“I had never heard of postpartum psychosis before my own diagnosis. Pregnancy had brought a list of worries—episiotomies, prolapse, preeclampsia. I was so preoccupied with the idea of losing my body, it had never occurred to me that I might lose my mind.”
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Inferno is a memoir recounting @catherinekcho experience with her own postpartum psychosis. Her book does so with clear insight and reflection. We start as the narrator wakes up in an inpatient psychiatric unit, and follow along with the the author as she tries to piece together what happened to lead her there. Cho delivers powerful, gut-wrenching snapshots of pain and loss with clear and concise prose, and I found myself rereading the passages to let myself feel the full weight of her words. I would place a trigger warning here for anyone with history or personal experience with psychosis, as some the memories themselves are truly terrifying at times to bear witness to.
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I identified with her descriptions of the early days of motherhood - the endless cycle of “feed, change, sleep”, and setting up a “battle station” on the couch with the breastfeeding pillow, your snacks, Netflix, and your newborn. I loved her writing style and the way she went back and forth in time. This book will stay with me for a long time.
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Thank you to @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What is it like to be involuntarily admitted into a psychiatric ward? Catherine Cho finds out as her mind unravels during a trip to see family in America when she and her husband bring their newborn son to meet their extended family. Cho recounts her life and her stay in the ward, tangled together with extreme fog, yet also clarity. Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Hold & Co. for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!


Wow. This book was powerful. Echoes of "Brain on Fire" flitted through my head as I read about Catherine Cho and her experience with Postpartum Psychosis. Cho's story alone is interesting. She grew up in a Korean family living in America. She escaped an abusive relationship. She got a college degree. Right when it seems like her life is about to settle down, everything falls apart.

Often, mother's experience postpartum psychosis shortly after the birth of their child, for Cho her experience began months later. She and her husband decide to travel from their home in London to America to visit friends and family. They ignore their Korean traditions of not leaving the home for so many months after a child is born and it's interesting to see how that changes the family dynamic. In some ways, the stressed added by family may have contributed to her mental state. 

Overall, this book was interesting and terrifying. Cho's story sheds light on a world many people don't ever see or experience. I gave this book 4 stars.

Catherine Cho's memoir "Inferno" about her time experience postpartum psychosis is harrowing, intense, and informative. She writes "I was so preoccupied with the idea of losing my body, it had never occurred to me that I might lose my mind" in regards to her worry about pregnancy and delivery complications. Her and her husband come from Korean families and do not follow their culture's traditional post-birth activities. They leave their house, and they decide that this is a good opportunity to travel from London to American to visit friends and family with their newborn, despite extended family's misgivings. The book begins with Catherine's involuntary hospitalization in America for a psychotic break, and the book then provides context on what happened leading up to her break. She has a challenging delivery, and has to stay in the hospital longer than usual, and she attributes this to affecting her attachment to her son. She sees herself as a body and not a person. As her family's travels through America continue, we can see stressors piling up, her impending hospitalization in our mind. Multiple factors contribute to her breakdown and her description of psychosis is frightening. We make the connection between earlier observations (a family member has surveillance cameras in his house), and as she gets sicker, she thinks cameras are everywhere watching her. An additional thing to stew on, is she describes how her treatment would have been if she had her break in the UK versus in the US. And also how her follow-up treatment went there is quite different from our mental health treatment in the US. Great description of a condition that many women suffer with, but we do not get a lot of examples of.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for providing me with this advance reader copy for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the eARC was given in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a great book and I definitely would use it in class if I still taught at the university. For obvious reasons, I don’t know that it would be very engaging for high school students as most of them feel very removed from the idea of motherhood and pregnancy. Still, this was a really powerful memoir that depicted the struggles of recovery from Ppp. This book was very necessary as PpP is almost never talked about by the person who has suffered from it and this book might help take away some of the stigma.

Unflinchingly honest and raw. Draws you in from the first page. I honestly couldn't put it down. I enjoyed every page of this amazing story. An absolute must read. One of the best memoirs I have read this year. Happy reading!

