Book Review: Brain Damage by Freida McFadden

 Brain Damage

by 
Freida McFadden

psychological thriller/crime

Kindle edition/398 pages

Quote:" And none of that hurt. The truth is, I didn't feel it at all. What hurt is everything that came after."

Brain Damage

From the cover:

After years of hard work, Dr. Charly McKenna finally has it all. Prosperous career as a dermatologist? Check. Spacious apartment overlooking Central Park? Check. Handsome lawyer husband? Double check.

Then one night, a bullet rips through the right side of her skull, and she loses everything.

As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.

My Review:

This one definitely is getting mixed reviews. Maybe, even myself included.

Personally, I think some of the reasons other readers gave it lower ratings, were the reasons I loved it.

As it is tagged a psychological thriller, I can see some being disappointed, or disagreeing with it. If it had been placed as a medical mystery, it may have been rated differently. I feel some readers felt misled from the beginning. This is the fourth book I've read by Freida McFadden, and it honestly is one of my favorites. I know I seem to say that a lot lately; especially about McFadden's books. They really do just keep drawing me in. This one definitely gets bumped up due to the medical aspects. I've always been fascinated with learning about the medical field and human biology. Brain Damage definitely gives you that. While McFadden isn't a brain surgeon, she does actually work with brain injury patients and the recovery process. She actually knows her stuff, and it shows in her writing.

This book gives you the story of a woman who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. It takes you through the mystery of solving the crime, but for me, it was so much more about Charly's journey through recovery. You get a behind the scenes look at the recovery process. All the stress, frustrations, repeating everything, and the struggles through memory loss. It is exhausting, mentally and physically, but Charly finally sees that it is all worth it.

Of course, no book is perfect, and there were a couple of things that I didn't agree with, but I didn't write the characters.

I will say there wasn't much suspense or thrill to the book, but I truly enjoyed the whole book.

I give it 5 stars!

Side note: A few years ago, I read  Left Neglected by Lisa Genova that I also enjoyed. These two books share the same brain injury but completely different stories. I definitely recommend checking them both out!