I have been reading a lot of mysteries and thrillers and poetry lately, and this book was a welcomed change for me. The book started off slowly, but really picked up for me about halfway through. Helen did a great job of weaving together her own memories with her mother's diary entries that she meticulously kept over the years, as she unravelled the truth of her childhood upbringing with her mother. The book became very shocking and sad to me to see the continued abuse that Helen faced, not only through her childhood, but into her adulthood.

Helen is very brave to share her story and her journey of reckoning with her mother's illness and how it affected her. She did a great job narrating the book herself as well.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance audiobook copy of the book.

Wow, what a memoir! Helen Taylor is the writer and narrator of this unbelievable story of her childhood. She does such an amazing job of telling her story of being raised by someone who faked debilitating illnesses for thirty years. Helen explains her own experiences then includes excerpts of her mother's diary (which Helen finds after her self induced death). You just feel for Helen at the same time as applauding her for becoming a different type of mother than the person she was raised by. Highly recommend this book/audiobook!

A truly honest and informative account of life growing up with a mother of Munchausens.

This memoir focuses on the childhood and life of Helen growing up with a mother whose live was shaped while living with Munchausens. A true account (including diary entries) of Helen’s life growing up with her mother and how their relationship changed and altered as she herself had kids. A very informed yet conversational prose that kept me interested and informed throughout the book.

An emotional and shocking read. Would recommend to someone looking for further information on what it would be like to live around someone who has Munchausens.

The narration of this book was also done very well.

Thank you to the publish and NetGalley for an early copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Helen Naylor's memoir is facinating yet so heartbreaking.I find Munchausens rather interesting so when I saw this one I definitly wanted to know more. I struggle to rate memoirs as I don't think it is my place to put a rating on someone else's lives so it is an automatgic 5 star for me. If you think this topic would interest you, I suggest givign it a go and seeing for yourself.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thread for an advanced audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Helen Naylor's memoir is a truly fascinating tale of a seriously flawed childhood. The reality of the story is so far from anything I've experienced, I felt compelled to keep listening. Interweaving modern reflection with snippets from Elin's diaries provided a good mix of perspective for the reader, however, the narrator for this one was not a favourite.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thread Books for a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Memoirs are some of my favorite books. I love hearing how other's lives have played out. Unfortunately, Helen had a hard childhood and adulthood, due to her mother. Through this novel, we follow Helen as she realizes her mom may be faking her illnesses, her mishaps when she forgets she is "sick", and her fight for her mom to get treatment.
My heart goes out to Helen Naylor. I can't imagine growing up with a mom like she had. She set unrealistic expectations on Helen, and alienated them. I just want to give her a huge hug!
The nurse in me loved hearing about her mother's "disabilities". While it was sad and hard to hear, it was also fascinating to the medical part of my brain.
The audio was great - novels read by the author are my favorite! You can hear the emotion in Helen's voice as she tells her stories.
Fully recommend if you like memoirs or audios read by the author!

This book really isn’t for everyone. Having a background in psychology I was drawn to it by the title alone. I find it fascinating to see how people with mental illness present. Clearly, people who are diagnosed with a disorder/illness have to meet certain diagnostic criteria but some other pieces vary from person to person in their actual presentation. It’s additionally interesting to me to explore family histories and patterns. At times one can discover those who were undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed) due to lack of knowledge at the time. Such as the case with things like autism spectrum disorders. Once diagnosed and exploration of family patterns can actually uncover family members who would fit the criteria but we’re never diagnosed because those criteria weren’t prevalent during their time.

Overall, I’m not sure what I was looking to get out of this book, but it was uplifting that the human composition can rise up despite a tumultuous start. That human nature is resilient and able to persevere when it may seem hopeless at times. It seems that the author was filled with a lot of angst, sadness and frustration at the lack of love, affection and general care she didn’t receive from her parents. Thankfully, she was able to find some supports to help bolster her forward to have a brighter future and beautiful family of her own.

It seemed like she set out to prove her position by exploring the difficult past with her mom. It became tiresome that she tried to continually prove herself, and her position relating to her mom, despite the emotional toll it was having on her. While I felt the writing itself was fine, the story was just too long and didn’t have enough substance to justify the overall length, which took away from the impact for me. I was surprised and overall a bit disappointed that the audio version it was over 10 hours long.

