“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” (post 7) by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Many authors write characters who hear voices in their head, because many authors hear voices in their head.

Celia writes, “And what does it mean that we have not spoken in a decade but I still hear your [Evelyn’s] voice in my head every day?” (1, p. 301).

Evelyn Hugo thinks, “I liked hearing her [Celia’s] voice in my head” (1, p. 305).

Comment: Most people don’t hear voices in their head, but people with multiple personality hear the voices of alternate personalities, which may include alternate personalities copied from persons they know or voices of an author’s characters, who are like alternate personalities when they seem to the author to have minds of their own.

Many authors, like Taylor Jenkins Reid (see quotations above) apparently don’t realize that most people don’t hear voices in their head. Many readers and reviewers—who when they read, just go with the flow—apparently don’t pause to realize it either.

1. Taylor Jenkins Reid. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. New York, Washington Square/Atria, 2017/2018.