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Girl_Interrupted

I started this book blindly, that is, I started reading without having a previous knowledge of what the book was about or what genre it was or who the author was. So I automatically didn’t have any high expectations of it. I initially was convinced that Girl, Interrupted was a fictional book, but after a couple of pages, I began to doubt that.

Girl, Interrupted is an autobiography written by Susanna Kaysen in 1993 narrating her experience as a psychiatric patient at McLean hospital. She started by narrating how she got diagnosed with depression by a doctor and was sent to the hospital to spend just a couple of weeks. However, this couple of weeks spanned into 18 months and she was diagnosed along the line with border line personality disorder. The book gives the reader an insight into her period in the hospital, and her relationship with her fellow patients and how each of them handled their stay in the hospital. Susanna eventually left the hospital and kept in touch with Georgina, her roommate back at McLean.

This is my first time of reading a book related to psychiatry in a long time, more so, a personal experience of someone who had actually lived behind those walls and I must say it was really insightful. I would give the book a 6/10.

PS:- It was adapted into a movie in 1999. Looking forward to watching it as soon as possible. 🙂

~“Actually, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dragged me into the suicide debate and made every window, kitchen implement, and subway station a rehearsal for tragedy.”-Susanna Kaysen, Girl Interrupted~