Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

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

7 reviews

happyunicorn7's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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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. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent and Eating disorder

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.

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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

kbbru's review

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, and Ableism

Moderate: Grief and Abandonment

Minor: Death of parent

ecn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Cancer, Medical trauma, Medical content, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Chronic illness

lizzieinmt's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

This book was interesting, while the author did deal with several overlapping and difficult illnesses she did have the enormous privalege to seek out nearly endless medical treatment. As a chronically Ill person that's often hard to hear and not be envious of. But the book also offered a lot of interesting information, medically and socially, and I did enjoy reading it. I especially liked that she concluded without wrapped it all up a neat bow, this really resonated with me and parts of the book made me feel deeply seen, while other parts made me feel ignored and glossed over due to socal and economic barriers. But that in itself is a metaphor for chronic illness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Chronic illness

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Blood, Cancer, and Death of parent

internationalreads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

This book literally changed my life. Longer review to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Excrement, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Vomit