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lexi_charles 's review for:
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family
by Robert Kolker
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
The story of the Galvins is a heartbreaking but thought-provoking tale of how far we've come in treating mental illness. It's hard to read this and know that some want to take us back to this dark ages by spouting nonsense about the neurodivergent.
5 stars for the story, less for the writing style, which is sometimes deliberatively provocative and could use tighter editing. Things like this: "the boys were only growing one way." Uh, if you mean they were both growing taller and bulkier, that's actually two ways.
A lot of people will reflect on this family, the sins of the parents and the tradeoff between the damage the boys caused and the knowledge gained from their experience. I was surprised by the moment that broke me:Don, the long-time abuser, sitting alone in a room while all his siblings are in another room, reminiscing about their mom without him. Don, demure after years of medication, insisting that his younger siblings are his children--a coping mechanism for dealing with the life he never had. It really shows the heartbreaking nature of a condition like his. I hope he is finally at peace.
5 stars for the story, less for the writing style, which is sometimes deliberatively provocative and could use tighter editing. Things like this: "the boys were only growing one way." Uh, if you mean they were both growing taller and bulkier, that's actually two ways.
A lot of people will reflect on this family, the sins of the parents and the tradeoff between the damage the boys caused and the knowledge gained from their experience. I was surprised by the moment that broke me:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Pregnancy, Abandonment