A review by mandyfish
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

5.0

I loved this book. Right from the beginning, it grabbed me and sucked me in to the true-life story. As Cahalan describes her quick and curious descent into madness, coupled with the bizarre physical symptoms, you are at once mesmerized by what is happening to her and eager to find out what is causing it. In that way, this memoir is a tight, fast-paced suspense drama. Yet it's also a fascinating meditation on the nature of mental illness, of identity, and of physical disease – and the merging of all three. I simply could not put it down and I am still haunted by her rapid descent into madness and the gripping way she described it.