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A Tiny White Light: A Memoir of a Mind in Crisis
From 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?
- GenresMemoir
312 pages, Paperback
Published January 20, 2026
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2636 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Review of advance copy
A Tiny White Light: A Memoir of a Mind in Crisis is a stripped-down, raw look at Linda's mental health struggles after years of substance abuse and trauma.
Linda Bailey and her family moved from their quiet country town to Los Angeles when she and her brother, Brian, were young adults in 1967. Not long after, their family structure broke apart, causing her parents to divorce, leaving the young adults pushed out of the house and out on their own. While she leaned into the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the time, Brian began hitchhiking across the country, homeless apart from when he was institutionalized between mental hospitals and jail. As Brian's mental health deteriorates and an incredible tragedy rocks their already shaky lives, Linda's guilt increases, and she soon finds herself living a life she never wanted.
She's a wife in an unfulfilling marriage with two young children, no job or money, and she numbs her feelings of loneliness with the bottle. After her husband's urging, she began seeing his friend, Sam, a psychologist meant to help her stop smoking. But it's not long before she starts having intense feelings for him; she's sure the feelings are mutual, but he doesn't want to jeopardize his career or marriage. The more she sees him, the more he gives her mixed signals. But she's certain there are signs everywhere that they're meant to be together.
This memoir is like nothing I've read before. It reads like the author told her story from within the struggle, instead of recounting the way her reality fractured after years of trauma and substance abuse. She doesn't portray herself as the victim; she's honest and stripped back, allowing the reader to see her exactly as she was.
The book is extremely well written, and her background in psychology was a benefit in telling her story. She does a beautiful job of placing the reader inside her mind and doesn't shy away from the discomfort. As I got deeper into her story, I felt myself trying to read faster to keep up with her words; she almost sets a frantic pace as the story picks up and her mental crisis reaches its peak.
As someone who's struggled with mental illness, I could relate to a lot of how she felt earlier in the book. The way she described her loneliness, even within her relationships, was something I found relatable. While I've never experienced a mental crisis like Linda, I still felt her words were powerful, and I believe this will also resonate with others who've had mental struggles or loved ones who've experienced mental illness.
Big thanks to Book Sparks for providing me with a copy of this incredible memoir as a part of their #WinterPopup!
Linda Bailey and her family moved from their quiet country town to Los Angeles when she and her brother, Brian, were young adults in 1967. Not long after, their family structure broke apart, causing her parents to divorce, leaving the young adults pushed out of the house and out on their own. While she leaned into the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the time, Brian began hitchhiking across the country, homeless apart from when he was institutionalized between mental hospitals and jail. As Brian's mental health deteriorates and an incredible tragedy rocks their already shaky lives, Linda's guilt increases, and she soon finds herself living a life she never wanted.
She's a wife in an unfulfilling marriage with two young children, no job or money, and she numbs her feelings of loneliness with the bottle. After her husband's urging, she began seeing his friend, Sam, a psychologist meant to help her stop smoking. But it's not long before she starts having intense feelings for him; she's sure the feelings are mutual, but he doesn't want to jeopardize his career or marriage. The more she sees him, the more he gives her mixed signals. But she's certain there are signs everywhere that they're meant to be together.
This memoir is like nothing I've read before. It reads like the author told her story from within the struggle, instead of recounting the way her reality fractured after years of trauma and substance abuse. She doesn't portray herself as the victim; she's honest and stripped back, allowing the reader to see her exactly as she was.
The book is extremely well written, and her background in psychology was a benefit in telling her story. She does a beautiful job of placing the reader inside her mind and doesn't shy away from the discomfort. As I got deeper into her story, I felt myself trying to read faster to keep up with her words; she almost sets a frantic pace as the story picks up and her mental crisis reaches its peak.
As someone who's struggled with mental illness, I could relate to a lot of how she felt earlier in the book. The way she described her loneliness, even within her relationships, was something I found relatable. While I've never experienced a mental crisis like Linda, I still felt her words were powerful, and I believe this will also resonate with others who've had mental struggles or loved ones who've experienced mental illness.
Big thanks to Book Sparks for providing me with a copy of this incredible memoir as a part of their #WinterPopup!
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.
January 23, 2026
This year, I promised myself I’d read more memoirs, and A Tiny White Light immediately pulled me in, and I’m so glad it did. This book is beautifully written, deeply honest, and emotionally powerful in a quiet, reflective way.
@Linda_Bass_Author shares her life with incredible vulnerability, opening up about emotional neglect, grief, mental health struggles, addiction, and the long road toward healing. Some moments caught me completely off guard, and others felt painfully familiar. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health or supported someone who has, this book offers a sense of understanding and validation.
What stood out most to me was how thoughtfully the story was told. The writing mirrors her emotional state so closely that you truly feel what she’s going through: the confusion, the guilt, the searching. This isn’t a memoir meant to shock or demand sympathy; it gently invites you to reflect, slow down, and look inward.
