Thank you to Nicholas Brealey Publishing and Netgalley for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an incredibly fascinating (and accessible!) look at how deviations in neurobiological processes can impact human behavior, sometimes resulting in rare outcomes.

Each section began with the author describing a "peculiar case of human behavior." Next, he would explain several theories as to how the behavior came about (in other words, what was the preceding event and how did it impact the brain?) Additionally, he was also careful to note which parts of the brain correspond with particular processes and behaviors.

The book was extremely educational, and the cases were interesting to read about. The author's passion for neuroscience really shone through (so much voice in his writing!) Plus, the author's introduction and closing thoughts were incredibly compassionate, especially important while writing about the experiences of real people.

My main critique is about a portion of the text from the "Intimacy" section of the book. While the author explains that a paraphilia (unusual sexual interest) does not necessarily equal pathology, I would have liked more discourse on when and why certain interests are considered "paraphilias" in the first place. He distinguishes the scientific definitions of paraphilias, paraphilic interests, and paraphilic disorders, but I would have enjoyed additional perspectives on these topics.

This book was fascinating, and I learned so much. It was an accessible, engaging read that wasn’t complicated and can be enjoyed by everyone. It left me with many questions and intrigued me so much that I did further research on some topics.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and author for a chance to read and review this book.

From people insisting that they are dead and should be immediately buried, to people mistaking inanimate objects for living beings; Bizarre catalogues a fascinating collection of medical conditions. Some people eat odd things. Others think they are cats or dogs. And still others marry objects like the Eiffel Tower. We even hear about human exceptionality, such as the extraordinary gifts of savants.

The author presents well explained descriptions and explanations of each condition; and they are interlaced with histories of real cases histories. This enables readers to get a clear understanding of the issues, and of how they actually manifest and affect people in their daily lives.

Particularly commendable was the author’s care to clarify what was scientific fact, and what was opinion. There is a trend in some scientific writing, towards a kind of dogmaticism. But this book completely avoided prejudicial over-assertings of assumptions and opinions. The author even refused to take a definite view on whether parents ‘seeing’ dead children is always hallucination, or whether it could occasionally be a genuine interaction with the supernatural. The truth is that no one can prove every instance either way, and it is refreshing to see such honesty clearly stated.

One limitation of the book is its scope. It presents many examples of conditions, but clearly it cannot include every possible example of bizarreness. I would have welcomed a more explicit treatment of dysrationalia, and the questions it raises about whether examples of irrationality are medical, as opposed to a ‘mere’ illogicality (if such a distinction can be made). The book did press questions of plausibility, and whether the mind’s plausibility checking procedures can sometimes go awry, but clearly there are significant questions about the extent to which people can be responsible for more general aspects of their reasoning, especially when it concludes to bizarre claims.

The conclusion of the book warns against the binary thinking that would view people as either having a particular condition, or not. In reality, most, if not all conditions probably involve spectra, so that people can experience aspects of conditions. Yes, it is tempting to take a binary view on conditions like Cotards Syndrome, where people claim to be dead. Either people are claiming to be dead, or they aren’t (!). But the underlying contributory factors to Cotards syndrome, whether they be depersonalisation, derealisation (etc), arguably can, and do, manifest to varying degrees.

Overall, a fascinating book, clearly written and accessible to curious readers from any background.

(These are honest comments based on a free review copy).

Bizarre is a fascinating and insightful book detailing some of the complexities of the human mind. The book discusses many known and lesser-known disorders of the brain and is pretty accessible. I'd recommend if you're interested in the human mind.

Many thanks to Marc Dingman, NetGalley, and Nicholas Brealey Publishing for this copy.

Bizarre is a very readable book, with a lot of unusual cases of people whose behaviour was far out of the usual. This is not a serious science book, though there are some broad level possibilities offered for such behaviours.

The book starts with the case of Charles Whitman, an ex-marine who after murdering his mother and wife, killed 14 people in and around the University of Texas at Austin. He left notes that stated that since some time he was feeling odd, and had unusual & irrational thoughts. While there is no definite link between any kind of mental illness and mass shootings, this case raised such possibilities. There are other cases which are less threatening to others – a Danish woman who believed she did not have her internal organs anymore, a man who believed he was a cat and tried to befriend a tiger, few who eat odd things, people who hoard cats/TVs etc, people with phobias and fears, a lady who was in love with the Eiffel Tower and many such interesting cases. In most of these cases, the exact deviation in the brain functioning and treatment has not been arrived at. There have been advances in brain science which have offered some first level analysis and possible reasons.

The book is easy to get through and it is not big either. The novelty factor does wear off though after the first few stories.

Bizarre is such an interesting book! I would recommend this to anyone who is curious about neuroscience and human behavior. I really appreciate that this author does a good job of explaining complex medical/scientific concept in a way that’s easy for the everyday person to follow along with.

