Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Intensely candid debut memoir by illustrator and writer Kimball."The Secret," the opening act of the book, pairs a charming illustrative style, marked by bold-line geometries and little handwritten pointers ("Essential sandwich ingredients," "Weird, secret storage room"), with a startling first sentence: "My mom was thirty-one when she decided to take her own life." That desperate act sets in motion the collapse of a seemingly ordinary family-though, of course, no family is truly ordinary. Of course, the suicide attempt, born of unsuccessfully managed bipolar disorder, clouded the lives of Kimball and her siblings, who were very young when it occurred. In adulthood, the author has tried to puzzle out events. "What I wanted," she writes, "is to clear away the muck: to point to a date on a calendar and say this led to that; to watch a video and deconstruct the moments that led to our family's collapse and its aftermath." That aftermath included institutionalization, disintegration, and recrimination. As Kimball writes, her sensitivity finely attuned, it took her time to realize that exploring her mother's psyche would force her still-living mother to "scratch at a wound that's probably been open since childhood." Just as sensitively, the author examines the effects of divorce on uncomprehending children and, more damagingly, the endless psychological battles surrounding custody. In the blended household in which she landed, her new family soon "began to splinter along biological lines," with blood siblings forming alliances in what would become a long cold war. Kimball is never shy to point the finger at herself, recognizing her anger that her mother's illness forced her to witness "the fact that she transformed from parent to stranger." The drama grows with the emerging recognition that her mother is not the only member of the family to suffer from mental illness. It's an extraordinarily honest look at life behind closed suburban doors-and with a sublimely redemptive conclusion.A welcome debut that will leave readers eager for a successor-and soon.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Intensely candid debut memoir by illustrator and writer Kimball."The Secret," the opening act of the book, pairs a charming illustrative style, marked by bold-line geometries and little handwritten pointers ("Essential sandwich ingredients," "Weird, secret storage room"), with a startling first sentence: "My mom was thirty-one when she decided to take her own life." That desperate act sets in motion the collapse of a seemingly ordinary family-though, of course, no family is truly ordinary. Of course, the suicide attempt, born of unsuccessfully managed bipolar disorder, clouded the lives of Kimball and her siblings, who were very young when it occurred. In adulthood, the author has tried to puzzle out events. "What I wanted," she writes, "is to clear away the muck: to point to a date on a calendar and say this led to that; to watch a video and deconstruct the moments that led to our family's collapse and its aftermath." That aftermath included institutionalization, disintegration, and recrimination. As Kimball writes, her sensitivity finely attuned, it took her time to realize that exploring her mother's psyche would force her still-living mother to "scratch at a wound that's probably been open since childhood." Just as sensitively, the author examines the effects of divorce on uncomprehending children and, more damagingly, the endless psychological battles surrounding custody. In the blended household in which she landed, her new family soon "began to splinter along biological lines," with blood siblings forming alliances in what would become a long cold war. Kimball is never shy to point the finger at herself, recognizing her anger that her mother's illness forced her to witness "the fact that she transformed from parent to stranger." The drama grows with the emerging recognition that her mother is not the only member of the family to suffer from mental illness. It's an extraordinarily honest look at life behind closed suburban doors-and with a sublimely redemptive conclusion.A welcome debut that will leave readers eager for a successor-and soon.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

With scalpel-sharp writing and tidy drawings, Kimball takes on a detective-like rigor as she unthreads her mother-s bipolar disorder and suicide attempts, her parents- divorce, and the family history leading up to these defining events. It-s as if Kimball wants to push against the slippery nature of memory by researching (and reproducing) court records, home videos, maps, and blueprints. -Mental illness defies logic. That was and probably still is the limitation of my pattern-seeking brain, a mind that wants a clear story,- she notes. She-s particularly keen on dissecting 1988, the year that her mother downed pills and tried to hang herself; as a four-year-old, Kimball witnessed the aftermath but understood little. She delves into a past that includes her schizophrenic grandmother and the childhood drowning of her aunt (her namesake). She also jumps forward into her own adulthood, when her older brother breaks with reality. For all the tumult in her family, there is also ample love and care-her mom-s heartfelt letters; Kimball-s own nonjudgmental take on her brother-s QAnon-esque unhinged theories. Kimball suggests that her documentation is pathological in its own way, a -compulsion,- and just one more layer of reality in the multiverse. It-s a riveting reality to inhabit. Agent: Chad Luibl, Janklow and Nesbit. (Apr.)