I came to this thinking it would make a reasonable gift for my most depressed, least depressing, friend. And then I saw the reality. I don't think the artwork was at all attractive enough for a gift book, I would seriously question the decision to preload the thing with all the depressing, self-doubting cartoons before anything positive and affirming is allowed to come along, and I am not sure we needed quite as many essays as we got. I'm sure it will make a lot of sufferers empathise for its accuracy regarding many mental and social conditions, but this wasn't really what I wanted.

I must confess that I didn't enjoy the humor in the book very much!
I would like to thank the publisher for giving me a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Bird Brain is a graphic novel of sorts that is about mental health but told through pigeons instead of people. It addresses things like fear, depression, anxiety, social awkwardness and overall just the bad times and how they impact life.

I did not expect this book to be so heavy as it is comics about pigeons, but it is about a very difficult subject matter for some and might even be a little triggering. However, the comics are relatable and put mental health on the forefront which it needs to be more often.

I also didn't expect for this book to also include blocks of narration from the author. I think it might have been better served throughout with the comics versus in the long blocks. They seems a bit long-winded and since I was expecting comics I found that they really took my attention away from the images.

I liked this collection and found it to be soothing, in that I related to so many of the anxiety based comics, but it wasn't a love it book for me.

If you are looking for an interesting take on mental health in a more whimsical medium, this would fit that build.

Love the comics and the notes from the author about how personal these comics are for them. This might be the best representation that I have read in how it deals with what living with anxiety is really like, a must read for people with anxiety and for the people who love them.

Mental health, but with pigeons. Half comics, half essays on mental health, telling the truth of struggling with mental health, without ever becoming preachy and always staying slightly in the humour-lane, without making light of how actually awful living with mental health-issues is.

This is probably the most authentic anxiety-related thing I've read, and it was told in pigeons. Pigeons. I kid you not. The author/artist's short essays on the different "chapters" may have been my favourite part, though - she really knows how to talk about mental health without making it too.. serious. Does that make sense? Nope. But I loved this and I adore the pigeons and I'll be over here smiling at these cute-as-heck lil' pigeons for the rest of the day. And tomorrow, probably.

This collection of comic strips about anxiety and depression is thoughtful, funny, and relatable to those of us who've experienced mental illness, and educational for those that haven't. The author's depictions of herself and her loved ones as pigeons is utterly adorable and is a nice and accessible way into some really serious issues.

I wasn’t familiar with Chuck Mullin’s pigeon comics on Instagram but found the cover and premise of this book to be inviting. I expected it to filled with comics but ultimately got so much more. Interspersed between the comics are short essays revealing Chuck Mullin’s personal experiences with mental illness: what it feels like, how it affects your life and how to cope with it and feel better. The essays are very honest, relatable and heartfelt. Mullin takes a serious subject but is able to discuss it, through words and pictures, in a friendly and inspirational way that will at times put a smile on your face.

I was curious as to the choice of pigeons for the comic. Mullin explains overhearing a couple commenting on the pigeons nearby, saying they are “rats with wings.” She felt bad for the pigeons, imagining them being insulted and feeling awful about themselves, and went home and doodled about it. The response to the comic was so positive that she continued drawing pigeons.

I thought about a deeper meaning for the use of pigeons to illustrate her struggle with mental illness. If you have lived in a city, you know that if you walk by pigeons and yell SHOOO or make some loud noise, they will fly away. Pigeons are very sensitive. Also, the notion of flying away to escape negative situations and/or feelings seems apropos. I am reminded of the flight or fight response to a perceived threat. So maybe it was by chance that Mullin chose pigeons but I think they are well suited to the task.

The book is divided into three sections - Bad Times, Relationships and Positivity. While I understand the logical sequence of starting with depression and building up to feeling better, it was tough to read. To put it bluntly, I found the first section to be very depressing, showing how bad things can get. Note that It actually shows the skills of the author to so perfectly capture what it feels like when one is anxious or depressed. She really nails it!

Bird Brain is a very honest yet entertaining look at mental illness - what it feels like, how to cope and ultimately how to feel better. The comics can be funny and witty but this little book carries a big message — you are not alone and it is possible to feel better. It is filled with practical advice and is a much needed resource in this day and age when mental illness can be misunderstood. Besides discussing medication, the importance of support and self-care, we also learn about finding small moments of happiness.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is such a perfect example of what it's like to have anxiety. I wasn't expecting there to be such in depth writing outside of the comics but boy was I wrong! It was so good and I hope everyone has a chance to read it.

