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A review by dustilane
Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg
3.0
Divergent Mind explores what it means to be a neurodivergent woman in our society and the trials and successes of these women whose minds are outside of what is considered “typical”.
As a 25 year old woman who is ADHD and is also a psychology student, I was very excited to read this book. I have yet to read a book that focuses on the unique struggle of women who are neurodiverse as there is not much emphasis on women when it comes to research and literature on this topic. There were a lot of positives to this book but also quite a few negatives.
I will start off by discussing the negatives. First and foremost, for a book that highlights the important of language, the author uses some pretty outdated language. I was immediately thrown off from the beginning at the first mention of the term Asperger’s. I had to go back and check the date of publication, but no this book was published in 2020. I understand mistakes in language when it’s the general public, but when you are researching and writing a whole book on it, it’s a bit odd that this wasn’t caught. On a similar but less important note, overall the editing seemed to be lacking. There were quite a few errors I found. Another issue I had with the book is that there was only a focus on “successful” people with neurodiversity. I wish the author had covered all types of neurodiverse women, including those who are not able to be career women. It was a little disheartening at times.
For the positives, this book definitely made me feel seen. There were quite a few times that I had to reread a passage because it just hit that nerve with me. It went into detail about things that I experience that I don’t often see discussed. I also really enjoyed the lifting up of these traits that are often seen as negative in our society. These things left me feeling empowered and understood.
Overall, very mixed emotions on this book. In a lot of ways, it is a very important and powerful piece of writing but it has quite a few downfalls.
As a 25 year old woman who is ADHD and is also a psychology student, I was very excited to read this book. I have yet to read a book that focuses on the unique struggle of women who are neurodiverse as there is not much emphasis on women when it comes to research and literature on this topic. There were a lot of positives to this book but also quite a few negatives.
I will start off by discussing the negatives. First and foremost, for a book that highlights the important of language, the author uses some pretty outdated language. I was immediately thrown off from the beginning at the first mention of the term Asperger’s. I had to go back and check the date of publication, but no this book was published in 2020. I understand mistakes in language when it’s the general public, but when you are researching and writing a whole book on it, it’s a bit odd that this wasn’t caught. On a similar but less important note, overall the editing seemed to be lacking. There were quite a few errors I found. Another issue I had with the book is that there was only a focus on “successful” people with neurodiversity. I wish the author had covered all types of neurodiverse women, including those who are not able to be career women. It was a little disheartening at times.
For the positives, this book definitely made me feel seen. There were quite a few times that I had to reread a passage because it just hit that nerve with me. It went into detail about things that I experience that I don’t often see discussed. I also really enjoyed the lifting up of these traits that are often seen as negative in our society. These things left me feeling empowered and understood.
Overall, very mixed emotions on this book. In a lot of ways, it is a very important and powerful piece of writing but it has quite a few downfalls.