Hillbilly Gothic
A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood

Society has its ideas of what motherhood looks like; we get them from television commercials, magazine covers, and our own naïve misconceptions. And then there is Postpartum Depression, an element of motherhood that is seldom glamorized, unless of course we’re talking about Andrea Yates. Adrienne Ma......more

LOVED this book! Great look at postpartum depression and mental illness in general. As a mom I can relate to the authors worries about trying to be the "perfect" mom - I never struggled with PPD like she did but I have, like most moms, struggled with trying to be the "perfect" mom and feeling inadeq......more

This memoir is journalistic rather than literary. The subject is postpartum depression and societies view of mental illness in general. No new ground is covered. The title is misleading as there is not much Gothic and even less hillbilly about it.......more

Being nulliparous myself, perhaps I just didn't find this an interesting read because of that. I struggled to get halfway through, expecting more exploration into mental illness and our treatment of it than a day-by-day of how miserable life was for the author after baby. Or maybe this is me blowing......more

I really liked this book. I wish I had read it before I had a baby or shortly after, when I was going through some of the same stuff the author did. It would have made things a lot better to know I wasn't alone. I really admire Adrienne Martini's truthfulness about what it's like to be pregnant and......more