Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

20 reviews

readingpicnic's review

5.0

This is such a devastating book, but I’m so glad it exists. The compassionate approach that the author takes towards severe mental illness and the honest thought processes of working towards this view is a point of view I don’t see very often. This book really hit hard as someone who has a lot of mental illness in my own family from both sides, but especially my mom’s side since her brother committed s*icide when she was in high school. I beg you to check the trigger warnings for this book, especially if you’ve lost (or almost lost) someone close to you to s*icide or dealt with s*icidal thoughts yourself, but it is so well written and has incredible narration from the author. The advice for living with the grief of losing someone in this way was very helpful I think, as this book was very well researched due to the author being a journalist who wrote extensively on how the mentally ill are treated in the US, but also contains personal advice on living with grief from some of her living siblings and people she connected with during her lifetime of research. I’m so glad I picked this up; thank you for the recommendation @bridgetish, this is why you’re my favorite booktoker.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Minor: Eating disorder and Pedophilia

faithcantread's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, and Alcohol

nialystic's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

tonya_barr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

mnholden's review

emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

canngrob's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Abortion

hellokaley's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

2.5

This memoir is raw and does not skirt around mental illness and the impact when left untreated and unsupported. The way this was written combined the story of the author’s family in with historical facts and details of some of the articles she has written on the topic. Although I found the history of mental health in America details to be really interesting, I found most of the memoir to be painfully detailed and long. There were so many characters and I felt the level of detail and random stories didn’t connect well into the plot. I almost DNFed at 80%, but carried on. 

There were parts of the story that I’ll think about and many things that resonated, but all in all, I think it desperately needed editing and I wish it were 3-4 hours shorter. This won’t be one I will personally recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

katreena's review

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Very raw! 
This memoir explorers a lot of the uncomfortable feelings that people don't talk about having when in a mentally ill family. The author doesn't sugarcoat suicide and shows the real emotions for multiple sides. The author is a journalist so it's very well written and informative sections. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Alcohol

basicmeb_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Thank you to Meg Kissinger for this inspiring memories that dove into your personal life. 
WYWO offered so much wisdom and information through both personal stories and use of investigative journalism that I could only assume to be mentally and physically exhausting. This was everything I needed to read to love my family and will be recommending to everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Suicide, and Antisemitism

jeannine_'s review

3.5

I listened to the audio book over the last two weeks, which is read by the author.  This is an intimate memoir that is centered around the Kissinger family: a large Catholic family in the Midwest. 

The first half of the book is the story of their family- how the parents met, the many kids and their early life, the parenting style, or at times, lack thereof. And, the way mental health challenges greatly affected their family. This includes multiple instances of death by suicide and most of the family members dealing with bipolar disorder, depression, and definitely (imo) PTSD. These traumatic incidents are compounded by the fact this all took place in what I think was the 60’s; the surviving children and parents didn’t talk about any of it, no one received therapy, and basically, barely acknowledged the trauma. It was a stuff-it-under-the-rug approach. Which, clearly didn’t help anyone, but, is also indicative of the cultural and societal approach at that time.  

I found the first half-ish of the book (it’s a little more than the first half, maybe more like 65%) very interesting and engaging, and despite being a sad story, somehow not depressing at all. I appreciated the opportunity to learn about her and her family’s experiences. 

The second half (minus the last chapter) though, really lost me. I mean it took this book for me from an almost-five-star to me repeatedly thinking “this is dragging, how much is left?” It just went too in the weeds and I think could have been edited to be more concise.   I would have enjoyed this more overall  had the book stuck to telling her family’s story more (including the present day, which is in the last chapter and I enjoyed) and the presentation of available mental health resources less. . Especially since much of this was outlining what was available in the past, and even the author acknowledges that today’s mental health climate is much different and better (still with a lot of room to grow). 

So- overall, 3.5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent