REVIEW: Mad Woman by Bryony Gordon

From menopause to mental illness, burnout to binge eating — Mad Woman is an incisive conversation about why so many women today are struggling to keep it together under the intense pressure of a patriarchal, capitalist world.

Part memoir, part recovery guide and part conversation with a good friend; Bryony talks about her own experiences with addiction, mental illness and womanhood, showing her personal journey from the worst moments of her life to the best but without glamourising the struggle and being so realistic but always hopeful.

It read easily, like she was telling us the story directly and talking to us about everything she’s seen, everything that the world puts in the way to make us seem and feel mad. With snippets of phone notes, random thoughts and more structured sections, it had a great pace and I just kept going till I ran out of pages.

And as someone who has dealt with OCD and disordered eating in my life, I found not only a connection but a strange kind of relief and catharsis in her writing just knowing someone out there gets it.

Mad Woman is available from February 15th with Headline. I was gifted a reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This title contains subjects that may be upsetting including eating disorders and mental illness.

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