So, like you know how the first four seasons of House were super awesome and stuff? This book is sort of like that, except instead of seeing it from House’s perspective while he’s being an asshole, we see it from the patient’s, and we are intimately connected with her as she slowly and surely comes unraveled totally and completely. She has no control over her actions, she loses all sense of herself and connection with her friends and family and co-workers, and the doctors have no idea what is going on.
It’s fucking terrifying.
Susannah Cahalan was a young reporter at the New York Post when she suddenly began to experience symptoms of psychosis. Paranoia, hallucinations, scattered thoughts. The book actually opens with her waking up in a hospital bed and having no memory of the previous month, during which time she almost died.
This book is an attempt for Susannah to reconstruct that lost month via reporting. Because she has no memory of most of the time herself, she tells the story the same way she would if it hadn’t happened to her, through interviews and research and documentation. I think it’s a testament to her writing skill that the parts she doesn’t remember are equally as moving as the beginning and end of her medical crisis, which she does remember. The resulting book is equal parts medical memoir and mystery. The what of what’s happening is just as important as Susannah’s struggle to recover and make meaning out of her experiences. It’s utterly compelling.
This is also a super quick read, both because it’s pretty short (261 pages hardcover) and because once you pick it up, you don’t want to put it down again. I highly recommend picking this book up if anything about it sounds even remotely interesting. I read this in hardcover, but I’ve heard the audio is great as well. I’m not sure if there are any other books out there quite like this one, but I would definitely be interested in reading more medical mystery non-fiction in the future.
[4.5 stars]
