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

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.