A candid, graceful, and courageous account that will offer a lifeline to others.
In this debut memoir, a man recounts battling depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his childhood and teenage years.
This book opens with Henick standing on a bridge ready to take his own life. “This is the end,” writes the author. “I’m sure of it. At least, I think I’m sure.” At what seems like the point of no return, the narrative snaps back to Henick’s childhood in an attempt to understand why he felt driven to commit suicide. Growing up in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the author coped with a difficult family life. His parents had separated by the time he was 4 years old. His mother’s new partner, Gary, was a bully who rebuked Henick for playing with a pink stuffed animal: “ ‘Pink is for girls,’ he said. ‘And faggots.’ ” Also bullied at school, the author began to develop anxiety at an early age. At one point, he describes being molested by the son of a family friend. By seventh grade, Henick began making drawings detailing the ways he could kill himself. He recounts periods spent in a “psych ward” and a feeling that “people preferred to medicate my experience away instead of helping me to understand it.” Recalling therapy, he relates a chilling moment when he put a knife to his own throat in front of a counselor. As the author grew older, he embarked on a quest for self-understanding that involved writing articles about mental health while still in school and setting up a charity to raise awareness about the subject. The memoir portrays how he went on to study psychology at a university, marry, start a family, and deliver a TED talk on suicide.
Henick’s harrowing journey from the “scattered stones” of his childhood to what he refers to as finally building a “house on rock” is both inspirational and revealing. The author possesses the rare ability to pinpoint and deftly describe key characteristics that fed his depression: “I was hypersensitive to people’s reactions toward me….I read things into words and behaviours that probably weren’t intended, and I projected my shame and guilt onto the world everywhere I went.” Henick recalls many personal experiences but is always careful to then examine mental illness from a broader perspective, laying bare the characteristics of a disorder like anxiety: “Anxiety is a future thing. It happens when you’re afraid of something that hasn’t happened yet, or may never happen at all.” In doing so, he renders comprehensible some aspects of mental illness that nonsufferers in particular often find difficult to grasp. The author pulls no punches in his writing, which may deter some readers: “I got home from church and tried to hang myself with an extension cord.” But it is this ability to unblinkingly see mental illness for what it is that illuminates a path to healing for Henick. The author’s recollections of his childhood are painstakingly detailed whereas descriptions of adulthood prove less so, making the closing parts of the book feel slightly hurried. For instance, the volume would benefited from a more thorough account of the author’s coming to terms with life as a father. Still, this detracts little from an elegantly written memoir that discovers hope in the darkest of moments.
A candid, graceful, and courageous account that will offer a lifeline to others.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4434-5503-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.
The third volume in the Elephant Whisperer series.
In this follow-up to An Elephant in My Kitchen, Malby-Anthony continues her loving portrait of the Thula Thula wildlife reserve, which she co-founded in 1998 with her late husband, South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who published the first book in the series, The Elephant Whisperer, in 2009. Following his death in 2012, Malby-Anthony sought to honor his legacy by continuing his vision “to create a massive conservancy in Zululand, incorporating our land and other small farms and community land into one great big game park.” At the same time, the elephants gave her “a sense of purpose and direction.” In the Zulu language, thula means quiet, and though the author consistently seeks to provide that calm to her charges, peace and tranquility are not always easy to come by at Thula Thula. In this installment, Malby-Anthony discusses many of the challenges faced by her and her staff, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These included an aggressive, 2-ton rhino named Thabo; the profound loss felt by all upon the death of their elephant matriarch, Frankie; difficulty obtaining permits and the related risk of having to relocate or cull some of their animals; the fear of looting and fire due to civil unrest in the region; and the ongoing and potentially deadly struggles with poachers. Throughout, the author also shares many warm, lighthearted moments, demonstrating the deep bond felt among the humans and animals at the reserve and the powerful effects of the kindness of strangers. “We are all working in unity for the greater good, for the betterment of Thula Thula and all our wildlife….We are humbled by the generosity and love, both from our guests and friends, and from strangers all around the world,” writes the author. “People’s open-hearted support kept us alive in the darkest times.”
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
