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love lay down beside me and we wept
love lay down beside me and we wept is Helen Murray Taylor’s lyrical memoir of devastating mental illness.
Helen Murray Taylor was finding her feet as a young doctor and trying to maintain some semblance of a life in the shadow of a punishing schedule when she witnessed a horrific road traffic accident. The impact of this fatal collision caught Helen off guard and had terrible repercussions. Both her career and her mental health took a battering. After a succession of other distressing events left Helen emotionally shattered and seriously depressed, she was admitted to a psychiatric ward and sectioned under the Mental Health Act. At her lowest, she almost succeeded in taking her own life. love lay down beside me and we wept sprang from these difficult times, from Helen’s months on the ward and the psychological upheaval of being restrained against her will, and from the challenge of being a doctor turned patient, but also from the moments of pure comedy and unexpected comradeship that she encountered there.
This is a profoundly moving and masterful account of one woman's physical and psychological breakdown, it's a tribute to the love that supported her through it, and it's an offering to the reader who might find comfort or understanding in this story.
Helen Murray Taylor was finding her feet as a young doctor and trying to maintain some semblance of a life in the shadow of a punishing schedule when she witnessed a horrific road traffic accident. The impact of this fatal collision caught Helen off guard and had terrible repercussions. Both her career and her mental health took a battering. After a succession of other distressing events left Helen emotionally shattered and seriously depressed, she was admitted to a psychiatric ward and sectioned under the Mental Health Act. At her lowest, she almost succeeded in taking her own life. love lay down beside me and we wept sprang from these difficult times, from Helen’s months on the ward and the psychological upheaval of being restrained against her will, and from the challenge of being a doctor turned patient, but also from the moments of pure comedy and unexpected comradeship that she encountered there.
This is a profoundly moving and masterful account of one woman's physical and psychological breakdown, it's a tribute to the love that supported her through it, and it's an offering to the reader who might find comfort or understanding in this story.
- GenresMemoirNonfiction
272 pages, Hardcover
Published July 1, 2025
5 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
August 23, 2024
┈─ 🤍 love lay down beside me and we wept ⸝⸝ helen murray taylor
→ 3 stars , fin. 08.11.24
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 at times. 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 perspective, i recommend it.
→ 3 stars , fin. 08.11.24
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 at times. 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 perspective, i recommend it.
September 25, 2024
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.
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.
July 19, 2025
terrific book. very insightful read into Helen’s battles with mental health, being sectioned and suicide attempts.
brutal but excellent.
brutal but excellent.
August 18, 2024
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.
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.
April 17, 2025
I've read the uncorrected page proofs of this memoir.
Love Lay Down is an exceptional story of survival. Helen Taylor’s memoir focuses on her nearly fatal mental illness, and it is both harrowing yet laced with humour as she documents the grinding perfectionism that besets her as she works as a junior doctor, all the patients and their outcomes that haunt her; the impostor syndrome of mental illness that makes her believe she is not nearly ill enough as other patients who have it worse than she does, effectively impeding her recovery; and the memory loss that still accompanies her. Yet, Love Lay Down is filled with loving family and friends and mental health professionals who won’t give up on her. You’ll tear up, too, when she reaches the point where she is grateful that she survived it all. This is an incredibly important book, one that unmasks the struggles that people suffering from mental health disorders face, one that allows us to better empathize with their struggles and (hopefully) have compassion when we, too, struggle.
Love Lay Down is an exceptional story of survival. Helen Taylor’s memoir focuses on her nearly fatal mental illness, and it is both harrowing yet laced with humour as she documents the grinding perfectionism that besets her as she works as a junior doctor, all the patients and their outcomes that haunt her; the impostor syndrome of mental illness that makes her believe she is not nearly ill enough as other patients who have it worse than she does, effectively impeding her recovery; and the memory loss that still accompanies her. Yet, Love Lay Down is filled with loving family and friends and mental health professionals who won’t give up on her. You’ll tear up, too, when she reaches the point where she is grateful that she survived it all. This is an incredibly important book, one that unmasks the struggles that people suffering from mental health disorders face, one that allows us to better empathize with their struggles and (hopefully) have compassion when we, too, struggle.
