Why I have this book: I borrowed the audiobook from the ebook library shortly after Naomi's recent death.
I wish I could give this book more stars (like so many others did), but I only gave it two stars on Goodreads.
I felt like Naomi spent a lot of time criticizing her mother and (to a lesser extent) her father, as well as many people in her extended family. I think her point was to show that she came from a family with generations of mental health issues, but I think she could have spent a lot less time on that and more time on what actually helped her get better. She didn't respect the privacy of others in her family the way I bet she would have wanted others to respect hers. I didn't finish this book with a lot of admiration for her, other than how much she accomplished professionally after coming from such a dire background.
To be clear, it's terrible that she battled through so many very difficult experiences in her life. I didn't respect her choice to repeatedly share negative details about others in her family who battled through similar experiences.
It was also very depressing because she ultimately lost her battle with mental illness. Her death was a suicide. I do feel compassion and heartache for the pain she obviously was never able to overcome even with all the success she had in life. I feel that mental illness is like a cruel joke. So many of those who suffer with it are left to struggle for life, and often feel alone in that struggle. It's blatantly unfair to try to live with your own brain working against you.
Clean. There may have been a mild swear word once or twice. It's a heavy story, though, with attempted molestation, rape, suicide, a possible murder, lots of mental illness, etc.
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