I was really excited to see that Thread Books approved my request to read this book! Thank you to Thread Books and NetGalley for this e-ARC!

I could really relate to Helen Naylor's experiences with her mum, Elinor. Growing up I went through similar experiences with my mother minus the Munchausen's. As Helen questioned whether it was her imagining all these things that her mother was saying or if Helen herself was the problem and not her mother. I really felt for her. I also question everything and my relationship with my mother. As Helen wrote, "I was being consumed, robbed of my own life and drawn into a world of labyrinthine darkness that my mother controlled -- one which was destroying me." It was tough for me to read parts of this book as this book related so much to thoughts that I've had in my relationship with my own mother. The sense of guilt that Helen felt is something that definitely consumes you and you can't snap out of because you think to yourself, well, she's my mom. I appreciated how open and honest Helen was. This was definitely a heartfelt read! If you have a narcissistic or toxic parent in your life, this book will be both relatable and eye-opening!

I will post my review on instagram @thrillersandcoffee

I read this on Halloween weekend and though it was not intended as horror it was frightening. The fact that Helen Naylor came out of this extremely dysfunctional and toxic household with her brain intact is a credit to her strength. Just reading this memoir was exhausting at times. I really can't fathom how Mrs. Naylor was able to deal with her mother's extreme illness and still function day to day. A disturbing and in depth look at mental illness and also the very real problem in the medical field of unnecessary prescriptions and faulty diagnoses. The author did come off as self pitying at times but then again she was a child dealing with a very sick mother and disabled father, having some self pity is a small character flaw after what she endured.

What a tragic story this is! But Helen’s father should have shelved some responsibility for the care of his daughter. He was there a lot of the time but seemed quite happy to go along with the way they lived. That was through choice, not a condition.

There is no doubt that Helen had a terrible childhood. She endured hardships, loneliness and dangerous conditions, but it was the system that let her down. Her mother had an illness, which had been constantly overlooked. Having Munchausen’s meant this was how she was going to behave.

The account is well written, and it must have been so frustrating for her when the authorities, doctors, family and friends wouldn’t listen to her. That is a huge burden to take on, and I can imagine the guilt of walking away.

I am glad that Helen included that her mother had been respected in her career, and her charity work before the illness took over her. I feel sorry that Helen missed a normal childhood and did not have a mother around for her. I wish her well.

I wish to thank the publisher and Net Galley for an e-copy of this book, which I have reviewed honestly.

Difficult to read! Felt desperately sorry for everything this poor lady went through during her life. She is very brave to be able to look back and tell her story to others.

I wanted to read this book because I find Munchausen's and NPD so very interesting. I honestly think my own mother is borderline NPD and that's why this story fascinated me so much. Kudos to Helen Naylor for being brave enough to bare her soul and tell her personal story. I don't think I would have the guts to do that. This story felt personal because the author digs deep, she doesn't hold back and the writing style made it feel like she was speaking directly to me.

I devoured this book in a couple sittings as I was captivated right from the beginning...I and learned something as well...I am amazed when books can do all that. I also felt a lot of different things while reading this. I felt so bad for Helen, especially her younger self. BUT her mother too should have some empathy, mental health wasn't looked at the same back then and a lot of the time it was swept under the carpet so to speak. This is a gripping book that shows that Munchausen's affects everyone around the sufferer, but especially the ones closest to them...Highly recommended.

The title of this book was the reason I really wanted to read it. It is written in a chronological manner and tracks the relationship of the author and her mother.

It is incredibly sad at points and you really feel for the author as her childhood wasn’t a ‘normal’ one.

One thing I would say is that I didn’t really see how the diary entries made any impact to the story, it didn’t seem that they had much of a relevance other than being written by her mother.

I also couldn’t understand why she kept on contacting her mother even though it stressed her out to such an extent, maybe someone who hasn’t experienced this would never understand.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Interesting memoir of life with an abusive, narcissistic mother. Ultimately optimistic, as the author is able to move on from her disordered childhood and build a healthy childhood.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this
ARC!

This book was extraordinary, I didn’t think I could be so heartbroken for someone I’ve never met just by reading a book. The immature and childish actions and ways that Helen’s mother acted are just beyond me.

