Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

14 reviews

haileyeh's review

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Drug use, and Infidelity

Minor: Abortion

sierrah_2101's review

challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.25

Robert Kolker's Hidden Valley Road is a deep cut into the way we view schizophrenia, mainly in the past half-century. His story follows that of the Galvin family, headed by Mimi and Don in which they parented 12 children - yes, 12 - where half of them are eventually diagnosed with varying degrees of schizophrenia.

For me, this book was a fairly slow start as Kolker first sets up the history between Mimi and Don, where we can already see cracks forming in their partnership. But, once Donald - their first son - was born, things quickly spiraled from there. My main appreciation for this book was Kolker's writing. Whether it comes to complicated family interactions or translating complex technical and medical discoveries for the layman. It very rarely dragged, and at times, it almost felt like time was moving too fast through the pages. I never felt lost or overwhelmed until the

gene

discoveries were made, but that's probably because my eyes glaze over during that subject at any time, so that's not Kolker's cross to bear. He also handles very sensitive topics, such as

sexual assault

, tactfully, and it's clear Kolker took great care in making his interviewees comfortable when discussing these events.

As for the downsides, there were only two major ones. One of which other reviewers have also brought up multiple times, but I wish that there was more discussion of the personal thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of other family members other than the two youngest daughters, which are Kolker's focuses throughout the story. I understand the difficulty in interviewing people with schizophrenia, especially people with as severe cases as some of the Galvin sons had, but it almost felt like half the story was missing without their opinions and ideas presented really at all. 

The other is that, despite the many decades of devoted scientific work it feels as though... Not much happened? Again, I can't blame this on Kolker at all, I went into this book understanding it wasn't going to "crack the case on schizophrenia" at all, but there sadly wasn't much more than,

"It's genetic! Don't know much more beyond that!"

that I was already fairly aware of before I cracked this open. However, it was very intriguing to learn the details, and how there's already been steps taken to "cure" schizophrenia before it can even manifest, which was properly mind-boggling. I can tell Kolker put in an immense amount of research and time interviewing to condense that much scientific labor in such a readable and condensed format, and I suppose the slight frustration with feeling like no progress has been made is also kind of the point too.

Overall, this is a fascinating and very digestible read that will leave you just as hopeful as upset with everything these parents and twelve children went through. An enlightening and humble book, I would highly recommend Kolker's work to anyone interested in the history of mental illnesses and the monumental cultural and scientific changes that America has seen in the past 60 years. 4.25/5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Mental illness, Incest, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Murder, Gun violence, Death, Suicide, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Medical content, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Emotional abuse, Drug use, War, Physical abuse, and Infidelity

bparkinson31's review

emotional informative reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, and Incest

Moderate: Infidelity, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicide, and Violence

te_ss_i's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Chronic illness, Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Abandonment

librarymouse's review

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

This was really interesting, though I often had trouble keeping track of the brothers because there was so many of them. I believe I've seen Margaret Galvin Johnson's art before, which I wasn't expecting when I started reading the book. Some of the research being done seems to be almost a positive spin on previous methods that had been used by the eugenics movement. This is very interesting take on reflecting on both the impact of mental illness and its treatments, and the human side of living through and coming out on the other side of trauma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Pedophilia, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, and Suicide attempt

dustghosts's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Rape, Death of parent, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Incest, Sexual assault, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Addiction, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

mandi4886's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, and Torture

Minor: Cancer, War, Abortion, Chronic illness, Dementia, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Sexism, and Terminal illness

kat_e81's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Cancer

ka_ke's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Good read if you’re interested in the impacts of schizophrenia. It’s slow moving but each detail proves important. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Infidelity, Self harm, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

slantrhymes's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

I couldn't put this book down. It's sad and fascinating. Kolker  tackles extremely fraught subjects clinically and delicately, always giving the utmost respect to the people he's writing about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Cancer, Car accident, Drug use, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

The author discusses all of the very, very difficult subjects as clinically and respectfully as possible--there is nothing sordid here--but he is honest about things that happened to and between the family members he interviewed for the book. Some of those things are stomach-turning.