Reviews tagging 'Death'

Todas las esquizofrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

10 reviews

renlheffernan's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.25

As someone who has been diagnosed in the past with schizoaffective disorder, I was a bit wary on what this book would be about and how detailed it would be. I was slightly afraid that it might be triggering for me, but that was not the case.

I enjoyed the first chunk of essays more than the last few. I'm not a highly spiritual person, to each their own on that fact and some of the essays delved into more spiritual memoir.

I found it interesting though, reading from another person's perspective on schizoaffective disorder/schizophrenia. She delved into topics that were interesting and the points she was trying to make held true, to a fault.

For example:
She talked about one story that really affected me where a family had a schizophrenic son and the sister shot him thirteen times on the side of the road while the mother waited in the car. They talked about being terrorized by this person. The author then went on to talk about other cases where the family was affected by someone with mental health issues or organizations that cater to families and not the individual person with the issues. I am not sure if she was supposed to offer any sort of comfort or solutions, as she did not do so.


In the various essays she also talked about her personal experiences with mental health and how that transformed into various hospital stays, and psychotic episodes.
She also mentions some movies and television scenes that discuss mental health whether negatively or positively. I really enjoyed that.


I was a little frustrated at the end
it seemed to imply that her spiritual journey is what led to her not having symptoms/hallucinations, which good for her to be honest, but not everyone is like that.


Overall this was good but it was hard to say what I officially got out of this essay collection.
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ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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sakisreads's review against another edition

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dark informative tense slow-paced

3.5

This book was so thought-provoking! We as a society tend to cast out anyone with disorders like schizophrenia, so this candid set of essays helped in gaining more empathy and a better understanding 😳 

The part with the most impact for me was when Esmé Wang gets asked to leave Yale University and then the accounts of many other people with disorders that had been ‘asked to leave’ educational institutions due to their fear of a bad image 😫

This quote got me:
‘Yes, I thought, our eyes meeting, you may think I'm hot, but I'm also a rotting corpse. Sucks to be you, sir.’ 😂

I would definitely like to do more research into schizophrenia, having had this book as a catalyst. 3.5 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
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orndal's review against another edition

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dark informative medium-paced

3.0

The essays are okay, but they are psuedo-intellectual at times. wangs persistent provlem is her sheer unlikeability - there is absolutely no charisma. She dabbles in interesting topics, but those stories give way to her less than ideal anecdotes.
Quoting solsnit and sontag she makes sure the reader knows what she is trying to accomplish, but placing herself in their company does her a great disservice.


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moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

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informative reflective

4.5

This was an excellent essay collection about the author's experience of schizoaffective and bipolar disorders. She talks about her experience of it, parts of the process getting diagnoses, dealing with ableism in various contexts, spirituality, media, and more. Not only does it show the mind of the author in some ways, it says a lot about how people with these less socially acceptable symptoms and disorders are treated.

The only real drawback of this was some of the discussion around autism in one of the essays. It felt very dated and I'm not sure how to feel about some of the discussion around functioning labels. So that is why I didn't give it a full 5 stars. The rest of the collection was really solid and very interesting. 
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queertrash's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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translove's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective

4.25

not gonna lie, this book was so hard to read at times. because it was too relatable and touched me in ways that made me feel seen but also reminded me of the worst times of my life. really appreciate this book.
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skudiklier's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was really interesting, and I both feel for the author and feel like I learned a lot. 
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noshelf_control's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

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fridabystrom's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

4.0

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