In this non-fictional book The Mind is Burning, author and narrator Jonathan Hirsch writes the story of his father. It is a complicated story, one involving him moving to the United States at a young age, being involved in different religious groups including ones that many consider to be a cult, and also dealing with drug dependency and later dementia. The author writes in a way that is very inviting and engaging to the reader, while also being respectful of his father, and all that he has dealt with in his life. This book features interviews Jonathan does with his dad, as well as voice mails, emails, and letters between Jonathan and various friends and family members. It is also poetic in some places, poetry being something that the author and his father has a shared affinity for.
I greatly enjoyed this book, and the way that it dealt with family relationships, mental health, and addiction, as well as having to deal with the aging of your parents. I recommend this book to any fans of the authors podcast (which I am excited to check out!) or anyone interested in family stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the author/narrator, and publisher of this book for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Hirsch is good at his job, and it shows in the intricate sound design of this audio-first production. Given that, though, I feel justified in rounding down a 4.5 to a 4 for the use of hyper-realistic ambulance sirens in the first chapter of the book. It feels like a rookie podcaster move instead of a choice made by a seasoned veteran who knows that tons of people are listening to their work in cars.

Other reviews have noted that this more about dementia than it is about cults, which is true, but also exactly what I expected given the title. "Dear Franklin Jones" was Hirsch's deep-dive into his time in cult-land. This was his deep-dive into being an adult care-taking their parent.

Care-taking is, by its nature, brutal and uneven, and Hirsch's background is episodic, so I forgave some of the timeline back-and-forths and more pedantic moments, but I really wish that the discussion of the sandwich generation had begun sooner.

I hope this gets all of the listens that it deserves.

ARC supplied by Netgalley.

It was interesting to find out that The Mind Is Burning was only being released in audio format — and honestly, it makes sense. The whole thing feels much more like a podcast than a traditional audiobook, especially as it goes on. Knowing Jonathan Hirsch’s background in podcasting, that choice fits, but it definitely shaped the experience of listening to it.

As for the content, the “cult” part of the title felt a little like bait. While it’s mentioned, it doesn’t really dive deep into that side of the story. Most of the focus is on the familial struggles, which, while emotional, weren’t quite gripping enough to fully hold my interest throughout. Overall, it’s a unique listen with some thoughtful moments, but it didn’t quite live up to the promise of its premise for me.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Audio for the Audio ARC!

The Mind Is Burning is an interesting look at family dynamics, and specifically, what can occur when an aging parent needs full-time care from their child, especially when their relationship was previously quite rocky. A unique perspective, and a very compelling memoir.

I love a good memoir! This was even better when the narrator is the author, and he voice is excellent! This was very interesting, and also heartbreaking. Highly recommend the audio!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

This was ok..... I thought there would be more cult talk. I was interested in hearing Cult into dementia. I may listen to the author/narrator pod cast to see how that format is.


On April 9th, 2019, Jonathan got the dreaded his father Thomas had been rushed to the ER. He’d known for a while that Thomas’s health was in decline, but at this pivotal moment, he had no choice but to step into the role of caretaker—a role Thomas himself was never able to grasp.

In The Mind is Burning, Jonathan recounts the stranger-than-fiction true story of the Hirsch family. Thomas was a Hungarian refugee turned spiritual seeker, and Jonathan was along for the ride as his parents chased the high of enlightenment, vacillating between following their doctrine to earn affection and finding his own voice. Thomas’s quest eventually led them to Franklin known as either a charismatic, eccentric guru or a cult leader and sexual predator, depending on whether you were inside or outside his orbit.

Jonathan left home the day he turned eighteen, but almost twenty years later, he was pulled back into the chaotic fold when, just as he approached the biggest milestone of his career, Thomas was diagnosed with dementia. He became one of millions of Americans in the “sandwich generation”: middle-aged adults simultaneously responsible for young children and aging parents. For Jonathan especially, that duty of care was fraught with emotional landmines, every impossible hardship of the present dredging up painful memories from the past—memories that were slipping away from Thomas day by day.

This poetic yet propulsive memoir was created for the listening experience, and poses the What do we owe each other as family?

This memoir was a unique and incredible experience. Narrated by the author, it includes background sounds, music and recorded conversations, He has a soothing and pleasant voice that keeps you listening for hours. Also, his honest perspective makes you go over similar experiences. I can’t put it down. It was like watching a documentary. Many people will identified themselves with his childhood, his dad’s background and the difficulty of making decisions for the care of parents with dementia. I felt her struggle and confusion throughout the entire book. A negative aspect is that he revealed very little about the cult to which his parents belonged. Because of the title promised revelations about a cult, I was expecting more.

I enjoyed the beginning of this audiobook. It was very similar to a podcast and he added bits of his interviews with his father. The middle and end lacked for me. I did not hold my attention as well as the beginning did. Overall it was a good audiobook.

