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A review by questingnotcoasting
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
This is another one to add to the list of fascinating memoirs I've read this year. It was a fast read and it felt like a mystery as doctors tried to piece together Cahalan's symptoms to find a diagnosis. It was such an intriguing story and there was a good balance of her experience and science. It felt more like journalism than a memoir at times, which makes sense because of Cahalan's profession, but also because she doesn't remember her "month of madness" so has pieced it together from other sources. That did mean I didn't feel very attached to Cahalan as a person so I don't know how memorable the book itself will be in a few months time but I was completely gripped by the story while I was reading it.
Graphic: Mental illness and Medical content