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towering_tbr's review against another edition
4.0
I definitely don't think this book is for everyone, but as a person with a chronic illness, I related to her story. Listening to the audiobook felt like listening to a friend empathize with a lot of what I've gone through. The story was well-written and touched me deeply.
grem_ler's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma
totesridic's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
2.0
a real masterclass of a book if you want to write a narrator who lacks self-awareness, is obsessed with her own beauty, manipulates & self-mythologizes whenever possible, & appears not to have ever met anyone else with multiple complications from TBI & chronic illness. genuinely got a great deal out of this book & feel like I learned a lot about narrative, but I don’t think the book was “good” in that I don’t think it achieved its own aims. that said, we all gotta pay bills: I respect the hustle.
awildernessofbooks's review against another edition
3.0
This memoir not only explores racial and cultural disparities within health and medicine, but delves into the author’s battle with addiction and diagnosis of Lyme’s disease. So much of having an undiagnosed illness, autoimmune disease, chronic symptoms, and feeling lost in knowing what prescriptions your body needs and doesn’t resonated with me. The struggle of not knowing your own body is an important one to voice and to create compassion and community around. While I gained insight into the fine lines of prescription and addiction, this account is told in a very journalistic way, which makes sense for the author, but left me wanting more movement in the story. While the style of writing was direct, I still recommend this for the value and insight it offers.
elisegmusic's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Drug abuse, and Mental illness
sakeriver's review against another edition
The more I think about it, the more remarkable I think this book is. So much of what we expect from a memoir, especially a memoir about illness, is narratives of healing and personal growth, tied up with a bow. But throughout SICK, Khakpour undercuts that narrative, offering no neat closures, no tidy resolutions. She demands to be seen as nothing more or less than herself. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this before.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
A finely wrought memoir of Khakpour’s battle with Lyme disease and, more broadly, how the early trauma and displacement of her childhood intertwines and muddies the challenge of “putting a name” to the cause of her symptoms. A personal fascination, for me, was the revelation that Khakpour and I are almost exactly the same age - she has lived so much more life than I have that I would have referred her to as one of the “older girls” had we been at the same school. Beautiful writing from the sentence-level on up.
sarahlopod's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars
This review can also be found on my blog.
It seems impossible to separate Khakpour’s life of illness from the remainder of her life. As she details, no one has been able to ascertain for certain when exactly she acquired Lyme. Some doctors have pointed to her health problems in childhood as symptoms, while others have indicated that college seemed like a likely bet. Having gone through one trauma after another, it’s also difficult to disentangle the symptoms of her Lyme from symptoms of primarily unrelated PTSD, depression, and anxiety. As she mentions, women typically struggle more with Lyme because they are often treated as psychiatric cases only and therefore left undiagnosed and untreated longer. As a quick note, there are extensive discussions of both drug abuse and suicide throughout the book, so if you find those triggering it may be best to steer clear.
And there it came: his half smile. And here it followed: my rage.
One thing that bothered me a lot was that she’s somewhat judgmental of one of her friends in Chicago, a wealthy woman who eventually reveals she’s a prostitute. This judgment comes unchallenged by the present Khakpour looking back and it’s clear she was sickened by the thought of her friend making money in this way, and pities her even though she herself is weak and slowly disintegrating while her friend is happy and stable. It was strange reading about someone who can look down so strongly on others when they themselves are struggling even more.
I also kept saying something I had heard some other therapist or doctor say at some point, maybe in the psych ward: Let’s get to the bottom of this once and for all. I was mesmerized by what “the bottom of this” could be, but I knew I wanted it.
Occasionally, the timeline feels mixed up. She’ll jump ahead only to jump immediately back and I forget where we are in the story. There are bits repeated throughout -- stories she tells multiple times, to my confusion -- that give the whole thing a sense of deja vu. Its meandering nature felt sometimes without purpose and I found myself checking where I was in the book to see if it was close to over. Her story itself is exhausting to read, and god knows how much more exhausting it must have been to live through, but its monotony made it disengaging when combined with the matter-of-fact tone she communicates her experiences in. Having had (much less serious) chronic illnesses of my own, I understand how hopeless the seemingly endless chain of doctors who don’t know what’s wrong with you is, but the negativity also felt like it would drown me without adding much to my experience as a reader.
So many men had tried to fix me; so many men were convinced they could help. What was one more.
Overall, even with my criticisms, I think this book is worth reading if you’re interested even if it didn’t quite work for me.
This review can also be found on my blog.
It seems impossible to separate Khakpour’s life of illness from the remainder of her life. As she details, no one has been able to ascertain for certain when exactly she acquired Lyme. Some doctors have pointed to her health problems in childhood as symptoms, while others have indicated that college seemed like a likely bet. Having gone through one trauma after another, it’s also difficult to disentangle the symptoms of her Lyme from symptoms of primarily unrelated PTSD, depression, and anxiety. As she mentions, women typically struggle more with Lyme because they are often treated as psychiatric cases only and therefore left undiagnosed and untreated longer. As a quick note, there are extensive discussions of both drug abuse and suicide throughout the book, so if you find those triggering it may be best to steer clear.
And there it came: his half smile. And here it followed: my rage.
One thing that bothered me a lot was that she’s somewhat judgmental of one of her friends in Chicago, a wealthy woman who eventually reveals she’s a prostitute. This judgment comes unchallenged by the present Khakpour looking back and it’s clear she was sickened by the thought of her friend making money in this way, and pities her even though she herself is weak and slowly disintegrating while her friend is happy and stable. It was strange reading about someone who can look down so strongly on others when they themselves are struggling even more.
I also kept saying something I had heard some other therapist or doctor say at some point, maybe in the psych ward: Let’s get to the bottom of this once and for all. I was mesmerized by what “the bottom of this” could be, but I knew I wanted it.
Occasionally, the timeline feels mixed up. She’ll jump ahead only to jump immediately back and I forget where we are in the story. There are bits repeated throughout -- stories she tells multiple times, to my confusion -- that give the whole thing a sense of deja vu. Its meandering nature felt sometimes without purpose and I found myself checking where I was in the book to see if it was close to over. Her story itself is exhausting to read, and god knows how much more exhausting it must have been to live through, but its monotony made it disengaging when combined with the matter-of-fact tone she communicates her experiences in. Having had (much less serious) chronic illnesses of my own, I understand how hopeless the seemingly endless chain of doctors who don’t know what’s wrong with you is, but the negativity also felt like it would drown me without adding much to my experience as a reader.
So many men had tried to fix me; so many men were convinced they could help. What was one more.
Overall, even with my criticisms, I think this book is worth reading if you’re interested even if it didn’t quite work for me.
ashleyholstrom's review against another edition
4.0
This memoir about Porochista’s life with late-stage Lyme disease wrecked me.
⚡️From the May 2018 edition of Crooked Reads, my monthly(ish) newsletter.
⚡️From the May 2018 edition of Crooked Reads, my monthly(ish) newsletter.