"The Collected Schizophrenias," by Esmé Weijun Wang

Genre: Non-Fiction/Essays/Autobiography

Page Count: 200+

Published: 2019 (Graywolf Press)

Potential Triggers: alcohol, medications, mentions of "seeing into other worlds", stabbing, death, suicide, psych wards/asylums

Mental Health Topics: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, mentions of autism spectrum disorder, mentions of ADHD/ADD,

The Collected Schizophrenias is a phenomenally engaging book, not only in its writing style, but also because of the topic matters and how they're addressed. Although it's written as a series of essays, it reads fluidly like a book and contains real-life stories about an array of interesting (but related) topic matters.

In this book, you follow Esmé through her life with different diagnoses and gain some insight into what it's like to live with them. Additionally, you get to learn the general definition of what people perceive them to be.

Overall, I found reading this book to be a wonderful experience. While I'm disinclined to think it's one that I would read in one sitting, it's a nice read when you want to sit down an expand your horizons a bit. This book is spectacular in its coherence and bluntness and I'd highly recommend this book. For all of those who aren't afraid of the dark realities of living with a scary diagnosis such as schizophrenia or bipolar, this book is for you.