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Publication Date: December 10, 2021

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

List Price: $25.99 Trade Paperback

ISBN-13: 978-1-63988-097-3

Author interview

In this poignant, haunting memoir, McConnell reveals the inner universe of her struggles with mental illness. Recounting her childhood and adolescence, McConnell takes readers into her unstable, abusive home life, recounting her chaotic existence as a young girl who struggles daily with mental illness while navigating the rough passages of adolescence and young adulthood, including the passions, dangerous escapades, terrifying self-destructive behavior, family and social drama, and relentless urges toward self-harm. In doing so, she skillfully expresses her carousel of emotions, showing a person that is unable to understand her own plethora of manic moods. Though these psychic states were present on a regular basis, McConnell was formally diagnosed with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder much later in life. She adeptly shows what it’s like to be struggling with a severe mental illness on a daily basis, conveying her existential struggle with the unknown terrors of manic depression. McConnell is straightforward and achingly honest, portraying a young woman beset by a mental illness. In addition to a moving personal story, McConnell offers a poignant and candid guide to borderline personality disorder and a distillation of adolescent tortures many readers will recognize. By the end, readers will be cheering for McConnell.

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