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csgiansante's review
3.0
I feel like you have to really be invested in the topic of a memoir if you're going to commit to one. The story was interesting, but I think I could have done with a news article rather than a whole book.
jesslolsen's review
5.0
Whoa, what an amazing story! I've given myself a little time to try and articulate how I feel now I have finished reading this book, and I'm still blown away by it - how honestly it is written, trying to get my head around how remarkable yet fragile the body is (especially the brain) and what it must have been like to go through something like that, and return to 'normal' within a relatively short period of time.
Towards the end of the book Cahalan says she wouldn't wish it on anyone but that it made her grateful to go through something like this, and I can see why (as well as anyone can without having a similar experience to reference personally anyway) it would completely adjust your thinking and make you appreciate everything so much more. You really can't take your health for granted, especially the heath of your brain!
As I was reading this I googled several things that were referenced in the book, particularly Teratoma and Susannah Cahalan, because I wanted to see what they both looked like. Both were very confronting in completely different ways. Some of the Teratoma was quite scary looking, and so too were some images that came up of Susannah while she was in hospital. But when you look at pictures of her now, you would never guess that she had been through any kind of ordeal, let alone one so significant and life changing.
It was great to hear that from her article and book that there have been a lot more cases correctly identified of the disease - irregardless of any money made, that is a great way to judge the competence and success of her writing, remarkable when you learn how close she came to losing that skill.
I have seen online that they are making this story in to a movie - I imagine it would be a ridiculously hard character to play, it will be interesting to see it.
Towards the end of the book Cahalan says she wouldn't wish it on anyone but that it made her grateful to go through something like this, and I can see why (as well as anyone can without having a similar experience to reference personally anyway) it would completely adjust your thinking and make you appreciate everything so much more. You really can't take your health for granted, especially the heath of your brain!
As I was reading this I googled several things that were referenced in the book, particularly Teratoma and Susannah Cahalan, because I wanted to see what they both looked like. Both were very confronting in completely different ways. Some of the Teratoma was quite scary looking, and so too were some images that came up of Susannah while she was in hospital. But when you look at pictures of her now, you would never guess that she had been through any kind of ordeal, let alone one so significant and life changing.
It was great to hear that from her article and book that there have been a lot more cases correctly identified of the disease - irregardless of any money made, that is a great way to judge the competence and success of her writing, remarkable when you learn how close she came to losing that skill.
I have seen online that they are making this story in to a movie - I imagine it would be a ridiculously hard character to play, it will be interesting to see it.
kcrawfish's review
4.0
A fascinating chronicle of a horrible illness. When she was able, the author pointed her skills honed in journalism toward detailing her experience with brain infection, most of which she reconstructs from friends, family, medical personnel, diaries and hospital footage because she wasn’t mentally present. Having an infected “brain on fire” is one of the scary, fascinating things that is as rare as being struck by lightning and very understudied (at the time), so this first hand account is a landmark. Though she’s not a doctor, the author is able to clearly detail the specifics of her illness, and her internal struggle with the symptoms of bipolar 1, schizophrenia, paranoia, seizures, and a laundry list of issues, as she spirals, consciously, into madness.
tmathews0330's review
5.0
Proof that journalistic facts can evoke emotions even more powerful than opinion.
timna_wyckoff's review
3.0
Scary, fascinating story. But, because so little is known about the disease, the story was really simply her experience, not anything more generalizable.