In Our Blood

The first 200 pages of this book exhaustively chronicled Billings's turmoil as a therapist and social worker who struggled with mental health issues and psychiatric hospitalizations of her own, then with her adolescent daughter's similar issues plus gender questioning. The author's honesty was admirable and Hannah/Avery's willingness to have their journey described was also impressive. The story of both mother and child may give hope to others who are suffering from similar painful experiences that they feel too ashamed to disclose.

I must say though, to me it felt like only half of the story was told. In comparison to this first part, the section in which Billings and her family came to a kind of stability was abrupt and fleetingly told. It could use more fleshing out, to my mind. Perhaps it was too hard to define those experiences, or to account for the reasons for healing, but more of an attempt could have been made. This also would be so valuable for our understanding.

Overall, the time jumps that frequently happened in the narrative – as flashbacks, or as jumps to a very different time or situation – were not marked well and could be confusing. Even some dingbats to indicate time passing would help!