Unthinkable Things

by Chloe Henkel

Unknown Binding

Published January 17, 2024

About the author

author, mental health advocate

ocd & trichotillomania & bpd awareness

instagram/tiktok:
@chloe.creating & @UnthinkableThingsNovel

Reviews

[Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started following the author in 2022 or 2023 when she first started posting about this book. At the time, I was still pushing aside the idea that I had OCD. I just had overwhelming spiraling thoughts and fears and a few rituals to ease the anxiety, but just because I had obsessions and compulsions didn’t mean I had Obssessive Compulsive Disorder. That’s ridiculous. Still, the idea of a book about it seemed so interesting to me, and I do love mental health books. So I followed Chloe as she posted about a book that wasn’t yet in existence, and that I desperately wanted to be.

And on the side, I began my own spiral. It wasn’t as intense as Summer’s, but it felt like life and death to me all the same. I was vehemently rejecting the idea that I could have OCD. I already have anxiety, depression, C-PTSD, hEDS, and POTS. My life was already as tangled as a set of headphones being pulled out a pocket, and I feared that accepting another diagnosis would be like adding more wires to the already unmanageable wad. And then one day, my PCP referred me to a psychiatrist because she thought my symptoms “sounded a lot like OCD.” And here we are now.

When this book was finally available, I raced to the website to buy it. I didn’t even truly have the money for it; I bought it with Barnes & Noble points I’d been saving. I waited impatiently for it to arrive in the mail. I stayed up late reading it and picked it back up first thing in the morning. I consumed the whole thing in less than 24 hours.

I rated this 5 stars, but more accurately, it’s a 4. I loved it, but there are a lot of typos, grammatical errors, and formatting issues that made it very difficult for me to read. Because of my dyslexia, typos make it harder to understand what’s being said, as do misused or missing punctuation. Also I don’t think that the before and now time jumping worked in this book’s favor. Tome skips can be amazing, but they can also mess with the flow of a book. Finally censoring words in a physical ink and paper book like you would in a TikTok video just felt… wrong, for lack of better words. Especially in our current political climate when all of our media is facing such high censorship. All that said, I can’t make myself take back that single star in any official capacity, just a written correction.

And that’s because this book is so beautiful. The story itself overrides the shortcomings within. It’s representation we need, and it deserves every star it can get. Henkel does a great job of describing the way the world crashes and burns with one thought. It’s rare to see this so well-captured. Definitely a worthwhile read.

Thank you, Chloe, for giving us another voice in the media.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unflinching deep dive into the real experiences of someone with severe OCD, written by an author who has the disorder herself, UNTHINKABLE THINGS is incredibly compassionate, honest, insightful, vulnerable, and real. I can’t say enough good things about this book. It was like Chloe Henkel looked inside my head and put the contents on paper—which made it very difficult to read at times and makes me all the more grateful that she was brave enough to write this book. It will undoubtedly be triggering for anyone who suffers from OCD or similar mental illnesses, as it was for me, but it was well worth the read. This is my new go-to recommendation for anyone who wants to know what it’s really like to live with OCD. I underlined so many quotes that I had to get a new stick of lead for my pencil. Summer is brave and strong, just like the author, and it makes me feel proud of how far I’ve come with my own severe OCD. UNTHINKABLE THINGS is a special book and one I will keep on my bookshelf for years to come. Thank you Chloe for this gift.