Deep, everlasting love, grief and the mysteries of mental
illness are undercurrents that propel The
Perfect Other, a chilling, moving
memoir by Kyleigh Leddy. A graduate of Boston College now in
pursuit of her master's in social work, Leddy grapples with the life and loss
of her older sister, Kait, a young woman affected by schizophrenia.
Leddy has spent a large part of her young life grappling
with the sudden and unexplained disappearance of her 22-year-old sister, Kait,
last seen on a frigid January night in 2014. Security cameras show that her
older sister took a taxi to the foot of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia,
Pa., ascended to the highest point and then disappeared. It is believed she
jumped; however, her body was never recovered. Thus, her whereabouts remains a
mystery--one that haunts Leddy and sets her on a course to make sense of the
shocking tragedy, both personally and through a more psychologically clinical
lens.
Through a sensitively drawn, stream-of-conscious
narrative--spurred by a "Modern Love" column Leddy published in the New
York Times--she stitches together remembered fragments and pivotal scenes
from the life she, her mother and father shared with Kait. After sustaining a
head injury, Kait started to exhibit concerning erratic behaviors that took
inexplicable, unruly--often violent--turns. Leddy's raw search for understanding, meaning and peace grants readers a
rare personal glimpse into the universal mysteries of mental illness and the
long-lasting traumatic effects it has on those afflicted, as well as those in
its orbit.
The
Perfect Other: A Memoir by Kyleigh Leddy
Mariner Books, $28.99
hardcover, 9780358469346, 304 pages
Publication Date: March
8, 2021
To order
this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE
NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission
of Shelf
Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (March 8, 2022), link HERE
To read the longer form of this review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (January 7, 2022), link HERE
