Reviews - While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence

888 reviews for:

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

This is one of those memoirs that I feel like I can’t rate anything but five stars because of how intimate the story is. This is a memoir of the authors life and her family in the throes of abuse and mental illness and addiction. Not only does she discuss her experiences and struggles but those of her siblings and her parents. Although at times humorous, most of the book is heartbreaking and sad and almost feels like listening to someone’s diary. The way she recounts her life and those of her family is done so in a very easily to follow manner. Kissinger does an excellent job of portraying the range of emotions from anger to confusion to sadness. As I have listened to the audiobook version of this, my only complaint is that the authors tone is somewhat dull and monotonous throughout her reading, but due to the content of the book I find that is not very significant of an issue. Definitely recommend.

esalley's review against another edition

2.0

emotional sad slow-paced

myrranda5002's review

5.0

This book was amazing. A heavy book but the real life situations were so important to talk about. I truly hope that anyone who reads this book can learn to talk about any mental illnesss struggles , feel comfortable reaching out for help and coming to terms with the fact that you can't help anyone who doesn't want to be helped.