Reviews

due to how many "characters" there were, it was rather difficult to differentiate them in the audiobook format. the writing is really nice, the pacing is okay and the story was fascinating. it was difficult to listen to it at times due to the subject matter but I have learned a lot about schizophrenia.

tuckertl's review against another edition

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dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

khaotixkaiya's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.5

jslive's review against another edition

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4.0

"Hidden Valley Road" by Robert Kolker is a great piece of journalism stretching from big-picture scientific research to the world of individual family members in this amazing family stricken by schizophrenia. Could have been 25% shorter (true for 90% of non-fiction).

sallypam's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

sannermatt's review against another edition

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While reading Hidden Valley Road, I think it’s very easy to judge Mimi Galvin for how she raised her children. But I had to ask myself multiple times: if I had 12 children, and half of them were schizophrenic, would I have done any better? It’s easy as an outsider looking in to point out all of the things she should have done differently, but being there in the moment was surely much different. I can’t imagine having to live through that every single day. As a reader, I was able to put this story down any time I wanted to, but for the parents of these children, Mimi most of all, there was no pause button. They were forced to live this story. Every single day.

I empathized with the whole family. No one chose this as their story, yet they were forced to live it, the boys with schizophrenia, and the rest of the family that underwent their abuse, which was so disturbing.

Reading HVR, you almost feel guilty for enjoying the story so much. You don’t enjoy what’s happening in the story, no, of course not, but it’s so engrossing and unbelievable that you can’t put it down. Robert Kolker did a great job telling this story in a respectful way while also weaving in the stories of the researchers who made headway in schizophrenia research.

booksamongstfriends's review against another edition

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4.0

Using stars, I genuinely could not give this book any less than 4. You can tell there’s a lot of care and energy that went into the research and not only the collection of it, but the tender approach in which Kolker handled these families, scientists, researchers, and many more. While there were times I felt like, "Did I really need to know about this person in as much detail?" I also felt Kolker did an amazing job fully explaining the layers of trauma, pain, hope, and science behind those affected with schizophrenia and those who live with people with this condition.

After seeing the docu-series on HBO Max, I wouldn’t necessarily say one is better than the other. The documentaries provide a visual that you can only imagine while reading the book. Plus, in the book, there is a lot of focus on the sisters' relationships, whereas in the show, especially in their older age, you see more of the avoidance from the other unaffected boys.

I would definitely recommend reading the book and watching the show to get a full picture rather than comparing them. Overall, I really enjoyed my read of Hidden Valley Road and the in-depth take it provided on a condition that we still have so much to learn about.

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