I cannot believe that someone would want to be perceived as ill, this is something I will never comprehend as I am ill myself I would never want to pretend as it is so hard to get the care as it is.

My heart fully goes out to Helen, what a heartbreaking story

A very personal story of what it feels like to be the child of someone with Munchausens syndrome.

As a child you trust implicitly those meant to care for you but what if that narrative was based on a lie? How do you ever come to terms with being cheated out of your past when as an adult you realise that all the time you were being manipulated?

This story delves into these questions and is heart breaking in places, the little girl who wants to be loved, the teenager who needs advice and support and the new mum desperate for her own mother to live her grandchildren. Caught inside her own sickness she can’t see how much better her life could be if she chose live over illness.

I was super excited about this book from the title alone. I love being a voyeur into someone's personality disorder, the more obscure the better. Unfortunately, this book didn't rise to the level of excitement that I was hoping for. At no point was I dying to know what her mother was going to do next. This is a memoir of Helen, a woman whose mother was constantly ill and taking to her bed and seemed to revel in any attention her fragility garnered. I didn't understand really the significance of the excerpts from her mother's diaries, until the end of the book where Helen explains each entry. We hear about Helen's life from childhood to adulthood and it was just too burdened with small details that made it seem to drag on. Perhaps my issue was with the Helen herself, she put up with much more than I would have under the banner of "being a good daughter" and "she's my mom" especially when pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.
I listened to the audio version of this book and the author narrated her own memoir and I thought did a very good job.

Many thanks to #NetGalley and ThreadBooks for allowing me to review an advanced copy of #MyMotherMunchausensandMe.

There is no need for me to retell the storyline as that is done better by the professionals but it is not giving anything away to say that you will come into an increasingly emotional roller coaster ride as this book continues. I can well believe that this type of life actually happened, especially the early chapters. However I did get a bit fed up of the same sort of stories in repeat (I'm sure it was like that but ...) and feel that the book would have benifitted from editing to about 80% of its final length.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review as well as an audio copy for review.

I don't know where to begin with this book. The story is so compelling and sucks the reader right in. It sounds like fiction and reads like it, but incredibly it is non-fiction. Helen (the author and a fantastic narrator) tells us of growing up as the daughter of two disabled parents. As she grows and becomes more aware of her mother's behaviours and illnesses, Helen discovers that her mother actually likes being sick - she craves the attention. The entire book is gripping; and when you really think about it, terrifying. The toll that her mother's lies had on Helen are immeasurable. I can't even imagine the strength that Helen must posses to overcome her past. This book will stick with you long after you are finished.

Deeply buried familial secrets and mother-and-daughter accounts have spawned many novels and memoirs over the years, so I was interested in this latest account. I think I should point out at this stage, however, that this memoir, in its overarching attempt to shine a spotlight on a dysfunctional childhood, is not an easy read. Helen Naylor’s father is introduced to us as a barfly who develops a serious heart complaint, whereas her mother suffers from often-diagnosed but insufficiently explored chronic fatigue syndrome. Helen’s earliest childhood memories revolve around being quiet, so as not to disturb her mother, whilst missing out on all the fun and much of the unconditional love and parental attention that all children need to thrive. Little by little, us readers become convinced that Helen’s mother is simply narcissistic and that she fabricates many of the medical symptoms that we are introduced over the many following pages.
Whilst an emotional read, this book is light on backstories and outside perspectives and therefore lacks the depth that readers like me would have appreciated. What exactly happened in the childhoods of Helen’s parents that made them the insufficient parents that they were? What neighbours/friends/other relatives got involved and what were their perspectives? Turning over the final page of what is a gripping, harrowing account of a messed-up childhood, I could not stop thinking about what those fresh perspectives would have added to the narrative. My thanks go to the publishers and NetGalley for the free ARC provided in return for this honest and unbiased review.

This beautifully written and brutally honest memoir tells the deeply disturbing tale of a young girls childhood sadly destroyed by her mothers mental illness. At times hard to read, yet hard to put down.

What a dark and disturbingly sad story of how the authors childhood was destroyed by the lies and mental illness of her mother over the years and how even as an adult with children of her own her mother cast a huge shadow on her life. This is a fascinating read the only issue is the cover photo my mum is convinced is one of hers so wanted to know why it was on a book

Helen tells the fascinating story of living with parent with a mental illness. I liked how she used entries from her moms’s diaries to show what her mother was thinking. Great read, that I highly recommend!