(The only issue i have with this book is not really with the book itself but with the formatting of the kindle ARC version. There were copyright notices in almost every paragraph with random words in between other words and sentences and even blocking some words out, which made quite a few parts more confusing to read than i think is necessary. I’m hoping this publisher’s ARC’s are better formatted in the future)

This was one of the strangest yeah most interesting book I’ve read in a long time. From people who thought they were walking corpses to those who believe they had too many limbs turn on and on the stories were boundless but what makes his book so great is not only does the author tell us a strange stories but then he goes on to explain why scientist and psychologist believe they happen and I found both The entertainment and the information also interesting. I also enjoyed mr. Dingmans writing style he made it to where not only is it is he telling you educational academical information but it totally doesn’t feel like that. I am definitely going to be looking for more books by this author in the future. If you love the strange and obscure you’ll love the book Bizarre by author Mark Dingman. You will be entertained educated and by the end if you’re paying attention you will have more sympathy for those who are different from us. I received this book from NetGalley and the the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Wow. I cannot put this book down. The author speaks in a way that is both obviously well informed and intelligent without trying to cram a excessive jargon into the content or portraying themself as a gatekeeper of information. The way each chapter contains both scientific evidence and information and pairs it with real life stories creates a flow that has kept me rapt with attention and interest. The mind is such an incredibly interesting and terrifying organ. This book serves to make us aware of how a stroke of bad luck, physical injury, or even our own ability to manufacture fallacies can impact our ability to function and interact with the world around us.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for review.

I could not stop reading this book. It is well constructed and has a nice progression. Each chapter builds on concepts you have read in earlier chapters so it's never too much information at once.

It's full of information and nuanced in it's approach. It doesn't deal in absolutes and allows you to think for yourself.

It's definitely a book I'll think about often, also one that I've been talking about with people already.

It's not a book for professional neuroscientists, as it is written so that most people will understand the concepts. It's a book for all who are interested in the workings of the human brain.

While it answered many questions I didn't know I had, it also left me with many new questions. It is a great starting point on neurobiology and made me want to read more on the subject.

The only thing that would have made this book better is if the author had provided a list of books to continue reading on the ideas he presented.

I’m fascinated by why humans do the strange things we do. This book answered some of the questions I’ve had, as well as some I didn’t have until I started reading.

While I have an interest in neuroscience, I don’t have a scientific background so am usually hesitant to dive into books that explore it. The blurb made this one sound like it would be accessible without a bunch of prior knowledge so I took a chance. I loved it so much that I practically inhaled it.

I have so much more appreciation for the complexities of the brain and how much we still don’t know about how it works. Given how many of its parts are involved in tasks that we often do without a second thought, it’s astounding that we function at all.

“Just speaking a simple sentence, for example, requires the successful execution of operations such as word retrieval, the application of syntax (i.e., the rules used to properly arrange words in a sentence), coordinating the activity of the muscles involved in speech, sprinkling in appropriate changes in tone and pitch, and so on. Each of these tasks might require the contribution of different parts of the brain, causing language to be reliant on a large number of functioning brain regions for it to be fully operational.”

This book explains how the different parts of the brain work but I’m also much more aware now of the many ways that things can go wrong. Illness, trauma and other unexpected bumps in the road that affect even one part of the brain can have life changing consequences.

Each chapter covers a different area of behaviour: identification, physicality, obsessions, exceptionalism, intimacy, personality, belief, communication, suggestibility, absence, disconnection and reality.

There are so many disorders and syndromes covered in this book, some I’d already heard of but others that were new to me. There’s Cotard’s syndrome, where you’re convinced you’re dead or have lost organs, blood or body parts, and Capgras syndrome, where you believe people close to you have been replaced by imposters. There’s clinical lycanthropy/zoanthropy, pica, hoarding, objectophilia, dissociative identity disorder, the placebo effect, folie à deux, agnosia, alien hand syndrome, Alice in Wonderland syndrome and more.

“Despite how strange some of them may seem, they often just represent the extremes of the spectrum of normal human tendencies - and they are not completely foreign to us.”

A lot of the stories will stay with me but probably none more so than that of Kim Peek, who had a condition called an encephalocele, “where an incompletely developed cranium allows part of the brain to bulge outside the skull - potentially twisting, distorting, and damaging brain tissue in the process.” Despite considerable brain damage, Kim was able to do something extraordinary.

“He eventually could read a page in 8 to 10 seconds while memorizing all the information on it. He even began reading and comprehending the right and left pages of a book simultaneously (with his right and left eyes).
By the time he died in 2009 at the age of 58, Kim had read - and memorized - more than 12,000 books.”

Morbid curiosity may make you want to read this book but, thanks to the author’s approach, you never lose sight of the fact that these are real people you’re reading about, people who have often suffered greatly as a result of what’s happening in their brain.

This book did what I’m always looking for in non-fiction. I learned plenty of interesting new things. It held my attention. It made me think. It made me want to learn more.

Content warnings include domestic abuse, gun violence, mental health, self harm, sexual assault and suicidal ideation. Readers with emetophobia may have some trouble.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Nicholas Brealey Publishing, an imprint of John Murray Press, for the opportunity to read this book.