Reviews

You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know by Heather Sellers

kpud's review against another edition

1.0

I tried to read this twice with no success. I felt sorry for Heather, but not really interested in her story.

bethpeninger's review against another edition

Heather Sellers grew up in a family that she thought was a little chaotic but weren't all families? Turns out no but she didn't realize that until she was in her late 30's. During a trip back to where she grew up, Sellers was introduced to the idea that her mother was a paranoid schizophrenic and she herself had prosopagnosia, in other words, face blindness. At first in complete denial that she could have missed such important information about her mother and herself, Heather rejects both ideas. But she is haunted by them enough that she begins to research both conditions in an effort to dispute them. What happens instead is she confirms the truth and reality of both conditions, her mother is a paranoid schizophrenic and she has face blindness. Finally accepting the truth, so many pieces of a puzzle she thought was incomplete come together, and filling in those missing pieces upends her life in many ways. It also provides her some answers, relief, and ways to take action. This is a very interesting look into mental illness, face blindness, and the impact not knowing what you don't know until you do know it has on life and the choices you make. I really appreciated reading Sellers story and thank her for sharing with the world at large.

tab526's review against another edition

4.0

Fascinating read. I couldn't imagine not being able to recognize the faces of the people I know best. Her childhood sounds so unreal (doesn't mean it didn't happen) and though I would have been interested in seeing how having a brother impacted her childhood experiences and adulthood (he is rarely mentioned and given no voice) I also understand that he did not want to be included and can respect that, despite the (in my opinion) incomplete picture that leaves. Still, really interesting read.

posh_salad's review against another edition

2.0

I want to give this book 2.5 stars really. It's just sort of all over the place. The author spends a lot of time talking about her family, her childhood (which is a sort of Running With Scissors deal) and her really boring marriage. Peppered within those stories are a few examples of her face-blindness. But the face-blindness is the title - it should be primarily about that, right? If the book was called My Messed Up Childhood or The Marriage That Wasn't I wouldn't be as disappointed.

Supposedly the author has one of the most profound cases of prosopnosnia (sp?) ever documented. Another reason for it to play a bigger part in the story. It's like being excited about seeing The Wizard of Oz and finding out it's about Auntie Em.

The other reason I didn't like the book is she spends almost the entire time telling horror stories about her family and then, at the very end, gets a little uppity when people start saying how awful her parents were. They're ill, I get it, but it doesn't mean they weren't awful, weren't abusive. If she didn't want the reader to feel that way, she should not have led us down that emotional path.

theresa_saurus's review against another edition

5.0

In graduate school, I met someone with prosopagnosia, or face-blindness (a neurological disorder that effects the ability to recognize faces) and since I learned about it, I googled it and ran across a couple of books - one by Heather Sellers and one by Oliver Sacks. I have been anxious to read both. Heather Sellers did an amazing job explaining her experiences. I read this book in just a few days. The descriptions, the organization, the writing style and the honesty of it all is what made this book a favorite for me.

readingari's review against another edition

3.0

Interesting read, altho the disjointed flow confused me at times.

jeannepathfinder's review against another edition

4.0

I almost didn't finish this book because the entire first half was off topic. Oh, it was the biography of the author, but she didn't know yet that she was "face blind" and the story of her childhood was such a terrible tragedy, I nearly put the book down. But I'm glad I finished. This disorder is very interesting and I had never heard of it before.

specialk046's review against another edition

3.0

But what about Dave?

writerjill's review against another edition

5.0

A beautifully-written memoir from a Hope College professor. Funny and smart, and makes me want to pick up her other books.

qtpieash3's review against another edition

2.0

This was a lot more memoir-ish and focused on Sellers' childhood than I was expecting. She could have written an entire book on her incredibly dysfunctional childhood without even getting into her face blindness. For me, the story got off to a slow start. I was really intrigued by prosopagnosia, but it didn't surface in the book until about halfway through.

The latter half of the book was the most interesting, for me. The diagnosis and explanations of how Sellers compensates for her face blindness were fascinating and the best parts of the book, I thought. I found that Sellers' dramatic childhood and tumultuous romantic relationship with Dave overshadowed the face blindness issue that I was most interested in.

Overall, it was ok. I was hoping for more of a focus on prosopagnosia and found Sellers' uber-dysfunctional shocking and a bit unsettling.