Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a fascinating book! It was also infuriating to read because of how blatant the author's mother's lies and histrionics were. The author has more patience than I would if I were in that situation.
Munchausen syndrome and narcissistic personality disorder combined makes a very dysfunctional family. The fact that she was able to manipulate so many people is appalling.
The last few chapter really show how mixed up memories and the lies can wreck havoc on a person.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Thread Books for my copy of My Mother, Munchausen's and Me by Helen Naylor in exchange for an honest review. It publishes November 25, 2021.
Wow. I did not want to put this down. This book has consumed much of my thoughts in the passed few days. First off, the writing was very well done, concise and understandable with just the right amount of details. Secondly, what a powerful story that Naylor bravely shared with the world. If this helps someone, it’s worth it. Thirdly, be ready to psychoanalyze yourself and those around you. I spent much time pausing and asking myself if I have any parallels to Elinor and if anyone else I know exhibits parallels.
Overall, I’m grateful that Naylor was able to share this story, because not only will it help others, I truly hope it leads her to healing from such a traumatic experience.

This is a subject I thought I understood but I was wrong! A very open and honest story of Helen’s life living with a parent who had this illness! A very interesting read! Well Done to Helen for having the bravery to share to others

4 stars
My Mother, Munchausen's and Me
by Helen Naylor

This book was so hard to read as the endless lies and games played by Helen Naylor's mother are both revolting and sad. I wish there was more of Elinor's diary and less other stuff. The last few chapters are the best of the whole book. These chapters are filled with much more insights into the mind of Elinor and how those diaries play out against Helen's memories and life.
I wonder how things would have been different if somewhere along the line Elinor got real psychiatric help. I can only imagine the endless what if's Helen must have gone through as even my mind is a jumble of “if only's” about this poor woman's life and what could have possibly been a different outcome altogether.
This is a fascinating look at Muchasen's Syndrome and the effect it has on family and friends. I highly recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.

Helen Naylor has spent a lifetime listening to her mothers ailments. For years, she claimed she had ME and was too unwell to do much and Helen took on the role of young carer. In later years, she exaggerated a diagnosis and claimed to have Parkinson's disease. This took a serious toll on their relationship. I find Munchausen's fascinating but I just couldn't get into this style of writing at all and really struggled to finish the book.

I had to read this book. While reading it, I feel a kindred spirit with author, because of my own mother. So sorry she had to deal with this. Interesting book, don't miss it.

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

This was a story that for some, might be familiar in some ways due to the media covering Munchausen's by proxy, but Helen's memoir here is about her mother who suffered munchausens of her own hand. Helen was not the one to be medically abused- but still, this book reminds you of a different kind of abuse. Abuse which later, as Helen is describing it, "well meaning" friends could almost dismiss her because her abuse wasnt so much physical- but neglectful, mental, etc. Through this book you're able to see the cause and effect of neglect, of a child growing up competing with their parents "disability" as if its a sibling or rival. Through Helen's POV of events and her mother's journals own account of the events Helen realizes she wasnt crazy, she wasn't this horrible person for eventually setting boundaries for herself and her family. Narcissism is a sore subject for me, but Helen described it perfectly- and her own mother showed it clearly through the entries Helen has shared with us. Overall, I enjoyed the book- as well as you can say you "enjoy" a book like this, Helen was clear with her account of the tumultuous relationship. I think it's neat to see a different type of munchausens have a chance to be explained, and I wish Helen Naylor all the healing and the best.

Imagine having a mother with a narcissistic personality, who also has Munchausen Syndrome. Helen Naylor lived this nightmare. Her mom Elinor left Helen, an only child, to her own devices as a child while Elinor escaped to her bed every day. After twenty years of feigning Chronic Fatigue, Elinor then adopts the victim role again as she exaggerates her mild Parkinson's symptoms to gain attention and sympathy. Helen spends an inordinate amount of time caring for her mom, until she is able to finally free herself from their toxic relationship.

I found the end the most compelling part of this book. Hearing about how it morphed as her mother aged was fascinating.

