Girl, Interrupted Book Review | Teen Ink

Girl, Interrupted Book Review

January 29, 2024
By arheemi BRONZE, Sacramento, California
arheemi BRONZE, Sacramento, California
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen has to be a book I can read a million times and never get bored of, I was introduced to the book by watching the movie. The book follows a young 18 year old Susanna Kaysen in the 1960’s since the book is based on her own experiences which results in the entirety of the book being based on real events, Kaysen gets admitted to a psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) 


The book is a deep dive into the world of mental health care in the 1960’s, with Kaysen’s narrative blending her own reflections with case studies and medical records. Personally, I’d wish the book was more longer since I feel like it’s too short to mention almost everything that Kaysen went through in those two years and how her mentality developed, it may be a short book but it still carries a heavy impact on the perspective of insanity and normalcy. The book is fragmented, like the author's mental state at the time. Susanna sees the world in such a different way, her worldview takes over everything she talks about and makes even the most commonplace activities new. 


Overall, Susana has explained to us her world for two years in the psychiatric ward, where mental illness was not treated fairly. The Vermeer painting she mentioned was called “Girl Interrupted at Her Music” just like she was interrupted from her life. Her symptoms lead to her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, since women are commonly diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, she was admitted into the hospital after 20 minutes of an interview. Sexism did exist in this story because at one point Susana knew she wasn’t crazy, and then at another point she doubted herself and thought she might be and bit her hand to see if she had any bones. The book is definitely my favorite out of any book I’ve ever read, it was very informative, and captivates the reader on Susanna’s life and how she interprets other patients like Lisa and Daisy and gave me an idea on how the mental institute worked in the 1960’s and how mental illness was looked upon. 


I recommend this book to anyone since it has no main targeted audience, I view the book for everyone, anyone can read it and it's honestly just a fascinating read that everyone should at some point stumble upon.


The author's comments:

I personally enjoyed the book a lot, hopefully others do too.


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