Reviews and Comments

This book is a lot. It bounces all around in an attempt to compile and associate many thoughts and emotions, with many comparisons of the author's life to media. I really liked it because it felt like it was communicating something more than just words or logical sentences could about her life, her mind, her culture, etc.

Her words speak to the connections we make in our mind between various things, events we remember happening, movies we've watched, games we've played, and how we take these connections and use them to piece together a life's narrative, attempt to explain trauma, or give ourselves a reason to carry on. The book questions whether these connections are caused by something more or if they are just coincidences, and whether, in our investigations, we even want to know that answer. Is it better to be fully grounded in a world full of trauma, oppression, pain and hardship, or should we leave something of the world to mystery or mysticism?

It was interesting to learn more about the science of stress. I found that Sapolsky did a good job of summarizing the complicated systems involved in our bodies when we are subjected to stress, and what experiments and studies can say about how those responses affect our health.

He also effectively expressed how the field has changed throughout scientific history and how it remains very primitive, with many aspects that remain elusive.

Despite the fact that the content should have been quite dry, his writing style presented it in a way that was more digestible.

I found that a few of his examples felt a bit insensitive as he brings up serious issues such as domestic abuse that could be traumatic to people without warning, using them as 'exaggerated examples' in an attempt to inject humor into his writing.

But besides those instances, he is mostly cautious with his words and attempts to be inclusive and recognize his privilege.

The penultimate chapter stands out to me. In this chapter, he brings up all the reasons why our current society is fundamentally broken when it comes to managing stress, even if systems such as socialist healthcare and other liberal policies were to be enacted. In his criticism of the current system, he falls just short of advocating for a revolution, but understandably leaves these sorts of recommendations to those with more experience in that field.

Don't dive into this book expecting it to be a self-help book or a guide on how to manage stress. Certainly there are a few suggestions in the last chapter of the book, but the real core of the book is in its description of the mechanics and causes of our stress responses and ways in which scientists have studied them.

And another content warning, the book also frequently describes what I would consider somewhat cruel lab experiments done with rats and monkeys. Such experiments don't really align with my morality so at times it was hard to stomach the fact that so many of these experiments are done.

As an autistic person who often feels isolated from representation in media and art this is such a refreshing read. Non autistic writing, while still entertaining, is just structured differently. And while I've gotten used to it, the opportunity to hear pure unfiltered autistic literature is so special. It feels like I have a more direct connection to the authors than I generally do from non autistic writers. As if the compatibility layer I always use to read books can just be removed. This is of course very difficult to explain effectively but it's just a feeling I get.

All of these stories are very personal and heartfelt and they go into very intense places sometimes, but the tone almost always resolves to positivity. Also, each story has a content warning at the start which is thoughtful.

Some of the stories focus in particular on British life as it is a British book, but that did not really detract from the content in my mind as the stories are diverse. (It not being US-centric is a bit of a nice change of pace anyway)

The stories were short and it was worthwhile to take a long pause after each one to really absorb it and bask in the feelings and thoughts of each author.

All in all I would recommend this book to everyone, autistic folks as well as non autistic folks who want to understand the autistic mind better.