Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Brein in brand: Hoe mijn lichaam mijn hersenen aanviel by Willem van Paassen, Susannah Cahalan

11 reviews

hooligansmoo's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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sierrabowers's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This was a great read about the horrifying reality of undiagnosed illnesses and how so many can closely resemble one another. I can relate to a lot of the things Susannah reported about her own illness, such as all tests coming back normal. It takes a caring and determined doctor to keep trying when all else fails. 
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elvahn's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

This book highlights the importance of empathy in the medical profession and calls attention to the grave harm of misdiagnoses that can result from lack of information or simply not taking the time to dive deeper into a parent's case.
By the end, there is also some hope in that though sharing her story, others get access to real help, and medical science is furthered. Even the doctor who had decided she was simply "partying" too hard rather than take her symptoms more seriously (my rage boiled over reading about this man) eventually refers to her experience to direct patients to help.
Part memoir, part call to action, part humane medical text(??), the author weaves us through her month of madness, using interviews, journals, and hospital footage to help complete the story. Engaging, well-done.
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bartlebies's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

3.5

Boy howdy the narrator for the audiobook was awful. Can we ban white people doing bad accents when there is literally no reason to do them?? christ. 

The book itself was okay, but I felt like it lacked any deeper meaning beyond “i had this rare disorder and it sucked for everyone and now i’m better” which is unfortunate since she’s a reporter/writer who you would think would be a better writer. 
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mxpringle's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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books_tea_and_candlelight's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.25

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faefires's review against another edition

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challenging informative slow-paced

3.75

drags at the end, but mostly engaging and informative. 
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courtneyfalling's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

Susannah Cahalan offers some gripping and insightful health autojournalism here. This was one of the better patient narratives of a mysterious and sudden-onset condition that I can remember reading (still with some pitfalls of the genre, especially around discussing cognitive and behavioral symptoms within somewhat traditional, saneist paradigms). But overall it felt really careful, tightly written, and emotionally reflective. I ended up giving my copy to a premed friend to read next. 
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thereaderfriend's review against another edition

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emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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lizzie24601's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.0

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