Part memoir and part educational text, THE COLLECTED SCHIZOPHRENIAS is a set of essays that chronicles Wang's experience with schizoaffective disorder, ranging from early misdiagnoses to involuntary hospitalizations to searching for answers beyond Western medicine.

I first encountered Wang's writing when the essay "Perdition Days" was published on The Toast (RIP). I was immediately drawn to her clear, concise writing style, which she displays in every essay in this book. Wang knows most Americans are only familiar with pop culture depictions of schizophrenia, and she neatly breaks those down and contrasts them with the many realities of actually living with it.

I'd seen many reviews for this book talk about how thoroughly researched it is, with many citations, and I worried that it would be like reading a textbook. While these things about it are true, it's very much still Wang's personal story. And yet, at the same time, she never lets it get too voyeuristic - rather than linger on the details of her delusions they are simply spoken about in a matter of fact way, in a stark contrast to how mental illness is often portrayed in the media.