But let's not talk about my undying faith to you any longer.
If you are a fan of having absolutely no clue what on God's great and somewhat-green Earth is happening to the main character, then this book is for you. I'm serious. This book is a journalist's look back at what she should know the most about - herself. And although generally this might apply to a person, and I'm sure this does apply to Cahalan herself as well, there is a short span of time where it doesn't. Where she wonders if she truly was ever there during that time, and if she wasn't, well, where was she?
Susannah is a fairly stereotypical mid-twenties journalist. She stays up until all hours of the day or night getting her articles done on time, has the usual studio apartment, and goes out on crazy leads, including one that makes her end up acting the part of a woman wanting illegal butt enhancements (it would have cost her $1000 a cheek, apparently). Until one day, Susannah finds two bites on her arm. And promptly does a raid of her house for bed bugs (somewhat normal), then hires an exterminator to do so (who found nothing), then makes him thoroughly exterminate her apartment, just to be sure. Soon Susannah starts feeling physically sick, eventually feeling almost attacked by bright colours, and having an out of body experience. She goes to (multiple) doctors multiple times, but for the most part she is dismissed as not having anything. As things progress, eventually Susannah is put into a hospital, and the rest of this book (about three quarters of it) is about the doctors trying to save Susannah as she descends into the deep, dark recesses of her mind due to an unknown illness, and of course trying to figure out what on earth is affecting her.
This is a pretty good book, and if you are interested in mysteries that are entirely medical (but not too medical - I am bad at remembering anything to do with science and understood it all), and if you would appreciate an interesting look into Susannah's mind and actions in a time at which she cannot be held accountable for her own actions, then I would recommend this to you. This is an intriguing book, and I do not want to reveal too much about it because a good part of the experience of the book is feeling just shy of frustrated about not knowing what is affecting Susannah, and you are feeling these feelings right alongside her family. I constantly found myself wanting to skip ahead a page or two to figure out the next big piece of Susannah's illness puzzle.
So, that being said, that is it for this review. I do apologize profusely for the lateness of this review but I have gotten a lot of homework so far this year. (And Elizabeth says I am only going to get more homework each day as time progresses... how is that for encouragement?) So I am going to make a habit of whenever I finish a book I want to review, I will review it the next possible moment of free time I have, instead of waiting a bit.
Does this book remind you of any books? If it does, I would love if you could post what it is because I would really like to read more books that are similar in style or type to this one.
Hopefully all of you are doing well!
Stay Addicted!
-Jason