Review- The Symptoms Of My Insanity by Mindy Raf

*This is an early review of The Symptoms Of My Insanity by Mindi Raf. 

Publication Date: 18 April, 2013

Goodreads Summary:

A laugh-out-loud, bittersweet debut full of wit, wisdom, heart, and a hilarious, unforgettable heroine.

When you’re a hypochondriac, there are a million different things that could be wrong with you, but for Izzy, focusing on what could be wrong might be keeping her from dealing with what’s really wrong.

I almost raised my hand, but what would I say? “Mr. Bayer, may I please be excused? I’m not totally positive, but I think I might have cancer.” No way. Then everyone at school would know, and they would treat me differently, and I would be known as “Izzy, that poor girl who diagnosed herself with breast cancer during biology.”

But Izzy’s sense of humor can only get her so far when suddenly her best friend appears to have undergone a personality transplant, her mother’s health takes a turn for the worse, and her beautiful maybe-boyfriend is going all hot and cold. Izzy thinks she’s preparing for the worst-case scenario, but when the worst-case scenario actually hits, it’s a different story altogether—and there’s no tidy list of symptoms to help her through the insanity.

REVIEW:

*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) received a copy of Mindy Raf's The Symptoms Of My Insanity upon request from Net Galley. We thank Net Galley for the book! 

I was really excited to read The Symptoms Of My Insanity when I came across it on Goodreads. It sounded fun, exciting and different. 
When I read my blogger friend @  Enticed By Books, Aman's  review (she was the one who told me about the book being up for request on Net Galley. Thank you, Aman!),  I was a little apprehensive about starting it. But obviously, seeing as my request got accepted, I had to read it. I must admit that my feelings for Mindi Raf's The Symptoms Of My Insanity are so-so. This review is very difficult to write since I really don't know how I feel about the book. 

Izzy, the protagonist in The Symptoms Of My Insanity talks about her daily life and that's all. She talks about what she does, who she meets, about her friends and her family life. Izzy thinks too much. But then I really cannot complain because I know that I over-think as well. Her voice, although very innocent and sweet, does seem whiny and immoderate at times. She is confused and she is upset and it gets annoying with her constant dragged out dialogue. 

It seemed like the book has no purpose at all. But somewhere in the second half of the book, the story actually starts going somewhere. And The Symptoms Of My Insanity did have a purpose after all. It's just that the purpose came out almost towards the end of the book and trust me, by that time, you really don't know why or what you're reading. Thank God, something did happen. 

The secondary characters played a role, but exactly what that was, I'm yet to figure out. At the family front, I liked how Izzy was responsible and she shared a great relationship with her mom. 
I liked how author Mindi Raf has taken up an important issue whilst dealing with an hypochondriac protagonist. I could see the efforts the author has taken to bring to light the fact that anyone, anywhere can be a victim of anything and I appreciated that. The writing, however, was quite okay. The summary rightly says that Izzy concentrates more on what could be wrong than what really is wrong. The summary, however, is wrong when it leads the reader to believe that the book will be a laugh riot. I hardly found myself laughing out loud. 

Up to a certain extent, The Symptoms Of My Insanity is an alright book but it is very hard to get into and can be very obscure. It's not a light read, but it's not heavy either. It stands somewhere in the middle of nowhere. While I did like certain aspects of the book, it was hard to get into it. While I enjoyed Izzy's over thinking, it got too much at some point. While the first half of the book was just as good as nothing and took me a long time to get into, the second half was full of content and went by fast. 

The Symptoms Of My Insanity is an alright read that's like a zigzagging roller coaster. 

RATING: