Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

113 reviews

nicoleanthony's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Suicide, Death, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

nirellis's review against another edition

dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

Really interesting. I advise for anyone who’s planning to read this book to mentally be in a place  where they can handle heavy topics and traumatic situations. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Suicide, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Eating disorder

themissyreads's review against another edition

dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

Its funny that the main issue i have with the book is that, for a memoir, I came away without a clear idea of who Kaysen is, and so had difficulty connecting to the main character. It’s ironic because her diagnosis is borderline personality disorder, and one of the chief aspects is ‘instability of self-image and relationships’ so in this way the book is a reflection of someone living with the disorder. It was fascinating to see a 1960s pre-healthcare reform adolescent psych ward. I’d read about adolescent inpatient experiences in ‘Suicide notes’ and ‘It’s kind of a funny story’ which are certainly influenced by Girl, Interrupted but differ widely simply by the time frame represented by the inpatient care nowadays. No one gets locked up for years on end in a mental hospital nowadays unless they have already been arrested for a violent felony. People struggle to get care when they’re actively suicidal because there just arent enough providers to go around. Im certain there werent enough providers back then either, they just got locked up without care. The hospital depicted is a high-end facility, and the book definitely shows the experience of more priviliged patients, who have families who can pay for their care. An inside profile of underfunded state or charitable facilities would have been much darker…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide

madisbookshelf's review against another edition

emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

 I've said it before and I'll say it again, one hug from Susanna Kaysen could fix everything broken inside me.
"Girl, Interrupted" by Susanna Kaysen is a memoir based on her stay 18-month stay at the infamous McLean Psychiatric Hospital. From the mouth of Susanna herself, we hear of her and her fellow patients' experiences as psychiatric patients in the 1960s.
Before reading this memoir, I had never related to an author so deeply. As someone who was also hospitalized in a psychiatric facility as a teenager, I found myself relating to almost every little piece of Susanna's experience. Susanna has a way of taking complex memories and turning them into something that everyone can understand and relate to in some way that I find to be so beautiful. After completing this memoir, I feel that the young "psycho" girl inside me that was once hospitalized has finally been heard by somebody, and for that, I will always be thankful <3.
Although I personally hate rating memoirs (who am I to rate someone else's life experiences? lol), I have to give "Girl, Interrupted" five stars.
Thank you Susanna for being the queen of us mentally ill teen girls. We love you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Self harm

cleo_j's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Mental illness, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

meikesbieb's review against another edition

dark hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Suicide

themadbloodstone's review against another edition

reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Confinement

hannaashaffer's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

this was amazing. i loved this so much, i haven’t seen the whole movie but it definitely gave me a perception of what the book would be like but it was completely different, don’t expect a narrative story with a straight timeline. it is a collection of thoughts that the author has written 30 years after the experience with a better understanding of herself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Self harm

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Drug use, Addiction, Blood, Suicide, Abandonment, and Suicide attempt

sammilynnebob's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Addiction

mackinley's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Self harm