Customer Reviews

Poisoned Love

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The operative word is 'poison,' not 'love.' Whatever Dr. Cane's emotional issues, as soon as she goes looking for 'a clear, tasteless, odorless liquid" to make her ex-boyfriend "sick enough to realize he wants me back," she loses all claim on our sympathy--especially when she recalls watching him grow weaker and weaker (and thus more dependent on her) as one of the best weeks of her life. She even resents that his real friends "had to go and ruin everything" by taking the gravely ill man to the hospital, where he undergoes a dangerous brain biopsy, yet still doesn't want to marry her after everything she's done for him (!).

In her narcissism, Melanie expects us to feel her pain as she loses her boyfriend, goes to jail, and is unable (whew) to get her medical license reinstated--but what about the pain of the man she nearly killed? There's a sickening air of self-pity throughout this book; "poor me," it seems to be saying, "look at how much I loved and lost." For all her education and treatment (ironically, Melanie was a psychiatric resident at a prestigious hospital when she hatched her scheme), she still seems delusional and self-serving, and her insights about her behavior as poisoned as her notions about love.

Melanie Cane, M.D. tells a story that will absolutely astound you! Her story is one you "sort" of hear about, but never know for sure what happened! You will not be able to let this book sit by your night stand very long.

Her story starts out with cancer and spirals downward from there. You just wonder how she is still alive and well today. Also how she was able to write a book that describes all of her life in detail. It will make you sit up and go, oh my gosh! You can feel her anguish as she describes in detail her conversations and her treatment during those awful years.

The strange part about this story is, that you can see what the consequences of her actions are, but you still hope and pray that it doesn't go there. You can almost understand her reasoning of what she did, even though you know that she was not operating in a healthy body.

Mental Illness is around all of us and to hear her tell her own story day by day, your compassion just rises to the surface. I have to give her 5 Stars, she deserves it, as well as the book deserves that kind of accolade.

I received this book only a few days ago, courtesy of a very nice woman at Bascom Hill Publishing Group. I had known the gist of the story (woman goes crazy, poisons her ex, gets committed, gets better), but I was unprepared for how intimate and tragic the telling of that story was going to be. Suffering from depression myself, I am unfortunately aware of the difficulties of living with a mental illness, but the heartrending pain that Melanie suffered as her rationality crumbled around her is far beyond anything like a run-of-the-mill mental illness. She had everything stacked against her: a severely mentally ill and abusive father, a resentful and angry mother, and an emotionally immature and abusive boyfriend. The rapidity and the extent of her recovery is staggering. She came out of her experience a better and more well-adjusted person than she had been before her breakdown. To those that would judge her (and have judged her), I would ask this: how would you have coped with the immense betrayal, pain, and abuse that Melanie went through? To retreat from reality seemed to be the only thing her mind would allow her to do.

At times, the writing does seem a bit amateurish, and at times the author's descriptions of her illness and conversations with her doctors struck me as something from a psychiatry textbook...but then again, how else does a medical doctor explain her illness? The flow of the story also seemed stilted to me. Details were left out and referred to later as something that the reader should have known, and memory flashbacks were sometimes inserted into the story at awkward times. But all in all, this book is an engaging read, as Melanie allows her readers a most intimate glimpse into her pain and crumbling sanity. I would recommend this to everyone, as everyone can benefit from getting to know this highly intelligent and courageous woman.

Poisoned Love by Melanie Cane is an amazing book. Not just because it is a thrilling and descriptive book about obsession, but because it is the first case study of its kind to explain the healing process. I write about crimes of the heart in my book, so this subject is not new to me. But what about afterwards? How to love addicts get help? What is the healing process? Melanie takes us here. In other words, this book picks up where Fatal Attraction leaves off.

Not only is this a sad tale of love addiction, it is educational for love addicts and anyone who wants to understand love addiction from a first-person perspective. In Poisoned Love the reader is not left wondering how the author could have done these things. The roots of love addiction are spelled out. The author explains why she is a love addict by expounding on her relationship with her father. She goes on to elaborate on the trap that many love addicts fall into--falling in love with a seductive withholder, who, like her father gives mixed signals. Melanie spells this out for us. From the book . . . "I still couldn't understand. If he'd said he didn't love me, perhaps I could have accepted a hopeless situation and walked away. The tremendous inconsistency between his professed feelings [I love you] and his aversion to being with me confused and infuriated me." This is what fueled Melanie's obsession and the anger behind it. This is what caused Melanie to poison her lover. I can't say ex-lover, because he never really went away. He haunted Melanie with professions of love coupled with agonizing neglect. This is what turns a normal love addict (if there is such a term) to one who goes to far.

Here is what is most important about this book. As we follow Melanie into treatment, we learn what is true of most loves addicts, that they suffer from some kind of underlying mental illness. Melanie exposes this and helps the reader understand that to get well, love addicts must go to the root of their problem by treating the underlying disorder. They must also treat other dual and subsidiary addictions like, alcoholism, anorexia, bulimia, overeating, drug addiction, compulsive shopping, gambling, sex addiction, etc. etc. In Melanie's case she had to treat her anorexia and borderline personality disorder--the two most common problems faced by love addicts.

Melanie points out that recovery is an inside job. You must go back to the scene of the crime (your childhood), sort it all out, and then grieve as best you can. Then you must rebuild your life with the aid of this new understanding. It is as if the love addict must become a caterpillar all over again and experience a new and glorious metamorphosis--this time with sunshine, fewer weeds, an excellent caretaker, and enough water to grow into a beautiful butterfly.

In conclusion, this book is more than an expose of the dangers of loving too much. It is a road map for recovery. Anyone who is fascinated by love addiction will find this book mesmerizing. Anyone who suffers from love addiction will see themselves in Melanie's experience. Some of them will say, "There but for the grace of God go I." Others will say, "I am not alone." All of them will say, "Thank you Melanie for writing this book."

Susan Peabody
Addiction to Love and The Art of Changing
[...]

I literally could not put this book down. Melanie Cane really gave us insight into her psychiatric illness and what it was like to grow up with a parent who also suffered from a mental illness. She is so honest about her feelings and really appears to leave out no details about her relationship with her boyfriend, "Luke," or her parents and doctors. I felt almost like a voyeur looking into her life, but she let us in, so I kept reading! Very well written. A definite page turner.

Posioned Love, by Melanie Cane, is probably one of the best books I have ever read. It took me almost 2 full days to complete it, but I could not put it down. When reading the book you feel as if Melanie is sitting in your living room talking with you about her life. If you ever have known anyone who you think has a " mental problem " then I suggest you read this outstanding book. To me it confirmed the line that says " everyone you meet is having some sort of personal struggle on the inside".If her goal was to educate the public about mental illness then she scored a perfect one hundred!!!
Barbara Proctor- Pleasanton, Ca

Love is a good thing, but too much of a good thing can be toxic. "Poisoned Love" is the reflections of Melanie Caine as she comes to realization of the mistakes she made as her love made her mentally ill and made her commit a crime that she now seriously regrets years later. Poignant and frank about her shortcomings as a person, she reveals that love may not always be the best motivation to do things in one's life. "Poisoned Love" is intriguing reading on the dark side of deep affection.

Poisoned Love is a true story. It is written by Dr. Melanie Cane.

Dr. Cane grew up with abusive father, who was bipolar. All Melanie wanted was to be loved and cared for. She found that with her new boyfriend, Luke. I guess you could say Dr. Melanie Cane's problem was that she loved too much. They both shared a love of medicine and each other. They were both studying to become psychologists. Everything was going well with her and Luke. She could even picture herself getting married and having children. Luke decided that he did not want to be with Melanie as well as live with her anymore. He slowly broke it off with her. For Melanie this wasn't good enough. She deeply cared for Luke.

Melanie researched a drug called Prolixin. It can be given in liquid form. This drug is given to the mentally challenged. It has serious side-effects. Dr. Cane understood and that is why she planned to give Luke only a small dose to just cause him minor pain for a little while. Melanie finally ends up confessing to Luke that she poisoned him. Her confession leads to her being committed in a psychiatric hospital for seven weeks. She would later be charged with attempted murder.

In Poisoned Love, the reader is taken through the progression of Dr. Cane's illness and how it affected her. What she did to her ex-boyfriend was wrong but on the other hand you have to feel a little sorrow for Melanie. Luckily this sorrow doesn't last as in the last part of the book, we see that Dr. Melanie Cane is doing well and living a normal life. She has learned how to combat her illness and through this book and many other articles, she hopes to help other people become survivors just like herself.

Through "Poisoned Love" Melanie Cane weaves a compelling story that must be told.
The events that take place in this book, could be be happening right outside your door and you wouldn't even know it. The desperation she shares with the reader, could happen in any obsessive relationship, not just a romantic one.
She takes you on a roller coaster ride through desperation, search for love and the consquences through her brilliant use of words.
Other books of this type, that center around this subject can be boring and un-interesting, but Cane is able to make you feel for the character, root for her to win and cheer her on to victory.
Book clubs will love this book, because the discussion points will be lively and I bet most people know someone who may not go this far...but they could!
Enjoy!
Read it and share it!

"Poisoned Love" is one of the most compelling and insightful self-examinations I have ever read of a life in crisis and the potential for transformation. As is true with many books of this kind, it is not a self-indulgent, fluffy self-help book. This is part of the brilliance of it's appeal which I think will resonate with a diverse audience. As a psychotherapist myself, I have read almost every well-meaning book that might inspire people to seek and find their answers. As a woman I could identify with many of the author's feelings of self-jusgement, abandonment
and the steps needed to heal those experiences. This book makes the reader feel a part of the human drama as though we were actually on the journey with her. I applaud the author's courage and inner work that led to this marvelous achievement !!!