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fangslibris's review
4.0
I could probably say a lot of things about this book, but mostly it just made me feel less alone and that I might get better someday too.
rosalie362819's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Favourite quotes:
“If the terms of my reality are negotiable, well, I will be rigid.”
“After these fights I cry loudly in my room. I want to be left alone. I also want him to hear me and come in and apologize.”
“I want to touch nothing and no one. I want to live under nobody’s roof and nobody’s rules, to be irresponsible, unaccountable. Gone.”
“This is the single coolest moment of my career. It feels unreal. It feels incredible. I’m surprised that every problem in my life is not immediately solved.”
“At this point it should be clear that I do not KNOW when I KNOW. Neither do you. You may know when you’re confident enough about a decision you’ve made that you aren’t going to waste time ruminating on alternate universes where you made a different choice. If so, you have my sincerest congratulations and also fuck you.”
“I’ve held on tightly to my world. I’ve checked, washed, scrutinized, ruminated, sought reassurance, and avoided. I’ve been functional, more or less.“
“I’m convinced this is how I die. Or, not die, exactly. It’s more like a feeling that some unnameable, terrible thing is going to happen, and I can’t exist after it happens. It’s not exactly death and it’s not exactly pain, because those are nightmares that I can understand. It’s somewhere inside me threatening to come out.”
“It’s not that I need to be anxious to make art, but that the way my thoughts spiral can lead me toward creative conclusions and anxious ones. My tendency is to forget where reality ends and imagination takes over. This helps me live in a world of fictional characters. These characters refer back to my own experiences, but break the laws of my reality.”
bickie's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Heart-breaking and at times laugh-out-loud funny, this memoir is a great insight into one person's experience with OCD from childhood to adulthood. Ends on a hopeful note.