Special thanks to #ThreadBooks #MyMotherMunchausensandMe and #NetGalley for access to this audio book.

Let me preface my review by saying I rarely read or listen to memoirs of any kind. But I was drawn to this because I've always been fascinated by Munchausen's disease. I enjoyed the Gypsy rose documentary and show, and Sharp Objects which both deal with Munchausens by proxy. I have yet to come across anything that deals with Munchausens syndrome, however.

This is formatted as a diary. Sometimes it's not always as tight and cohesive, but neither is real life, which is this. Some parts dragged on too long, but overall I really enjoyed this book. Helen is forced to reevaluate her relationship to her mother and all of her childhood memories as she realizes the truth - her mother may have never been truly sick. And then, as her mother becomes more and more ill, requiring hospitalization, how her family shuns her for "doubting" her mother. It's a great memoir.

Thank you netgalley and Thread Books for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Ten years ago, Helen Naylor discovered her mother, Elinor, had been faking debilitating illnesses for thirty years. After Elinor’s self-induced death, Helen found her diaries, which Elinor wrote daily for over fifty years. The diaries reveal not only the inner workings of Elinor’s twisted mind and self-delusion, but also shocking revelations about Helen’s childhood.

With Elinor’s behavior becoming increasingly destructive, and Helen now herself a mother, she was left with a stark choice: to collude with Elinor’s lies or be accused of abandoning her.

I've been very fascinated with Munchausen's for a couple of years now and was very excited to receive an advanced copy of this book to review. I learned a lot about it that I was not already aware of. This story gives a glimpse into the personal struggle with MbP and how it effects the child. It was very well written and easy to follow. I received the audio version and I enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thread for an advanced audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting topic and a sad occurrence for the family, but I didn’t feel that this story was much different from any other Munchausen story I’ve read before.

My Mother, Munchausen's and Me is a heart-breaking account of one woman's discovery that everything she thought about her mother and their relationship was based on lies, and that far from loving and wanting the best for her daughter her mother Elinor was consumed by the need for attention to the detriment of all other things in her life, including her own health.

When Helen became a mother herself, she began to question quite how much of her childhood had been as normal as she had previously thought. Despite her father's considerable medical problems, their family life revolved around Elinor's conviction that she was suffering from ME (Myalgic encephalomyelitis). As Helen realised that her own idea of motherhood looked very different to the way Elinor behaved, she gradually realised that there were huge inconsistencies between the things Elinor said and did.

It wasn't until Elinor claimed to be suffering from severe Parkinson's Disease, manufacturing traits of the disease that she had obviously read about but never seen, that Helen came to understand that her mother was actually displaying all the symptoms of both Munchausen's Disease and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but her attempts to make her suspicions known to the medical practitioners treating Elinor mostly fell on deaf ears. Eventually, the toll on Helen of living with Elinor's increasingly bizarre behaviour led to a breakdown in their relationship, and Elinor's mental and physical condition deteriorated so much that she brought about her own death.

Helen originally decided to write down her experiences as a record for her children to read once they had grown-up, but as she started to tell her story, she realised that this would become much more than a private family account of her relationship with her mother - especially when she came to read the diaries that Elinor had left behind. Reading Elinor's own words not only came to confirm everything Helen had suspected about her mother's mental health, but shockingly brought home quite how much she had been neglected and abused during her own childhood. Instead, this book has become not only a moving memoir, but also a way to raise awareness about Munchausen's Syndrome and Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

There is so much to take from this book, not just about being more aware of of two largely undiagnosed conditions, but also about how the lack of joined up thinking in the health system contributes to them going under the radar - and perhaps more importantly, highlights that the widely held belief that all mothers are loving and caring is not the truth, and sometimes you need to separate yourself from toxic relationships for your own good.

This is really not my usual sort of audio book listen, but Helen's account of her life is so compelling that I found myself hanging onto every word as she recounted her experiences, especially since I saw my own mother fade away in the grip of Parkinson's Disease, and I have nothing but praise for her brave decision to share her story. I urge you all to read, or listen, to this one, because it is a real eye-opener of a profoundly shocking tale. Interestingly, this is actually a book which encourages you to examine your own family relationships too!

My Mother, Munchausen's and Me is a heartbreaking story of growing up with a mother struggling with mental illness. This story brings you into the home and life of the author and her accounts of her childhood and the struggles with her mother's demeaning behaviors toward her family. This memoir opened up my eyes to the experiences of Muchausen's - from a different perspective than people often portray in media. An essential book for continued learning of various mental illness and the effects those illnesses have on those around illness.

Firstly, I would say I do recommend this book, despite the middle-of-the-road rating. If you're interested in reading about Munchausen's and someone's struggle dealing with a narcissistic parent, you would find this interesting.

A chilling account of the destruction one person can cause. This book describes the complicated relationship between mother and daughter. This was great as an audiobook and really sucked me in!

Given free with Netgalley on Audiobook

This is a hard book to categorise and give a review on.

It is a true story, read by the author, of a young girl who's mother had a mental health condition called Munchausen. This condition enabled her mother to be sick all her life and have all the attention on her at all times.

She started by telling everyone she had M.E, which meant that she had to get lots of rest, but there was no tests to prove either way. She then progressed to tell everyone she had Parkinson's disease, she even had all the professionals agreeing with her.

It is a strange one as you sort of feel that Helens Childhood was not quite normal, but not bad as I was expecting, but as she became an adult and got married and had her own children, her Mother was out of control, and I found myself may times thinking I would have told her where to go, and was very shocked with what was happening.

I would highly recommend this book, just to have an insight on this disease and it's devastating effects it has on everyone, who is part of the situation.

I know I haven't explained it really well but it is so hard to get your head around. I suggest you just need to read it to get the full impact

This book pulled me in from Page 1! This compelling memoir details the heartbreak, anxiety, and emotional distress caused by a mother who clearly suffers from a narcissistic personality disorder, hypochondria, and Munchausen's Syndrome. The tone of this memoir is perfectly set - and you can definitely understand the tortured tone of being raised in a household with a mom who has all of these disorders (none of which are properly diagnosed or officially acknowledged). I couldn't stop reading and listening to this book and I am grateful that the author took the time and effort to put all of her experiences on paper so that she can help other family members whose relatives also have this disorder.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher Hatchett UK through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

I have always been fascinated by this disease. Some would call it hypochondria and I guess its similar however, a person with Munchausen syndrome desperately seeks medical attention to fulfill severe emotional problems, whereas a person with hypochondria believes they are ill.Munchausen syndrome is also called factitious disorder. If you have Munchausen syndrome, you have a desperate need to be seen as ill or sick, even though its not true.

Helen's mother had Munchausen, although she was never officially diagnosed. As the daughter of someone with this disease Helen frequently found herself confused, manipulated and left feeling unloved and as if she were a selfish person.

The mind games that Helen's mother put her through was abusive up to the very end. She manipulated situations to suit herself and in the end crippled her body so badly that she was in fact in need of help. This constant manipulation left Helen and her mother with a huge rift in their relationship that never mended. Helen eventually cuts her mother off giving her mother more ammunition to sway the others in her life.

After her mothers death Helen sat down and went through her mothers diaries piecing together pieces of her past, and seeing events that she was told went down differently than the accounts in the diaries, the timing of events had also been manipulated on occasion. It is with reading all these accounts that Helen finds some compassion for her abusive mother although she doesn't seem to forgive her.

Overall this is a harrowing tale of surviving emotional abuse at the hands of a woman who was very mentally ill but no one could prove it. It just shows how little is known about this disease, even now Munchausen by proxy is the disease more commonly talked about (when a parent makes their child sick to get attention). In fact Helen is lucky that her mother didn't turn her sickness on her.

Well told and fascinating.

Helen Naylor’s Audio Book, my Mother, Munchausens and Me is a non fictional account of the author’s experience in growing up loving her deeply disturbed Mother whom it appears had little to no love for her daughter, Helen.

I found it extremely easy to relate to Helen and empathize with what she endured from birth, throughout her growing years, and eventually her marriage and subsequent births of her own two children.

Despite Helen being a grown woman, Elinor, her Mother, still demanded Helen’s obeisance to her every wish and whim; never for one moment considering that her daughter was an adult with responsibilities of her own. If anything, Elinor sought to continually interrupt Helen’s life with mind games and outright lies, often leaving her feeling completely alone and bewildered, yet yearning for her Mother’s love and acceptance.

