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A Tiny White Light: A Memoir of a Mind in Crisis
Not yet published
Expected 20 Jan 26From an author with a psychology background, a candid memoir about the interior of her own psychotic episode and its origins in guilt, lost purpose, conflict between mothering and career, and the ambiguity in her relationship with her therapist.
Just after Linda, nineteen, and her brother Brian, eighteen, move from their tiny country town in Wisconsin to the tumult of Los Angeles in 1967, the Summer of Love, their parents decide to divorce—and for the first time, the two teenagers find themselves truly on their own. Forced to fend for himself, Brian’s life quickly spirals He hitchhikes around the country, lands in psychiatric hospitals and jails, and, finally, commits an irrevocable act. Plagued with guilt over her role in Brian’s deterioration, Linda loses her own sense of purpose, gives up a promising career in psychology, and finds herself in a life she never envisioned—poor, alcoholic, an accidental parent in an unhappy marriage, feeling invisible and alone.
When Linda’s husband, Jake, urges her to see Sam, a psychologist, for help in quitting smoking, Sam quickly becomes a touchstone for what she has her sense of self. Feeling truly seen, she falls in love with him, and she believes he might return her feelings. But he offers her only mixed messages, and the ambiguity triggers her descent into a psychotic episode—one that echoes her dreams, Brian’s experience, and Sam’s own phobia.
Will she follow her brother’s path—or will she find her way back to herself and create the life she longs to live?
Just after Linda, nineteen, and her brother Brian, eighteen, move from their tiny country town in Wisconsin to the tumult of Los Angeles in 1967, the Summer of Love, their parents decide to divorce—and for the first time, the two teenagers find themselves truly on their own. Forced to fend for himself, Brian’s life quickly spirals He hitchhikes around the country, lands in psychiatric hospitals and jails, and, finally, commits an irrevocable act. Plagued with guilt over her role in Brian’s deterioration, Linda loses her own sense of purpose, gives up a promising career in psychology, and finds herself in a life she never envisioned—poor, alcoholic, an accidental parent in an unhappy marriage, feeling invisible and alone.
When Linda’s husband, Jake, urges her to see Sam, a psychologist, for help in quitting smoking, Sam quickly becomes a touchstone for what she has her sense of self. Feeling truly seen, she falls in love with him, and she believes he might return her feelings. But he offers her only mixed messages, and the ambiguity triggers her descent into a psychotic episode—one that echoes her dreams, Brian’s experience, and Sam’s own phobia.
Will she follow her brother’s path—or will she find her way back to herself and create the life she longs to live?
312 pages, Paperback
Expected publication January 20, 2026
2162 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Review of advance copy
This book is a raw, deeply honest memoir that gently pulls readers into the lived experience of mental illness, grief, and the fragile hope that keeps us going even in our darkest moments.
@linda_bass_author writes with vulnerability and courage, offering a personal account that feels both intimate and universal.
This memoir is especially powerful and Linda Basso’s ability to articulate thoughts and emotions that are often left unspoken. She doesn’t sanitize her struggles or rush toward easy resolutions. She allows the reader to sit with the discomfort, confusion, and exhaustion that can accompany mental health challenges, while still weaving in moments of clarity, love, and resilience.
The writing is reflective and compassionate, inviting empathy rather than judgment, sometimes painful, sometimes hopeful.
This memoir will resonate with those who have experienced mental health struggles themselves, as well as those who want a better understanding of what loved ones may be facing.
Thank you @booksparks and @linda_bass_author for this book to read and review.
@linda_bass_author writes with vulnerability and courage, offering a personal account that feels both intimate and universal.
This memoir is especially powerful and Linda Basso’s ability to articulate thoughts and emotions that are often left unspoken. She doesn’t sanitize her struggles or rush toward easy resolutions. She allows the reader to sit with the discomfort, confusion, and exhaustion that can accompany mental health challenges, while still weaving in moments of clarity, love, and resilience.
The writing is reflective and compassionate, inviting empathy rather than judgment, sometimes painful, sometimes hopeful.
This memoir will resonate with those who have experienced mental health struggles themselves, as well as those who want a better understanding of what loved ones may be facing.
Thank you @booksparks and @linda_bass_author for this book to read and review.
Read
January 9, 2026A Tiny White Light is a memoir of rare candor and psychological precision. Linda Bass writes from the inside of crisis not as a retrospective observer smoothing the edges of memory, but as someone willing to re enter the ambiguity, fear, and fractured logic of a psychotic episode and trace its roots with unflinching honesty.
Set against the cultural upheaval of late-1960s America, the memoir intertwines personal and historical dislocation. Bass’s early adulthood is shaped by abandonment, guilt, and the catastrophic unraveling of her brother’s life after their parents’ divorce. His institutionalization and ultimate irreversible act haunt the narrative, not as a single tragedy but as a formative absence that quietly reshapes Bass’s sense of responsibility, agency, and worth.
