Reviews

A Kind of Magic by Anna Spargo-Ryan

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tendercreatures's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

5.0

liv_congdon's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Beautifully written book, I feel grateful to have a window into her world and a better understanding of her particular brand of complex mental illness. Whilst it delays with tough themes, it wasn't really a heavy read (for me) because it's funny at times and hopeful too.

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meganmaurice's review against another edition

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5.0

An incredibly moving and thought-provoking memoir. The writing is so beautifully poetic and woven through with so much emotion. I loved every word!

maddydaisy's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

jaclyn_sixminutesforme's review against another edition

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4.0

“Early on in its manifestation, mental illness is utterly solitary. You do it entirely alone. The first time you crawl into the dark belly of the black dog, the first time you see the world sliding away from you. You have to learn to live with this kind of illness as you go, to identify the signs and work through the outcomes. I think about the young girl who was me and I am heartbroken for her. Looking for the tiny box of comfort, her primitive instinct to hide. Even now, on a really hard day, I will curl into a ball under the table, as though waiting for an earthquake to pass. I think about that girl who was me, screaming in the schoolyard, and wonder if it might have been better to know what was coming.”

A Kind of Magic by Anna Spargo-Ryan @ultimopress #gifted

If you want a beautifully written creative nonfiction that unfurls in an episodic style memoir, you’ll want to pick this up when it is released this week. Spargo-Ryan pens some of the most astute commentary on topics around connection and mental health, there is a bared-soul energy that endeared the writing to me immediately, and I think hit the hardest when it ebbed into these deep reflective pieces.

bek_p87's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

I love Anna Spargo-Ryan's novels (and her Tweets), so it is no surprise that I find her memoir fantastic. But love is not quite the right word for this raw, honest, courageous, beautifully written, visceral description of mental illness. It is confronting and at times hard to read - I had to overcome my knee-jerk reaction of "not all doctors" at some of the retellings of terrible interactions with medical practitioners - but I learned things about myself, and perhaps more importantly, about how to better help my patients. Everyone - but particularly GPs, psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health nurses - should read this book.

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