Donna Hill, In My Bedroom Review

Overall Rating

In My Bedroom
Donna Hill
St. Martin's, Jan 2004, $19.95, 272 pp.
ISBN: 0312281935

Rayne Holland lives the perfect life. Her husband Paul adores her and their daughter Desiree loves her. On the professional front, her fourth film documentation is garnering all the awards. However, inside the fa ade, Rayne hides a dark secret, a place where she mentally vanishes when she fears something. Neither Paul nor her best friend Gayle Davis realizes how Rayne vanishes in plain sight.

On the drive home from her latest award, Rayne informs Paul that she knows about his affair with Gayle. She understands why he would look elsewhere though she is angry at Gayle for being promiscuous with her husband. As Paul insists he loves her, a head-on collision occurs that kills Paul and Desiree. Six months later Rayne totally hides inside herself with only her sighs telling her psychiatrist Dr. Pauline Dennis that she is listening to the world around her. Pauline has her own problems, but wants to help Rayne recover. Also at her side is Gayle who risks her marriage to aid her best friend, but the only emotion displayed by Rayne is hatred towards her.

IN MY BEDROOM is a tremendous look at three people in varying stages of crippling mental prisons. Especially gripping to the audience is whether Rayne will leave her sanctuary she has parked her mind in. The lead trio rings true while the support cast including the deceased Paul enables the audience to look even deeper at predominantly Rayne, but to a lesser degree Gayle and Pauline. The angst level is beyond the stratosphere as readers feel the pain of the prime players and admire how Donna Hill invokes deep reactions from her audience.

Harriet Klausner