I first became interested in schizophrenia a few years ago, as part of a growing awareness around mental health and its impact. I was absolutely fascinated by Robert Kolker's Hidden Valley Road, an inside look into both the impact of schizophrenia and the science around it. The Ghost Garden leans more heavily into the personal, but is a very valuable read for exactly that. Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Schizophrenia is a complex disease, one which affects people across all kinds of social boundaries, one which may be genetic in nature but may also be caused by environment. It is an affliction that has become a slur, something thrown around, something associated with bad things happening. As with many of these things, the truth is that those afflicted often suffer the most. The rate of schizophrenics who become violent is small, the damage the disease does, however, is extensive. While the world of those who are schizophrenic falls apart, so those the world of those around them. The Ghost Garden is very thorough in the way it tracks the fallout of schizophrenia, the way it affects parents, children, and friends, and how it puts a strain on relationships of all kinds. The book is also very explicit in its call for more resources, which is does not necessarily through an active call-out but by highlighting the life-saving work some hospitals, doctors, and charities perform in the lives of the people it discusses. With its detail and unflinching look, The Ghost Garden gives a voice to a group of people who are marginalised and overlooked and for that it is important in and of itself. While not everything in the book worked for me, or perhaps resonated with me as intended, I nonetheless found it a very enlightening read which will inform me moving forward.

The Ghost Garden centers on the story of Caroline Evans (Doherty changed all the names, except those of medical professionals for the sake of privacy). We meet her first at what can be described her lowest point, before jumping back in time to her childhood. One of ten children, Caroline seems like your average teenage girl but because we know what is coming each oddity turns into a warning sign. Thanks to extensive conversations with Caroline herself and her siblings, Doherty is able to sketch an incredibly detailed portrait of Caroline's life and I couldn't help but get wrapped up in it. Due to the depth of detail, I at times almost felt overwhelmed, which may have been Doherty's intention. A life with schizophrenia is a life of constant underlying tension and dread. I couldn't help but feel for Caroline and her siblings and was immensely impressed at their willingness to share to the extent they did. Caroline's story is interjected with short vignettes of other people suffering from schizophrenia, one way or another, who Doherty has met during her time volunteering. These vignettes frequently functioned to highlight, underline, or even contrast to what was happening to Caroline and I felt that this back and forth was very well done. A part of me did wish to meet more people, to hear more of these smaller stories to understand the breadth of experiences people have with schizophrenia.

One aspect of The Ghost Garden I felt a little uncomfortable with was the intense focus upon the physicality of the people Doherty was meeting. While I do understand it is important to point out how a person's appearance impacts the way they are received by society, I couldn't help but feel that there was an almost implicit judgement in these descriptions as well. Something along the lines of 'These people suffer so much that they can't help but smoke and overeat and smell'. I fully believe that this is not how Doherty intended these descriptions to come across, but the sheer accumulation of them, which included frequent references to faded clothing, cheap food, dyed hair, and body odour, hit a sour note for me. It is made clear that much of this is down to medication and a lack of assistance, and it is important to face that and not let the extremity of certain situations overwhelm the instinct to help, but I nonetheless question whether this was the best way to express it. I do have to admit I don't necessarily know a better way.

Another thing worth noting about The Ghost Garden, as I mentioned all the way at the top, is that this is a deeply personal and subjective book. Susan Doherty is writing from her own experiences, detailing her own emotions, and trusting to the memory of those around her. The major benefit of this is that you get to see how deeply these people affect her and how much love and kindness they have to share. The whole stigma around people with schizophrenia being "insane", or any other pejorative, falls away once you see them through Doherty's eyes. A downside is that The Ghost Garden strays into being an argument against medicating patients. And I do understand this after having read the book and the experiences described therein, but I nonetheless feel it could be risky. I don't think medicating people to the gills and hoping they'll stay still long enough to not cause damage is the answer, absolutely not. I do also think that some medications have very intense side-effects which need to be considered. But, I also think that schizophrenia is too complex to dismiss medicine as an option. In a perfect world we would have all the money and resources to give each person that suffers the time and support and talk therapy etc. which they need, alongside the right balance of medication which helps them but does not disable them. Unfortunately that perfect world is not here yet and schizophrenia's complex nature makes it difficult to pinpoint a cure or even a cause.

The Ghost Garden is an intriguing, but most importantly empathetic and gentle, portrait of those suffering from schizophrenia, both directly and indirectly. Doherty's kindness shines through in her writing and has definitely helped me inform my own thinking. While this a subjective book, in the sense that Doherty speaks from her personal experience rather than a professional position with medical knowledge, there is nonetheless a lot of insight to glean.

I know I am very late in giving a review but I couldn’t let the passing of time go by without coming here to say how much I loved this book.
It was so eye opening reading about Caroline’s struggle and that she and her family allowed us to see into that part of their lives is humbling. I am sure it was not easy to share but I am thankful they did.
It had me thinking about a cousin of mine and posts he has been making on FB and it has me realizing and understanding things about his behaviour and his lashing out.

I read this book primarily as a way to do research for my own book, a science fiction novel with a main character sent to a state mental hospital where he meets and spends a lot of time with a character who has schizophrenia. Ghost Garden provided what my in-person, on-foot research had not, details about what it's actually like to live with the illness and what the inside of a mental hospital might look like. More than that, though, it provided an amazingly deep view into the lives of people who suffer from schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses. It did so with compassion for the sufferers and lack of judgement of the family members.