Wow! That is how you sum this book up in one word! Catherine and her husband come to the United States from London to show off their new baby to relatives they have there. Unfortunately, this trip is life changing for Catherine as she is dealing with postpartum psychosis and is committed to a psychiatric ward involuntarily. The author shares her experiences as a child to immigrant parents to her time in the ward and beyond. This is an honest and raw read that delves into the real issue of postpartum mental health and how it is handled.

A copy of this book was received from the publisher through Netgalley for review consideration. This is a terrifying look into an episode of postpartum psychosis that is as beautifully written as it is gripping. Though there is still a long way to go, the silence is slowly being lifted from such experiences, which women are generally reluctant to reveal, feeling they are bad mothers and bad people if parenthood is not all wonderful for them. As one of the many who went through postpartum depression without telling anyone, I admire Cho's bravery for telling her story and hope that it can help others who may be suffering. I was amazed at the clarity she was able to bring to describing experiences that must have been very hard to put into words.

Author #Catherine Cho has a new novel out# ‘Inferno’ this week. And the book is just fascinating to read as it is terrifying. The subject of postpartum psychosis as a personal memoir, the unfortunate experiences with her Korean culture all of this makes a wonderful read.
Thank you,
#netgalley,#Catherine Cho and #Henry Holt Company

5 stars!

I know I talk about how I don't rate memoirs, but this is my favorite memoir I've ever read, and I'm giving it five stars.

(Thank you to Net Galley for an E-ARC.)

I've never heard of postpartum psychosis, but I imagine that this will be an incredibly powerful read for any woman who can share this experience. For me, as someone with a history of mental illness, I also found this powerful. Cho describes the horror and fear of that which no one can really understand so perfectly that her words often left me with chills.

Cho tells her story in a nonlinear way: the memoir starts in the psychiatric unit she stays on (and anyone who has been on a psych ward will immediately recognize the routine and lack of time of that setting), and she also recounts the events that led up to her admission, starting with her childhood. Occasionally, she'll include a fairy tale or myth from her childhood. I loved this because they personalized this story even more and they connected to her narrative so flawlessly.

I also love the format of journal entries because writing is also a very important processing and coping mechanism for me, and I hope that it will inspire readers who are experiencing any kind of distressing situation to find a way to tell their story.

This memoir made me smile, cry, and remember the power of love. There are absolutely heartbreaking moments in Cho's story, but it is also so full of love, and in the end, hope. I am so glad that I read this and that it will be able to have a similar impact on women who might feel alone.

This book was full all kinds of feels. It's not your typical read. It is a well written account of motherhood, life and love. I recommend this book to all looking for something different.

As a psychologist I find psychosis fascinating. But as a mother, psychosis and in particular postpartum psychosis frightening. This brave author shared a gripping account of her experiences. It is moving, surreal and humbling. This can happen to anyone. I wish more was shared about recovery and long term treatment/ experiences

An honest memoir of Catherine Cho's experience with stress induced postpartum psychosis. As a mother of a one year old, it was kind of hard to read some parts of this because it was so incredibly heartbreaking reading about how the author didn't feel an emotional bond with her son when he was first born.

I think a lot of it stemmed from things that happened in her past, the abuse she witnessed her father give to her younger brother Teddy, and the abuse she received at the hands of her first boyfriend.

Add to that the stress she felt after giving birth, with her in laws constantly monitoring and criticizing everything she did when it came to her son, it's no wonder she succumbed to this diagnosis.

I enjoyed reading the Korean mythologies she interspersed throughout this memoir. It gave a broader and more in depth view to how she was feeling and her experience in the psych ward. I feel this is an important read, especially for mothers and mothers to be. I appreciate Catherine Cho's rawness and honesty in this memoir. Highly recommend picking this up.
*thanks to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review*

I received a free e-ARC of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings for this book: domestic violence, severe mental illness, postpartum psychosis, involuntary stay in a mental hospital

Catherine Cho’s clear, clean writing draws a reader in right away. I was hooked from the first page and couldn’t put the book down, which made it a nice, fast read.

Cho alternates between past and present to tell the story of her life before and after being involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. She recounts a difficult childhood, an abusive relationship, and finally, finally meeting her loving husband James in a whirlwind romance.