January 9, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Unbound for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
These kind of books, I don't review them as a book as such, in terms of format or characters etc. instead I review it in terms of how it made me feel.
I liked that we didn't go straight into the depression side of this story. It has a few chapters of introduction, getting to know Helen as a person and a partner and a doctor, before we get to know her as a mental health patient. And normally I like my books to get right into the action, but I think this was important in order to feel some sort of compassion for her.
I have had my fair share of mental health issues and have not hidden from the fact I took an overdose last year, and so some bits were definitely a bit close to home. But I struggle to put into words how I feel at times, and so I enjoyed reading Helen's words on it. It was comforting in a way. I mean, I wish no-one has to experience these things, but hearing that someone else has makes you feel a little less alone.
She hasn't hidden anything. It's very raw and honest, and some bits are difficult to read. But it is an important read, especially when trying to navigate the stresses of a highly important job.
It's a sad look at how overachieving can impact your whole life. That anything other than top of the class success makes you a failure. But #it's the opposite in my view. Failing, admitting you can't do something, putting your health before anything else, that's not failing, that's bravery and success in a different form.
It is quite worrying the quantity of doctors and medical staff who end up having severe mental health issues. We often think that doctors are immune to health issues like this, because they're the ones we rely on to make us better.
I actually contacted Helen once I'd finished this to explain to her just how much it meant to me, and I sent her the final paragraph of this review:
As someone who thinks of suicide fairly regularly, and even attempted it, I think this book is a godsend. It is beautiful, tragic, sad, and heart wrenching - but it's beautiful and raw and honest and like a love story, and not to sound corny but it is a life saver. Anyone who has ever had those kind of thoughts, I'm not saying this book will stop you having them, but it'll make sure you know you're not alone, and sometimes that's all we need, to know there's someone with you.
These kind of books, I don't review them as a book as such, in terms of format or characters etc. instead I review it in terms of how it made me feel.
I liked that we didn't go straight into the depression side of this story. It has a few chapters of introduction, getting to know Helen as a person and a partner and a doctor, before we get to know her as a mental health patient. And normally I like my books to get right into the action, but I think this was important in order to feel some sort of compassion for her.
I have had my fair share of mental health issues and have not hidden from the fact I took an overdose last year, and so some bits were definitely a bit close to home. But I struggle to put into words how I feel at times, and so I enjoyed reading Helen's words on it. It was comforting in a way. I mean, I wish no-one has to experience these things, but hearing that someone else has makes you feel a little less alone.
She hasn't hidden anything. It's very raw and honest, and some bits are difficult to read. But it is an important read, especially when trying to navigate the stresses of a highly important job.
It's a sad look at how overachieving can impact your whole life. That anything other than top of the class success makes you a failure. But #it's the opposite in my view. Failing, admitting you can't do something, putting your health before anything else, that's not failing, that's bravery and success in a different form.
It is quite worrying the quantity of doctors and medical staff who end up having severe mental health issues. We often think that doctors are immune to health issues like this, because they're the ones we rely on to make us better.
I actually contacted Helen once I'd finished this to explain to her just how much it meant to me, and I sent her the final paragraph of this review:
As someone who thinks of suicide fairly regularly, and even attempted it, I think this book is a godsend. It is beautiful, tragic, sad, and heart wrenching - but it's beautiful and raw and honest and like a love story, and not to sound corny but it is a life saver. Anyone who has ever had those kind of thoughts, I'm not saying this book will stop you having them, but it'll make sure you know you're not alone, and sometimes that's all we need, to know there's someone with you.
September 24, 2024
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 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 de-stigmatise 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.
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 de-stigmatise 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.
May 5, 2025
The beautifully poetic title of this memoir is an indication of its evocative prose, but it is no easy read - a raw and visceral look at the realities of not only mental illness, but also how we respond to and treat this as a society.
