While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

4.28 AVERAGE

littlepeapod's profile picture

littlepeapod's review

4.0
damn my family is so normal but also can we talk about how mental illness was treated in the 1970s/80s, like what do you mean people were just “functioning alcoholics” who’d dip out on their families from time to time???
hannahclaire7's profile picture

hannahclaire7's review

4.0
emotional informative reflective relaxing medium-paced
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hannii's profile picture

hannii's review

3.75
emotional informative reflective medium-paced
It is people like Meg, and her family, that have made speaking about mental illness less of a taboo. 

If I had a time machine I would go back to the 60s and go around telling people I'm on meds so I could watch them shit themselves.
zollco01's profile picture

zollco01's review

4.5
dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
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gayleywayley's review against another edition

4.0
This was an interesting book told by a member of a family who suffered from different types of mental illness. After losing family members to suicide, the author goes on to become a journalist specializing in mental illness stories.
vivo_morior's profile picture

vivo_morior's review against another edition

3.0
emotional reflective sad medium-paced
janicerm79's profile picture

janicerm79's review against another edition

3.0
emotional medium-paced
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rmiller303's profile picture

rmiller303's review

5.0
dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced
The ending was very hopeful, and dare I say, I teared up. This book was an extremely thoughtful, yet candid, picture of mental health and how it affects an entire family. 
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flagmachado's review against another edition

5.0
Wow! What a read!
I felt like I was on a rollercoaster of emotions. The saga of this family and the way she presented it all in this book is just great. I’m usually not drawn to big finales (more interested in the journey of the book) but the end of this book was just perfect. Maybe because it opened so much for more to read and to search.
sam_cofer's profile picture

sam_cofer's review

4.0
emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced