A very emotional read.
The author is so honest and raw that the emotion pours from the pages.
Really made me think and my heart goes out to anyone going through similar.
I think this is tremendously brave and I applaud the author for sharing this.
A book I feel we should probably all read and I am very glad I have.
Huge thanks to everyone concerned for my ARC. Beta of luck with what I’m sure will be a huge success when published.

This was a raw and emotional depiction of mental health. In this memoir the author describes their life and their struggles. It was a bit difficult to get though due to the difficult topics it covered. But in the end I’m glad I read it.

This is the very honest memoir of a high achieving doctor and scientist’s struggle with depression, including long stretches in mental health facilities. Obviously the subject matter was very sensitive and sad, but I really enjoyed this insight into a person’s battle with mental health issues.
The author writes beautifully and I will look out for her fiction.

This book was an emotional ride, in a good way. The first few pages registered shock in my mind but I soon realized the gravity of talking about such a taboo/uncomfortable topic and I appreciate the way that it was delivered. This was a good read, but perhaps not for everyone considering the difficult of suicide and depression in the book.

4.5/5⭐️


How did it happen? How did I go from love to the edges of death?

Love lay down beside me and we wept is a book that cover so many heart breaks. A raw book , a memoir about the author when she was struggling depression.

A definite hard read which comes with too many content warnings including infertility and suicide and makes the readers heart heavy as iron. But god, did i feel healing at the same time. In a surprising way, it has such a sweet heart, such a piercing desire for its character to improve in every way, that hope persists in even the darkest moments. This novel touches on death, depression, and suicide; it paints a picture of love in a canvas of pain. You don't need to be depressed to relate to this novel. You don't need to experience the loss or to know the pain. You are just drawn by the flow of it all, you give in. You ride the waves and sometimes you can't help the flow of tears and in the end you will know that the only thing that counted in life was love.

Raw and emotional. It's beautiful how an author can really make you understand what they are trying to say. This book not be for everyone since it does cover serious mental health topics. Overall I did enjoy this read

love lay down beside me and we wept is a memoir detailing one woman’s experience with depression, suicidal ideation, and ultimately being confined to a psychiatric ward against her will.

Raw, honest, and deeply emotional. The chapters were short but gripping and while the author details heavy topics and dark subject matter, she expertly weaves in bits of comic relief. Helen lays everything on the table in this memoir and I applaud her for being able to go back and write about this time in her life so beautifully.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC.

Beautifully written! Such a touching book—a must-read for anyone who wants to support a loved one through depression, or for any who know the depths of depression all too well. One page a tear-jerker, the next, a roaring laugh. But always cheering for Helen!

This was a tough read for me. Depression is hard. And wow, does this story illustrate that. This is a very candid sharing of one woman's journey and illustrates how depression can happen to anyone, even those of us who seem to have it all together. It's not a simple subject --it's long and complicated and frustrating and exhausting and misunderstood. This story captures that, and also shows the incredible dedication, patience, and love required of partners, family, and friends.

"I try to show myself the compassion that I would show a stranger, I find it hard to forgive myself."

In love lay down beside me and we wept, we gain insight into the life of Helen, who has struggled with depression. I found the beginning a bit difficult to get into, as the book is written in a challenging way and English is not my native language. However, it’s a book that makes you feel everything, from sadness to love. I think it’s incredibly brave of Helen to write this memoir, especially given the unfortunate taboo that still surrounds mental health. I also admire how she shares her life after her hospitalization, covering up to two years later. As she says in the book, she hopes to bring about change by publishing this story.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Please note this is a 4.5.

The crippling weight of unending perfectionism and the real cost of burning out with dismal mental health is so clear in this book. Beautifully written, and an absolute swan song of trauma, I appreciate everything that the author mentions in this book. Sometimes the weight of the world is just too much to bear, and the expectations that accompany that weight can be sickening.

The emotion in this book pours through the pages, and you can feel the heaviness. From her battle with infertility, to needing to leave her medical studies, to smaller things like the snide comments about her husband leaving her if he were a different man, this book covers so much heartbreak.

I think as well there’s a message about mental illness and how we pathologise and criticise when someone is too self-aware. The weight of life is sometimes a lot, and any effort at staying above water should be commended.

I did think that the end of this book could have been expanded a little more. I didn’t need a glimmer of hope, but I would have appreciated a focus on how things are trekking now. This was a beautiful, raw book, without being a trauma display so much as a dissection, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

𓂂 ׂ𓆟۪ׄ 𓆞 ۫. thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review!

♡. this book was raw, and so moving. it was the author’s memoir for when she was battling depression and how she recovered through it. some parts felt close to home, and so this book was somewhat comforting. it described the struggles and torments her own mind put her through frequently. if you’re into memoirs and a type of book that will change your perspectives, i recommend it.

3.5 rounded it for the bravery and rawness of the writer in tackling such, unfortunately still taboo-ish and misunderstood topics and themes.
The prose is mostly without undermining the challenges and the seriousness of mental health.

Thank you to publisher and net galley for gifting me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a memoir of the author herself, going through depression, was sectioned and admitted for a long time in a psychiatric unit, having to go for ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY, psychotherapy, and eventually after a few years of ups and downs, slowly stepped back into society and go back to her old job of a research scientist. The author herself was a junior doctor once, like me, so it was close to heart.

I find myself liking the honest and raw description of depression, and I hope this book is able to give a glimpse of how it feels like to carers of friends who knows anyone with depression. Sometimes our minds can be at its worst and torment us with the most painful experience one can ever have in life, and this book alluded to that, sensitively and succinctly.

I will recommend!!

Raw and authentic voice. A memoir about mental illness. Written so well. A topic that I find brave to explore and write about. Bravo! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

As a country, we don’t talk often enough about mental illness. In her memoir, Helen Murray Taylor does just that. It was a fascinating read.

A raw account of one womans experience with mental health. The devastation and struggles with day to day living and eventually being detained under the mental health act. The extremes helen goes to and eventually the love and friendship that help guide her. Very powerful, very raw, very on edge reading this.

Love Lay Down Beside Me and We Wept by Helen Murray Taylor is an emotional memoir that provides an account of her experience of suffering from mental health difficulties and her recovery process.