I felt that the book was far more in depth than the movie. I cry every time I read it.

Loved the movie, and of course I loved the book even more. The book is always better!

This is one rare case in which the movie was better than the book. Kaysen's account of her time in a mental institution is vaguely interesting, yet lacks a real pull. This is a very quick read. An okay book but the movie is much more engaging.

Susanna Kaysen was eighteen years old when a psychiatrist she had never met before diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder and sent her off to McLean, a mental hospital in Massachusetts. Within the scarily strict confines of the hospital--"checks" every five minutes, maximum security, three doctors every day--Susanna witnesses the comings and goings of some eclectic patients, as well as the constancy of some more of her "friends." Nearly two years later, Susanna is released from McLean. But is she cured? The doctors say she is "recovered," but how does one recover from something that is extremely subjective in the first place?

GIRL, INTERRUPTED is a fantastically written account of a stay in a mental hospital, in a time of American history where mental disorders were undergoing a sort of baby boom themselves, with people being diagnosed and confined to wards left and right. Kaysen artistically challenges the rampant diagnoses of mental illnesses. Readers will shudder--and yet be awed--at the circumstances she underwent, and wonder, perhaps a little depressingly, whether they could possibly be diagnosed for mental illness as well in such an unforgiving and untrusting world. Highly recommended!

This book took hardly any time to read. I read it from cover to cover in 2-3 hours or so. It was different from the movie, but the movie couldn't show all the stuff going on in her head very well. So, overall, I think the movie did what it could and is enjoyable. The book was better in my opinion this time though. I enjoyed the fast pace and flow.

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele - Sylvia P;ath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles - as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary,

Excellent book - a little different than the movie but the saying is true - the book is always better!

Better than the movie, as books always are! A fascinating read about one woman's experiences coping with mental illness and psychiatric wards in the 1960s.

My favorite book of all time. Kaysen writes some wicked awesome good books.

Good book, great insight into the minds of those diagnosed with mental illnesses.

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Very good. Especially if you have personal experiences involving psychiatric treatment. Very eye-opening.

It was ok. I wish it didn't keep jumping back and forth so much. The movie was better.

I saw the movie first. Then I read the book. Of course, the book is better!

This is the only book that I have ever thought was not as good as the movie. It's put together in a very disjointed way, and although the subject interests me, it was difficult to get through because of the way it is written.

never been read saw the movie...

Reminds me of "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden". Good book.

It was a very interesting read.

Better than the movie. (What a cliche)

nice, quick read. interesting.

I too was 18 in 1966 and weird but didn't get locked up....I lived with my sister and her kids in Belmont for a while and painted and modeled at art school. It was pretty wacky times after Woodstock but I finally settled down, kept painting for 30 years then stopped to finish my interrupted BA went to grad school and am enjoying 5 grandchildren. They are filling in the gaps in my development. iowe alot to my supportive family and in-laws and the sweet, sweet man who I've been with since the winter of 69-70. This book is definitely a collage of those tortured (for many of us) years.

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