A review by kellymat77
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

5.0

This book is a unique semi-autobiographical piece of fiction about a young girl being treated for schizophrenia. While reading, I was as fascinated by the story itself as I was by the story of how the book came to be. Greenberg based the book on her own experiences in a mental hospital coping with schizophrenia at a young age, and that fact gives the book a lot of dimension and weight. It has beautiful, intelligent prose and switches perspectives between the protagonist, Deborah, and her parents and doctors. It’s a very compelling read. I want to say it’s a brilliant example of the unreliable narrator genre, but it doesn’t really fit, because Deborah’s entire conflict in the book is against her own reliability. It’s a dense, heavy read but the story is so genuine and personal that I didn’t mind. Definitely a memorable book.