I was able to read this book long before publication.
And wow I would not have wanted to miss it.

This book gave me goosebumps all over. The way the experiences, and especially the emotions, are described in this book. Crushing, but at the same time so pure and real.

I loved reading this book and it really had me thinking!

Highly recommend, but check tw!!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book before its publication. It’s one I’m genuinely grateful I didn’t miss.

Living in the Long Shadow was incredibly powerful. There were so many moments that gave me chills because of how honestly and vulnerably Suzanne Sherman shares her experiences. The emotions throughout this book felt so raw and real that I found myself stopping just to process what I’d read.

What I appreciated most was that this isn’t just a story about mental illness—it’s about the ripple effects it has on families, relationships, identity, and healing. It was heartbreaking at times, but it was also deeply insightful and compassionate.

As someone who has become increasingly interested in understanding mental health and trauma, this book really resonated with me. It made me reflect on how experiences shape us and how the impact of mental illness often extends far beyond the individual living with it.

This is the kind of book that stays with you long after you’ve finished it. It gave me a lot to think about, and I found myself reflecting on it even after I turned the last page.

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone interested in mental health, family dynamics, trauma, or simply reading an honest and beautifully written memoir. It’s an emotional read, but a truly worthwhile one.

I”m not sure why it took me quite a while to actually get to reading this after I received it, but that’s no reflection on the quality of the book. Here, Suzanne Sherman describes her experience both before and after her mother’s suicide when Suzanne was in college, moving back and forth from incidents during her mother's life time and her later experience. She compellingly describes the family dysfunction and anxiety of her mother’s mental illness and the effects on other member of the family. It’s not a traditional start-to-finish tale, but that’s fitting because the experience of of the author and her family clearly not make for a single neat story. Nevertheless, I was drawn in by her story and appreciated her sharing it.

Living in the Long Shadow is an honest and deeply personal memoir about growing up with a mother whose sudden-onset schizophrenia changed the course of an entire family. Told through dual timelines, Suzanne Sherman reflects on her childhood in 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles while also revisiting the weeks following her mother's suicide. The structure works well, gradually revealing how mental illness shaped her family, her identity, and her understanding of grief.

Sherman brings a lot of compassion to a painful story. She doesn't reduce her mother to a diagnosis or offer easy answers. Instead, she writes about love, fear, resilience, and the complicated bonds that can exist even in the midst of profound mental illness. This is a thoughtful memoir that will resonate with readers interested in family relationships, mental health, and stories of healing after loss. My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advance review copy.