Shelby's Reviews > While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence

The investigative public health reporting of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America meets the family mental illness of Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family in this memoir about a large Catholic family's suicidal trauma and its aftermath.

This book made me feel less alone in my own family drama, as Kissinger tragically lost two siblings to suicide while enduring other familial illnesses including depression, bipolar disorder, and cancer. The author is genuinely curious about the "curse" that intimidates her surviving family members and uses her journalistic talents to spotlight the societal pitfalls that keep mentally unhealthy individuals in a state of vulnerability.

I especially liked the author's audiobook narration, the cover, and the brilliant title.