Having had a brother-in-law who succumbed to severe mental illness, loving several people with moderate mental illness, and having depression myself, I know that no matter the type of illness and the severity, it can be an incredibly complicated journey just to get to diagnosis. And that journey often becomes even more so after. It's miserable for the sufferer, but it's also unspeakably difficult for the family members tasked with trying to help their loved one. It's heartbreaking to think that Ghost Garden, depicting not only Caroline and her family's journey but also several others', is but a fraction of the whole bramble of lives distorted, trapped, and siderailed by mental illness; governmental and societal mental health treatment infrastructures rendered inadequate by insufficient funding and understanding; pharmaceutical approaches that have made a huge difference but still have a long way to go; and family support systems that can be difficult to discover.

Hopefully, though, Doherty's fluid and compassionate writing will become a springboard upon which to build awareness and encourage discussion about an issue that affects so many so deeply.

The Ghost Garden by Susan Doherty is about people who live with schizophrenia. Susan has been volunteering and befriending “a group of highly misunderstood souls” and their families since 2009. She writes with the utmost compassion and shares the insights she has gathered. Her observations are far-reaching and can be used by governments, medical establishments, first responders, and each of us to know what people with schizophrenia need.

This book is one method of spreading this information. We can all help by recommending it to our families, friends, and contacts. We can all be interventionists in an educated and beneficial way if we internalize Susan’s message.

I did not want to read a sad book, but I’m glad I did. Susan writes in such a way that we instantly experience the human need. Even if it is hidden under street clothes, inadequate hygiene, stressed personalities, feelings of fear and persecution, vocal and physical assaults. Susan does not spare us an impression of living conditions for people who are not functioning normally. However, she does contrast this with the way they are when they are functioning and feeling normal; they are exactly like us. They need love, and a purpose and self-esteem. Susan's book contains nineteen extraordinary stories, alternately sad and poignant, compassionate and heart-rending.

One of her stories follows Caroline from 1967 when she is a bubbly, happy, little girl throughout her life until she is in her sixties. Caroline loses the one relationship she needs to maintain her self-esteem. At times she loses support from other members of her family. Susan has made this a detailed case-study with the help of Caroline and her family, especially her sisters. Susan has demonstrated that because no-one understood that Caroline had an illness, Caroline was not treated in a way that would create wellness. She was pushed farther and farther into mental illness. All the stories have this characteristic.

Susan uses an interesting technique by separating Caroline’s story up into different parts and interlacing it with the other, different and shorter stories. By doing this, we can recognize the underlying themes, even though the emotional causes of schizophrenia vary for different people. An event can trigger a psychotic episode. Recovery from that episode can be prolonged or shortened depending on the emotional response from other people towards the schizophrenic person. To clarify, if a person suffers a psychotic episode, they are most likely in urgent need of medication to calm them. However, after that medication can be harmful.

During my professional life, people with mental illnesses were once sheltered and could enjoy a low-level functional life that was relatively stress-free. However, this changed in the 1960s when mentally ill people were provided with community resources; code for being turned out into the streets in a misguided attempt to be humane. This happened in the UK, and it happened in the US, and even today the mental health services are fragmented and insufficient to cope with the need. Note: Luxembourg and Germany are two countries which maintain useful resources to help the mentally ill. When I worked in the Health Services in England in the 1970s, our offices were housed in a mental health hospital in Norfolk, UK. Billy, a patient of about 60, would come and take our coffee orders each morning. I have always dreaded to imagine what became of Billy when he no longer experienced a sheltered environment and his purpose in life was removed.

Susan writes so eloquently about people with schizophrenia that it must reveal her extraordinary and profound empathy to see past the chaos into their very souls. Moreover, Susan has bestowed this gift to us by writing it down in detail so that we might also see with her remarkable insight. Susan has in some magical way made it possible for us to comprehend the truths of schizophrenic people for ourselves. As though we were their friend and we have followed their progress. It all comes down to the fundamental need of all humanity for acceptance, self-esteem, and purpose.

The Ghost Garden deserves a 5-star rating because of its potential to benefit people with schizophrenia. We can all feel empowered to help this cause. I would not rate it 4 out of 5 stars because it is written with compassion and reveals the very soul of each person. I recommend the book to a mass audience. So that this remarkable message of what people with schizophrenia need can reach the far corners of the world. The stories are poignant, but Susan’s insight will promise hope of a better tomorrow.

The Ghost Garden is written in a way that brings light to those who struggle with Schizophrenia. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all laid out bare. However, it is not done in a way that looks down on those individuals or makes it seem like a "dirty" mental disease. Susan Doherty does an incredible job writing in a way to help you understand Schizophrenia in regards to those suffering with it and those closest to them. My heart truly goes out to those who deal with Schizophrenia as well as their families.

The only downside for me is that this book is slow for me to get through. I will read a couple chapters here and there. I never completely lost interest though.

The Ghost Garden is written to help people better understand what it is like with schizophrenia. This book is very enlightening and emotional. People would have a better understanding what they go through and not be so judge mental if they would read this book. I especially liked hearing from the person experiencing the illness her self. Well written.

I really enjoyed this book. It has opened my eyes to mental illness and what I think about it. Fascinating. I highly recommend this book.

An engrossing, in depth look into how mental illness, especially schizophrenia affects people. I especially liked hearing from the person experiencing the illness her self.

The Ghost Garden is written to help people better understand what it is likewise schizophrenia. This book is very enlightening and emotional. People would have a better understanding what they go through and not be so judgemental if they would read this book. Well written.

A family curse, hidden passages, whispers from nowhere, you will find them all here. Cotter sets
the perfect atmosphere for a ghost story. It is easy to get lost in this one. There are many twists and turns. This is perfect for middle-grade ghost lovers. The cover is Beautiful!!