A review by mepresley
Should I Stay or Should I Go? by Lundy Bancroft, JAC Patrissi

challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

I don't think I actually did finish this one, but I got pretty close, and it was very helpful, if biased from the perspective of Bancroft's own perspective/ profession/ profit margins. Seriously a useful book as long as you understand that Bancroft's assertion that abuse and mental illness are separate things is true and not true at the same time. Worth reading alongside other books on a mental health journey, especially if you want to engage in active written reflection. Lots of exercises in this one.

Some of them honestly pretty overwhelming, depending on the stage that you are at in processing whatever trauma/ grief you have within your relationship, and whatever trauma/ grief brought you to that relationship. I also think it was this book the suggested to me the concept of the "Rachel," a friend who stays in an abusive relationship and knows that's a burden on her friends so seeks to make herself less heavy in all her interactions. I really hated this concept and found it harmful, but I'm not into the concept that one flaw destroys the value of a text. 

Like I said, it was difficult and a work-book style text, and I still managed to make it almost all the way to the end.