The Myth of Normal

I had great expectations for this book but I was quite disappointed. It took me months to finish it and considered DNFing it multiple times but my FOMO took over. The book is much longer than my usual reads too (around 500 pages without references), but I felt that it didn't have to be that way. The poor organisation of the book and its chapters compromises the overall reading experience and its purpose of bringing the “trauma conversation” to a larger audience. Most of the time the argument gets lost in the hundreds of quotes from interviews, speeches and articles that the authors manage to include —don't get me wrong, referencing is important but it is not a substitute to actually writing. In short, it felt like reading an unfinished, unedited manuscript rather than a published book. It makes me wonder whether there was any editing and proofreading done at all here. Still, if the reader manages to get through all the facts and quotes mentioned there, I think the book can provide useful and general insights for healthcare professionals lacking any knowledge on trauma-informed care, the politics of health, illness and addiction, Indigenous healing practices, or the body-mind connection explaining the links between childhood trauma and chronic disease and pain in adulthood. However, this is not the book you're looking for if what you need is to dive deeper into the contextual specific meanings, debates and experiences of trauma, chronic illness and healthcare from a clearly defined political and/or philosophical perspective that can actually drive change in collective thinking and action.