Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Such an interesting look at the brain and it's chemicals. Ginny Smith manages to write about in a way that feels friendly and easy to digest, a great book to help you understand how the brain works!

Great introduction to the inner workings of the brain and it's chemicals. I admit I kept putting off reading this book as I thought it would be heavy going, but what should be very difficult reading for most people, Ginny Smith manages to write about her subject in a friendly and conversational way as if she was describing this to you over a drink, making you feel so much smarter each time you put the book down.

Very interesting, chose to read it beause of lock down and the growing awareness of what you eat, how you sleep and exercise, and interacting with people (or not) has a large impacked on you. Really interesting, well explained. loved it, would definatly recomend.

This book was so so interesting and shined a new light into aspects and areas of the brain that I had never heard about and hadn’t even come across before, and if I did, it was information that was outdated or not as cut and dry as was previously thought.

I knew the brain had all sorts of complex interactions and one thing didn’t necessarily always mean and lead onto something else in a way we thought it would, but ‘Overloaded’ definitely opened up my eyes to just how much this was the case.

The brain is such a complex organ and things that were thought were straight forward are most definitely not. I think we’ve all heard serotonin is the ‘happy hormone’ but just how correct is this? How much of a role does dopamine play in reward responses and the effects into addiction and emotion were incredibly interesting to read, as well as be chapters on sleep, food and how we make decisions as well.

This is the sort of book you can learn an awful lot about and I loved how the author emphasised that neuroscience is a massively growing field and can really change from one week to the next with just what we know and learn about the brain. I really loved reading about all sorts of difference ongoing research and experiments in this field too.

The book was written really well in terms of teaching the reader all about brain anatomy, chemistry and physiology meaning you don’t need any prior or previous knowledge to help in your understanding - it just means it’s very detailed so there’s plenty to read and understand. It made for a very enjoyable read and it was definitely humorous and funny in places with the footnotes having me laugh out loud on many an occasion.

I love reading about the brain and think anyone else with an interesting in psychology, neuroscience or brain studies would find this a really stimulating and enjoyable read.

It’s been many many years since I did psychology A level and recently I’ve become interested in learning more in this sort of field. I’ve found a lot of books to be a bit too difficult to understand however Overloaded was perfect for me. It covered a lot of topics, some of which I’ve studied in the past, and I felt like it was written in a way which made it simple to understand. I found it extremely informative and was a good base for me to begin looking at over topics relating to the brain.

This is a fascinating book packed with interesting facts about the brain. I enjoyed reading it and thinking about the issues which it raised. But it also felt at times as if there was too much detail introducing, and cluttering, some of the points.

Comparing this book to another, I felt that Marc Dingman’s 2019 book, 'Your Brain Explained,' was clearer. That book provided illustrations to show which bit of the brain was being discussed at each point, and the discussions felt sharper and more tightly edited.

However, what this book does better is breadth of scope. It covers similar ground as the other book, but it takes the discussions further. For example, the chapter on memory didn’t just discuss the problems affecting memory, but it also explored cognitive enhancement drugs, especially those which are sometimes used by students.

The book pitches itself well to be engaging. Each chapter starts with a personal anecdote which is cleverly woven into the point of the chapter. We hear about the author’s vivid birthday memories, frightening encounters with sharks and painful skiing injuries, all of which become jumping off points to explore how the brain is processing those experiences.

Less successful were the chatty asides. After a while they became a bit of an irrelevant distraction to the points being made in the body of the text.

Although the book contains a lot of information, there were also a few places were there are assertions without justifying evidence. For example, we hear that damage to the hippocampus affects memory formation, but evidential case studies were not cited. At another point the author gives an opinion rejecting Dualism, but there was no argument to justify that opinion.

The book is careful to be socially responsible. It flags up links between scientists and Nazism, and it notes instances of sexism. It also identified issues of potential bias affecting weight and LGBT issues.

There is a lot of information packed into this book. Readers who want to know about the brain will find it a treasure trove of examples and discussion points.

This review is based on an Advanced Review Copy of the text.