Helen long dreamed of being a doctor, and she works hard to work her way into and then through medical school. The working hours of junior doctors are punishing though and Helen finds her chosen career so much harder than hoped. Amidst all this stress, she witnesses a fatal traffic accident that throws her off balance, both in terms of her career and her mental health. Helen comes to the startling realisation that she isn't suited to being a doctor and switches to medical research instead - again, working hard and progressing well. Helen is incredibly driven and ambitious, but this is all counterbalanced against her own internal doubts and troubles.
The constant of Helen's life is her partner, Mark - the book is an absolute testament to his unwavering love and dependable presence for Helen. But the couple have difficulty conceiving, eventually moving onto IVF treatment. Helen does become pregnant, but has a miscarriage that triggers a profound period of grief where the real descent in her mental health begins. She is eventually admitted to a psychiatric ward and then sectioned, and there is a battle between Helen's plans to end her life and the medical professionals determined to keep her alive. After many ups and downs, Helen makes her most pronounced attempt at taking her own life - but this lowest point is also a turning point.
The book is a message of solace for anyone experiencing mental illness - a witness of what has been endured and also what can be overcome with genuine love and support. It is a tremendous book that evokes understanding of some of the darkest and most difficult times that the human spirit can go through.
Helen long dreamed of being a doctor, and she works hard to work her way into and then through medical school. The working hours of junior doctors are punishing though and Helen finds her chosen career so much harder than hoped. Amidst all this stress, she witnesses a fatal traffic accident that throws her off balance, both in terms of her career and her mental health. Helen comes to the startling realisation that she isn't suited to being a doctor and switches to medical research instead - again, working hard and progressing well. Helen is incredibly driven and ambitious, but this is all counterbalanced against her own internal doubts and troubles.
The constant of Helen's life is her partner, Mark - the book is an absolute testament to his unwavering love and dependable presence for Helen. But the couple have difficulty conceiving, eventually moving onto IVF treatment. Helen does become pregnant, but has a miscarriage that triggers a profound period of grief where the real descent in her mental health begins. She is eventually admitted to a psychiatric ward and then sectioned, and there is a battle between Helen's plans to end her life and the medical professionals determined to keep her alive. After many ups and downs, Helen makes her most pronounced attempt at taking her own life - but this lowest point is also a turning point.
The book is a message of solace for anyone experiencing mental illness - a witness of what has been endured and also what can be overcome with genuine love and support. It is a tremendous book that evokes understanding of some of the darkest and most difficult times that the human spirit can go through.
May 25, 2025
“The help when it comes might not steer you to 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.”
TW: miscarriage. suicidal ideation, depression
This is an incredibly raw memoir where Murray Taylor tells a first hand account of her life becoming overtaken with a fight against a deep depression and the loss of a will to live. There are so many moments that may resonate with readers, and highlight the very real threat of succumbing to overwhelm when under constant pressure from multiple sources, including but not limited to a need to avoid failure, the overwhelming urge to join motherhood and the guilt of disappointing loved ones.
“I was incensed. Beside myself with rage. And livid that he had done nothing to deserve my fury. Except, of course, connive to tether me to life.”
Murray Taylor is consistent to the end. She doesn’t promise it will get better and you can return to the person you were before everything. Instead she talks about how to find your new normal, and the sources of light that may exist around you. Throughout the entire story, she is very honest about her struggles, putting pen to paper to express thoughts many wouldn’t dare to speak out loud or admit to for fear of how this my be received.
“I let hope into my life and it all but destroyed me.”
I admired the bravery to admit that things simply weren’t okay for a long time. There are so many things I would like to say about this story that I simply don’t have the same skill as the author to articulate, but I felt a strong empathy for her and her capacity to recount such difficulties. I would read again.
Thank you NetGalley for the Arc.
TW: miscarriage. suicidal ideation, depression
This is an incredibly raw memoir where Murray Taylor tells a first hand account of her life becoming overtaken with a fight against a deep depression and the loss of a will to live. There are so many moments that may resonate with readers, and highlight the very real threat of succumbing to overwhelm when under constant pressure from multiple sources, including but not limited to a need to avoid failure, the overwhelming urge to join motherhood and the guilt of disappointing loved ones.