I felt so many emotions as she navigated adulthood, family changes, her parents’ divorce, living independently, and her brother’s mental health struggles and tragedy. Her feelings of guilt and uncertainty felt incredibly real and relatable. As the story delves into relationships, addiction, motherhood, and marriage, her honesty remains unwavering, and that’s what makes this book so powerful.
This memoir gave me a deeper perspective on mental health and healing, and it reminded me how closely our lives are shaped by the struggles of those we love. Quiet, emotional, and beautifully written, A Tiny White Light is a story that stays with you long after the last page.
Thank you so much to @booksparks for the complimentary copy of the book! #WinterPopUp
@Linda_Bass_Author shares her life with incredible vulnerability, opening up about emotional neglect, grief, mental health struggles, addiction, and the long road toward healing. Some moments caught me completely off guard, and others felt painfully familiar. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health or supported someone who has, this book offers a sense of understanding and validation.
What stood out most to me was how thoughtfully the story was told. The writing mirrors her emotional state so closely that you truly feel what she’s going through: the confusion, the guilt, the searching. This isn’t a memoir meant to shock or demand sympathy; it gently invites you to reflect, slow down, and look inward.
I felt so many emotions as she navigated adulthood, family changes, her parents’ divorce, living independently, and her brother’s mental health struggles and tragedy. Her feelings of guilt and uncertainty felt incredibly real and relatable. As the story delves into relationships, addiction, motherhood, and marriage, her honesty remains unwavering, and that’s what makes this book so powerful.
This memoir gave me a deeper perspective on mental health and healing, and it reminded me how closely our lives are shaped by the struggles of those we love. Quiet, emotional, and beautifully written, A Tiny White Light is a story that stays with you long after the last page.
Thank you so much to @booksparks for the complimentary copy of the book! #WinterPopUp
Read
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.
January 20, 2026
What a wild ride this took me on! We see Linda live her normal life, trying to hold the family structure together as a true eldest daughter would. It was such a painfully honest account of her state of mind trying to balance her professional path with her crumbling personal life. Then when we meet Sam and Linda begins her decline, it feels like we’re right in her head with her as she is losing grasp of her senses. What is so fascinating specifically about this author is that she comes from a psychology background, so she is able to step away from her experience and reflect with a specific training that not others would have. As someone who struggles with mental illness, it was refreshing to see her be so vulnerable about her own experience with such a complicated time in her life. Thank you @booksparks for the ARC!
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction, Mental Health
#bookstagram #bookreview #WinterPopUp #ATinyWhiteLight #LindaBass
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction, Mental Health
#bookstagram #bookreview #WinterPopUp #ATinyWhiteLight #LindaBass
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.
January 21, 2026
3.5 stars
A Tiny White Light is a remarkably raw memoir that brings readers directly into a psychotic spiral, immersing them as participants rather than observers. Linda Bass blends her lived experience with her psychological and educational background to delve not into the events that led to or out of a crisis, but into the science and emotion of the moments. This literary memoir is not an easy read, as Linda is vivid and honest about her mental health experience, but it is worth it for all of us who also struggle in our own ways.
Advanced reader copy provided by Booksparks as part of the Winter Pop Up Promotion. All opinions are my own.
A Tiny White Light is a remarkably raw memoir that brings readers directly into a psychotic spiral, immersing them as participants rather than observers. Linda Bass blends her lived experience with her psychological and educational background to delve not into the events that led to or out of a crisis, but into the science and emotion of the moments. This literary memoir is not an easy read, as Linda is vivid and honest about her mental health experience, but it is worth it for all of us who also struggle in our own ways.
Advanced reader copy provided by Booksparks as part of the Winter Pop Up Promotion. All opinions are my own.
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.
January 19, 2026
A Tiny White Light was a well written book by Linda Bass who vulnerably shared her experiences with mental crises. The writing style beautifully matches her mental state throughout the novel to more accurately capture what she was experiencing.
I was able to learn so much through this novel and gain greater perspective on the subject matter of mental health and mental illness.
My favorite quote, “Orchestrating the lives in the picture, putting them together, composing my own kind of music, creating it note by note.”
I was able to learn so much through this novel and gain greater perspective on the subject matter of mental health and mental illness.
My favorite quote, “Orchestrating the lives in the picture, putting them together, composing my own kind of music, creating it note by note.”
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Author Jill Bass shares an introspective look at her journey from emotional isolation and neglect through a troubled college career, grief, alcoholism, and a torturous mental health spiral. At times this raw and tumultuous story caught me off guard, evoking strong memories of my own struggles through CPTSD. Healing is a messy business, and the author doesn’t tidy it up. For those with an interest, you will learn a lot, and for those who have had their own psychiatric journeys you will also likely feel a sort of validation. Linda Bass not only shares her experience, but distills it into something conveyable.
I am glad to have received an advance copy of this novel from BookSparks to provide my review.
I am glad to have received an advance copy of this novel from BookSparks to provide my review.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews