The Mind Reels cover art

The Mind Reels

A Novel

Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Mind Reels

By: Fredrik deBoer
Narrated by: Therese Plummer
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £12.39

Buy Now for £12.39

About this listen

In his debut novel, longtime observer of culture and politics Fredrik deBoer depicts mental illness in all its grim and ugly reality, free of our culture's endless romanticization of insanity.

In a dorm room at her safety school, surrounded by corn-fed boys and contemptuous girls, Alice is losing her mind. Her first semester is spent clinging to middling grades between drunken hookups and roommate fights. The next brings sleepless nights, extreme weight loss, and effortless, compulsive energy, paused only by an unexpected summoning from the RA for evaluation. Thus begins an endless march of lithium, antidepressants, and Klonopin; doctors and therapists—when health insurance allows—along with overwhelmed parents and well-intentioned friends; all helpless bystanders as Alice descends deeper into chaos.

As chilling as a psychiatric case study, as wry and precise as Flaubert, The Mind Reels peels back society's polite trappings to portray the experience of mental illness in all its complexity.

©2025 Fredrik deBoer (P)2025 Audible, Inc.
Coming of Age Genre Fiction Political Psychological Mental Health
All stars
Most relevant
Big fan of Fredrik deBoer’s non-fictional writing - really enjoyed this debut novel. Beautiful prose to describe a devastating journey.

Beautifully written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.