The Flatshare

Content Warning: The source text and this guide include discussion of emotional abuse and manipulative behavior in relationships.

The amount of patience, work, and time required to recover from emotional abuse is an important theme in The Flatshare. At the beginning of the novel, Tiffy has barely begun the process: She is in denial that what she went through was abuse at all, even after supportive friends name it as such. It takes time, support from her friends, and professional therapy for her to work out and understand the damage that Justin did to her self-esteem and sense of physical safety.

For months after their breakup, Tiffy experiences flashbacks and memories of his mistreatment—she calls these “rememberings” at first—that she had forgotten or repressed. These flashbacks confuse her at first, especially because they affect her physically as well as emotionally: “It’s very hard to describe this feeling. Panic, perhaps, but then I’m completely immobile and feel strangely passive” (237). Every time she gets closing to having an intimate physical relationship with another man, her body freezes out of self-preservation. Through her interactions with her friends and later a therapist, Lucie, all of whom point out Justin’s abuse frankly and frequently and validate Tiffy’s feelings, she realizes that she is not actually stupid, forgetful, and bad at figuring out directions; Justin just made her feel that way so she’d think she needed him.