I felt this was a very interesting insight into multiple sides of the medical industry.

I enjoyed Emily's storytelling and heart breaking life journey as well as her experiences and opinions. But as a whole I felt many of the issues were just briefly touched on before moving on. I would have like more information. Although I feel that maybe unfair considering this is more of a memoir then a journalistic nonfiction.

Overall I found this informative and gave me a few things to think about when considering mine and my family's healthcare treatment.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

This book captivated me, and I appreciated every word. Emily is a terrific writer and narrates the audiobook incredibly well. I felt pulled along throughout and now feel quite endeared to the author—her voice, her experiences, her very human eccentricities, her perspective on everything from medical debt to the pharmaceutical industry to the strange world of the ER. I will definitely recommend this book.

This should have been good -- given the topic and the author's experiences -- but it just didn't gel.


Review copy provided by publisher.

Genre: memoir, essays
Pub date: Feb 8, 2022
In one sentence: Emily Maloney reflects on the cost of the US medical system from various perspectives: as a patient after a suicide attempt, an ER technician, and a pharmaceutical company employee.

This was not always an easy book to listen to; Maloney gives a raw, unflinching look at the problems of the US medical system. Her cataloguing of the medicines she took after her suicide attempt was particularly striking - the overmedication she experienced is a common theme in mental health treatment. I also enjoyed her discussion of fibromyalgia and chronic pain, including pain as the fifth vital sign and the role of Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin. Her thoughts on pharmaceutical marketing were spot on.

Maloney did a great job balancing her personal experience with a larger view of the medical establishment, and I would recommend it to those interested in medical nonfiction/memoir. I also really enjoyed her narration - you could feel the emotion in her voice, and it added to my immersion in the stories.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an ALC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review posted to Goodreads 11/21/21, to be posted to Instagram closer to pub date.