I really really enjoyed this. A compelling account of the effects of childhood trauma and the lies and manipulation of a parent.

Helen has a gift with writing. Often non-fiction can feel more cold and distanced than that of fiction, but the personal style of her writing really allowed it to feel as though I was reading a piece of fiction. I applaud her for her courage in sharing her story - something which is never easy - let alone with the entire world to see.

An enlightening read, one that id really recommend providing you listen to the trigger warnings of abuse etc.

thanks to netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review <3

My Mother, Munchausen's and Me is a gripping story that still manages to scare me to this day. The fact that it happens to children and some adults more often than we hear about in the news, or in television in movies or documentaries... it's a huge psychological illness that needs to be talked about more. Here, we get an in depth account in what it's like to be in a relationship, how it goes beyond mother and daughter and becomes a detached obsession.

I felt like this book went deeper than I expected into the expectations of how Munchausen's is treated and how victims survive.

The writing was very consistent, a positive would be that it remained in the middle between at arm's reach and a perspective that's medical.

I thought the ending took a while to wrap up on the subject and heart of the story, but it's enriched, full of emotion an what can only be hope. I recommend this book for everyone to be further educated on the matter and to have sympathy for those who undergo this experience every day and after.

This is a beautifully written memoir. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down once I started.

My baseline comparison for any memoir of crazy family life is "Running with Scissors." As far as I'm concerned, any see-how-crazy-my-family-is type of novel is judged relative to that Augusten Burroughs classic.

Unfortunately, there are few family memoirs that can live up to that standard. Helen Naylor's debut novel, however, is one of the few.

In the early part of this book, I thought that the author was being overly critical of her mother - perhaps even translating her mother's behaviors in a way that played into the author's own victimization paradigm. What I realized, however, is something much more complex and impressive.

Helen's mother is an extreme narcissist who also suffers from Munchausen's Syndrome. Munchausen's, for those that don't know, is a psychological disorder in which the person pretends to be ill in order to have other people take care of them. It is the most extreme level of narcissism and a disorder that truly f***s with the emotions of those closest to them.

Being the child of a parent who displays this behavior makes for a hugely messed up life. Your parent is supposed to be the one that cares for you, supports you, raises you, comforts you. So when the parent is a narcissist with Munchausen, the parent feigns illness for attention, forcing the child to become the caretaker, simply to feed the parents ego. I'm telling you, it's f***ed up. The parent completely manipulates the child's emotions solely to feed their own narcissistic hunger. It is child abuse.

Helen's mother was insane, in my non-clinical opinion. As Helen grew into her teen years, she began to see the oddity of her mother's behavior; questioning whether her mother's sicknesses were real or fake. Understandably, there is guilt in thinking your parent is lying. It's a tough tightrope to walk, trying to determine whether the person who is supposed to be the most unconditional supporter of yours, is a complete sham.

Helen does a masterful job of weaving that fine line in her story telling. As I said, in the beginning of the book I thought she was being overly critical of her mother's behavior. But, alas, Helen did a stellar job in slowly exposing both her mother's behavior as well as her own struggle with understanding and accepting the behavior. She is honest about her doubts in believing her mother's lies. She is honest about her struggle in realizing that she, herself, is the victim - not her mother.

Helen's mother pretended to have Parkinson's and dystonia. My step-father died from complications of severe Parkinson's and one of my closest friends has a severe case of dystonia. So part of this book I take very personally - people I know and love suffer from these horrendous diseases. I am angered that another person would pretend to have the ailments simply to gain attention and feed their ego.

I'm thoroughly disgusted with Helen's mother and am in awe of how, under such horrendous upbringing, Helen can emerge as a creative, self-aware and seemingly balanced person.

This book is not just for people who know others with narcissism or munchausens, but it's for any fan of very well written, highly compelling memoirs. It will have you reflecting on the experiences in your own upbringing - whether they're feelings of gratitude or anger, this book brings them out.

I look forward to reading more from Helen Naylor.

#NetGalley #MyMotherMunchausensandMe