Why read The Monster and the Mirror?

Book cover of The Monster and the Mirror: Mental Illness, Magic, and the Stories We Tell

Book description

Revelatory memoir and cultural criticism that connects popular fantasy and our perceptions of mental illness to offer an empathetic path to compassionate care

Growing up, K.J. Aiello was fascinated by magical stories of dragons, wizards, and fantasy, where monsters were not what they seemed and anything was possible. These books…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Monster and the Mirror as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

A.G.A. Wilmot

Author

Full disclosure: I was an early reader of this book and have offered it a blurb. But I wouldn’t have done so had it not significantly impacted me.

Aiello’s memoir, though not strictly horror, uses aspects of genre and pop culture—including aspects of horror—to detail their own history with mental illness and the surrounding difficulties and stigmas attached to it. They go to great and much-needed lengths to dissect how mental illness has been made out to be one of the great boogeymen of our lives via its myriad portrayals in culture (as a villain, a threat, a diabolical force,…

From A.G.A.'s list on manage mental health while reading spooky.