What makes this memoir particularly compelling is its psychological sophistication. With a background in psychology, Bass explores the porous boundaries between insight and vulnerability, care and dependency, healing and harm. Her relationship with her therapist marked by emotional ambiguity and unmet longing becomes both a lifeline and a destabilizing force, catalyzing a descent that mirrors her brother’s earlier breakdown in unsettling ways.
Bass does not offer easy redemption or simplified lessons. Instead, she examines how guilt, suppressed ambition, maternal conflict, addiction, and invisibility accumulate until the mind fractures under their weight. The prose is measured, lucid, and restrained, allowing the emotional intensity to emerge without manipulation.
A Tiny White Light will resonate deeply with readers of literary memoirs such as An Unquiet Mind or The Collected Schizophrenias, as well as clinicians, therapists, and anyone interested in the lived interior of mental illness. It is not a book that reassures but one that illuminates, quietly and powerfully, the fragile line between survival and loss.
Set against the cultural upheaval of late-1960s America, the memoir intertwines personal and historical dislocation. Bass’s early adulthood is shaped by abandonment, guilt, and the catastrophic unraveling of her brother’s life after their parents’ divorce. His institutionalization and ultimate irreversible act haunt the narrative, not as a single tragedy but as a formative absence that quietly reshapes Bass’s sense of responsibility, agency, and worth.
What makes this memoir particularly compelling is its psychological sophistication. With a background in psychology, Bass explores the porous boundaries between insight and vulnerability, care and dependency, healing and harm. Her relationship with her therapist marked by emotional ambiguity and unmet longing becomes both a lifeline and a destabilizing force, catalyzing a descent that mirrors her brother’s earlier breakdown in unsettling ways.
Bass does not offer easy redemption or simplified lessons. Instead, she examines how guilt, suppressed ambition, maternal conflict, addiction, and invisibility accumulate until the mind fractures under their weight. The prose is measured, lucid, and restrained, allowing the emotional intensity to emerge without manipulation.
A Tiny White Light will resonate deeply with readers of literary memoirs such as An Unquiet Mind or The Collected Schizophrenias, as well as clinicians, therapists, and anyone interested in the lived interior of mental illness. It is not a book that reassures but one that illuminates, quietly and powerfully, the fragile line between survival and loss.
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December 19, 2025A Tiny White Light: A Memoir of a Mind in Crisis by Linda Bass is a profoundly candid and compelling exploration of mental health, personal struggle, and the search for self amidst turmoil. With remarkable vulnerability and insight, Bass invites readers into the interior of her psychotic episode, tracing its origins through complex family dynamics, personal guilt, and the conflict between motherhood and career. Her narrative is both raw and deeply human, offering a rare window into the lived experience of psychological crisis.
Bass’s memoir stands out for its honesty, emotional depth, and narrative clarity. By intertwining her personal journey with broader reflections on mental health, family, and identity, she creates a story that is not only deeply moving but also educational and illuminating. Readers are drawn into her experience with empathy and understanding, gaining insight into resilience, self discovery, and the intricate workings of the human mind.
Bass’s memoir stands out for its honesty, emotional depth, and narrative clarity. By intertwining her personal journey with broader reflections on mental health, family, and identity, she creates a story that is not only deeply moving but also educational and illuminating. Readers are drawn into her experience with empathy and understanding, gaining insight into resilience, self discovery, and the intricate workings of the human mind.
December 19, 2025
This was an all consuming read for me. It is an amazing first hand look from the mind and eyes of Linda herself. I felt so many emotions as she navigated adulthood after a move across the country, her parents divorce, living on her own, and her brother’s metal health issues and a tragedy. Her feelings of guilt are so very relatable to me. As time goes on and she struggles in relationships, with substance abuse, motherhood, and marital issues I was just in awe. The honesty on every page gives a crucial look inside her own mind. This book was the ultimate case of trying to create the ideal life amid how closely we walk to the path’s of others around us who have struggled. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
4 Stars
This was a quiet, emotional story that focuses on grief, faith, and healing. The writing felt gentle and thoughtful, and the emotions came across as very real without being overdone. I appreciated how the story encouraged slowing down and really sitting with the characters.
There were a few moments where the pacing dragged, which kept it from being a full five star read for me. Overall, this was an enjoyable, heartfelt book that will appeal to readers who like reflective, character driven stories.
This was a quiet, emotional story that focuses on grief, faith, and healing. The writing felt gentle and thoughtful, and the emotions came across as very real without being overdone. I appreciated how the story encouraged slowing down and really sitting with the characters.
There were a few moments where the pacing dragged, which kept it from being a full five star read for me. Overall, this was an enjoyable, heartfelt book that will appeal to readers who like reflective, character driven stories.
Read
January 6, 2026A Tiny White Light reads like the kind of memoir that asks readers to slow down and look inward. What immediately stands out is the psychological honesty and restraint in the narrative, especially in how guilt, professional identity, and therapeutic ambiguity are handled without simplification. This is not a memoir that seeks sympathy or shock, but one that invites reflection, making it particularly resonant for readers interested in psychology, mental health, and complex inner lives. It feels poised to become a discussion driven book rather than a fleeting release.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews