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jess_mango's review against another edition
4.0
Part memoir and part an exploration of women's healthcare. Abby Norman delves into her own personal experiences with pain, mysterious symptoms and her quest to find answers. Abby had to drop out of college due to intense pain that she then spent years attempting to get diagnosed. She was brushed off and told she had a UTI or that it was all in her head and eventually landed on endometriosis.
This is an important read to help understand the lack of parity in healthcare. It provides a good understanding of the history of women's healthcare including the sad standard diagnosis of "she's hysterical" or "it's all in her head".
This is an important read to help understand the lack of parity in healthcare. It provides a good understanding of the history of women's healthcare including the sad standard diagnosis of "she's hysterical" or "it's all in her head".
georgialilyw's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Firstly, I believe my experience of this book was hampered due to the cover my library purchased, nothing at all like the glorious US cover I was expecting. Secondly, while I thought the content was really important and I will be recommending it to anyone seeking something informative in the area, I just couldn't get on with the writing style. I don't think I mesh well with non-fiction written in a particularly literary/verbose style, especially if they are 260 pages long.
melanierae's review against another edition
This was waaaaay more memoir than systemic medical injustice nonfic. Always good to have more stories out there but very little was new to me
ilanis's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Read this for a class and it was an informative and solidly written book. Not too much I didn’t already know scientifically wise, but her life experience was interesting to read and learn about.
sellnow_hannah's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This was a personal account of a woman living with chronic illness and she weaves elements of memoir, science, and history. I would say it’s mainly a memoir and an emotional glimpse into what it’s like to live with an unexplained illness highlighting the challenges in interacting with the medical system as a chronically ill person. While this was an emotional and heavy topic, I did enjoy the author’s frequent snarky comments and humor.
The downsides of this book were the timeline and the meandering nature of her writing. She seemed to jump back and forth in time in her personal story often and some of the science and history elements (while insightful) didn’t tie in as well with her personal story. Overall an enlightening read and one I’d recommend for people in healthcare.
(I don’t rate memoirs below a 4 star because I think it takes a lot of courage to be this vulnerable and share your life story. So for me 4-4.25 is good, 4.5-4.75 is great, 5.0 is fantastic.)
The downsides of this book were the timeline and the meandering nature of her writing. She seemed to jump back and forth in time in her personal story often and some of the science and history elements (while insightful) didn’t tie in as well with her personal story. Overall an enlightening read and one I’d recommend for people in healthcare.
(I don’t rate memoirs below a 4 star because I think it takes a lot of courage to be this vulnerable and share your life story. So for me 4-4.25 is good, 4.5-4.75 is great, 5.0 is fantastic.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Blood, and Vomit
clairedrum's review against another edition
1.0
DNF at chapter 4. I expected this to be more focused on women and the healthcare system with little relevant bits of her life interspersed. I was very thrown off with the massive chapter focusing on her traumatic childhood and emancipation as a minor with awful detail into her mother’s, and eventually her own, eating disorder. From an organization perspective, I was often discombobulated because she’d jump back and forth chronologically and ramble. Disappointing overall :(