According to her mother, Sardy’s father was swept away in a tsunami in Hawaii in the mid-80s. He drowned and a stranger took his place. This man was very helpful and began taking care of the family, and after a while nobody noticed anymore that he wasn’t their real dad. Sardy’s mother knew the truth, though. He was a replacement. She called him Mr. Ree.

Mr. Ree is one of many altered realities created by Sardy’s mother — a product of the paranoia, hallucinations and delusions that characterize schizophrenia. Mental illness runs through four generations of Sardy’s family, and this memoir is a dizzying reflection on her unwanted inheritance. While the story initially focuses on her mother and her struggles with the disease, it quickly shifts to the author’s brother and the mental demons that transform their relationship.

Sardy often refers to her own struggles with depression, but occasionally hints at something more. “I kept having moments in which I would look around and feel that nothing I saw was actually there. Or conversely, that all was as usual and I myself did not exist,” she writes. It is unclear whether these are literal insights into her mind, vivid metaphors or merely an expression of fear that her own brain may, as a result of genes and shared environment, be showing signs of mental disruption.