lfmp's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Ableism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Death, and Child death
Minor: Transphobia
Discusses aversion “therapy”snchard's review against another edition
2.0
The title and blurb intrigued me, but I was disappointed with the actual content. It was pretty confusing to follow, and the interesting story bits were overshadowed by the lack of narrative clarity.
mattnorthaudio's review against another edition
2.0
I picked this up after succumbing to the blurb on a promo stand in Foyle’s during a visit to London in early June. The book starts off strong but becomes too disjointed, lacking flow. There are lots of interesting stories related to the book’s topic, along with some deep dives into the psychiatry underpinning of the subject but this made it a bit of a slog to get through.
isotobel's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
It was a bit all over the place and not what I expected, but in an interesting way. It worked great as an audiobook, not sure if I would have read the whole thing myself
soapyporridge's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
catsncomics's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. This wasn't at all what I expected it to be.
I was very intrigued at the start of the book, we're told about the Aberfan disaster and the locals who foresaw some part of the tragedy, we then get slowly introduced to John Barker, the creator of the Premonitions Bureau, he led a very interesting life working in various mental institutions and also newspapers as a journalist.
There are a number of fascinating stories throughout the book but I found it to be very disjointed and veered of the main subject an awful lot to the point where i put it down for days on end. I think if the narrative timeline had been more linear, rather than jumping back and forth then I may have been less confused and more inclined to pick it up and finish it sooner.
Ultimately I found it hard to engage with and the topics which would have been interesting we're buried within pages of inconsequential information.
Disappointing as I was really looking forward to enjoying this.
I was very intrigued at the start of the book, we're told about the Aberfan disaster and the locals who foresaw some part of the tragedy, we then get slowly introduced to John Barker, the creator of the Premonitions Bureau, he led a very interesting life working in various mental institutions and also newspapers as a journalist.
There are a number of fascinating stories throughout the book but I found it to be very disjointed and veered of the main subject an awful lot to the point where i put it down for days on end. I think if the narrative timeline had been more linear, rather than jumping back and forth then I may have been less confused and more inclined to pick it up and finish it sooner.
Ultimately I found it hard to engage with and the topics which would have been interesting we're buried within pages of inconsequential information.
Disappointing as I was really looking forward to enjoying this.
ellagrant26's review against another edition
2.0
Well, at least I can say this book has proven that I really don't care about premonitions. It turns out that even if you have them, there's not much you can do to stop them. Who would have thought? I got bored with this book's many tangents and ended up listening to the audiobook at 2x the speed to get it over with.