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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Drug use, Abortion, Alcohol
Interesting book if you’re a nerdy neuroscience person like me! Author makes the science very approachable and digestible. The ended seemed sudden.
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
"It is about rediscovering the humanity in their own brothers, people who most of the world had decided were all but worthless. It is about, even after the worst has happened in virtually every imaginable way, finding a new way to understand what it means to be a family."
Hidden Valley Road is a gripping read about the tragic history of a family. Confronted with schizophrenia at a time when mental illnesses were not researched enough to be met with the right treatment, the Galvins had to endure this illness ripping apart their family without any help or support.
"For the chronically mentally ill, success had been defined down to a point where it was starting to look a lot like failure."
This book was brilliantly structured. The progress made in researching schizophrenia interwoven with the family's deteriorating state made the book unputdownable. Seeing how not only the sick children but also the healthy ones were fundamentally influenced and changed by this illness was hard to read at times. Those were boys with raw potential, crippled and caged by an illness no one knew how to help them with.
"To be a member of the Galvin family is to never stop tripping on land mines of family history, buried in odd places, stashed away out of shame."
Hidden Valley Road is a gripping read about the tragic history of a family. Confronted with schizophrenia at a time when mental illnesses were not researched enough to be met with the right treatment, the Galvins had to endure this illness ripping apart their family without any help or support.
"For the chronically mentally ill, success had been defined down to a point where it was starting to look a lot like failure."
This book was brilliantly structured. The progress made in researching schizophrenia interwoven with the family's deteriorating state made the book unputdownable. Seeing how not only the sick children but also the healthy ones were fundamentally influenced and changed by this illness was hard to read at times. Those were boys with raw potential, crippled and caged by an illness no one knew how to help them with.
"To be a member of the Galvin family is to never stop tripping on land mines of family history, buried in odd places, stashed away out of shame."
Riveting. Heartbreaking. Eye-opening. Perspective-shifting. Nonfiction, but reads like fiction. About a family where 6 of the 12 children are diagnosed with schizophrenia.
This needed a better editor; starts off well enough but around half way flails around trying to fill chapters. The drug research and the experiences of the family read as if they’re separate to one another rather than a combined powerful personal narrative. The final chapters really struggle for relevance and feel like padding, they read very simplistically...repetitive and gossipy. I skimmed through them as they didn’t offer anything additional to the rest of the book. Huge drug corporations control the outcome of personal health against profit and mental health research and facilities are not funded enough by governments to offer dependable alternatives or support. It’s an extremely sad family experience but I didn’t feel like this book offered much new insight, instead it relies on the shock factor of someone having 12 kids, 6 with mental health issues. The mother seemed self absorbed, irresponsible...sacrificing her family’s well being to social standing. Both parents made ludicrous decisions; 12 children they couldn’t afford to support and nurture adequately, they didn’t appear invested in half of them, favouring some over others. Reading the last 80 pages really felt like a chore.
challenging
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder
Minor: Infidelity