This was a heartbreaking book. Kept me engrossed but was very sad.
Thank you for the chance to read a true story

This book has been both shocking and eye opening.
A true story of Munchausens and the effect it can have. This is a book, I have found difficult to put down. This is a wonderful book filled with a true insight about how families can be impacted.

This was a book about a topic I really wasn't familiar with but found it fascinating. As much as I said to myself while reading, why is she having anything to do with her mom, I know I would have done the same. At the end, when she read the diary from the beginning I was so sad for the author, to find out how you were treated is heartbreaking.

I am drawn toward books about bad mothers because it fascinates me how much, as a society, and personally, of the women who give birth to us.

Helen's mother became ill with ME at the same time that her father was suffering from a severe heart complaint as well as spending every afternoon in the local bar! But he isn't the one we are judging here. Helen was just seven years old, an only child with no=one to share the burden with.

During her childhood Helen learnt to tiptoe about during her mother's afternoon naps. She sat on the side-lines while her mother described the extreme fatigue she suffered with to friends and family, all without questioning. Why would she, she was a child.

Unfortunately Helen was already pregnant with her first child when a new diagnosis followed, Parkinson's. It was from here on in that things truly take a turn for the bizarre as her mother manufactures symptoms and demands support against evidence to the contrary.

The problem with books like this is that in order to explain just how bad her mother was Helen has to take the role of the perpetual victim which in turn makes the reading sound self-pitying. This is shored up with outrage on every page about how nurturing all others are (backed up by her own perfect examples) made me sympathise less, rather than more. This sounds cruel, it isn't meant to be and nor is it that I don't believe Helen, I believe she felt a massive betrayal and that she suffered as many youngsters do with narcissistic mothers but the one-sided picture, the diaries not really proving the point in the way Helen believes simply because she is reading them with the emotions of the time, we are not. I also feel if she had realised who and what her mother was at a younger age, she would have actually coped better with the realisation.

For all that, I would say that the last chapters in this book were far more convincing because they gave an external view of her mother and it was this aspect that the rest of the book missed.

An interesting view of one woman's mother.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I am a lover of true stories (although I usually lean more towards true crime), I couldn't not pick up this book. I have always been fascinated with women who have Munchausen's (and Munchhausen's by proxy). Its a captivating topic and this book did not disappoint. Throw in some good old fashioned narcissism and you've got the makings of a great book.

Helen is a woman whose mother lied to her for decades feigning illness and gathering sympathies from a myriad of people in their lives. Even going so far as to cut out those who challenged her. Helens mother states she has ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis ("Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"), which severely limits her childhood as she is basically just a caretaker for her mother and the house as her mother cannot do normal activities such as housework. Over the years, after Helen marries and has kids, her mothers illness morphs into Parkinson's, which again sucks all the life from their relationship, this time ignoring the grandkids, using her more major illness as a excuse to not partake in their lives.

As the years tick by, Helen, starts to realize that her mother may be making up a lot of her symptoms. When she starts asking her mothers friends about this they respond by validating her suspicions. Even a nurse assigned to her mother says she's making it all up. The ME, the Parkinson's, its all been for show. To gain attention. She's a narcissist at her core.

The revelation that her mother is a bold faced liar is almost too much. After her mother passes she able to read through her mothers journals that started in the 1960's and she that she's been obsessed with her health from a very early age. Even within her own journals she admits she's faking.

I really enjoyed this book. It was sad, fascinating and a harrowing tale of a daughters devotion to her mother, only ending once she realized the horrific truth of her life. I would definitely read more by this author.

Munchausen, for an interesting condition or mental illness...there is very little written about the subject. This is a first hand account of the author's mother condition. It is heartbreaking, interesting, and extremely troubling. I highly recommend this memoir.

More like 4.5 stars. I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I have always been fascinated by non fiction works about Münchausen syndrome. This book was no exception. Helen Naylor right from birth led a life that no one should. Neglected and abused by her mother who claimed she had a myriad of diseases and always made Helen to feel like she was in the wrong and that something was wrong with her. This back and forth relationship lasts for decades until her mother passes away. While reading her mother’s diaries, she delves further into her mother’s life and gets to see who she really is. I couldn’t put this book down and finished it in one night. Reads like a fiction novel, so crazy, it must be true.