The artwork is not clean and well-defined but it could be intentional.
I enjoyed it and even though, I might have skimmed those short essays (*guilty), it is an enjoyable and informative book to read.

I didn't really know what to expect when I chose to read this book.

This book provides insight into the world of mental illness through the pigeon comics and the accompanying personal stories shared by the author. I don't think that any one book can give us a full understanding of mental illness and how to talk about how it effects our lives, but I think this book provides a great starting point for that conversation.

I appreciated the comics about how to and how not to approach talking to someone with a mental illness. I often do not know what to say so to friends and family that suffer from a mental illness. I find myself walking on eggshells around the subject and avoiding talking about it because I don’t want to make it worse. Your comics helped me realize that I shouldn’t be afraid to bring it up and offer support; I just need to be mindful of how I do it.

Thank you for sharing your story.
#BirdBrain #NetGalley

In this extremely relatable, honest and funny book, Chuck Mullin talks about depression, anxiety, self-care, and other aspects of everyday life in a very touching way. As a person who's suffered from depression and anxiety for a long time, this book felt very real in its portraying of what you feel (and don't feel) during these times. I'd definitely recommend this to people who would like to understand or empathize more with a loved one who has suffered / is currently suffering from mental illness, and to anyone interested to learning more about this.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. It captures the experience of anxiety so well. It's a bit heavy at times but well worth the read. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

I appreciate the author's point of view but did not find the comics moving or entertaining. Not what my patrons are looking for.

I went into this expecting just a compilation of comics, so I was mildly surprised by the extent of the text portions, but not put off. Anxiety/depression are very important topics and I am glad that this comic/book exist. However, I was personally a little underwhelmed with the actual content of the comic. Apparently enough people enjoy the comic enough that this made it to book stage, and that's great. But none of it was that unique or memorable for me.

Well, I didn't expect there to be so much text. I was expecting it to be more like random snippets of a persons life so the blocks of text between transitions explaining the reason the author drew the things they drew took me out of the book and made it less enjoyable. More like a daunting life update of a person you don't even know.

The beginning made me feel incredibly uncomfortable, there is little to no positively and just the deep, dark depths of depression, Slowly we see the main character develop enough that they are learning how to find/make their own happiness. But those blocks of texts keep pulling me out of the story.

I would have liked it a lot more if the text was more integrated with the illustrations and didn't break up the flow so much. I also feel like there was way too much repetition at the beginning of the book, I get that it is about depression and anxiety but it still needs to be enjoyable for the reader so they continue reading and recommend it to there friends. If this was not an ARC copy I probably would have just passed on it after reading the first few segments.

I was not a fan of the drawing style. The eyes of the birds really distracted me. I kept thinking why did they draw their eyes off their body??? Why is there another wall of text??? Oh, the eye again. Ugh!

Depression is no fun, I get it, But there are other books out there that are illustrated and share a journey through depression and anxiety and I enjoyed them and would recommend them. This one not so much.

This book was very relatable to some that suffers from the same mental illnesses as the author. I would have liked to have had a few more comics in between as there was quite a lot of text.

A poignant reflection on the artist's mental health experience interspersed with the pigeon comics that helped them to improve as well as share their experiences.
An important book but I feel like there weren't as many illustrations included as there could have been,

Bird Brain by Chuck Mullin is a collection of comics about mental health and the struggles that happen. I found the comics to be kinda depressing but well drawn.

A great comfort read for folks struggling with depression and anxiety issues. Similar in feel to Sara Andersen and I love the bird characters.

If anyone is curious about mental illness, whether it's their own or about someone they love, I'd recommend this book. Obviously, it's not a substitute for actual help or medical studies but I feel like it's a more relatable/readable version.

Jesus, just reading the foreword and it's like we are the same person. I've never been able to really talk to people about my anxiety, I've always just dealt with it myself. I definitely have never been able to articulate quite what anxiety is/feels like so accurately. Most times you say things like "it feels suffocating", or "it feels like I'm drowning" and I think people who don't have it think you must be over-exaggerating but there is a lot of truth in that it can feel like you're drowning, but there is also a lot of nuanced emotions that are there as well.

This book is an incredibly raw and personal look at how mental illness looks, and feels, from the inside. The chapters are interspersed with a couple paragraphs explaining the perspective of the chapter of comics. Though I am not nearly as eloquent as the author I will attempt a one line descriptor for this book, "It's like a lighthouse, in the middle of a dark and vast ocean, that let's you know you aren't alone in your struggles."