*⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐It was an eye-opener for me.
The book gets the reader into the mind of a person suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. It made me realize how little we (I) know about what does it mean to be mentally ill and how poor we're in understanding other people's thoughts and feelings if they are different from our own.
In the real-life, we often have a hard time accepting a point of view of those who aren't diagnosed with any disorder, as we often assume that only what we perceive is real and that only what we think is reasonable. It's so hard to acknowledge that other people may and will perceive same things in a very different way, which then may be amplified by all kinds of mental disorders.
What really struck me, was the awareness Isabelle had about her illness and in parallel, her mind's ability to find logical excuses and explanations why some things happening, are (in her opinion) not related nor caused by her mental condition.
But don't we all do the same? When excusing ourselves - we can always come with a very logical explanation, often blaming some external forces or others... not ourselves nor our limitations (even being fully aware of them).
Human's mind is a mystery, and as far as I'm sure it won't be resolved anytime soon, I do feel that this book took me a step closer to understanding at least some of its secrets, which otherwise would stay unknown to me. For that, I think it was absolutely worth reading (and yes, it did touch me a lot, to the point of dropping a tear or two).
You can get this book from Amazon: http://amzn.to/2y83Y04*
Disclosure:
I received this book for free, as I voted for its publication in the Amazon's Kindle Scout program.