Cho, like me, is Korean-American and grew up with certain superstitions and folktales. After the birth of her son, Cato, as she and her husband travel across America to introduce their loved ones to their newborn, breaking nearly every Korean superstition about the birth of a child. At her in-laws, who are also Korean, Cho becomes paranoid and caught between her autonomy and fulfilling her in-laws’ expectations. She experiences postpartum psychosis and is committed by her husband to a mental hospital.

At the hospital, Cho is left to reflect on what’s real and what isn’t, the passage of time, and how the mentally ill are cast aside and ignored, even in a mental hospital. She quickly falls into a routine and tries to piece together how to prove she’s well enough to go home.

Cho writes with attention to detail, leaving readers feeling like they’re walking in lockstep with her, experiencing her joys, her heartbreaks, and her hallucinations. This memoir is heartfelt and will leave readers thinking about what it means to merge two families and what it is that holds a family together. At the end of the book, Cho's story is a love story about the love within a family.

I want to thank Net Galley, Henry Holt & Company, and Catherine Cho for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel.

This book truly blew me away in all of the best ways. This is the best memoir I have read since Susannah Callahans, Brain On Fire. Cho describes the rarely talked about serious after effects of giving birth. Many women suffer from postpartum depression, but I didn't even know what postpartum psychosis was until I read this memoir. I was thoroughly impressed with how Cho was seamlessly able to take the reader on a journey through past and present. This allows the reader to see how everything is connected in the same way that Cho experienced during her psychosis. I was truly impressed with how well Cho connected everything, down to the title of the book- Inferno. Throughout the memoir, Cho references herself as Beatrice, famously known as Dantes’ biggest love interest and the inspiration behind the novel Dantes Inferno. Cho constantly feels she is in hell throughout her psychosis, so I found all these connections quite brilliant. This book moved me in many ways. I experienced intense and life altering psychosis at the age of 16, and have never seen it so truthfully spilled onto beautifully chaotic pages. This book is a must read. I loved every page.

I want to thank NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and author Catherine Cho for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

This memoir is SO IMPORTANT. I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate these topics being brought to light. Postpartum psychosis and mental hospitalization are two “taboo” subjects that not a lot of people are willing to talk about. Cho opened up her life to allow us a look inside at the trials and tribulations she dealt with as a new mother. This was brutally honest and unflinching, which is what needed to be done. Mothers should not have to feel so alone with these things after giving birth to a child. This story has stuck with me even after finishing it. I also enjoyed the multicultural viewpoint provided; this allowed a different look at things as well.

I again want to thank those named above for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

An honest and unflinching look at postpartum psychosis, mental hospitalization and the Korean culture. A brutally honest look at Catherine Cho's life. It's amazing how she opened herself up like this and shared so much! She tells how traveling around stressed her out and then she had a baby leading to postpartum psychosis. The Korean culture was very unforgiving of her problems, so she was institutionalized in the mental hospital missing her child's 100 day celebration. I know it wasn't easy to have written a book like this, thank you for sharing your life experience Catherine Cho.

#Inferno #NetGalley #CatherineCho
I am reviewing this book after being given an advanced copy by NetGalley. Thanks to NetGalley and the author, Catherine Cho! Following is an honest review of this true story. It is about the trials and tribulations of a new mother who finds herself experiencing postpartum psychosis when she travels from London to the United States to introduce her new son to her and her husbands families. It tells of her unraveling from the pressures of travel and having a new born with whom she is yet to bond.. Korean traditions unravel as she sinks further into her psychosis, ends up involuntarily hospitalized in a locked mental hospital and misses he sons 100 day life celebration.. Family and especially, her husband, try to stand by her and help her heal but there is little they can do. This novel is a sensitive, revealing and honest look at postpartumm psychosis and mental health in general. I would have given it 4 1/2 stars but since no 1/2 stars are allowed I had to give it 4. I recommend exploring this novel.

This book was great. I really thought it had dept and honesty. Gave a good look at postpartum brain. I didn't love the writing style, but the book overall was something i would recommend.

Brutally beautiful. So vulnerable, honest and unflinching. I adored every moment of this retelling of a gorgeous descent into (graciously temporary) madness.

This book was addicting. You wanted to continue reading even long after it was over. The characters felt so real and relatable, and the story was so original.