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A review by audreychamaine
January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her by Michael Schofield
4.0
January First broke my heart and made me question how much devotion I’d be able to commit to my future child or children. To have a kid, think that she is normal, and then find out that she is intensely mentally ill, to the point that she endangers herself and other members of your family is kind of too much to take. But what can you do, really? You can’t abandon her, because if you’re not there for her, who will be? Schofield’s account of what it was like to go through this really got to me emotionally, and I just couldn’t stop reading. I read this one fast.
I don’t remember much about the writing, other than it got his point across. Really, who pays attention to the details of writing when the story is this compelling? I do know that Schofield’s style didn’t get in the way for me. I was left thinking about this book for days after I finished it, and felt mixed emotions. There was the horror of the knowledge that this could happen to me and my future family, but also thankfulness that I haven’t had to go through what Schofield’s family has had to endure. This is a great read for anybody who is interested in living with people with mental illness.
I don’t remember much about the writing, other than it got his point across. Really, who pays attention to the details of writing when the story is this compelling? I do know that Schofield’s style didn’t get in the way for me. I was left thinking about this book for days after I finished it, and felt mixed emotions. There was the horror of the knowledge that this could happen to me and my future family, but also thankfulness that I haven’t had to go through what Schofield’s family has had to endure. This is a great read for anybody who is interested in living with people with mental illness.