Welcome to the Rogue Dad Book Club — Better Than Oprah (copyright 2018)!  I love to read, and used to be a voracious reader.  Unfortunately I’ve drifted away from reading books over the past few years and mostly been reading online content.

In the interest of mental health, I am starting to read books again, and am trying to do so for enjoyment.  While I have “self-help” books and finance books and contract negotiation books (what I consider “adult” topics but not X-rated), I miss reading for fun.

So in the interest of sharing the fun, here’s a book review in the hope I’ll spark your interest in reading this book (or others).  This post does contain an Amazon affiliate link to purchase it, but if you do a portion of the miniscule proceeds it generates for this site goes to charity.  If I write more of these I’ll create a dedicated page to find all of them and update this post.

Title: The Unraveling of Brendan Meeks

Author: Brian Cohn

Genre: Fiction

Brief Overview: A schizophrenic who is off his meds tries to solve a murder mystery.  Follow him as he simultaneously fights the bad guys in his head and the ones in the real world.

Why It’s Worth Reading: This book is worth purchasing just for the amazing cover illustration.  Once you get past that the story itself is engrossing, and the protagonist’s struggles engaging.  Reading his struggles with his schizophrenia, trying to separate reality from his hallucinations, and having to maintain the focus to reach his end provides wonderful insight.  I do not frequently treat patients with schizophrenia (it’s not common in pediatrics), but having a glimpse into the mind of someone with schizophrenia is engrossing.

I do not know how much research the author did on the topic, or if he was able to rely on his experiences as an “adult” emergency medicine doctor treating these patients to write this, but the struggle certainly felt realistic.  For those of you who have watched Orange is the New Black on Netflix, one of the main characters on that show has dealt with similar struggles.  This book seemed to encapsulate in print what that show demonstrates on TV.   I’ve read a great deal of fiction, and I found this particular viewpoint and character struggle unique.

What Could Be Better: The book is set in my hometown, which is not a common place for books, television, or movies.  It was fun to have the protagonist go down streets I know and visit places I’ve been.  However I did wish the author immersed the reader a bit more in the town, characters, history, and environment.  Because I know the city extremely well I was able to easily imagine the protagonist going through the places he mentions and at times describes in detail, but someone who has never been here may not have connected to the environment as well.  It does not detract from the story at all, as this could have taken place in many other settings.

Also Check Out: The Last Detective — The author’s first novel, it’s also a murder mystery, but that’s where the similarities end.  Set in a dystopian future, the stakes are much higher for both the protagonist and the world around him.  It’s another unique reading experience, and highly recommended for science fiction fans (my favorite genre).

Disclosure — I know the author personally through my work (though I rarely run into him nowadays).  He doesn’t know I am writing this and did not ask me to write it.  I paid for my own copy of both of his books.