Reviews

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

leggup's review against another edition

2.0

Interesting plot (a sudden madness!) but terrible writing. She really should have used a ghost writer or third party author. I wanted to shout, "Show, don't tell!" The whole time. Even the pieces that were clearly taken from interviews are flat and boring. "X happened and my dad was scared. Also my mom was scared. Also my boyfriend was scared." The writing quality isn't even decent. Adjectives and adverbs are abused, subjects and verbs are in disagreement, and all of the dialogue seems rehearsed and useless. She very clearly tries to force several "The real turning point..." moments, which is a really lazy way to indicate a turning point. Show me! Don't tell me, "And here is the turning point!"

I think she was too close to the subject matter (obviously).

thepetitepunk's review against another edition

A childhood friend’s mom recommended this to me when I was in middle school, so it was interesting to read it over a decade later—but I’m sure I still would have found this interesting at 13. I watched the movie a few days ago (which apparently people didn’t like, or at least that’s what my 20 seconds of reading Letterboxd reviews told me) and thought it was finally time to read the book.

Definitely an engaging story and even if you aren’t the biggest nonfiction fan, this memoir is an informative, easy read that is written almost like a novel.

✧ ✧ ✧

≪reading 31 books for 31 days of may, 2024≫

╰┈➤ 1. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4999440751">nightbitch by rachel yoder</a>
╰┈➤ 2. brain on fire: my month of madness by susannah cahalan

mad_rob's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

4.5

lermonysnickers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

pindsvin's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

lindsayaunderwood's review against another edition

4.0

This books is fascinating and terrifying all rolled into one. A seemingly normal 20-something woman starts losing her mind after suffering from a mystery disease. Loved hearing about the diagnosis process.

bmstale2's review against another edition

informative fast-paced

4.0

riakul's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

chhhloejean's review against another edition

4.0

Wildly fascinating, read it in less than 24 hours because I needed the mystery to be solved. I thought she did a great job explaining complex concepts and with adding just the right amount of detail to everything. Would recommend if you like medical mysteries and/or the memoir genre.

jeshirley's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0