A review by mariahhanley
Invisible: How Young Women with Serious Health Issues Navigate Work, Relationships, and the Pressure to Seem Just Fine by Michele Lent Hirsch

4.0

This was very, very good. I identified with the chapters on work, friendships, and trying to figure out if a small human fits into my unpredictable life the most. As others have said, Invisible doesn’t discuss long-term chronic illnesses as much, and I wish it did- having cystic fibrosis hasn’t shifted my perspective. It’s formed it. I’ve never known life without it, and so I don’t miss or grieve something I used to know.

I read the line “Being sick involves a recognition of the worlds of pain and suffering, possibly even if death, which are normally only seen as distant possibilities or the plight of others” twice, three, four times.

As I thought about work tomorrow, I challenged my own perceptions about not doing enough and having to show up and being ashamed I can’t do enough/more/it all.

I can tell I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.