the plot, but gives the novel psychological depth, and may reflect a trait of the author.

1. Karin Slaughter. Pretty Girls. New York, William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2015.