“I was incensed. Beside myself with rage. And livid that he had done nothing to deserve my fury. Except, of course, connive to tether me to life.”
Murray Taylor is consistent to the end. She doesn’t promise it will get better and you can return to the person you were before everything. Instead she talks about how to find your new normal, and the sources of light that may exist around you. Throughout the entire story, she is very honest about her struggles, putting pen to paper to express thoughts many wouldn’t dare to speak out loud or admit to for fear of how this my be received.
“I let hope into my life and it all but destroyed me.”
I admired the bravery to admit that things simply weren’t okay for a long time. There are so many things I would like to say about this story that I simply don’t have the same skill as the author to articulate, but I felt a strong empathy for her and her capacity to recount such difficulties. I would read again.
Thank you NetGalley for the Arc.
July 1, 2025
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.
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.
August 26, 2025
Any one-liner for describing what this memoir is about would do it an injustice: it could not encompass its range. It’s about depression, attempted suicide, surviving it, recovering, building a new life... About societal expectations and how they shape us. About our system of mental healthcare. And it’s very much about love.
‘Love Lay Down’ is an important book. Helen Taylor shares with generous openness and formidable eloquence her story of depression’s vortex and of her recovery. Her memoir is vivid, raw, at many points heartbreaking. At the same time, it’s infused with wit, with her ability to perceive the surreal and the outright comedic in some of the worst circumstances. She lets us into her intense emotions and thoughts at the time, as well as into her capacity for looking back at them now with hard-won distance.
Love blazes a luminous, life-saving path throughout this memoir: the love between Helen and her husband; that of family; of friends, colleagues... The whole book strikes me also as a real act of love by its author towards readers: as a gift of hope – and of feeling seen and heard – to sufferers from depression; and as a gift of understanding to all. ‘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, [...] please, please, call out for help. The help when it comes might not steer you to 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.’
‘Love Lay Down’ is an important book. Helen Taylor shares with generous openness and formidable eloquence her story of depression’s vortex and of her recovery. Her memoir is vivid, raw, at many points heartbreaking. At the same time, it’s infused with wit, with her ability to perceive the surreal and the outright comedic in some of the worst circumstances. She lets us into her intense emotions and thoughts at the time, as well as into her capacity for looking back at them now with hard-won distance.
Love blazes a luminous, life-saving path throughout this memoir: the love between Helen and her husband; that of family; of friends, colleagues... The whole book strikes me also as a real act of love by its author towards readers: as a gift of hope – and of feeling seen and heard – to sufferers from depression; and as a gift of understanding to all. ‘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, [...] please, please, call out for help. The help when it comes might not steer you to 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.’
November 24, 2024
This compelling memoir offers a raw and deeply emotional exploration of mental health, taking readers on a gripping journey through the author's life. The author courageously reveals personal experiences and the challenges faced along the way, providing insight into how these struggles have profoundly affected her well-being.
Throughout the memoir, the narrative delves into complex topics such as anxiety and depression, as well as the pressure of societal expectations. These issues are presented with unflinching honesty, making some sections particularly challenging to read yet poignantly relatable for many. The author does not shy away from discussing the darker moments, which enhances the authenticity of their story.
Amidst the heavy themes, the author's vulnerability and openness shine brightly, offering a source of inspiration for anyone grappling with similar issues. Her ability to articulate these experiences comforts those who may feel isolated in their struggles.
In reflection, I feel an immense sense of gratitude for having read this memoir. It sheds light on the complexities of mental health and emphasizes the remarkable strength it takes to confront and navigate such challenges. The valuable insights offered in the book encourage empathy and understanding, making it a significant read for anyone interested in the nuances of mental health and personal resilience.
Throughout the memoir, the narrative delves into complex topics such as anxiety and depression, as well as the pressure of societal expectations. These issues are presented with unflinching honesty, making some sections particularly challenging to read yet poignantly relatable for many. The author does not shy away from discussing the darker moments, which enhances the authenticity of their story.
Amidst the heavy themes, the author's vulnerability and openness shine brightly, offering a source of inspiration for anyone grappling with similar issues. Her ability to articulate these experiences comforts those who may feel isolated in their struggles.
