Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke

16 reviews

growintogardens's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical content

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

happyunicorn7's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent, Cancer, and Suicidal thoughts

plxtoprojector's review

slow-paced

2.5

Felt like it went on forever. Interesting, but the pacing took away from the content. I was looking forward to reading this, as someone who is chronically ill and was struggling with misdiagnosis and living in that grey area with no explanation, but her experiences were not as relatable to the majority of disabled people as she portrayed them- I resonated with her sickness, but her failure to directly acknowledge the immense amounts of privilege she had when going through this made her narrative feel disconnected. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Death of parent and Eating disorder

katrinaward's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, and Ableism

kellylynnthomas's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is easily the best book on chronic illness I've ever read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical content

courtneyfalling's review

informative medium-paced

3.5

Nothing new here as someone who spends a lot of time researching chronic illness theory, BUT it is a great resource for someone new to all this. If I could give one book to my mom to understand the basics of everything, it would probably be this. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma

keepsleep's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Cursing

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

clarabooksit's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

O’Rourke does a good job of blending personal narrative and research. She effectively and compassionately argues for reshaping the ways we as a society and as individuals think about chronic illness.

Key takeaways: how the invisibility of a lot of illnesses negatively impacts people on top of their already poor health—e.g. not being taken seriously, being dismissed, not getting the same kind of care and sympathy, etc.—and how we can do better simply by believing people; how desperate living with an unknown and therefore undiagnosed chronic illness can make someone and that there are people who take advantage of that; how chronic illness can affect the people around those who suffer from them, too; and that the pursuit of “cure-alls” is often damaging to the psyche when more emphasis should be put on adjusting to life with a chronic illness.

Her healthcare journey is often difficult to read about but an important one. I think a lot of people will feel seen by this book. And I think she does a decent job of acknowledging her personal privilege and sharing important research and statistics regarding minorities, particularly women of color, who have a chronic illness.

It does get a little repetitive in parts and for someone who lacks all of the privilege O’Rourke possesses, her story might be grating or frustrating. That’s not for me to decide, though.

I’m glad I read this. Many people in my life have a chronic illness and I’m always trying to better understand how and how much their illnesses impact their daily lives.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, and Classism

Minor: Excrement

peterpokeypanda's review

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Infertility

massivepizzacrust's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This was such a great and important look at how our society treats people who fall off the spectrum of easily diagnosable illnesses. I loved the way it was written and I felt like it was an effective way of taking the reader along the journey of trying to find a diagnosis for serious chronic health issues (though I'm lucky enough to not understand how hard it is). The audiobook is read by the author, which I always love. 
I haven't seen enough people talk about this book, so consider this a push to pick it up.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical content