I did not enjoy this. I'm looking through goodreads reviews from all my friends, of whom a good many have read this one, and they're all highly rated and full of praise. Can't remember the last time I've felt so alone with my thoughts on a book.

I was just bored through a lot of this. Like I tried to summon the interest in all of Cahalan's struggles, and it's definitely a horrific thing to go through, but I found myself disinterested and just waiting for the book to be over so I could get to something better. I am not the most interested in specifically medical information, so that bit dragged, and I was hoping there'd be more in this book for me. There was more, it just happened I didn't get along with the personal bits anymore than I did the medical aspects.

One thing I struggled with a lot was her storytelling. By her own admission, Cahalan doesn't remember most of this book. It's put together through interviews and medical reports and everything she could find because despite the fact that it happened to her, Cahalan is the one with the least firsthand knowledge. I think that could have been an interesting storytelling device had she leaned into it, but instead she wrote this book almost as though she did remember, and it always felt off to me. There was a disconnect I could never quite get through. It almost made me wish that this book had been written by someone else, literally anyone else. Either someone who was able to witness it or a true outside who didn't write this book from the first person perspective. I do want to clarify I'm not in any way suggesting it felt dishonest, because it definitely did not. My issue is just with the storytelling choice.

I also had the misfortune of picking this up right when the New York Post was in the news for doxxing a sex worker, so it was a little rough hearing her wax poetic about how great it was. It also didn't really endear me to her or any of her coworkers. Not a huge thing and it's not like that was what ruined the book, but it added a bit of unnecessary negativity and felt relevant enough to mention.

I dunno, I really don't get the love for this one. Like I didn't think it was horrible by any means, but I also can't think of much positive to say about it? It was one of those books I probably wouldn't think twice about except it's so well loved. I wouldn't recommend it, but I'm also in a pretty small minority there so perhaps my opinion doesn't count for a whole lot and you should still give this a go. If you didn't like this either, I suppose you can take heart in the fact that you're not alone.