This is a memoir as moving, as powerful and as beautifully written as the best novel. Helen Murray Taylor was a brilliant student who became a doctor working punishingly long hours in a hospital, and from there she went on to work in medical research.

Helen had a loving husband, Mark, as well as a loving family and she adored her nieces and nephews. When Helen and Mark decided it was time to have a baby of their own they did not envisage the problems they were going to encounter.

Helen’s honesty is heartbreaking. She had reached all of her academic goals with ease, she loved playing sport and she was in a loving relationship, but the one thing she now wanted was becoming harder to reach. She goes on to tell of the traumatic consequences she suffered and she does it so clearly, even saying she checked some of her facts with Mark while writing this memoir, that she was able to project her emotions off the page directly on to me, as she will to any reader. I wanted to take her under my wing but the best part of this is she always had the love of her husband, family and friends throughout her painful and at times rather terrifying struggle.

Although I want to talk about Helen’s story in detail I have been deliberately vague here because it is her story to tell and I want everyone to be as captured by it as I have been. I do want to mention, though, Helen’s cat. Animals know when people need them. They are great givers of comfort and sympathy.

I love psychological studies and this is one of the best I have read. Helen wants to pursue writing and I am sure she will be a wonderful novelist, if that is the path she wants to take.

Published by Unbound

This is an amazingly honest, feeling and hard book to read but my goodness it hit the mark on depression in such a perfect way! Easy to understand and relate to so much of the contents, the angst, pain and confusion as to why we suffer the way we do! This book is the best I’ve read, to date, of mental health.

I will be recommending to certain, if not all my students, as it’s so easy to understand and relate to. Excellent in every way!

4.5*

Love Lay Down Beside Me and We Wept is an incredibly raw and honest memoir of the author's very difficult experience with severe depression.

This isn't the type of book you 'enjoy', it's a difficult read but is extremely compelling and had me hooked from the beginning.

Helen's writing is beautiful, heartfelt and open. A really important book for breaking down the stigma of mental illness.

My only criticism is that the pacing toward the end felt off and a little rushed.

Please take note that this book covers some very difficult topics, TW for:
medical trauma, car crash, infertility, IVF, miscarriage, PTSD, psychotic depression, suicidality, suicide attempts (including a semi-detailed recollection), being sectioned and held in a psychiatric hospital against her will), and ECT treatment.

Many thanks to the publisher, Unbound, Helen Murray Taylor, and Net Galley for the ARC of this book

I was a little worried about reading this book as I navigate my own depression. It took me a little bit to get into, then I knew I would finish it. It's so raw, honest, and real. So real. Reading someone say (write) the same things I struggle with, is hard but good. I have compassion for others, why don't I see it in myself? I'm glad I read this book.

I love this quote near the end:

"I hope that no one who reads this has ever found, or will ever find, themselves being dragged under by the force of their depression. But if that is you, if you are fran tically treading water to stop yourself drowning and the moment comes where you think you can't do it any more, the moment when you want to give in and let the sea take you, I beg you keep going. You have endured so much. I implore you to endure just a few minutes, a few hours, a day more. And please, please, call out for help. The help when it comes might not steer you dry land but it might be the lifejacket that lets you turn on your back and float, the thing that lets you rest awhile, that keeps you afloat a little bit longer. Survival isn't always about kicking against the waves. Tomorrow the tide might turn and wash you ashore."

A lifejacket to float. Rest. Survival isn't always about kicking against the waves. Just beautiful imagery.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC of this book.

Many thanks to the publisher, Unbound, Helen Murray Taylor, and Net Galley for the ARC of this book, which is coming out in February 2025. It's the author's memoir of how her mental health deteriorated to the point where she was sectioned with psychotic depression, and her recovery. I would give a lot of trigger warnings with this book, including, but possibly not limited, to: medical trauma, car crash, infertility, IVF, miscarriage, PTSD, psychotic depression, suicidality, suicide attempts (including one on-page), being sectioned (i,e. held in a psychiatric hospital against her will), and treatment with ECT. As that list of trigger warnings might suggest, it's sometimes difficult to read – I found the on-page suicide description particularly hard, even though it's not very graphic. It must have been a difficult book to write, and I commend the author for her bravery.

Murray Taylor describes her problems as beginning with a sense of not 'fitting in' during medical school, and a disappointment with the disjunct between the textbook descriptions of illnesses and the reality of patients' bodies. She first starts experiencing real stress, however, when she's a junior doctor in Glasgow, working what was known as a 'one in three' shift pattern: that is, she worked every third night in addition to her daytime hours. She slowly develops the fear that she's going to miss a crucial diagnosis. Due to the stress, she moves into medical researcher but her problems start to compound when she and her husband start trying for a child.

She's a compelling writer and I was really struck by some of her descriptions, such as when she describes images of patients haunting her. I did feel like the book didn't go into that much detail about how she recovered, which is a shame as she said that she would like to help others, and I feel that would be the most useful part for other people.

I think this is an important book in the fight to destigmatise serious mental illness. I would recommend it, but I think it might prove too triggering if you're currently suffering from mental ill health, so tread carefully.

A brave memoir of living with depression, told with unflinching honesty and raw emotion. Helen Murray Taylor charts her journey into and through mental illness, emotional insights threaded through with some moments of darkly comic relief. The pacing is all over the place, which throws off some of the emotional impact, but love lay down beside me and we wept is still a powerful read.

