Book Summary
FOUR MEN.
MANIC HIGHS.
CRUSHING LOWS.
Fifteen years of loving through madness at the mercy of undiagnosed Bipolar 1 disorder
In Tainted Love: A Bipolar Memoir, one impulsive decision sets in motion the compounding chaos and allure of four love stories—igniting in seduction and collapsing in disillusionment.
Enter Marco. Married. Tragically unattainable with dangerous ties to the Italian Mafia. She never once says no. Few things motivate a wedding like a cancer diagnosis, but, as it turns out, Jim loves beer, blow, and Mary Jane more than her. Drowning in his boyish baby blues, Luke promises her everything she’s ever wanted, including baby Lily. And finally, she’s all too willing to hurl herself 1,400 miles for Patrick, the undeniable villain of her story.
In the end, the noise fades, the mask lifts, and something radical is discovered: untainted love.
Confronting the brutal complexities of the human mind, Tainted Love is a soul-stirring, emotionally arresting, coming-of-age memoir where mental illness, addiction, and identity collide with failed love and single motherhood.
Tainted Love will resonate with book clubs and readers of Girl, Interrupted, Prozac Nation, We Are the Luckiest, and My Dark Vanessa.
Bio
Louise Barnett is the author of Tainted Love: A Bipolar Memoir and host of the I’m Bipolar. Now What? podcast.
Diagnosed with Bipolar I after years of misdiagnosis, manic highs, crushing lows, addiction, and self-destruction, Louise now tells the stories most people are afraid to say out loud.
Sober since 2021 and a Jay Shetty–certified life coach, she brings lived experience, humor, vulnerability, and zero interest in sugarcoating the realities of mental illness.
Through her community of more than 100,000 people, Louise challenges stigmas surrounding bipolar disorder and proves that recovery can be messy, imperfect, and still extraordinary.