Dirty Secret

I'm going with four-stars, mostly for the brutal honesty of this book, and for everything I learned about compulsive hoarding. I would have liked to learn even more about hoarding from the book, actually; also, I would have liked for this to have been more explicitly both the author's story and her mother's story–more connections between their lives and neuroses. And, somehow, I wanted to hear (even) more about the “secret” part of the secret–more reflection on secrets and shame would have been welcome.

It was a difficult book to read for me, because, while I wasn't raised by a hoarder, there have been hoarders in my family, and a lot of this hit home–some of it makes me reframe some of my own neuroses as perhaps a bit more dangerous than I had thought. It's a good reality check.