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

4.28 AVERAGE

kjwinters's review against another edition

4.75
emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
tessalaree's profile picture

tessalaree's review against another edition

3.75
This was a fine read for me (good fine, not bad fine). The story of witnessing mental illness growing up, and navigating the shame that others associate with it felt really relatable to me. I think a lot of people will be able to connect with this, as today we have a better understanding of how common mental illness and depression specifically truly is. I do agree that there is a lot of irrelevant detail in the book, but some of it served to help me get to know the characters a bit more superficially before diving deeper.

tamarakerm's review

5.0
challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
I absolutely loved this memoir!
aleksssync's profile picture

aleksssync's review against another edition

4.5
challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

sarshu01's review

4.0
emotional reflective sad slow-paced

allykitty's review

5.0
funny medium-paced

rachelk22's review

5.0
4.5 stars
brite_girl's profile picture

brite_girl's review against another edition

5.0
A family with 8 kids plagued by mental illness and addiction and the inability to talk about it? Hm…. this sounds familiar.

The best and worst part of this book was falling in love with every member of the Kissinger family. The author brings you into their world with its tragedies and laughs, and it’s devastating. But worth it, definitely.
whathasrachelread's profile picture

whathasrachelread's review against another edition

4.0
challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
klp1973's profile picture

klp1973's review

5.0
Heart wrenching and hopeful at the same time, what a memoir.