In reflection, I feel an immense sense of gratitude for having read this memoir. It sheds light on the complexities of mental health and emphasizes the remarkable strength it takes to confront and navigate such challenges. The valuable insights offered in the book encourage empathy and understanding, making it a significant read for anyone interested in the nuances of mental health and personal resilience.
September 5, 2024
4.5/5 ⭐️
Pub date : 25 Feb 2025
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.
Thanks to unbound for this e-ARC in exchange of an honest review.
Pub date : 25 Feb 2025
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.
Thanks to unbound for this e-ARC in exchange of an honest review.
September 29, 2024
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
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
August 14, 2024
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!!
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!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2024
I did love this book though I had to put it down quite a bit, to process. The author deals with a difficult topic, and brings into focus of our own mental health and that of the collective. As a Human Design guide I’m interested to see her Design. We are all conditioned and we can push so hard to become what we think we need to or who we think we are. To discover that is far from our truth can be shattering and if/when we excavate ourselves and in entangle our mind from all that we can find what brings us true joy. We can weep because we’ve made it to the other side, or at least of this one hill. We can weep because we are slowly realizing what actually occurred, how close to the other side of life we got. We weep for ourselves, our past selves, the illusion, the efforts to survive in this world, and just so much to weep, and release.
November 30, 2024
Raw portrayal of one woman's lifelong strive for success, a happy marriage, a family of her own, and the mental unraveling that nearly ended it all.
Helen Murray Taylor's memoir almost reads like a narrative because she takes a no-holds-barred, self-deprecating approach to her life story. She speaks of jarring traumatic events with painful detail and provides readers with a rare glimpse into the inside workings of mental asylums.
Above all, her memoir speaks volumes about the love of family, friends, and a partner who is committed even in the most challenging and confusing times. Though not an easy read by any measure, this is highly impactful and worth the read.
Thank you, NetGalley and Unbound, for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.
Helen Murray Taylor's memoir almost reads like a narrative because she takes a no-holds-barred, self-deprecating approach to her life story. She speaks of jarring traumatic events with painful detail and provides readers with a rare glimpse into the inside workings of mental asylums.
Above all, her memoir speaks volumes about the love of family, friends, and a partner who is committed even in the most challenging and confusing times. Though not an easy read by any measure, this is highly impactful and worth the read.
Thank you, NetGalley and Unbound, for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.
September 14, 2024
A heart-wrenching and poignant account of Helen’s battles with mental illness through her life. So beautifully written, and painfully honest - the guilt, the shame, the frustration at knowing you “should” be achieving and thriving and getting on with things but you can’t, the anger at yourself and everyone else trying to rescue you - it’s all there, on display. Helen describes in great detail how raw and exhausting mental ill health is, and how even sometimes despite everything that’s happened, there isn’t a miraculous moment where suddenly everything is okay again. Life is hard and for some people, it takes a lot of work to even function, and Helen illustrates this excellently.
Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with a free ARC to be able to read this.
Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with a free ARC to be able to read this.
December 17, 2024
**Thank you to Netgalley and unbound for the ARC in exchange for an honest review**
I loved this book! As someone who has struggled with depression and is familiar with psychiatric hospitals I was a little bit unsure how this book would affect me but I needn't have worried. This was a beautifully poignant, raw and open look at a battle with suicidal ideation and depression!
Helen Murray Taylor did a great job, despite the memory fog, of describing the situations she ended up in.
Moving and wonderful, I laughed and cried along with the author.
Would recommend this book!
I loved this book! As someone who has struggled with depression and is familiar with psychiatric hospitals I was a little bit unsure how this book would affect me but I needn't have worried. This was a beautifully poignant, raw and open look at a battle with suicidal ideation and depression!
Helen Murray Taylor did a great job, despite the memory fog, of describing the situations she ended up in.
Moving and wonderful, I laughed and cried along with the author.
Would recommend this book!
September 20, 2024
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.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
October 13, 2024
Massive thanks to the publisher for my early copy. I’ve read many memoirs that discuss mental health but that delve as deep as this book on the experiences of being sectioned under the Mental Health Act in the UK. I found the beginning of this memoir slightly slow going but raced through the second half. I loved Helen’s narrative voice and writing style, which managed to be both upfront in relaying the reality of the situation and the intimate feelings being experienced.
October 21, 2024
A beautifully written memoir portraying one woman’s experiences of mental illness and her journey moving through life and its complex challenges.
Throughout the book I was touched and awed by the constancy and willingness of the author’s husband and sister who stood by her and actively supported the healing process,
I found the perspective and tone a bit clinical, a bit remote and removed—as if the author was writing about events that happened to someone else and then was relaying that to the audience. Therefore I unfortunately didn’t quite form a connection with the author, despite the personal and vulnerable, visceral feelings and events described.
Despite the distance, the book was interesting and carried the reader along and I empathized for the author in her struggles.
Thanks to NetGalley, the Author, and Publisher Unbound for access to an ARC. All opinions are my own.
Throughout the book I was touched and awed by the constancy and willingness of the author’s husband and sister who stood by her and actively supported the healing process,
I found the perspective and tone a bit clinical, a bit remote and removed—as if the author was writing about events that happened to someone else and then was relaying that to the audience. Therefore I unfortunately didn’t quite form a connection with the author, despite the personal and vulnerable, visceral feelings and events described.
Despite the distance, the book was interesting and carried the reader along and I empathized for the author in her struggles.
Thanks to NetGalley, the Author, and Publisher Unbound for access to an ARC. All opinions are my own.
June 28, 2025
Both a page-turner and a must-read. Dr. Taylor writes warmly and wittily, unsparingly and honestly. I felt a bit raw from reading it, but in a way that makes me feel closer to others.
This memoir is one story of depression, but an important one because it shows how consuming it can be, to anyone. It bears an affirming message of how vital it is to validate each other's feelings. When we say something which we intend as a comfort, we should not assume it is.
This memoir is one story of depression, but an important one because it shows how consuming it can be, to anyone. It bears an affirming message of how vital it is to validate each other's feelings. When we say something which we intend as a comfort, we should not assume it is.
October 29, 2024
A wonderful book dealing with content and issues of severe depression and suicide. A very moving book and ultimately positive. It is beautifully written and I would love to read more from this author. Dear Author thank you for sharing and writing this book. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
January 14, 2025
Thanks to Unbound and NetGalley for an advance copy of this. Love lay down beside me and we wept is an honest and real look at mental health that explores raw emotions and struggles. It’s an important read that I’m still processing, that was beautifully written and will hopefully help and inspire others.
September 8, 2024
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.
August 23, 2025
Amazing read
Sad and funny at the same time
Well written and a pleasure to read
Sad and funny at the same time
Well written and a pleasure to read
September 21, 2025
Raw, heartbreaking and despite all the sadness an enjoyable read. Weirdly life-affirming without any cliches and more than anything empathetic.
October 30, 2025
Personally, I thought to get more out of it.
September 6, 2024
"I try to show myself the compassion that I would show a stranger, I find it hard to forgive myself."
In love lay down beside me and we wept, we gain insight into the life of Helen, who has struggled with depression. I found the beginning a bit difficult to get into, as the book is written in a challenging way and English is not my native language. However, it’s a book that makes you feel everything, from sadness to love. I think it’s incredibly brave of Helen to write this memoir, especially given the unfortunate taboo that still surrounds mental health. I also admire how she shares her life after her hospitalization, covering up to two years later. As she says in the book, she hopes to bring about change by publishing this story.
Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.
In love lay down beside me and we wept, we gain insight into the life of Helen, who has struggled with depression. I found the beginning a bit difficult to get into, as the book is written in a challenging way and English is not my native language. However, it’s a book that makes you feel everything, from sadness to love. I think it’s incredibly brave of Helen to write this memoir, especially given the unfortunate taboo that still surrounds mental health. I also admire how she shares her life after her hospitalization, covering up to two years later. As she says in the book, she hopes to bring about change by publishing this story.
Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.
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