Reviews tagging 'Violence'

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

47 reviews

kstolecki's review

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Violence, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

akappel32's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

A disturbingly interesting read. Once I got into the heart it this I couldn’t put it down. Hidden Valley Road (also the name of the road I grew up on in AZ) is the story of the Galvin Family, who settled in Colorado Springs (where I now live.) Through a tremendous amount of research we learn the story of Don and Mini and their 12 (yes, 12) children. Over the course of their lives, 6 of the children are diagnosed with schizophrenia. What comes next is a heartbreaking, hard to swallow, real story of each of the children’s lives and how the  disease (or as Kolker says later in the book, the potential symptom) takes over their lives. The Galvin’s story is one that will put you through your paces, it will make you angry, sad, upset, and inspired. There’s a lot to process. Kolker beautifully intertwines their story with medical information to put in perspective just how little was know about schizophrenia, and how this family eventually became the cornerstone for researchers and doctors to further study the diagnosis. It’s amazing to think that even today there still aren’t many answers. If you have it in you, I highly recommending reading this. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Violence

blueberry's review against another edition

challenging sad tense medium-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Rape, and Violence

livs_getting_bookish's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia

Moderate: Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Animal death, and Violence

geenween's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Murder and Suicide

bparkinson31's review

emotional informative reflective

4.25

---

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

melissahawco's review

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, and Incest

Moderate: Murder, Cancer, and Suicide attempt

annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Hidden Valley Road as a title and a location seems fated - the perfect metaphor for all the secrets, fear, pain, and tragedy the Galvin family experienced over the decades.

I thought the blend of family biography and history of schizephrenia research (and how the two end up intersecting in the 80s onwards) was very effective. The family is large, and I appreciated the list of names (and their dates, spouses, children) and indicator at the top of each chapter on who the focus would be.

Much like the Galvins' experiences, you're in the thick of it with them and it's only at the end, years later and with the benefit of therapy and distance (physical and temporal) that you understand all the events that had to go the way they did to end up with such a unique situation. And all the ways it could've been different for everyone if the family had different resources, lived in a different time, or made different choices. Had Mimi and Don not had 12 children, or raised them differently, or if the brothers were not quite so abusive to each other and their sisters, or if the mental health care system was not the shitshow it was (and in many ways still is), etc.

Reading the book reminded me to continue unpacking my assumptions and immediate reactions -to continue navigating in that gray zone of multiple truths and causes. Almost everyone was responsible for some element of this family's experiences - and yet everyone was also a victim. Both can be true. 

If I had to quibble, I would have appreciated seeing more discussion around the cost of mental health care - it's quite experience in the States and I think an overview of how state-led and private patient care differs would be helpful for us non-American readers. Same with the income disparity between the Galvins and Garys - a deeper look at how many of the choices (or lack thereof) that the Galvins had compared to their richer friends/counterparts would have been beneficial (it was only explored in the final chapter briefly).

Hidden Valley Road is a microcosm of society and biomedical/clinical research. And much like in the book, the discussion between nature and nurture continues. We know <i>so</i> much more than we did 50 years ago (in large part thanks to families like the Galvins), but we have so far to go in terms of treatment, social supports, and destigmatizing mental illnesses like schizophrenia. 

Sidenote - I really appreciated that the author remained removed from the story. It's obvious in parts that he would've been present in those interviews/scenes, but he never includes himself as a character.

Highly recommend - but please check out the content warnings.
CW: sexual abuse and molestation of family members within the family (and separately by a priest), violence, domestic abuse (between siblings and between couples), murder, horrific treatment of mentally ill humans in the mental health care system (including restraints and sedation), discussions of mental health and illness (depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc.), sexism

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Alcoholism, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexism

wishbear's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Violence

jenniferbbookdragon's review

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

3.25

A deep dive into a family plagued by schizophrenia, and the impact of dysfunction on all of the children. Painful failures of the mental health care system and the ripple effects of drug use and violence add to the tragedy. Interwoven into the book is the research about the genetic heritability of mental illness.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault