Reviews

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

lisakerd's review against another edition

5.0

Highly, highly recommended this eloquently narrated memoir to anyone intrigued by psychology, neurology, and the medical sciences. The story reads almost like a mystery novel - attempting to unravel the cause of Cahalan's symptoms. The introspection derived from the story, as to the implications of an upset brain, are sobering.

bibliobrandie's review against another edition

4.0

I really enjoyed this book and was 150 pages into it in no time. Susannah does a great job of taking the reader inside her month of madness and has obviously done her journalistic duties into researching the medical and scientific parts. There were times in the middle that dragged on a bit, maybe too much "will I ever be the same person?" But she ties it all up nicely in the end. We are discussing the book this week at the library's book club and I am interested to see how everyone else liked it.

lorabishop's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

jbabiarz's review against another edition

3.0

A topic I know very little about, was very interesting to read this women's account of spiraling into a compromised mental state. Good mix of personal narrative with more official medical detils.

ultimatekate's review against another edition

4.0

Quick but thorough, this book chronicles one woman's descent into seeming madness. It's scary (how close she came to death, how rapidly she deteriorated) and illuminating (how easily this is misdiagnosed and how many people are affected).

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