1 out of 4 stars
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Donna Reynolds wrote In and Out of Madness throughout a period of personal healing. Based off of her experiences of molestation, P.T.S.D. and alcoholism, this book is a collection of her thoughts and advice as she overcomes the obstacles that life has thrown at her with the help of her religion.
At first, I picked up this book with the impression that it would be a tale of the author’s abuse and how she overcame these tragedies by finding God and through therapy. Sexual abuse is not a topic often discussed in the literary world, and a book like this could potentially help other victims through their suffering and lead them towards a path of healing. However, once I began reading this story, I found that this was not that kind of book.
The pieces in this book are structured more in the form of poems and short stories rather than a story of her life. Usually, I love reading poetry, especially about more serious topics such as this. But the message that the author is trying to communicate is unclear. Without having read the synopsis of the book beforehand, I would not have understood what this book is about. Which is unfortunate, because this is a topic often not addressed in literature and I was eager to see someone explore it.
A short story towards the end of the book shows how much the author has learned about herself and learned through the awful experiences that she has endured. If more of the book had been like this, then it would have been a much more enjoyable read.
There were a few grammar and spelling mistakes, but it did not hinder my reading experience at all. The bigger issue was the way that the poems were structured. I found them to be messy and have little structure to them at all. Some words were capitalized for emphasis, but when this happens several times per paragraph, it distracts the reader and pulls them out of the story. Because of these two points, it appears that this book was not edited well.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars because of how difficult it was to follow the author's thoughts, and how distracting the lack of editing was. I would not recommend this book to anyone. It felt like the author wrote it more for personal outlet rather than to create something that someone else might read. If the author had given this to other people and an editor before publishing, then this could have potentially been a very valuable and thought-provoking read.
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In and out of Madness
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