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novella42's review against another edition
I adored her essay / letter to the health insurance system. This is such a good book, and I think it's sadly beyond my capacity to handle. There's just a lot of things in it that hit my personal traumas. I tried skipping chapters, tried powering through, and finally accepted that it would be kinder to my mental health to not read this particular book on mental health. I lau hed aloud at many points, though, and I can think of half a dozen people who would love this and not have the same issues with it that I did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
caitlancole's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
Not my brand of humor, but I related to her mental health struggles and found many of those reflections well put and poignant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Excrement
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
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, Chronic illness, Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, and Alcohol
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: Animal death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol
Minor: Gore and Fire/Fire injury
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: Ableism, Cursing, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, and Medical content
Minor: Dementia
depression, anxietykb_sherman's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Medical content, and Dementia
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, and Vomit
caseythereader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
- I've been reading Jenny Lawson's writing for over a decade now. She's always been able to bounce between the absurd with the serious, and to find the absurdities within the serious things.
- She writes so clearly about what it's like to live with depression and anxiety, and how those conditions can so easily swallow your entire life - even when you're on the other side of it and are dealing with the financial and social fallout.
- Much less taxidermy in this book than previous books, just a heads up in case that's the reason you love her, lol.
- She writes so clearly about what it's like to live with depression and anxiety, and how those conditions can so easily swallow your entire life - even when you're on the other side of it and are dealing with the financial and social fallout.
- Much less taxidermy in this book than previous books, just a heads up in case that's the reason you love her, lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent