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nabilaandta's review against another edition
4.0
"Why do you wear black all the time?"
"I’m in mourning for my life."
"I’m in mourning for my life."
lizawall's review against another edition
very good! i tried to make my partner read it because she is in nursing school and has a clinical rotation in bellevue right now but she probably won't. sometimes i have a hard time sticking with depression/depressive narratives but this one had a voice that really pulled though. i liked all the references to sarah lawrence and found it very sarah lawrence-y in a kind of nostalgic way. (i could see that being a criticism or dismissal, sarah lawrence-y, as a kind of shorthand for pretty girls with problems, but obvs i am all for it.)
voidavoidances's review against another edition
3.0
If “promising” would be the word to describe this book when you try to read it, it’s not the book for you.
Promising Young Women talks about Lizzie, who shares her story through the several mental institutions she stays and the women she meets there. Through the 160 pages of the book, you see Lizzie and the way grief takes hold of her entire life, despite she tries to overcome it, she can’t get past it.
This book had so much potential and was thrown away to find a way on experimenting (what i prefer to call it) on different types of point of view. These changes through the book seem like a simile between what Lizzie felt over the course of her journey, but it came out at the end as sloppy and with all its potential thrown out the window. We have several stories from the other patients and what Lizzie could gather from them but most lacked depth and it felt like a way of trying to justify the name of the book. But not everything is relied on it, we have an accurate representation on how the mental institutions work/don’t work with several patients due to lack of interest. You see Lizzie trying to get better. Be listened to, scream for help and everywhere she goes, no one actually cares about it.
There is a scene where Lizzie goes to the library on the ward. She mentions:
“I saw the charts that noted what made a patient more or less likely to succeed. I read about the ‘unexpected failures.’
According to the book the ‘unexpected failures’ were those attractive, intelligent, promising young women who had, against all expectation, offed themselves in the years post-discharge.”
And later, Lizzie proceeds to tell us how the “pretty girls” are the ones who get almost “real” help because they can adapt back to society without society breaking them back into a facility.
During the telling of the events, we lack cohesion, not just from how it jumps from side to side of the timeline; but some topics just become gratuitous and thrown to the story for a reaction of the reader. To try and get our attention back and link to a feeling Lizzie may be feeling during the scene.
It left me on this state of high and dry. It has a tendency to give you a good push to the plot and keeps you on the top and then it takes it away by changing the point of view and telling something that has no correlation, whatsoever. I would recommend it for text analysis use, because it kept me hooked on how it would change again.
Promising Young Women talks about Lizzie, who shares her story through the several mental institutions she stays and the women she meets there. Through the 160 pages of the book, you see Lizzie and the way grief takes hold of her entire life, despite she tries to overcome it, she can’t get past it.
This book had so much potential and was thrown away to find a way on experimenting (what i prefer to call it) on different types of point of view. These changes through the book seem like a simile between what Lizzie felt over the course of her journey, but it came out at the end as sloppy and with all its potential thrown out the window. We have several stories from the other patients and what Lizzie could gather from them but most lacked depth and it felt like a way of trying to justify the name of the book. But not everything is relied on it, we have an accurate representation on how the mental institutions work/don’t work with several patients due to lack of interest. You see Lizzie trying to get better. Be listened to, scream for help and everywhere she goes, no one actually cares about it.
There is a scene where Lizzie goes to the library on the ward. She mentions:
“I saw the charts that noted what made a patient more or less likely to succeed. I read about the ‘unexpected failures.’
According to the book the ‘unexpected failures’ were those attractive, intelligent, promising young women who had, against all expectation, offed themselves in the years post-discharge.”
And later, Lizzie proceeds to tell us how the “pretty girls” are the ones who get almost “real” help because they can adapt back to society without society breaking them back into a facility.
During the telling of the events, we lack cohesion, not just from how it jumps from side to side of the timeline; but some topics just become gratuitous and thrown to the story for a reaction of the reader. To try and get our attention back and link to a feeling Lizzie may be feeling during the scene.
It left me on this state of high and dry. It has a tendency to give you a good push to the plot and keeps you on the top and then it takes it away by changing the point of view and telling something that has no correlation, whatsoever. I would recommend it for text analysis use, because it kept me hooked on how it would change again.
rebeccamahanyhorton's review against another edition
3.0
I heard about this book on Sarah McCarry's blog The Rejectionist and, after seeing in the description on Goodreads that it's reminiscent of Plath, decided to read it: it was short and I had loved The Bell Jar. The book was almost too disjointed for me, with the chronology jumping all over the place so that I didn't really know what was happening when; each chapter (including a not-related but perfectly-written one called Girls with Problems) was a new story.
But the book is definitely worth reading, and this is why: it has lines like these:
"There was a day early on, before it got really bad--that feeling--I didn't know what to call it, because it wouldn't fit into words--which had me desiring a certain obliteration ... that made me want to stop eating, or to smoke lots of cigarettes, or to run, or to put on bright red lipstick and walk down the street until someone would touch me."
and "Everything Dread said was like a secret voice speaking out of my own bones."
and "'You look so pretty,' one or another said. This is what people say to little girls. This is not the only way we learn that pretty matters, but it is one way."
Promising Young Women is full of those sorts of sentences, the ones that are quietly true. It was a little too fragmented--but worth it.
But the book is definitely worth reading, and this is why: it has lines like these:
"There was a day early on, before it got really bad--that feeling--I didn't know what to call it, because it wouldn't fit into words--which had me desiring a certain obliteration ... that made me want to stop eating, or to smoke lots of cigarettes, or to run, or to put on bright red lipstick and walk down the street until someone would touch me."
and "Everything Dread said was like a secret voice speaking out of my own bones."
and "'You look so pretty,' one or another said. This is what people say to little girls. This is not the only way we learn that pretty matters, but it is one way."
Promising Young Women is full of those sorts of sentences, the ones that are quietly true. It was a little too fragmented--but worth it.
annecelines's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kayken556's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
marisamoo's review against another edition
4.0
a book I feel like specially embodies the phrase “when u know u know”. When u don’t know, you’re annoyed at its plotless closure-less fragments.
I feel like readers looking for a nice poetic mental health read about struggle and recovery maybe should go elsewhere because this book ain’t pretty, it’s pretty damn honest: sometimes things just suck /less/, and that’s “recovery” for the time being.
Consensus: Fragmented, non-chronological, abrupt. It’s not a conclusive ending read, it’s a read embodying being completely stagnant, indifferent, the disturbingly endearing nature of psych wards, and the freedom that doesn’t feel like freedom of medication.
I feel like readers looking for a nice poetic mental health read about struggle and recovery maybe should go elsewhere because this book ain’t pretty, it’s pretty damn honest: sometimes things just suck /less/, and that’s “recovery” for the time being.
Consensus: Fragmented, non-chronological, abrupt. It’s not a conclusive ending read, it’s a read embodying being completely stagnant, indifferent, the disturbingly endearing nature of psych wards, and the freedom that doesn’t feel like freedom of medication.
marie33's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer