PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewFierce, timely, unflinching ... Her book is equal parts memoir, journalism, cultural criticism and manifesto, and it would make an excellent holiday gift for a loved one who is considering having a child and really shouldn’t ... Grose bases these conclusions on not just her own experience but also extensive interviews and research ... It’s a disturbing and important story, and Grose tells it in an engaging and relatable style. By this final section, though, I found myself wishing she’d probed more deeply into the systemic, ideological roots of the crisis and the political contradictions that exacerbate it.
Catherine Cho
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewIn her in-laws’ home, under their loving but anxious gaze, Cho begins to sense something is not right ... The intensity of the first-person perspective here gives this section the claustrophobic dread of a psychological thriller. Cho conveys how an atmosphere of constant anxiety and judgment slowly loosens her grip on what is real and what is imagined ... Inferno is a disturbing and masterfully told memoir, but it’s also an important one that pushes back against powerful taboos ... Discussions of severe mental illness in mothers continue to induce discomfort and judgment in those who have never experienced it, and embarrassment and shame in those who have. The persistence of such stigmas makes memoirs like Cho’s all the more courageous.
