Haunt

4.5 stars - I accidentally bought this journal supplement instead of the original book of the same name, but ended up glad I got it anyway. For my purposes, which were primarily to better understand the personal perspective of an alcoholic on addiction and recovery and secondarily to assess the clinical value of the material for someone close to me going through the process, both the text and the exercises seemed clearly written and useful.

I read this as part of a graduate ABA training program and was impressed with its accessibility, readability, and straightforwardness. In particular, I feel this is an excellent guide for parents and caregivers of people (primarily children) with autism. I wish my family had had this resource throughout my sister's diagnosis and the subsequent learning curve for us all.

4.5 stars

A lot of the negative reviews for this book seem to have somehow vastly missed the point. This is (as is made quite clear) the diary of the author, written at age 11, showing her childhood perspectives on and experiences of severe anorexia. Nothing more, nothing less, except for a brief concluding reflection written by the author as an adult. If you're expecting an adult-written memoir or a treatise on the causes and effects of eating disorders in Western societies, this is not the book you're searching for, although it certainly spotlights some leading contributing factors in no uncertain terms. That said, to me—someone who had similar experiences with childhood mental health issues, including an ED—this account absolutely rings familiar and true. If you're looking to learn about the development/mechanics/internal experience of an eating disorder, this is a good book to get you started.

A/N: Again, wanted to emphasize the fact that the writer is ELEVEN years old. Yes, the book presents a very black and white, sometimes simplistic depiction of things—her disorder, the cultural underpinnings and how she interpreted them, her family members, her treatment team and their care strategies—because that's how children, particularly mentally ill children, think and see the world. She does not go into much detail at all about actual treatments provided, other than dietary rules in the hospital, which means her account of her recovery might come across to some people as sudden or “just deciding to get better”. A little critical reading should make the reasons for this gap in coverage pretty obvious: she was an 11-year-old girl who didn't want to be there, didn't care about the therapies being promoted, and was writing a personal journal about the experiences she found memorable. This is a little girl's diary, not an academic exposition on how eating disorders work.

TL;DR: A child wrote this, and it's absurd to expect anything other than a child's—in this case, also a frequently unreliable narrator's—point of view.

I once commented on a friend's review that, having already read my One True Alice Retelling (TM), all other Alices and Wonderlands are forever ruined for me. Frankly, I've since assumed that this would also be the case for other retellings—that there can only be room for One in my brain.

This little book, and the fact that it coexists [rent-free in my mind] with Heather Walter's Malice duology, disproves that theory.

In my opinion, Thornhedge is the perfect standalone novella, so much so that I would even give it more than 5 out of 5 stars. With excellent writing, characters, and attention to detail, it successfully transformed the tale of Sleeping Beauty into a unique and enchanting new story that will definitely be in my thoughts for quite some time.

Overall a great read—some of the stories actually had me a little spooked when I found myself out alone late at night, which is quite the accomplishment. As I've been focusing on the GRE lately, I also couldn't help but notice the significant amount of GRE vocab in these stories, so it's an excellent read for anyone studying for the verbal! Carmilla is, of course, certainly the best short story in the collection, but the others hold their own perfectly well and should not be overlooked.

Incredibly thorough in its account of everything McLean, which is both a blessing and a curse. Beam's writing is clear but anything but concise, and frequently segues into trivial, often unrelated side notes which may or may not be of interest. Each page is littered with names of individuals mentioned only once, random interjections that don't connect to the point, and so on. However, some of these rabbit trails are in fact interesting and even useful to know, and you'll definitely come away with a very broad, inclusive array of information on the subject. I do wish Beam had regularly included sources in footnotes in a more typical APA-type fashion, because some things I would have liked to look up later, but there is a section in the back of the book that details where his information originates (and I believe much of it was in oral form or otherwise unavailable to the public anyway). One thing to note is that this book is not a true account of patients' experiences at McLean, as the title suggests, though snippets of patient accounts are incorporated throughout. Although a great many aspects of the patient experience are included, the use of only small excerpts of patient recollections tends to make the book read more like an account of the institution itself, albeit well-peppered with anecdotes of patient life, than of the advertised “life and death” inside. I went into the book thinking it would be a highly detailed account of the patients and procedures of McLean, focused heavily on patients' own memories and accounts of their experience. In the end, it was not as patient-focused as expected, but proved an interesting and valuable, if occasionally tedious, read.

Although I feel it is much more geared towards babybats and non-Goths than fully-fledged Gothly creatures, “Gothic Charm School” is a fantastic overview of the Goth subculture–its history, traits, customs, and the like. For those seeking further information, Jillian Venters also runs a website, including an advice column, at gothiccharmschool.com.

4.5 stars. I loved the concepts and the writing, although the ending felt somewhat abrupt. I would've liked to know even just a bit more about Annae's work and life during the time lapse. Still, as is, the ending does come full circle in its way. I expect I'll be mulling over the pieces for a while yet.

Somewhere in the 3.5- to 4-star range for me.

The illustrations are very pretty, and the phrases that make up the text are compelling and succinct, with important and universal messages to share. My two complaints with this book are that (a) the text is just that, disjointed phrases rather than an actual story; and (b) the cursive font used by seemingly every published edition, while attractive and probably meaningful (I assume it's the author's handwriting), is just a little bit more difficult to read/adjust to than I'd prefer. Nothing insurmountable, but a bit irritating at first, at least for me.

I'm curious about the movie adaptation of this book, specifically whether or not it adds enough links between the phrases of the original text to create some flow/a story.

After about 24 hours to ruminate, I've come up with my final rating and some thoughts.

4.5 stars—half of the last one deducted because I felt like the ending didn't quite wrap everything up as well as I thought would be fitting for this kind of book. For me, this is basically a comfort read, and ideally, for me, a comfort read shouldn't leave so many questions. For example:

-What happens with Val and Kaiya? I very much appreciate not coupling all the characters off, but this particular potentiality was practically a subplot, so it feels weird to not have some kind of resolution at all. (Personally I've decided, apropos of absolutely nothing, that Kaiya is ace—though not necessarily aro, soooo...!)

-Hob??? Hob Hob! Hob?! HOB

-Basically most of the side characters' arcs felt sort of unfinished. Hob has this whole unexplored backstory (and future) I would kill to read, and Latimer's last appearance seemed to hint at a future tale of his own, and Kate was way too hyped to be left unwritten.

All that said, though, I really do think a good epilogue would have been enough to put to rest most of these loose ends for me. It felt like one was coming, and I even went back and reread the ending to check whether I missed something the first time. (And then checked the author's page for related short stories and novellas.) Maybe the ending was just a little too quick overall for me; it definitely felt like it was leading up to something more, like possibly a sequel/series based on side characters' own adventures or at least an epilogue to round things out, until right at the last page.