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Sep. 23rd, 2013 10:02 amBefore I talk about Sara Polksy's This Is How I Find Her, there are two facts I should probably disclose as potentially biasing:
1. Sara is a friend of mine and I spent a lot of time sitting across from her in coffeeshops while she wrote this book, although I can't remember if I ever talked to her at that time about the fact that
2. My grandmother was manic-depressive, and died of a possibly-accidental medication overdose when my mom was around sixteen
. . . which should give you an idea of the trigger warnings you need to read this book, ( or indeed the rest of this review )
I can't say "everyone should read this book," because I do think it could potentially be very triggering, especially for people dealing with mental illness themselves - Sophie's mother is a fully-realized and humanized character, but she is not the protagonist, and this is still essentially a book that deals with the effect of mental illness on other people who are not the person who has it. But for myself, I'm very glad I read it; I might ask my mom if she wants to as well, because I'd like to talk about it with her.
1. Sara is a friend of mine and I spent a lot of time sitting across from her in coffeeshops while she wrote this book, although I can't remember if I ever talked to her at that time about the fact that
2. My grandmother was manic-depressive, and died of a possibly-accidental medication overdose when my mom was around sixteen
. . . which should give you an idea of the trigger warnings you need to read this book, ( or indeed the rest of this review )
I can't say "everyone should read this book," because I do think it could potentially be very triggering, especially for people dealing with mental illness themselves - Sophie's mother is a fully-realized and humanized character, but she is not the protagonist, and this is still essentially a book that deals with the effect of mental illness on other people who are not the person who has it. But for myself, I'm very glad I read it; I might ask my mom if she wants to as well, because I'd like to talk about it with her.