A very emotional read.
The author is so honest and raw that the emotion pours from the pages.
Really made me think and my heart goes out to anyone going through similar.
I think this is tremendously brave and I applaud the author for sharing this.
A book I feel we should probably all read and I am very glad I have.
Huge thanks to everyone concerned for my ARC. Beta of luck with what I’m sure will be a huge success when published.

This was a raw and emotional depiction of mental health. In this memoir the author describes their life and their struggles. It was a bit difficult to get though due to the difficult topics it covered. But in the end I’m glad I read it.

This is the very honest memoir of a high achieving doctor and scientist’s struggle with depression, including long stretches in mental health facilities. Obviously the subject matter was very sensitive and sad, but I really enjoyed this insight into a person’s battle with mental health issues.
The author writes beautifully and I will look out for her fiction.

This book was an emotional ride, in a good way. The first few pages registered shock in my mind but I soon realized the gravity of talking about such a taboo/uncomfortable topic and I appreciate the way that it was delivered. This was a good read, but perhaps not for everyone considering the difficult of suicide and depression in the book.

4.5/5⭐️


How did it happen? How did I go from love to the edges of death?

Love lay down beside me and we wept is a book that cover so many heart breaks. A raw book , a memoir about the author when she was struggling depression.

A definite hard read which comes with too many content warnings including infertility and suicide and makes the readers heart heavy as iron. But god, did i feel healing at the same time. In a surprising way, it has such a sweet heart, such a piercing desire for its character to improve in every way, that hope persists in even the darkest moments. This novel touches on death, depression, and suicide; it paints a picture of love in a canvas of pain. You don't need to be depressed to relate to this novel. You don't need to experience the loss or to know the pain. You are just drawn by the flow of it all, you give in. You ride the waves and sometimes you can't help the flow of tears and in the end you will know that the only thing that counted in life was love.

Raw and emotional. It's beautiful how an author can really make you understand what they are trying to say. This book not be for everyone since it does cover serious mental health topics. Overall I did enjoy this read

love lay down beside me and we wept is a memoir detailing one woman’s experience with depression, suicidal ideation, and ultimately being confined to a psychiatric ward against her will.

Raw, honest, and deeply emotional. The chapters were short but gripping and while the author details heavy topics and dark subject matter, she expertly weaves in bits of comic relief. Helen lays everything on the table in this memoir and I applaud her for being able to go back and write about this time in her life so beautifully.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC.

Beautifully written! Such a touching book—a must-read for anyone who wants to support a loved one through depression, or for any who know the depths of depression all too well. One page a tear-jerker, the next, a roaring laugh. But always cheering for Helen!

This was a tough read for me. Depression is hard. And wow, does this story illustrate that. This is a very candid sharing of one woman's journey and illustrates how depression can happen to anyone, even those of us who seem to have it all together. It's not a simple subject --it's long and complicated and frustrating and exhausting and misunderstood. This story captures that, and also shows the incredible dedication, patience, and love required of partners, family, and friends.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Please note this is a 4.5.

The crippling weight of unending perfectionism and the real cost of burning out with dismal mental health is so clear in this book. Beautifully written, and an absolute swan song of trauma, I appreciate everything that the author mentions in this book. Sometimes the weight of the world is just too much to bear, and the expectations that accompany that weight can be sickening.

The emotion in this book pours through the pages, and you can feel the heaviness. From her battle with infertility, to needing to leave her medical studies, to smaller things like the snide comments about her husband leaving her if he were a different man, this book covers so much heartbreak.

I think as well there’s a message about mental illness and how we pathologise and criticise when someone is too self-aware. The weight of life is sometimes a lot, and any effort at staying above water should be commended.

I did think that the end of this book could have been expanded a little more. I didn’t need a glimmer of hope, but I would have appreciated a focus on how things are trekking now. This was a beautiful, raw book, without being a trauma display so much as a dissection, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

𓂂 ׂ𓆟۪ׄ 𓆞 ۫. thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review!

♡. this book was raw, and so moving. it was the author’s memoir for when she was battling depression and how she recovered through it. some parts felt close to home, and so this book was somewhat comforting. it described the struggles and torments her own mind put her through frequently. if you’re into memoirs and a type of book that will change your perspectives, i recommend it.

3.5 rounded it for the bravery and rawness of the writer in tackling such, unfortunately still taboo-ish and misunderstood topics and themes.
The prose is mostly without undermining the challenges and the seriousness of mental health.

Thank you to publisher and net galley for gifting me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a memoir of the author herself, going through depression, was sectioned and admitted for a long time in a psychiatric unit, having to go for ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY, psychotherapy, and eventually after a few years of ups and downs, slowly stepped back into society and go back to her old job of a research scientist. The author herself was a junior doctor once, like me, so it was close to heart.

I find myself liking the honest and raw description of depression, and I hope this book is able to give a glimpse of how it feels like to carers of friends who knows anyone with depression. Sometimes our minds can be at its worst and torment us with the most painful experience one can ever have in life, and this book alluded to that, sensitively and succinctly.

I will recommend!!

Raw and authentic voice. A memoir about mental illness. Written so well. A topic that I find brave to explore and write about. Bravo! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.