Meh. This one wasn't my kind of book, and part of that is on me. I should have read the description more closely, I suppose. I picked it up because I thought it was going to provide unique insight into the cult lifestyle, but in truth, there is only a very small bit of information on the author's time in a cult.

Instead, it was more of a personal memoir focused specifically on his father's battle with dementia.

And while there's nothing wrong with that at all, it definitely wasn't the book I was hoping to read. It's very personal and emotional and has almost nothing to do with cults. I almost feel like the title is purposely misleading to pique the interest of true crime lovers like me. (And hey, it worked!)

The audio format worked nicely, as the author is a podcaster by trade and included snippets of interviews with his father and things like that. Unfortunately, it really just didn't hold my interest, as I'm not big on reading about other people's familial struggles. (I have plenty of those already!)

If you're looking for a foray into the world of cults and true crime, avoid this one. That is absolutely not what it is.

If, instead, you're looking for something personal, poignant, and focused on how dementia pulls families apart and the American healthcare system fails them over and over again, this is the book for you.

The Mind is Burning is a unique memoir about the complicated relationship between an estranged son and father. This memoir focuses almost solely on Jonathan’s relationship with his father, Thomas. If you are interested in personal/family stories and the intricacies of dementia/healthcare, I think you will enjoy this story. This memoir has an extremely unique style- it listens like a long form podcast, similar to Serial or S-Town. While this originally took away from my enjoyment of the memoir but by the end I really enjoyed getting to hear parts of the father, Thomas Hirsch’s, story in his own voice.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook The Mind Is Burning

Caveot- My rating is not based on the content of this memoir- I'm not here to judge people's lives. It's rather the writing and audio performance.

For whatever reason I've been interested in the culture of cults lately, and this is my third book recently regarding this subject.

The audio version contained audio clips of the author's father at certain points and I thought that was a nice use of the medium rather than just reading the words on the page. The book was engaging and well-written, though at times a bit scattered.

From the production standpoint- I'm not a fan of music in the background of an audiobook and wished that was left out.

This was really interesting - I went to look for how long the book was, and realized this book is being published in audio format only. Once I began listening to it, I understood, because the author is a podcast producer and audio is his format of choice. This felt like a podcast, in that there were recordings from past times that were integrated into the story. Honestly, an incredible way to do a memoir, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

The title was a bit misleading, as it is more about the author's father's dementia than it is him being in a cult. I feel like I didn't learn much about the cult, and that is likely because the author has already done a podcast on that aspect of his life. While that's fine, I think he was told to add 'cult' to the title to bring in the true crime girlies.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Audio for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Jonathan walks us through his life and his relationship with his parents. Throughout the audiobook, Jonathan walks us through his unstable childhood with neglectful parents, living in a cult, and escaping that lifestyle. The title of the story is misleading because little was discussed about the cult itself. He focused on how living in a cult negatively impacted his relationship with his parents, especially his father. I enjoyed how Jonathan navigated his relationship with his father. We were given insight into this relationship throughout his life and his internal battle with becoming his father's caregiver. I enjoyed the narration. I felt that Jonathan provided a soothing voice to discuss challenging topics/issues.

I enjoyed the audiobook. It reminded me a bit of a podcast, which isn’t really surprising. I think with the title I expected more culty stuff, but that was minimal. The second half dives into a family member with dementia, which I can relate to.

I hadn’t heard of Jonathan Hirsch before reading about this book on NetGalley, but the description drew me in. At the start, I was hooked, and felt like the pacing was great, and I was interested to see where everything was going.

By the time I got about half way through, the pace had slowed substantially, and I was losing interest. Unfortunately, that interest never really picked up. His hook for the podcast was attention getting, and I can’t help but wonder if the podcast is a better version of the story. After all, if he’s been involved in many shows that I’ve listened to, I know he had the talent for getting and holding attention. I can’t help but feel that he was holding back on true feelings and focusing much more on the minutiae of day-to-day care for an aging parent than on the other things that happened in his past. For having the word “cult” splashed across the cover, there is very little talk of being involved and what happened.

I couldn’t help but feel that he was holding back because of the feedback he mentioned getting from other children who grew up under Franklin Jones, and also because, although he is estranged (even while being a primary carer, which is uncomfortable at best), he still hopes very much for the love and approval from his family.

This book is 40% feelings without many concrete events and 59% caring for an aging parent with a little 1% mention of cults dashed in. Because of that, I can’t say I enjoyed the book as a whole. Had I been braced for that going in, I may have a very different feeling. You can tell that Hirsch is still working through his trauma, and it is laid bare here, even in the vagaries. All in, it gives me the feeling that it’s a book that he was ready to share.