But Inside I'm Screaming

by Elizabeth Flock

Book Overview

While breaking the hottest news story of the year, broadcast journalist Isabel Murphy falls apart on live television in front of an audience of millions. She lands at Three Breezes, a four-star psychiatric hospital nicknamed the "nut hut," where she begins the painful process of recovering the life everyone thought she had.

But accepting her place among her fellow patients proves difficult, and Isabel struggles to reconcile the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778313166
• ISBN13: 9780778313168
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: MIRA
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.9" x 5.4"

Customer Reviews

Great Read, Very trueto Life

Reads from a realistic view point. I admire her strength. Only thing is, I wish she would have told us what happened with her job. I felt a bit jipped about that. Still a great read, and a great writer.

Absoring and Powerful

This is one of the best books I've read in a while. I was immediately absored by the main character, Isabel. This is a brutally honest portral of hopelessness and depression. Anyone who has struggled with even mild depression will be able to relate to Isabel. This is a must read.

Dark, insightful and flooring

But Inside I'm Screaming enthralled me from beginning to end. I literally dropped everything to read this from cover to cover.News anchorman Isabel Murphy has a nervous breakdown in front of millions of viewers. She arrives at Three Breezes -- a.k.a. the "nut hut" -- with the hope to regain some normalcy in her life. When her past begins to unravel, she wonders if she's ever lived a normal life. This novel reminds me of Girl, Interrupted. There are various similarities between the two books, but this novel touched me in a profound way. The characters are vivid, the dialogue is crisp and the story is as intense as it is insightful. Isabel's battle with depression floored me. Her realistic, unflinching honesty touched me. Book club members would devour this! I am buying a copy to all my friends. I urge you to give this wonderful literary offering a whirl.

An insightful character study

In NYC, Isabel Murphy is a rising anchorwoman at the American News Network (ANN). However, voices in her head keep telling her that her family feels she is worthless and her catastrophic marriage adds to her lack of confidence and emotional belief that her parents are right when they call her a disappointing failure.Isabel has a chance to prove otherwise when she is the only newsperson at the station when the death of Diana Princess surfaces. She goes on the air to report the breaking news, but freezes and is unable to say a word as her brain just drums to the beat of failure. Knowing her broadcast career is over and how she has disappointed everyone, Isabel opts for suicide, but fails at that. She enters Three Breezes Psychiatric Facility where she finds the lunatic asylum worse than anything she ever imagined. She will only fly above the cuckoo's nest when she accepts that she can't please everyone so she should try to please herself.This is an insightful character study that looks extremely close into the psyche of someone whose mental breakdown and depression places her over the edge. The bleak yet at times amusing well written story line focuses on Isabel whose collapse will stun the audience even while we follow her thoughts and actions. Isabel's disintegration with a frightening glimpse of the goings-on at the psychiatric facility is not for everyone, but readers will agree that Elizabeth Flock provides a powerhouse.Harriet Klausner

Very realistic...

Isabel Murphy is a hot anchorwoman, until she has a meltdown on live television as the story of Diana Princess of Wales' death breaks. Unable to cope, Isabel even goes to the extent of attempting suicide, but fails.She finds herself in a mental hospital, robbed of all semblance of privacy in a world few can imagine. Dignity and reality are only distant dreams on the road to healing. When drug therapy fails, shock is used. Isabel witnesses true horrors, more awful than anything she ever reported. She has to hit absalute bottom before being able to find her way back to life.***** This is a starkly real novel, one that can be terrifying, not for the reason something like Stephen King would write would be, but because Isabel could be you, or me, or your neighbor so very easily. The only thing separating her from us is a thin line. This is a powerful book that will disturb and shock you at times, but will not fail to move you. *****Reviewed by Amanda Killgore