okiecozyreader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
This was the third Jenny Lawson book I read this summer. I got a copy from her at her bookstore. Her husband came up to me and asked me if I would like her to sign it and that he would get her for me. I didn’t know much about her at the time, but he insisted and she did come and sign it. She told me it was the first in person signing she had done since Covid (fall of 2021). She was lovely and commented on my momadvice shirt, telling me the authors on the shirt she was friends with. After reading her three books (finally) this summer, I wish I could go back to that moment, but since I can’t, I’m grateful for it.
In this one, she goes even deeper into her experiences and troubles with depression and health insurance, treatments and ups and downs. Some of it felt like journal entries sprinkled with her light-hearted ramblings that made me laugh. I ended up listening to much of it on my trip. I have struggled some with anxiety and depression for much of my life, but not to the extent Jenny writes about in this book. If you don’t have the experience, I feel like this might help people understand the suffering some go through. I do think it is courageous for her to tell her stories and read them out loud - I wonder how painful the process really is - reliving the treatments and such. She mentions her family traveling without her bc of her personal pain, and how some treatments have allowed her to finally travel with her daughter. So grateful for that.
The book also has some illustrations and photos scattered throughout. The audio ends with a chapter that tells how she did the audio in her closet during the 2020 lockdown. Both versions are terrific in different ways. I also love the last chapter about the cover illustration:
“… I’ve never seen a collection of art that more perfectly encapsulates how I felt about my own battle with depression and anxiety and the monsters in my head.
My personal beasties are ugly and ridiculous and they weigh me down and are exhausting to carry around. Sometimes it feels like they are larger than I am…
…
And yet, there is something wonderful in embracing the peculiar and extraordinary monsters that make us unique.” P281, 282
In this one, she goes even deeper into her experiences and troubles with depression and health insurance, treatments and ups and downs. Some of it felt like journal entries sprinkled with her light-hearted ramblings that made me laugh. I ended up listening to much of it on my trip. I have struggled some with anxiety and depression for much of my life, but not to the extent Jenny writes about in this book. If you don’t have the experience, I feel like this might help people understand the suffering some go through. I do think it is courageous for her to tell her stories and read them out loud - I wonder how painful the process really is - reliving the treatments and such. She mentions her family traveling without her bc of her personal pain, and how some treatments have allowed her to finally travel with her daughter. So grateful for that.
The book also has some illustrations and photos scattered throughout. The audio ends with a chapter that tells how she did the audio in her closet during the 2020 lockdown. Both versions are terrific in different ways. I also love the last chapter about the cover illustration:
“… I’ve never seen a collection of art that more perfectly encapsulates how I felt about my own battle with depression and anxiety and the monsters in my head.
My personal beasties are ugly and ridiculous and they weigh me down and are exhausting to carry around. Sometimes it feels like they are larger than I am…
…
And yet, there is something wonderful in embracing the peculiar and extraordinary monsters that make us unique.” P281, 282
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma
irisameliareads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Chronic illness, Dementia, and Medical trauma
kristyderp's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I won't rate this since it is a memoir.
It's my first experience with this author, and I listened to the audiobook on Libby.
This book is oriented with serious and emotional chapters interlaced with silly comedic chapters. I really liked and related to the honest, vulnerable parts about mental illness, especially depression and anxiety, and learning to live with your demons. The humor was hit or miss for me; some of the situations were pretty funny, but sometimes the jokes were a little long winded. The final chapter of the book was a really nice metaphor and I listened to it twice so I can hold on to it and remember it.
It's my first experience with this author, and I listened to the audiobook on Libby.
This book is oriented with serious and emotional chapters interlaced with silly comedic chapters. I really liked and related to the honest, vulnerable parts about mental illness, especially depression and anxiety, and learning to live with your demons. The humor was hit or miss for me; some of the situations were pretty funny, but sometimes the jokes were a little long winded. The final chapter of the book was a really nice metaphor and I listened to it twice so I can hold on to it and remember it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Excrement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Chronic illness, and Cursing
qrschulte's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
This book is just as enjoyable and funny as her first two, but boy was it also soooo sad at parts. Highly recommend the audiobook, read by Lawson herself. And to anyone who says our healthcare system is fine and doesn’t need reform, I request you read Chapter 9: An Open Letter to My Insurance Company, and then tell me the US HAS a really great system. A favorite quote from the book: “If simple words fixed terrible things, then terrible things wouldn’t exist.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Dementia, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Blood, Animal death, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Gore
kelly_e's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
3.25
Title: Broken (In the Best Possible Way)
Author: Jenny Lawson
Genre: Non Fiction Humour
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: April 6, 2021
T H R E E • W O R D S
Relatable • Unscripted • Vulnerable
📖 S Y N O P S I S
In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.
With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Broken is my first experience reading Jenny Lawson, despite this being her third book and I was left with very mixed thoughts upon finishing it.
On the one hand, I absolutely love the focus on mental illness, and some of the chapters felt so thought=provoking and validating. She definitely gets real, humanizing mental illness, and that's where the value of this book lies. She talks candidly about how difficult is it to get appropriate care and treatment, while also acknowledging her own privilege on that front. The difficulty of receiving proper care is in part where the shame and stigma stem from.
And on the other hand, her humour and oversharing just didn't work for me. As someone who also deals with anxiety and depression, I found the self-deprecating to be too much. I know it's the lived reality, but it was extremely difficult to read. Lastly, the writing definitely felt disjointed, which was maybe the intent, but the lack of flow made the whole experience less than enjoyable.
I took away some extremely validating quotes, and while some parts were 5 stars, unfortunately others were completely unnecessary. Broken is certainly a deep dive into the workings of her mind, and is a valuable addition to mental illness literature.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• people dealing with mental illness
• mental health professionals
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Forgive yourself. For being broken. For being you. For thinking those are things that you need forgiveness for."
"Nothing lasts forever. The good and the bad."
"You can't fight severe mental illness without mental health programs. Without therapy, medication, and outreach. We rely on these to keep us going - to save us from ourselves. Out families rely on them to help us and to protect the world from us. But actually getting help has been [and continues to be] the most difficult, unrewarding, shame-inducing, and unending project I have ever undertaken in my entire life.
It's hard. You give up. you give up fighting for treatment. Sometimes you give up your treatment altogether. Sometimes you give up on living.
I worked with doctors and the TMS people and submitted appeal after appeal. I fought with my insurance company. I finally submitted a letter to them. It's the one from two chapters back. And then it was approved. I'm not sure why. Maybe they just have up on fighting me. If I could have cried I would have, but I was too numb. I still had to pay a lot of it, but it helped.
And I'm lucky. I have support and insurance and a voice and money to buy the medication and treatment that isn't provided to me. What about those who don't have those things? We fail them. We fail ourselves. They are our children and our coworkers and our parents and the homeless person on the street and the boy who will marry your child and the girl who will save your life. They are the insurance clerks I speak with who tell me they deal with the same problems. They are us.
If you've dealt with this bullshit and you're still around, I salute you. It is hard and embarrassing and makes me furious. You deserve better. We all do. End rant."
"Sometimes the people you love leave you even when they don't want to and you shatter into pieces. You may not be able to find all of those pieces again because when they left they took a few with them. It hurts, but the pain eventually becomes bearable and even sacred because it's how you carry the people you've lost with you. And if you're lucky you can one day see that the hollow spots you carry are in the shape of their face or their hands or the love they gave you. Those holes ache, but they are a monument to the lost, a traveling sacred place to honor them and remind you of how to love enough to leave your own marks on others."
Author: Jenny Lawson
Genre: Non Fiction Humour
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: April 6, 2021
T H R E E • W O R D S
Relatable • Unscripted • Vulnerable
📖 S Y N O P S I S
In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.
With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Broken is my first experience reading Jenny Lawson, despite this being her third book and I was left with very mixed thoughts upon finishing it.
On the one hand, I absolutely love the focus on mental illness, and some of the chapters felt so thought=provoking and validating. She definitely gets real, humanizing mental illness, and that's where the value of this book lies. She talks candidly about how difficult is it to get appropriate care and treatment, while also acknowledging her own privilege on that front. The difficulty of receiving proper care is in part where the shame and stigma stem from.
And on the other hand, her humour and oversharing just didn't work for me. As someone who also deals with anxiety and depression, I found the self-deprecating to be too much. I know it's the lived reality, but it was extremely difficult to read. Lastly, the writing definitely felt disjointed, which was maybe the intent, but the lack of flow made the whole experience less than enjoyable.
I took away some extremely validating quotes, and while some parts were 5 stars, unfortunately others were completely unnecessary. Broken is certainly a deep dive into the workings of her mind, and is a valuable addition to mental illness literature.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• people dealing with mental illness
• mental health professionals
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Forgive yourself. For being broken. For being you. For thinking those are things that you need forgiveness for."
"Nothing lasts forever. The good and the bad."
"You can't fight severe mental illness without mental health programs. Without therapy, medication, and outreach. We rely on these to keep us going - to save us from ourselves. Out families rely on them to help us and to protect the world from us. But actually getting help has been [and continues to be] the most difficult, unrewarding, shame-inducing, and unending project I have ever undertaken in my entire life.
It's hard. You give up. you give up fighting for treatment. Sometimes you give up your treatment altogether. Sometimes you give up on living.
I worked with doctors and the TMS people and submitted appeal after appeal. I fought with my insurance company. I finally submitted a letter to them. It's the one from two chapters back. And then it was approved. I'm not sure why. Maybe they just have up on fighting me. If I could have cried I would have, but I was too numb. I still had to pay a lot of it, but it helped.
And I'm lucky. I have support and insurance and a voice and money to buy the medication and treatment that isn't provided to me. What about those who don't have those things? We fail them. We fail ourselves. They are our children and our coworkers and our parents and the homeless person on the street and the boy who will marry your child and the girl who will save your life. They are the insurance clerks I speak with who tell me they deal with the same problems. They are us.
If you've dealt with this bullshit and you're still around, I salute you. It is hard and embarrassing and makes me furious. You deserve better. We all do. End rant."
"Sometimes the people you love leave you even when they don't want to and you shatter into pieces. You may not be able to find all of those pieces again because when they left they took a few with them. It hurts, but the pain eventually becomes bearable and even sacred because it's how you carry the people you've lost with you. And if you're lucky you can one day see that the hollow spots you carry are in the shape of their face or their hands or the love they gave you. Those holes ache, but they are a monument to the lost, a traveling sacred place to honor them and remind you of how to love enough to leave your own marks on others."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Fatphobia, Medical content, Ableism, Excrement, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Cursing
Minor: Dementia
depression, anxietyjess_y's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Chronic illness
conspiracy's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
3.0
Sometimes very funny, sometimes a little obnoxious for my taste. The ridiculous chapters are interspersed with more serious ones about the author's experience with depression, anxiety, and chronic illness. I laughed out loud and teared up at various points throughout the book, so I guess it achieved what it set out to do. Would recommend the audiobook as it is wonderfully narrated by the author.
However, there was decidedly too much talk about animal genitals.
However, there was decidedly too much talk about animal genitals.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
jpbacik's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Cursing
Moderate: Cursing, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol
Jenny Lawson is the best. While I've adored every book of hers, this one is especially funny, poignant, relatable, and beautiful.alysereadsbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
wasn’t sure what to expect but this audiobook had great reviews on audible and it did not disappoint. It was so funny and wonderfully weird. I connected with a lot of her experiences on mental health and I appreciated her being so open about her journey. She also describes well what it’s like to live with invisible disabilities and the fight for mental and general healthcare as a disabled person. It was funny and so much fun to listen to!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Mental illness, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Medical content and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Ableism and Self harm
nadia's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I didn't fully connect with Jenny Lawson in this, nor find funny most of the parts that I was meant to. The humour mostly didn't work for me. The book did grow on me a lot over time and there were some interesting and engaging parts but I mostly found myself struggling to stay focused!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Chronic illness