Helen Naylor’s audio book is narrated by the author herself, and it’s as if she’s sitting across a cosy kitchen table privately telling the listener her story.
The beautiful intimacy Helen creates with her listener’s or readers, along with her ability to bring characters to life, made for an absolutely enjoyable experience despite the rather horrific events that are revealed after Elinor dies.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and learned so much about Munchausen’s by listening to Helen’s horrible ordeal. Her mother, Elinor was truly a toxic person that negatively impacted her entire existence.

When Helen was growing up her mother, Elinor made her feel terrible about herself and her body, which resulted in Helen having some serious mental health issues, including a suicide attempt.

When Helen became pregnant and began trying to live her own life with her husband Peter, her mother couldn’t help but cause issues there too. Her own mother wouldn’t tell her close friends of her daughter’s pregnancy, as if that wasn’t important, but Elinor couldn’t resist telling her friends about her own “diagnoses.”

I didn’t realize there were so many red flags 🚩 for children of parents with munchausens. Narcissistic personality disorder and ME being a couple. Helen comes to realize her relationship with her mother was abusive and unhealthy.

Somehow Helen is able to create her own healthy relationships and be a loving mother to her own children.

Then she reads her mother’s diary after her mother’s death and realizes just how bad her mother really was…how conniving. Elinor fooled so many of her friends and tried go get sympathy for her “illnesses” and when she didn’t get the sympathy she wanted or someone questioned her alleged illness/symptoms she wrote them off, including her own family. Then Elinor would just reinvent history and make herself look like the victim.

This was a very well written and insightful book. I absolutely recommend it.

I could not tear my eyes away from Helen Naylor's memoir, <a href="https://amzn.to/3dI9QTs" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>My Mother, Munchausen's and Me</em></a>.<!--more-->
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>There was a time when I loved my mother. It’s shocking to imply that I stopped loving my mum because mothers always love their children and always do their best for them. Mothers are supposed to be good. But my mother wasn’t good.</em></p>
There's no shortage of memoirs about narcissistic parents, but what makes Helen's story a little different is that her mother, Elinor, was a narcissist and had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder_imposed_on_self" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Munchausen Syndrome</a>. Helen's childhood was completely shaped by Elinor's 'diagnosis' with chronic fatigue syndrome, and she spent her days alone, tip-toeing around the house to avoid interrupting Elinor's naps.

As a teenager, Helen found she couldn't rely on Elinor for anything, and Helen's own anxiety and body-image issues grew, fueled by her mother's deliberate and emotionally abusive behaviour. In her twenties, Elinor was <span id="reviewTextContainer4140173576" class="readable"><span id="freeText13553497068797353798">miraculously 'cured' of chronic fatigue, but was then diagnosed with the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Cue shaking limbs, difficulty walking, rafts of tests and the need for various medications (and a nurse to help administer).</span></span>

It was only after Elinor's self-induced death, that Helen found her mother's diaries which revealed she had been faking debilitating illnesses for thirty years.

Throughout all of this, Helen's father was chronically ill, and died when Helen was in her twenties. I mention this as many would view her father's lack of intervention as condoning Elinor's behaviour, or even being complicit. Equally, many may wonder why Helen didn't realise sooner what was happening.

Over and over again, people fail to understand that if you are in an abusive situation, your defense system is in overdrive - you do what you need to do to survive, and for Helen and her father that involved a lot of saying nothing and people-pleasing. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult for children of narcissistic parents to break-away - we are biologically geared to seek security from our parents, and therefore the damage is done over many years.

The extent of Elinor's behaviour is breathtaking and the emotional abuse directed at Helen, astounding - I won't share too much, however, Elinor's reaction to the news of Helen's miscarriage (essentially that Helen would never be 'good enough' to have a baby, with a reminder that Helen herself was never wanted and ruined Elinor's life) was so terribly cruel. Alongside that, were the situations that would have been maddening - for example, Elinor having 'falls' that included conveniently landing on the floor with a pillow under her head and the TV remote in hand - I guess if you're going to lie on the floor for a few hours until you can be 'rescued', you may as well be comfortable.

There was a hint of Helen 'building her case', with the countless stories alongside the diary entries, and I pondered if in fact all memoirs are about 'building your case'. The important part of this story, is that Helen does not describe herself as a victim, but rather a person who was betrayed by the one relationship that 'should' have been nurturing.

4/5 Gripping

I received an audiobook copy of <em>My Mother, Munchausen's and Me </em>from the publisher, Thread Books, via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/237356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NetGalley</a>, in exchange for an honest review.