jonbot666's review
5.0
This was an enlightening read and resonated for personal reasons. It reminded me of my brother and his mental health issues and how we treat people with diagnoses of anything close to schizophrenic. I cannot stop thinking about this book and how important it truly is.
ficklefever's review
2.0
a little strange - part academic, part anecdotal, i couldn't fully get into the tone of these essays. something about the way the author serialized her personal experiences felt hokey to me. still, the subject matter is an important one and fascinating to read about, even if the egotism was off-putting. (but is that just symptomatic of her disorder?)
inthebelljar's review
5.0
Probably one of my favorite essay collections. As someone who deals with chronic physical and mental health issues (even if not the same ones), a lot of the topics really hit close to home and even when they didn't (and sometimes when they did), I feel like Wang provided really important insights and perspectives to mental and physical health. And what it means to be considered high-functioning, to the strange invisible hierarchy of mental illness while hospitalized, and to how mental illness is treated by both those who are not and those who are also mentally ill. This wasn't light reading and Wang doesn't necessarily try to give answers to the questions posed, but for me that only made this that much more important to read.
rachelb36's review
3.0
I've only known one person with schizophrenia, (an acquaintance, and it was years ago) so I didn't quite have a way to tie what I was reading to an experience in my real life. For that reason, this book didn't resonate with me as much as I was hoping. I did particularly like the chapter where she discusses her late-stage Lyme disease diagnosis as I also have Lyme.
It was an interesting read overall, though, and I did learn a few things. I would recommend it to those who have been diagnosed with one of the schizophrenias or know someone who has.
It was an interesting read overall, though, and I did learn a few things. I would recommend it to those who have been diagnosed with one of the schizophrenias or know someone who has.
everything_was_beautiful's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0